• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.61 no.5
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• pp.463-472
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• 2006

Background: Since video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) was introduced as a new treatment modality for empyema thoracis, numerous reports have suggested that VATS is a more effective treatment method than the traditional methods that mainly use antibiotics and drainage apparatus. However, no confirmative evidence of the superiority of VATS over the traditional method has been provided yet. Methods: We attempted to evaluate the efficacy of VATS for the treatment of empyema thoracis by reviewing past medical records and simple chest films. First, we divided the patients into two groups based on the treatment method: group A of 15 patients who were treated with the traditional method between January 2001 and December 2003, and group B of 9 patients who were treated with VATS between December 2003 and August 2006. The final outcomes used in this study were the number of days of hospital stay, chest tube duration, leukocytosis duration, febrile duration, and intravenous antibiotics usage duration. In addition, radiological improvements were compared. Results: The mean age(${\pm}$standard deviation) of 11 men and 4 women in group A was $58.2{\pm}15.7$ years, and of 9 men and 2 women in group B was $51.6{\pm}9.5$ years. Group B had a significantly shorter hospital stay ($16.6{\pm}7.4$ vs. $33.7{\pm}22.6$ days; p=0.014), shorter chest tube duration ($10.5{\pm}5.7$ vs. $19.5{\pm}14.4$ days; p=0.039), shorter leukocytosis duration ($6.7{\pm}6.5$ vs. $18.8{\pm}13.2$ days; p=0.008), shorter febrile duration ($0.8{\pm}1.8$ vs. $9.4{\pm}9.2$ days; p=0.004), and shorter duration of intravenous antibiotics usage ($14.9{\pm}6.4$ vs. $25.4{\pm}13.9$ days; p=0.018). However, radiological improvements did not show any statistical differences. Conclusion: Early application of VATS for empyema thoracis treatment reduced hospital stay, thoracostomy tube duration, leukocytosis duration, febrile duration, and antibiotics usage duration in comparison with the traditional methods. The early performing of VATS might be an effective treatment modality for empyema thoracis.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2006

Purpose: We wanted to determine the clinical characteristics and prognosis according to the VEGF expression in stage II cervical carcinoma patients treated with definitive radiotherapy. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 31 patients who were diagnosed with cervical cancer from 1995 to 2003 at Samsung Medical Center and their paraffin block tissue samples were available for study. The median age of the patients was 65 years. The mean tumor size was 4.1 cm $(range:\;1.2{\sim}8.2cm)$. Seven patients (22.6%) were suspected of having pelvic lymph node metastasis. An external beam irradiation dose of 45-56.4 Gy was administered to the whole pelvis with a 15 MV linear accelerator, and an additional 24 Gy was given to point A by HDR intracavitary brachytherapy. VEGF staining was defined as positive when more than 10% of the tumor cells were stained. The median follow-up duration was 58 months. Results: A positive VEGF expression was observed in 21 patients (67.7%), There was no significant correlation between the VEGF expression and pelvic lymph node metastasis, tumor size and the response of radiotherapy. During follow-up, 7 patients had recurrence. The complete response rate was not significant between the VEGF(-) and VEGF(+) tumors. However, the VEGF(+) tumors showed a significantly higher recurrence rate in comparison with the VEGF(-) tumors (p=0.040), The three year disease-free survival rates were 100% and 66.7%, respectively, for patients with VEGF(-) or VEGF(+) tumor (p=0.047), Conclusion: The VEGF expression was a significant factor for recurrence and disease-free survival. However, the significance of the VEGF expression is still controversial because of the various definitions of VEGF expression and the mismatches of the clinical data in the previous studies.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2005

