• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.145-153
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• 2013

Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is increasingly used to treat spinal metastases. To achieve the highest steep dose gradients and conformal dose distributions of target tumors, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) techniques are essential to spine radiosurgery. The purpose of the study was to qualitatively compare IMRT and VMAT techniques with International Spine Radiosurgery Consortium (ISRC) contoured consensus guidelines for target volume definition. Planning target volume (PTV) was categorized as TB, $T_{BPT}$ and $T_{ST}$ depending on sectors involved; $T_B$ (vertebral body only), $T_{BPT}$ (vertebral body+pedicle+transverse process), and $T_{ST}$ (spinous process+transverse process). Three patients treated for spinal tumor in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar region were selected. Eacg tumor was contoured by the definition from the ISRC guideline. Maximum spinal cord dose were 12.46 Gy, 12.17 Gy and 11.36 Gy for $T_B$, $T_{BPT}$ and $T_{ST}$ sites, and 11.81 Gy, 12.19 Gy and 11.99 Gy for the IMRT, RA1 and RA2 techniques, respectively. Average fall-off dose distance from 90% to 50% isodose line for $T_B$, $T_{BPT}$, and $T_{ST}$ sites were 3.5 mm, 3.3 mm and 3.9 mm and 3.7 mm, 3.7 mm and 3.3 mm for the IMRT, RA1 and RA2 techniques, respectively. For the most complicated target $T_{BPT}$ sites in the cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions, the conformity index of the IMRT, RA1 and RA2 is 0.621, 0.761 and 0.817 and 0.755, 0.796 and 0.824 for rDHI. Both IMRT and VMAT techniques delivered high conformal dose distributions in spine stereotactic radiosurgery. However, if the target volume includes the vertebral body, pedicle, and transverse process, IMRT planning resulted in insufficient conformity index, compared to VMAT planning. Nevertheless, IMRT technique was more effective in reducing the maximum spinal cord dose compared to RA1 and RA2 techniques at most sites.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.347-366
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• 2012

The aim of this new statement is to provide comprehensive and timely evidence-based recommendations on stroke management for clinical practitioners. Many countries are already well engaged in developing and releasing their own clinical practice guidelines, whereas Korean Medicine (KM) is still beginning. It will take time and effort to develop evidence-based guidelines and recommendations of KM or other traditional medicine because they are weak in the area of scientific evidence. The clinical practice guideline of Korean medicine for stroke was formulated through extensive review of published literature and consensus meeting of Korean medicine specialists. This project was supported by a grant of the Oriental Medicine R&D Project, the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Referring to guidelines developed in other countries, the experts in the subject tried to organize and develop guidelines and recommendations adequate for domestic medical circumstances. In December, 2008, a multi-disciplinary team called the Evidence Based Clinical Practice Guidelines Development Group (EBCPGsDG) for Stroke was organized. The writing committee was comprised of experts in internal medicine, acupuncture, rehabilitation, and Sasang constitution. Outside specialists and associated panels were invited for consultation. The scope of the guideline encompasses acupuncture, moxibustion and herbal medicine (including Korean medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, Kampo medicine) as interventions for stroke patients. It includes statements about ischemic stroke (I63), stroke not specified as hemorrhage or infarction (I64), and sequelae of cerebrovascular disease (I69) according to the International Classification of Disease (ICD). The committee subdivided the description of herbal medications into acute stroke management, subacute stroke management, post-stroke management, and secondary prevention of stroke. Guidelines on the practice of acupuncture and moxibustion were described in order for acute stroke management, subacute stroke management, chronic stroke management, and post-stroke rehabilitation. Clinicians who are working in the field of stroke care can adopt this guideline for their practice.

