• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.193-200
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• 2011

Objectives: Blood lead and hyperhomocysteinemia have been found to be associated with cardiovascular disease. The objective of the present study was to assess the relationship of lead biomarkers on plasma homocysteine and blood pressure. Methods: To evaluate the effect of lead biomarkers including blood lead on plasma homocysteine and blood pressure in retired lead workers, 66 retired lead workers without any occupational exposure to organic solvent, mercury and arsenic were agreed to participate this study. For the control subjects 42 controls were recruited from same area of retired lead workers with consideration of demographic characteristics. Results: The mean levels of blood lead and ZPP of retired lead workers were significantly higher than control group. There were positive significant correlations between blood lead and plasma homocysteine, also systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The multiple linear regression analysis also reveled that plasma homocysteine was significantly associated with blood lead after adjusting for age, gender, body mass index, lead exposure, smoking and drinking. Diastolic blood pressure was significantly associated with blood lead, plasma homocysteine, and total cholesterol; whereas, systolic blood pressure was significantly associated with plasma homocysteine only. Conclusions: Blood lead showed significant association with plasma homocysteine and blood pressure even after more than mean 10 years from their retirements.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.61 no.11
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• pp.1720-1724
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• 2012

This study describes an oscillometric-based blood pressure measuring algorithm by detecting turning points of oscillation signal from digitally filtered cuff signals of an automatic sphygmomanometer. The blood pressure measuring algorithm uses a characteristic ratios method from the turning points. The accurate values of the systolic/diastolic blood presures(SBP/DBP) are calculated using the peaks in the ranges of characteristic ratios. Performances of the proposed algorithm and four automatic sphygmomanometers are compared with the mercury manometer(manual type sphygmomanometer), regarding the SBP and DBP values of manual sphygmomanometer as the reference values. The performance test showed the proposed algorithm revealed the best results in errors and a statistical analysis. Therefore this algorithm can be usable in any automatic sphygmomanometers.ssure states. This may be compromising results for subject-independent sensibility evaluation using EEG signal.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.109-121
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• 1991

For the analysis of mercury in blood and urine, many literatures have been reffered and many kinds of reducing agents for mercury reduction and many acids for pretreatmr are known to be varied. $So HNO_{3}$ and $H_{2}SO_{4}$ among acids and $SnCl_{2}$ and $NaBH_{4}$ as a reducing agent being chosen for the establishment of more efficient and less erroneous analysis, and comparing the absorbance by using vapor generator, the results are followings. 1. The difference of absorbance from concentration of $HNO_{3}$ and $H_{2} SO_{4}$ was not nearly found when mercury reduced by $NaBH_{4}$ after pretreatment. But for more precise analysis, conc acid treatment need to be used. 2. Higher absorbance was shown by using conto acid treatment (P<0.005) when mercury reduced by $NaBH_{4}$ after treating acid primer. And sample which has 99.5% reliability in T-test, treated by conc $H_{2}SO_{4}$(P<0.005) was shown higher absorbance than treat by CORC $HNO_{3}$. 3. The difference of absorbance was not in the slightest in higher 0.1 w/v% $NaBH_{4}$ proved by uruskal-wallis H-Test 4. Some difference of absorbance in $SnCl_{2}$(P<0.005) having 99.5% reliability was found but there was no difference in these 20 w/v% , 25 w/v% and 30 w/v% SnCl$_{2}$ by the experiment of T-test. 5. According to these test results, organic materials were much affect the absorballce when reducing mercury by using $SnCl_{2}$ rather than by $NaBH_{4}$. For bio sample which is contained various organic substances, reduclng agent $NaBH_{4}$ is a lot more efficient to reduce the error then $SnCl_{2}$. 6. analytic method for this study is as following. 7. As the recovery test was done by this, the rate of recovery was shown form 94% to 100.7% .

