• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.17-23
• /
• 2003

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine clinical significance of dual-probe esophageal pH monitoring and to compare four pH monitoring parameters between proximal and distal esophagus in pathological gastroesophageal reflux disease with recurrent respiratory symptoms. Methods: Among the thirty-four patients who were performed 24 hr pH monitoring, seventeen patients with pathological distal reflux were classified into two groups: Group I (n:12) had recurrent respiratory symptoms and Group II (n:5) hadn't recurrent respiratory symptoms. The ambulatory dual-probe esophageal pH monitoring was performed for 18~24 hr. A pathologic GER was defined when reflux index (percent of the investigation time a pH<4) exceeded the 95th percentile of normal value. Results: Among the sixteen patients with recurrent respiratory symptoms, twelve patients (75%) have pathological distal reflux. Whereas among the eighteen patients without recurrent respiratory symptom, five patients (28%) have pathological distal reflux. In the Group I, the significant differences between proximal and distal esophageal pH recordings persisted for all parameters, but didn't persist in group II except for longest episode. Comparing esophageal pH four parameters between group I and group II at the proximal esophageal site, all parameters didn't show statistically significant differences. Conclusion: Regardless of respiratory symptoms, patients with pathological distal reflux didn't show statistically significant differences in the all parameters at the proximal esophageal site. Therefore we may reconsider usefulness of dual probe pH meter in patients with recurrent respiratory symptoms.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.251-257
• /
• 2016

The Pediatric Balance Scale (PBS) was balance measurement equipment for school-age children with mild to moderate motor impairments. The aims of this study are to examine the correlation between PBS and spatiotemporal gait parameter and to identify the walking function with cerebral palsy through balance scale. The PBS consists of 14 items such as sitting of standing, standing to sitting, transfers, standing unsupported, standing on one foot, turning 360 degrees, turing to look behind, etc., and the spatiotemporal parameters include walking speed, stride length, step length, step width, cadence, double-limb support. All subjects were independently ambulatory children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy, and they were assessed on PBS and spatiotemporal gait parameters by an experienced pediatric physical therapist. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to assess the correlation between PBS and spatiotemporal gait parameters, and the level of significance was set at ${\alpha}$ = 0.05. Total score of PBS(r=.49~.58), standing to sitting(r=.48~.60), turning to look behind(r=.47~.53), and pick up object(r=.52~.69) were positively correlated with walking speed, stride length, step length, and cadence. Most items of the PBS were negatively correlated with double-limb support(r=-.48~-.92). These findings suggest that the pediatric balance scale can be applied to estimate gait function level for children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.304-319
• /
• 1996

It is important to evaluate nutritional status of elderly patients receiving dialysis, since wasting and malnutrition are their common problems. This study aims at assessing their nutritional status by the type and duration of dialysis. The nutritional status such as somatic fat and protein storage was evaluated with anthropometric measure including weight/height ratio, triceps skinfold thickness and midarm muscle circumference. It was also measured with albumin, transferrin, C3 and IGF-1 and calorie and protein intakes. The general clinical condition of patients was evaluated with the severity of uremia and metabolic acidosis. which were measured through the levels of serum urea, creatinine and bicarbonateion. The data were analyzed by using t-test, ANOVA, Wilcoxon-rank sums test, Scheffe test, Kruskal-Wallis test and Pearson correlation coefficients. The results are following : 1. There was no significant difference in the calorie and protein intakes by the type and duration of dialysis received. 2. As for the anthropometric measures, no significant difference was found by the type of dialysis in body mass index triceps skinfold thickness and midarm muscle circumference. Yet these anthropometric measures differed significantly by the duration of dialysis in those elderly patients receiving hemodialysis(HD group), but this finding was not found in those receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis(CAPD). 3. Regarding the indicators of uremia and metabolic acidosis, blood urea nitrogen(BUN) and creatinine were lower in the CAPD group than in the HD group, whereas bicarbonate ion was higher in the CAPD group than in the HD group, with no statistical significance. In the HD group, creatinine increased significantly with the increase of the duration of dialysis. 4. Serum trasferrin and C3 were significantly higher in the CAPD group than in the HD group. However. each of biochemical indices did not show statistical significance by the duration of dialysis in both HD and CAPD groups. 5. Anthropometric measures were significantly associated with dietary intake. Significant correlations were observed between biocarbonate ion, BUN and creatinine. In addition, the correlations between serum protein and albumin and between transferrin and C3 were statistically significant. Yet, IGF-1 revealed no significant correlation with other nutritional indices. The above findings indicate that there were no difference in nutritional status measured with protein and calorie intakes between the type and duration of dialysis, but CAPD seems to benefit correcting uremia and metabolic acidosis than HD. Studies of dietary management for dialysis patients need to be pursued in order to improved the quality of aged patients receiving dialysis.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.26 no.4 s.44
• /
• pp.614-627
• /
• 1993