• Korean Circulation Journal
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• v.48 no.12
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• pp.1033-1080
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• 2018

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia in the general population. The Korean Heart Rhythm Society organized a Korean AF Management Guideline Committee and analyzed all available studies regarding the management of AF, including studies on Korean patients. This guideline is based on recent data of the Korean population and the recent guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology, European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, American Heart Association, and Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society. Expert consensus or guidelines for the optimal management of Korean patients with AF were achieved after a systematic review with intensive discussion. This article provides general principles for appropriate risk stratification and selection of anticoagulation therapy in Korean patients with AF. This guideline deals with optimal stroke prevention, screening, rate and rhythm control, risk factor management, and integrated management of AF.

• Urogenital Tract Infection
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.45-50
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• 2018

The Institute of Medicine in its report "Clinical Practice Guidelines we can trust" defined standards for clinical practice guidelines. However, many guidelines continue to rely on expert opinion and lack a formal framework for moving from evidence to recommendations. These guidelines may or may not be labeled as "consensus statements" and do not meet contemporary standards for guideline documents we would refer to as "evidence-based". Therefore, the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation working group developed a novel, rigorous and transparent approach to grading certainty (quality) of evidence. In addition, it created a system for "moving from evidence to decisions", for example for the development of evidence-based guidelines. In this article, we aim to introduce this approach to appraising the certainty of relevant evidence and estimate the benefits and detriments of health care interventions within the larger context of evidence-based medicine.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.68-84
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• 1995

Background: Guideline for practice is useful because it can be the standard for assessment and way to improve quality. We need to take account of expert opinion and consensus as well as scientific evidences to develope practice guideline because it should be practical. Delphi method has been developed to gather opinions from experts fairly. This study was designed to develop practice guideline and apply it to practices as a method to improve quality in primary medical care. Methods: Hypertension(in adults over 18 years old) was selected as a target problem. Self questionnaires about management of hypertensive patients were developed by a researcher with advice of 11 experts. The questionnaires were designed to response as a 5 pont scale. The results of previous questionary were given to respondents in second and third questionnaires. If needed, the questionnaires were changed on the previous responses. The items with medium greater than or equal to 4 point in 1st and 2nd responses were accepted in guideline. The items with medium lesser than or equal to 3 point were questioned again about whether they can be excluded or not. The criteria for assessment was made with reference to guideline and applied to 85 hypertensive patients of 9 family practitioners. At 3 months after practice guideline had been given to family practitioners, performance of same practitioners was assessed with 36 new hypertensive patients. Results: 23 professors in family medicine, 22 family practitioners and 6 cardiologists, responded among 50, 50, 15 respectively. Practice guideline with 33 items was developed as a result of 3 times questionaires. The difference of responses between professors in family medicine, family practitioners and cardiologists was not significant. Performance of practice was improved in diagnosis, history taking about 6 fields, laboratory examination and decision making about time of pharmaceutical prescription. It was not improved in physical examination, life style modification, method of pharmaceutical prescription, choice of initial antihypertensives and history taking about duration of disease and diet habit. It was decreased in history taking about psychosocial factors. The assessment scores were low in history taking, physical examination and life style modification before and after use of practice guideline. Conclusion: Practice guideline for hypertension could be developed by Delphi method. Performance of practice improved partially after use of guideline.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.131-140
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• 2018