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.264-270
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• 2012

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was that serum metabolic and hematological variables were measured to investigate the detoxication effect of Taraxacum mongolicum extract on male albino rat exposed with lead and mercury. METHODS AND RESULTS: For this study, Pb and Hg-exposed( 50 ppm) albino rats was used, and the treatments were carried out in three doses of 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg as dry weight of T. mongolicum extract. T. mongolicum extract could improved the body weight gain and feed efficiency ratio, except to food intake. The levels of biochemical factors elevated by Pb-Hg mix exposure, which are Bilirubin, Alkaline phosphatase(ALP), glutamic oxaloacetate transaminase(GOT), glutamic pyruvate transaminase (GPT), lactate dehydrogenase(LDH), ceatinine and blood urea nitrogen(BUN), were significantly reduced in all treated groups as compared to Pb-Hg mix exposure alone. T. mongolicum extract was shown to suppress the accumulation of Hg and Pb in serum by dose dependent manner. CONCLUSION: Therefore, this study suggest that T. mongolicum extract might have the potential effect to minimize the toxic effects of Pb and Hg.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.17-27
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• 1996

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the decreasing effects of Korean garlic against the accumulation of mercury levels in maternal and fetal organs in pregnant Fischer 344 rats, based on the theory and information that neutral amino acids have protective effects against mercury poisoning and garlic contains a large of neutral amino acids. The results obtained are as follows: 1. On the 20th day of gestation, the maternal body weight in 20 mg/wt$\cdot$kg methyl mercuric chloride groups was 76.1% of those in control group, but those recovered to be 81.2% and 93.6% by treating with garlic (0.5 g/wt$\cdot$kg and 1.0 g/wt$\cdot$kg). 2. The mercury levels in maternal organs were reduced 6.2% and 47.2% (p<0.05) in kidney, 8.2% and 42.1% (p<0.05) in spleen, 9.7% and 40.9% (p<0.05) in blood, 35.6% (p<0.05) and 67.2% (p<0.05) in liver, 38.0% (p<0.05) and 57.6% (p<0.05) in brain, by treating with garlic (0.5 g/wt$\cdot$kg and 1.0 g/wt$\cdot$kg). 3. The mercury levels were reduced 22.4% and 44.3% (p<0.05) in placenta, and 34.7% (p<0.05) and 54.9% (p<0.05) in fetal body, by treating with garlic (0.5 g/wt$\cdot$kg and 1.0 g/wt$\cdot$kg). 4. The mercury levels in fetal organs were reduced 17.5% and 46.7% (p<0.05) in kidney, 15.1% and 37.0% (p<0.05) in brain, 30.2% (p<0.05) and 46.7% (p<0.05) in liver, by treating with garlic (0.5 g/wt$\cdot$kg and 1.0 g/wt$\cdot$kg). 5. Mercury levels in maternal kidney were 6.73~7.71 times higher than those in fetal kidney, but those in fetal liver and brain were 1.67~2.25 times and 1.98~2.93 times higher than those in maternal liver and brain, respectively. In conclusion, Korean garlic decrease the accumulation of mercury levels in maternal and fetal organs in pregnant Fischer 344 rats as increasing the dose.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.347-361
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• 2012

Limited studies are available concerning the effect of heavy metal exposure on cardiovascular diseases. As environmental pollution increases, food contamination, including heavy metal contamination of fish, also increases. However, researches based on the intake of heavy metals, cardiovascular disease, and fish intakes are inconclusive. We assessed an association of heavy metal exposure with cardiovascular disease and fish intake in a nationally representative group of general Korean adults. We used data from the combined 2008-2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), and analyzed the data of 5,139 Koreans who participated in KNHANES. All participants were older than 20 years, and were diagnosed with stroke, ischemic heart disease, or hypertension. The mean blood cadmium, lead concentration, and mercury concentration of subjects were $1.07{\pm}0.01{\mu}g/L$, $2.49{\pm}0.02{\mu}g/dL$, and $5.19{\pm}0.08{\mu}g/L$, respectively. We used the survey logistic regression model to account for the complex sample design of the cardiovascular disease risk in order to estimate the odds ratios (OR). After adjusting for age, education, income, alcohol, smoking, and BMI, the increase of serum cadmium in blood was associated with the increase in the prevalence of hypertension. Further, the increase in blood cadmium concentration was associated with the increase of both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Although higher fish intakes were significantly associated with higher blood mercury concentration (p for trend < 0.0001), fish intakes did not affect either blood cadmium or lead concentration. Comparing the highest fish intake group with the lowest intake group, the OR of hypertension was 0.31 (95% CI: 0.19-0.59) in the crude model for total fish. However, these associations were no longer significant after the adjustment for potential confounding factors. In conclusion, cadmium in blood was associated with an increased risk of hypertension in the general Korean adult population. However, we found no evidence of a clear relationship between cardiovascular disease and frequency of fish consumption.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.350-360
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• 2017