It is well known that a physician's personal characteristic affects his practice pattern. Furthermore, a physician's specialty has powerful influences on his practice pattern. However, despite the fact that specialization has received the most attention for its influence on physician's service behavior, few studies have been conducted on the variations of contents and volume of physician's services. This study has intended to identify factors influencing the practice variations according to various physician characteristics. There are some other evidences that medical care providers are different in using of health services and resources in Korea. Four physician characteristics were selected for the analysis, two demographical factors, age and sex, and two practice factors, place of practice and medical specialty. Also, three indicators of service amount (total amount of insurance claim bill, number of visits per case, number of prescriptions per case) were selected. From the pool of insurance claims for ambulatory care received by the Korean National Federation of Medical Insurance(NFMI), 84,898 cases were randomly sampled. In the meantime using physician database of NFMI, 613 general practitioners (GP), 107 regular family physicians (FP), 483 'grandfather' family physicians(GFP), and 1,157 specialist practitioners(SP) were randomly sampled. Their different practice contents were compared concerning the specialty, age groups, sex, and practice sites (urban-rural) Specialist physicians tend to provide more costly care than do generalists. General practitioners and family physicians usually make fewer following visits and prescriptions. Age is also the important factor in determining the amount of services, which is highest at the physician's age group of 40's. Female doctors and urban practitioners use much more resources than their counterparts respectively. Research findings suggest that physician's characteristics particularly the specialty can affect practice patterns and resource utilizations. Other characteristics such as age and sex are not controllable but physician's specialty is relatively easily controllable during the entire phases of policy implementation. This is all the more true in the individual's initial decision of his specialty. Specialization therefore should receive policymaker's attention for its potential influence on medical care utilization and health care expenditure.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.182-189
• /
• 2004

Objectives : The objective of this study is to compare the circadian patterns of heart rate variability assessed by 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiographic (ECG) recordings during day shift and night shift among the workers in the 5 days-concecutive-12-hour shift in an automobile factory in Korea. Methods : The study population consisted 300 workers, who were randomly selected among the 8700 total workers in one car factory. To analyse circadian variation, the 24-hour ECG recordings (Marquette) were measured during day shift (08:00-20:00 h) and night shift (20:00-08:00 h). Analysis was performed for all time and frequency domain measures of HRV. 233 workers completed taking 24-hour ECG recordings. Results : This study shows that the 24 hourcircadian variation mainly follows work/sleep cycle rather than day/night cycle among shift workers. This study also shows that among the night shift, the circadian variation between work and sleep cycle decreased compared to the work/sleep cycle among day shift workers. All time and frequency domain parameters (except LF/HF ratio) show significantly different between work and sleep in the day shift and night shift. Conclusion : These changes in heart rate variability circadian rhythms reflect significant reductions in cardiac parasympathetic activity with the most marked reduction in normal vagal activity among the shift workers. Especially, it suggests the circadian rhytm has blunted among the night workers. The quantification of the circadian variation in HRV can be a surrogates of workers' potential health risk, as well as suggests possible mechanisms through which the shift works compromise workers' health.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.90-99
• /
• 2011

Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) claims database has a high potential to detect signals of new drug interactions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of information component (IC) and relative risk (RR) as a tool for signal detection, and to analyze the possible drug interactions caused by clopidogrel using HIRA claims database. This study was performed in elderly patients over 65 years of age who administered clopidogrel from January 2005 to June 2006 in South Korea. Serious Adverse Events (SAEs) as drug interactions of clopidogrel were defined as any ambulatory hospitalization for ischemic diseases within comcomitant medication period of clopidogrel. Information Component (IC) and Relative Risk (RR) were calculated to compare the proportion of drug-SAE pairs in order to select drug specific SAEs. IC and RR signals of clopidogrel drug interaction were screened when IC's 95% confidence interval was greater than 0 and RR's 95% confidence interval was greater than 1 respectively. All detected signals were compared to references such as $Micromedex^{(R)}$ and 2010 Drug Interaction $Facts^{TM}$. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predicted value and negative predicted value were used to evaluate usefulness of this method. Among 13,252,930 cases of elderly patients who co-administered clopidogrel and other drugs, 47,485 cases were detected as SAE. Of these, one-hundred nine cases were detected by the IC-based data-mining approach and ninety one cases were detected by the RR-based data-mining approach. Total One-hundred sixty three unrecognized signals were detected by IC or RR. Twelve signals from IC-based data-mining (57.1%) were corresponded with drug interactions from references and eight signals from RR-based data-mining (38.1%) were corresponded with drug interactions from references. These signals include proton pump inhibitors, calcium channel blockers and HMG CoA reductase Inhibitors, which were known to affect CYP450 metabolism. Further studies using HIRA claims database are necessary to develop appropriate data-mining measure.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.198-208
• /
• 2006

Background : Ginseng has traditionally been used in oriental countries to recover vital energy from Qi deficiency, and has shown various biomedical effects in the scientific literature. Recent reports suggest that ginseng could regulate blood pressure (BP), but much controversy still remains. Therefore, we intended to assess the anti-hypertensive effect of several ginseng types frequently used in clinics. We also investigated the anti-hypertensive effect on Koreans and Chinese, and by the body type according to Sasang Constitution Medicine (SCM). Methods : The study subjects were recruited from mildly hypertensive patients who exhibited pre-hypertension(120/80 to 139/89 mmHg) and stage I hypertension (140/90 to 159/99 mmHg) in Korea and China. After assigning the subjects into a Korean, a Chinese, a red, and an American ginseng group by randomization, we prescribed ginseng at a dose of 4.5 g per day for 4 weeks. To assess the anti-hypertensive effect, we compared the mean of systolic and diastolic BP between before and after ginseng medication using a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitor (24 hr ABPM. We also monitored adverse effect and laboratory findings to secure the subjects' safety. In addition, all of the subjects in Korea consulted a specialist of Sasang Constitution Medicine to identify their constitutional type. Results : There were 64 subjects treated with Korean ginseng, 58 treated with Chinese ginseng, 33 treated with red ginseng, and 64 treated with American ginseng. Korean, Chinese, and American ginseng all reduced subjects' BP; Korean and Chinese ginseng showed more effect. The secondary analysis on the subjects' nationality revealed that all of the ginseng types showed more significant anti-hypertensive effect in Chinese patients than in Koreans. The third analysis on the constitutional type of SCM showed there was no significant difference in the effectiveness and the safety of ginseng among the constitutional types. Conclusions : We suggest ginseng, especially Panax ginseng without any steaming-drying process, could be useful for mild hypertension. Further, ginseng is safe regardless of subjects' constitutional type or type of ginseng within a dosage of 4.5g per day.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.195-201
• /
• 2004

Background and Purpose : Hypertension is one of the modifiable risk factors for stroke. Lowering blood pressure is a primary or secondary preventative measure for stroke. This study aims to assess the efficacy of Chunghyul-dan(Qingxue-dan) in stage 1 hypertensive patients who have suffered a stroke by 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring(24ABPM). Subjects& Methods : We enrolled 40 hospitalized stroke patients with stage 1 hypertension and divided them into 2 groups by stratified randomization; group A took 1200mg of Chunghyul-dan(Qingxue-dan) at 8:00 a.m. for two weeks without changing herbal medicine, and group B was the control group. 28 patients were included in the final analysis(15 in group A. 13 in group B). Blood pressure is monitored from 8:00 am to 7:30 am every 30 minutes for 24 hours. Blood pressure was monitored two times at baseline and again two weeks later. We used 3 parameters for evaluating the efficacy of Chunghyul-dan(Qingxue-dan); The first parameter is change from baseline to two weeks later in blood pressure and pulse rate. The second parameter is the trough/peak ratio(TPR) and smoothness index(SI). The third parameter is antihypertensive rate by antihypertensive efficacy guideline. Results : There is no significant difference in the baseline assessment hetween the two groups. Systolic blood pressure $(141.37{\pm}8.96\;mmHg\;vs\;132.28{\pm}9.46\;mmHg)$ decreased after two weeks of 1200mg(P=0.03) intake of Chunghyul-dan(Qingxue-dan). Systolic TPR and SI was 0.87 and 1.04 in group A. Antihypertensive rate was higher in group A. Conclusion: These results suggest that 1200mg doses of Clunghyul-dan(Qingxue-dan) is an effective antihypertensive agent on stage 1 hypertension patients who have suffered a stroke.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.13 no.12
• /
• pp.5849-5859
• /
• 2012