Objective : This empirical research is performed to recognize diagnostic concept, pattern identification, and clinical features of Hwa-byung. In other words, the aims of this research are to examine the differences of the diagnosis between Hwa-Byung and the other psychiatric disorders, and to find out pattern identification, and clinical characteristics of Hwa-Byung for prescriptions of this syndrome. Method : In the experiment, there were participated 30 patients who were met for our criterions according to HBDIS (Hwa-Byung Diagnostic interview Schedule). These patients were diagnosed as Axis1 according to criterions of DSM-IV with administering SCID-I. OMS-prime was utilized for finding out pattern identification of oriental medicine. Symptom Check List-90-Revision(SCL-90-R), Hemilton rating Scale for Depression(HRSD), Heart Rate Variability(HRV), and Digital Infrared Thermographic imaging(D.I.T.I.) were also utilized to discover clinical characteristics of Hwa-Byung Patients. Results : 1. Regarding Sex-ratio, male subjects were 3(10%), and female subjects are 27(90%). The age of subjects ranged from 22 year old to 75 $(51.87{\pm}11.04;\:Mean{\pm}SD)$ 2. In the results of diagnosis on the basis of DSM-IV, the 17(56.67%) patients were MOD (Major Depressive Disorder), the 5(16.67%) patients were USD (Undifferentiated Somatoform Disorder), the 4(13.33%) patients were Dysthymic Disorder, the 3(10%) patients were GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder), and the 1(3.33%) was Panic Disorder. Two of the patients who diagnosed as MOD were diagnosed as Panic Disorder too, and one of them was diagnosed as Pain Disorder too. 3. Regarding pattern identification, Hwa-Byung is positively correlated to deficiency of Heart(心). and then to stagnancy of Liver-Gall bladder. Hwa-Byung is correlated deficiency symptom-complex rather than excessiveness symptom-complex. That is also correlated positively to Pathological heat and fire. 4. In SCL90-R, the mean of PSDI was $(75.3{\pm}10.7;\:Mean{\pm}SD)$. The each mean of the other 11 factors was distributed between50-70. 5. The mean of HRSD was $(17.9{\pm}5.6;\:Mean{\pm}SD)$ in the entire subject's group. Then the group of MDD was $20.9{\pm}4.4$ and the group of USD was $12.0{\pm}4.8$ 6. In the results of HRV. the mean of TP is $972.4{\pm}1174(Mean{\pm}SD)$, this is lower than normal range 1000-200. The other factors were within normal range. Then, there were no significant differences between them (p<0.05). 7. The temperatures of each acupoint have significant differences between HNl(印堂) and PC6(內關), between CV17(顫中) and PC6(內關), between HN1(印堂) and CV8(神闕), between CV17(顫中) and CV8(神闕) in comparison with the average of body temperature in the use of D.I.T.I. (p<0.01) 8. In the analysis of correlation between SCL-90-R, HRSD, HRV. and D.I.T.I. there were no significant results. According to results that the correlation was analyzed with only the MDD group as subjects, there was negative correlation between RMSSD of HRV and HRSD, between LF of HRV and PDSIof SCL-90-R, and between LF/HF of HRV and ANX, PSY, and PDSI of SCL-90-R. Conclusion : In the observation of clinical features of 30 cases of Hwa-Byung patients by using diverse structured tests, there could make diverse diagnosis as depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, and Somatoform Disorder. Particularly. MDD was highly distributed. Considering oriental medicine's pattern identification of Hwa-Byung, this syndrome is related strongly to Heart, and there were demonstrated deficiency symptom-complex, and Pathological heat and fire. One of the limits of this study is lack of control subject's group, therefore, in the future study, it requires reexamination through a comparative research with these data to complete this study.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.368-380
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• 1999

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the scintigraphic findings and diagnostic accuracy of double-phase Tc-99m sestamibi scan in primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism (HPT). Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 16 cases of primary (18 lesions) and 11 cases of secondary HPT (44 lesions) who underwent Tc-99m-sestamibi scan before the surgical intervention. Scan was performed using LEM camera (Siemens, Germany) after the injection of 740MBq of Tc-99m sestamibi. Routine image consisted of baseline and 3-hour delayed images and each image was obtained using both parallel and pine hole collimator. The study population was 27 patients (male/female=5/22, age: $49.1{\pm}10.8$). Results: Eighteen lesions of primary HPT consisted of 13 adenomas and S hyperplasias, while all lesions of secondary HPT were hyperplasias. Among the case of primary HPT, we could detect all the lesions of 13 adenomas but only 2 lesions of 5 hyperplasias (40%) could be detected by double phase scintigraphy. Three cases of primary lesion showed decreased uptake in delayed images compared with baseline. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and accuracy of primary and secondary HPT were 58.8% (10/17), 83.3% (10/12), 83.3% (10/12), 75.9% (22/29), and 37.5% (15/40), 50% (2/4), 88.2% (15/17), 38.6% (17/44), respectively. Overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and accuracy were 43.9% (25/57), 75% (12/16), 86.2% (25/29), and 53.4% (39/73). There were no statistical difference between the weight of primary and secondary HPT lesion (p>0.05). Conclusion: Tc-99m sestamibi scan is fairly good modality to detect parathyroid lesion in patient with primary HPT before the surgical intervention. However, since some of cases may reveal decreased uptake in delayed image, a careful attention to the findings of baseline images may be helpful. Still the low accuracy of sestamibi scan in diagnosis of secondary HPT prohibits routine use of it for this disease.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.195-209
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• 2016