Objectives The purpose of this study is to assess the quality of case reports from the Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine. Methods Case reports were selected from the Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine from January 2015 to April 2018, by utilizing Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System (OASIS). The quality of the reports were reviewed based on the Consensus-based Clinical Case Reporting Guideline Development (CARE) guideline. Results Total of 13 case reports were finally selected for the assessment. 73.08% of the case reports included necessary information based on the CARE guideline but the rest of the reports did not. More than 50% of the reports were missing data regarding 'Timeline', 'Diagnostic challenges', 'Intervention adherence and tolerability', 'Adverse and unanticipated events', or 'Patient perspective or experience'. Also, the reports did not include 'Key word', 'Introduction in abstract', 'Case presentation in abstract', or 'The rationale for conclusions' information. Conclusions Case reports from the Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine have important role in pediatrics. Efforts are needed to improve the quality of the case reports as well as to develop reporting guidelines for the Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.65-78
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was aimed to develop a guideline for the application of diagnostic devices for menopausal syndrome. Methods: We conducted a literature review and a questionnaire survey on diagnostic devices including Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI), pulse diagnosis device, Heart Rate Variability (HRV), body composition analyzer, Yangdorak. Results: We retrieved some clinical values for usage of devices from the articles. Especially, DITI was useful to identify the pattern of body temperature distribution. The respondents answered that they diagnosed menopausal syndrome by using body composition analyzer (62.3%), DITI (60%), HRV (60%), pulse diagnosis device (45.7%), Yangdorak (34.3%). The respondents answered that they don't use diagnostic devices when they diagnosed menopausal syndrome because of absence of device, cost, difficulty of interpretation, substitution of another diagnostic method. After experts survey, it was recommended to use DITI, HRV, body composition analyzer. There was no consensus on the use of pulse diagnosis device, Yangdorak in diagnosing menopausal syndrome. Conclusions: We developed a guideline for the application of diagnostic devices for menopausal syndrome.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.3-23
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• 2022

Countries differ in their treatment expertise and research results regarding gastric cancer; hence, treatment guidelines are diverse based on evidence and medical situations. A comprehensive and comparative review of each country's guidelines is imperative to understand the similarities and differences among countries. We reviewed and compared five gastric cancer treatment guidelines in terms of endoscopic, surgical, perioperative, and palliative systemic treatment based on evidence levels and recommendation grades, as well as the postoperative follow-up strategies for each guideline. The Korean, Chinese, and European guidelines provided evidence and grading of the recommendations. The United States guidelines suggested categories for evidence and consensus. The Japanese guidelines suggested evidence and recommendations only for systemic treatment. The Korean and Japanese guidelines described endoscopic treatment, surgery, and lymphadenectomy in detail. The Chinese, United States, and European guidelines more intensively considered perioperative chemotherapy. In particular, the indications for chemotherapy and the regimens recommended by each guideline differed slightly. Considering their medical situations, each guideline had some diversity in terms of adopting evidence, which resulted in heterogeneous recommendations. This review will help medical personnel to comprehensively understand the diversity in gastric cancer treatment guidelines for each country in terms of evidence and recommendations.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.219-233
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• 2018

Helicobacter pylori plays an important role in the pathogenesis of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, gastric cancer, and gastric mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma. In Korea, the guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of H. pylori infection in adults were revised in 2013. The European Helicobacter and Microbiota Study Group and Consensus panel released the fifth edition of the Maastricht Consensus Report for the management of H. pylori infection in 2015, and the European Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and the North American Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition released the updated joint guidelines for children and adolescents in 2016. Considering these recommendations and recent progress in our research and that of other research teams, this study aimed to discuss the diagnostic strategies for H. pylori infection in children and adolescents.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2019

Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate consensus relative to treatment strategies for psychosocial treatment in panic disorder, that represents one subject addressed by the Korean guidelines for treatment of panic disorder 2018. Methods : The executive committee developed questionnaires relative to treatment strategies for patients with panic disorder based on guidelines, algorithms, and clinical trials previously published in foreign countries and Korea. Seventy-two (61.0%) of 112 experts on a committee reviewing panic disorder responded to the questionnaires. We classified the consensus of expert opinions into three categories (first-line, second-line, and third-line treatment strategies), and identified treatment of choice using the Chi-square test and 95% confidence intervals. Results : For psychosocial treatment of panic disorder, individual and group cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) were recommended treatments of choice, and mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was recommended as first line strategy. There was statistically significant consensus among experts regarding usefulness of each component of CBT and MBCT, for treatment of patients with panic disorder. Conclusion : Results, that reflect recent studies and clinical experiences, may provide the guideline for psychosocial treatment strategies for panic disorder.