The aim of this study was to find out the impact of age and hypertensive status on postprandial hypotension(PPH). Twenty-six hypertensive elderly ($77.7{\pm}7.2$ years old), twenty-five normotensive elderly ($80.2{\pm}6.8$ years old) and twenty-six young adults ($20.0{\pm}1.5$ years old) took part in the study. The blood pressure (BP) and heart rates (HR) were measured every 15 minutes, from 30 minutes before a meal to 90 minute after a meal in sitting position, using an ambulatory blood pressure monitor. In the hypertensive group, postprandial reduction in systolic BP continued from 30minutes to 90minutes. The reductuion rate of systolic BP of hypertensive elderly group was significantly greater than other groups (p<.05). However, there were no significant differences in trend of HR change between the groups (p=.082). The incidence of PPH was significantly higher in the hypertensives than other groups (73.1% vs 24% vs 0%, respectively, p=.001). In conclusion, age and hypertensive status had a significant impact on PPH. Elderly persons require more intensive BP monitoring and nursing intervention.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.68-80
• /
• 1996

Long-term hemodialysis(HD) patients manifest various signs of protein and caloric malutrition due to poor intake of nutrients and other causes. Poor nutritional status increases the mortality and morbidity rates in HD patients. Thus, mataintnance of adequate nutritional status has been a major task in taking care of patients receiving HD. This study was to evaluate the nutritional status of HD patients and to clarify the degree of nutritional deficit based on usual dietary intake, anthropometric and biochemical indicators. Sixty HD patients comprised a HD group, while the control group consisted of 60 healthy adults whose age and sex matched those of the HD group. Nutritional status was evaluated by dietrary intake using instant nutritional scale, anthropometric measures, serum protein concentrations and the number of lymphocytes. The data were analyzed by using Chi-square test and unpaired t-test. The results are as follows. 1. Regarding usual dietary intake of HD group. 1) Estimated caloric intake was significantly lower than the recommended daily allowance(RDA) and among them, 35% were taking calories less than 85% of the RDA. 2) Estimated protein intake was significantly higher than the RDA and among them 40% were taking protein more than 115% of the RDA. 3) Estimated fat intake was lower than the RDA. 4) Vitamin A, B, $B_1,\;B_2$, C and niacin in take was lower than the RDA respectively. 5) Estimated ferrous intake was within the normal limit the RDA while estimated calcium intake was higher than the RDA. 6) Both calorie and protein intake were higher for the 10 patients who had been under continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis than for the patients under HD from the beginning. 2. Regarding anthropometric measures : 1) Body mass index(BMI), midarm circumference(MAC), and triceps skinfold thickness(TSF) were lower in the HD group than in the control group. 2) Among HD group, 47.1% were within the normal limit of BMI, while 86.7% were within the same limit in the control group. 3) Among HD group, 35.0% were within the normal limit of MAC, while 83.3% were within the same limit in the control group. 4) Among HD group, only 8.3% were normal, 30.3% were mild deficit status of TSF, while 50% were normal and 48.3% were mild deficit status in the control group. 3. Regarding biochemical laboratory tests 1) Albumin, transferrin concentrations and the number of lymphocytes were lower in HD group than in the control group. 2) Among HD group, 98.3% were within the normal limit of albumin concentration and all were within the same limit in the control group. 3) Among HD group, only 11.7% were within the normal limit of transferrin concentration, while 81.7% were within the same limit in the control group. 4) Among HD group, 25% were within the normal limit, while 93.3% were within the same limit in the control group. The above findings suggest that HD patients were in nutritional deficit status. Adequate diet therapy and periodical evaluation of the nutritional status in HD patients are needed. Accordingly, it turned out that anthropometric measures were very reliable parameters and easy to use to evaluate nutritional status. So nurses are encouraged to adopt anthropometric measures to examine nutritional deficit status of HD patients.