The understanding of geometric complexity of strike-slip Fault system can be an important factor to control fault reactivation and surface rupture propagation under the regional stress regime. The Kumamoto earthquake was caused by dextral reactivation of the Futagawa-Hinagu Fault system under the E-W maximum horizontal principal stress. The earthquakes are a set of earthquakes, including a foreshock earthquake with a magnitude 6.2 at the northern tip of the Hinagu Fault on April 14, 2016 and a magnitude 7.0 mainshock which generated at the intersection of the two faults on April 16, 2016. The hypocenters of the main shock and aftershocks have moved toward NE direction along the Futagawa Fault and terminated at Mt. Aso area. The intersection of the two faults has a similar configuration of ${\lambda}$-fault. The geometries and kinematics, of these faults were comparable to the Yansan-Ulsan Fault system in SE Korea. But slip rate is little different. The results of age dating show that the Quaternary faults distributed along the northern segment of the Yangsan Fault and the Ulsan Fault are younger than those along the southern segment of the Yansan Fault. This result is well consistent with the previous study with Column stress model. Thus, the seismic activity along the middle and northern segment of the Yangsan Fault and the Ulsan Fault might be relatively active compared with that of the southern segment of the Yangsan Fault. Therefore, more detailed seismic hazard and paleoseismic studies should be carried out in this area.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.268-273
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• 2019

The intestinal microbiomes vary according to the factors such environment, age and diet. The purpose of this study was to compare the gut microbial diversity between Korean infants receiving breast-fed milk and formula-fed milk. We analyzed microbial communities in stool samples collected from 80 Korean infants using next generation sequencing. Phylum level analysis revealed that microbial communities in both breast-fed infants group (BIG) was dominated by Actinobacteria ($74.22{\pm}3.48%$). Interestingly, the phylum Actinobacteria was dominant in formula-fed infants group A (FIG-A) at $73.46{\pm}4.12%$, but the proportions of phylum Actinobacteria were lower in formulafed infants group B and C (FIG-B and FIG-C) at $66.52{\pm}5.80%$ and $68.88{\pm}4.33%$. The most abundant genus in the BIG, FIG-A, FIG-B, and FIG-C was Bifidobacterium, comprising $73.09{\pm}2.31%$, $72.25{\pm}4.93%$, $63.81{\pm}6.05%$, and $67.42{\pm}5.36%$ of the total bacteria. Furthermore, the dominant bifidobacterial species detected in BIG and FIG-A was Bifidobacterium longum at $68.77{\pm}6.07%$ and $66.85{\pm}4.99%$ of the total bacteria. In contrast, the proportions of B. longum of FIG-B and FIG-C were $58.94{\pm}6.20%$ and $61.86{\pm}5.31%$ of the total bacteria. FIG-A showed a community similar to BIG, which may be due to the inclusion of galactooligosaccharide, galactosyllactose, synergy-oligosaccharide, bifidooligo and improvement material of gut microbiota contained in formula-milk. We conclude that 5-Bifidus factor contained in milk powder promotes the growth of Bifidobacterium genus in the intestines.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.116-125
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• 2020

Objectives : Self-poisoning is the leading cause of visits to the emergency departments after a suicide attempts. This study is aimed to compare the patient characteristics according to the category of drugs ingested by the patients who attempted suicide. Methods : All medical charts were retrospectively reviewed from patients who visited the emergency center, at Seoul Medical Center, due to intentional self-poisoning from April of 2011 to July of 2019. We investigated the information regarding the subtype and quantity of the intoxication drug, how it was obtained, suicidal history, and psychiatric history, as well as, sociodemographic information. Variables were compared between prescription drug (PD) and non-prescription drug (NPD) poisoning groups. Results : The mean age of the NPD poisoning group was significantly lower than that of the PD poisoning group. The patient ratio of those enrolled in national health insurance and living with spouses were significantly higher in the NPD poisoning group. Compared to the NPD poisoning group, the PD poisoning group had a higher incidence of mental illnesses, underlying diseases and ratio of involuntary visit to the emergency department. Among the prescription drugs, the benzodiazepine poisoning group had a higher rate of self-prescription than the non-poisoning group, while the zolpidem poisoning group had a higher rate of the using someone else's prescription than other drugs. Each single drug poisoning group (benzodiazepine, zolpidem, and antidepressant single-agent) had a higher rate of no mental illness than each of the mixed-poisoning group. Conclusions : Guidelines for regulating non-prescription drugs are needed as a matter of suicide prevention. Also, this study suggests that clinicians need to be careful when issuing prescriptions and should suicidal risk according to patients' characteristics, duration of follow-up and type of drug packaging.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2021