Purpose: This study examined and compared the associations of the iron status and food intake with the blood lead, mercury, and cadmium concentrations among Korean adolescent girls, premenopausal women, and postmenopausal women. Methods: The data from the 2010~2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) was used. The subjects were classified into three groups: adolescent girls (n = 268), premenopausal women (n = 1,157), and postmenopausal women (n = 446). The iron status was assessed by hemoglobin, hematocrit, serum ferritin, and iron concentrations, as well as the total iron binding capacity (TIBC). The food intake was estimated by a food frequency questionnaire. Results: The blood heavy metal concentrations and poisoning rate in postmenopausal women were higher than in the other groups. The iron status in the adolescent girls and postmenopausal women was higher than that in the premenopausal women. In the adolescent girls, the iron status was inversely associated with the blood cadmium concentration. The dairy food intake was inversely related to the blood lead and cadmium concentrations. In premenopausal women, the iron status was inversely associated with the cadmium concentrations. The fish and shellfish food intakes were positively associated with the mercury concentrations. In postmenopausal women, the iron status was positively associated with the mercury and cadmium concentrations. Fast foods and fried foods were inversely associated with the lead concentration. Conclusion: The premenopausal women showed a lower iron status than the adolescent girls and postmenopausal women. The associations of the iron status with the blood heavy metal concentrations were different among the adolescent girls, premenopausal women, and postmenopausal women. In addition, the relationships of the food intakes with the blood heavy metal concentrations differed among adolescent girls, premenopausal women, and postmenopausal women. Further studies will be needed to confirm these findings.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.2 no.2 s.2
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• pp.1-22
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• 1987

Measurements of kidney, liver, lung along with blood trace metal levels were obtained in 20 exposed and 40 control cattle. The level of cadmium, mercury and arsenic were the highest in the kidney while copper, lead and zinc concentrations were the highest in the liver. Statistically significant correlation between the kidney and the liver were found for cadmium, copper, zinc, mercury and arsenic. No significant differences were observed between the area, sex and age in this study. The levels found were generally within the ranges compared with those found in similar studies in and outside.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.30-35
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to develop a new cuff to improve the accuracy of blood pressure measurement, and to evaluate the performance of the developed system. We added a small bladder to the normal cuff, which we refer to as the double bladder system. The system that we developed for blood pressure measurement was based on the oscillometric method using a double bladder. This system was developed in order to reduce the oscillation noise and to amplify the signal of pure blood pressure. An oscillometric signal database based on the developed system was evaluated according to the ANSI/AAMI/SP10-1992 standard. The correlation coefficients between the cuff of the double bladder and the normal cuff were 0.98 for systolic pressure and 0.94 for diastolic pressure. The mean differences and the standard deviations between the average blood pressure obtained from a mercury manometer and that obtained from an automated sphygmomanometer were -0.7mmHg and 4.9mmHg for systolic, and -1.4mmHg and 5.4mmHg for diastolic pressure. We conclude that the proposed double bladder-based cuff system improves the accuracy of oscillometric blood pressure measurement. The developed system reduces the range of error by about $44{\sim}62%$ for systolic pressure and about $6{\sim}21%$ for diastolic pressure compared to the most recently developed, commercially available sphygmomanometers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.5 s.170
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• pp.181-188
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to develop the new cuff improving the accuracy of blood pressure measurement, and to evaluate the performance of the developed system. We added a small bladder to the normal cuff which is called the double bladder system. The developed system for blood pressure measurement was based on the oscillometric method using a double bladder. This system was developed in order to reduce the oscillation noise and to amplify the signal of pure blood pressure An oscillometric signal database based on the developed system were evaluated following the standard ANSI/AAMI/SP10-1992. The correlation coefficients between cuff of double bladder and normal cuff were 0.98 for systolic and 0.94 for diastolic. Mean differences and the standard deviations between average blood pressure of mercury sphygmomanometer and automated sphygmomanometer were -0.7mmHg and 4.9mmHg for systolic, and -1.4mmHg and 5.4mmHg for diatolic, respectively. We conclude that the proposed double bladder based cuff system improves the accuracy of the oscillometric blood pressure measurement. The developed system reduces the error range about $44\~62\%$ for systolic and about $6\~21\%$ for diastolic compared to the recently developed commercially available sphygmomanometers.