Purpose This article studies the relationship between the length of a kidney measured by two scanning methods: Kidney Computed Tomography (CT) and ^99mTc-Dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) renal scan. Kidney CT provides a better anatomic assessment, while ^99mTc-DMSA renal scan is superior in the kidney function test. Materials and Methods From January to December of 2019, two hundred patients who had Kidney CT and Tc^99m-DMSA renal scan were chosen for this study. SPSS17.0 was selected for statistical analysis. Results Due to the effect of the breathing and resolution of ^99mTc-DMSA renal scan, it showed the kidney's relatively longer length than the length of Kidney CT. For the same kidney, the length comparison among different brands' Gamma cameras was negligible. The length difference within the same age group did not show a noticeable discrepancy. However, there was a length difference between the radio technologists. Kidney CT and ^99mTc-DMSA renal scan indicated a strong positive correlation between the length of the left and right kidney. Conclusion It is necessary to establish a standardized measurement method for measuring kidney length using ^99mTc-DMSA renal scan. The kidney's functional changes and length changes are indications of Kidney diseases. Especially, pediatric patients tend to use ^99mTc-DMSA renal scan for assessing the kidney's shape and the function to avoid potential radiation exposure during the Kidney CT. Therefore, it is significant to provide not only the kidney's functional information but also an anatomic analysis, including the kidney's size, length, and location through the ^99mTc-DMSA renal scan.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.642-655
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• 2022

Purpose: We examined the effects of the 8-week moderate-intensity Pilates exercise program on body composition, balance ability, metabolic parameters, arterial condition, and eating habits among overweight and obese women. Methods: From the general sample of overweight or obese Korean women (body mass index ≥ 23 kg/m² ), those who had not been diagnosed with any chronic degenerative diseases were enrolled in the study (n = 39). After 8 weeks of the Pilates exercise program, the participants were subdivided into adherence and non-adherence groups. Among the study participants, 24 women were matched for age and menopausal status to reduce the bias, and then finally included for the comparison (Pilates-adherence, n = 12; Pilates-non-adherence, n = 12). Results: The body balance measured by the Y-balance test, body mass index, and subcutaneous fat areas were significantly improved in both groups. However, the Pilate-sadherence group showed more positive changes in body balance and had significant improvement in body composition parameters such as waist size, visceral fat area, systolic blood pressure, arterial aging index, fasting blood glucose, and glycated hemoglobin than the Pilates-non-adherence group. In addition, the nutrition quotient for Korean adults (balance, moderation, and behavior except diversity) were significantly improved in both groups after dietary education. However, the participants did not show dramatic improvement in the metabolic parameters, because all the study subjects were in relatively good health and did not have any diagnosed diseases. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that higher adherence to the Pilates exercise program together with a modification of eating habits may effectively improve body balance, body composition, and obesity-related parameters among overweight and obese women.

• Journal of Ginseng Culture
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• v.6
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• pp.135-151
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• 2024

In order to compare the ginseng consumption culture of Korean and Chinese college students, their purchase status of ginseng products, attitudes toward ginseng, and satisfaction with ginseng products were examined, and the purchase and recommendation intention of ginseng products was investigated. It targeted 267 Korean college students and 318 Chinese college students who had experience eating ginseng products. As a result of the survey, in the case of Korean college student consumers, interest in ginseng products increased compared to before COVID-19, and the intention to purchase and recommend ginseng products increased. In addition, the higher the satisfaction with ginseng, the higher the frequency of ginseng purchase experience, the higher the social benefit attitude toward ginseng, and the higher the age, the higher the intention to purchase and recommend ginseng products. Chinese college student consumers had higher parental purchases than Korea, higher positive intentions to purchase and recommend social and psychological benefits, and their 20s are already more interested and friendly than Korea. What Korean college students and Chinese college student consumers have in common is that interest in health, safety, and environment has increased since before COVID-19, and interest in ginseng-related products has changed in individual experiences, indicating that individual experiences are important and Chinese college student consumers are influenced by parents. In particular, COVID-19 is an opportunity to recognize the importance of health, which is important to those in their 20s, and is actually related to purchase intention. Focusing on these results, it seems that expansion to preferred products for college student consumers and differentiation of marketing strategies according to family influence and consumption culture should be made, and these new changes due to COVID-19 seem to be a timely opportunity. At a time when interest in health and safety has increased, strategic preparations are needed for the future consumersociety to respond to changesin product diversity and convergence, changes in marketing media to meet consumer consumption values, and changesin consumer family types, such assingle households.