• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.1579-1584
• /
• 2008

Anemia are often detected among many patients who are treated in oriental traditional medicine hospitals in Korea through blood tests which are taken to diagnose the patients' general state, and most of them are diagnosed to have iron deficiency anemia. This study amis the effect of herbal medicine on the RBC count, hemoglobin, hematocrits and indices of red blood cells such as mean corpuscular volume(MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin(MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration(MCHC), serum iron, and total iron binding capacity(TIBC) among patients who were treated in oriental medical hospital and diagnosed to have anemia through blood tests other than main symptoms. The subjects of this study were 29 patients(male 7, female 22, mean age: 56.24${\pm}$19.11years) who were chosen ones, they has below hemoglobin 12 gm/dL, serum iron 70 IU/L, MCV 80 fL on laboratory screening test when they first visits our hospital. As a result, the volume of red blood cell(RBC), hematocrit(HCT), and hemoglobin(Hb) in peripheral blood increased from $348.27{\pm}8.95{\times}10^5$ /UL, 28.82${\pm}$0.56%, 9.24${\pm}$0.22 g/dL to $375.62{\pm}9.11{\times}10^5$ /UL, 31.36${\pm}$0.68%, 10.31${\pm}$0.25 g/dL comparing before and after oriental medicine treatment. After the treatment, MCH, MCHC, and MCV also increased from 26.98${\pm}$0.84 Pg, 32.62${\pm}$0.45 g/dl, 79.26${\pm}$0.17 fL to 27.74${\pm}$0.74 Pg, 32.84${\pm}$0.33 g/dl, 84.15${\pm}$1.67 fL. There was statistically significant increase in MCH, MCV(P<0.05); however, there was no significant change in MCHC(P>0.05). The amount of iron in blood increased from 32.96${\pm}$4.20 ug/dL to 67.22${\pm}$7.18 ug/dL, which showed a statistically significant increase(P<0.05). On the other hand, TIBC decreased from 325.08${\pm}$13.97 ug/dL to 315.61${\pm}$18.79 ug/dL, which was not a statistically significant change(P>0.05). Like this, all the patients showed favorable results in anemia based on the measurements of indices of red blood cells except MCHC. According to the classification of herbal medicines, in strengthening energy group(補氣), replenishing blood group(補血), and replenishing both energy and blood group(補氣血), the volume of RBC, HCT, and hemoglobin showed significant increases. Furthermore, in herbal medicines strengthening blood(補血) and replenishing both energy and blood group(補氣血), serum iron also relatively increased compare to strengthening energy group(補氣).

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.173-178
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the radiation dose for clinical PET/CT protocols in clinical environments using Alderson phantom and TLDs. Radiation doses were evaluated for both Philips GEMINI 16 slice PET/CT system and GE DSTe 16 slice PET/CT system. Specific organ doses with $^{137}Cs$ transmission scan, high quality CT scan and topogram in philips GEMINI PET/CT system were measured. Specific organ doses with CT scan for attenuation map, CT scan for diagnosis and topogram in GE DSTe PET/CT system were also measured. The organs were selected based on ICRP60 recommendation. The TLDs used for measurements were selected for within an accuracy of ${\pm}5%$ and calibrated in 10 MV X-ray radiation field. The effective doses for $^{137}Cs$ transmission scan, high qualify scan, and topogram in Philips GEMINI PET/CT system were $0.14{\pm}0.950,\;29.49{\pm}1.508\;and\;0.72{\pm}0.032mSv$ respectively. The effective doses for CT scan to make attenuation map, CT scan to diagnose and topogram in GE DSTe PET/CT system were $20.06{\pm}1.003,\;24.83{\pm}0.805\;and\;0.27{\pm}0.008mSv$ respectively. We evaluated the total effective dose by adding effective dose for PET Image. The total PET/CT doses for Philips GEMINI PET/CT (Topogram+$^{137}Cs$ transmission scan+PET, Topogram+high qualify CT+PET) and GE DSTe PET/CT (Topogram +CT for attenuation map+ PET, Topogram+diagnostic CT+ PET) are $7.65{\pm}0.951,\;37.00{\pm}1.508,\;27.12{\pm}1.003\;and\;31.89{\pm}0.805mSv$ respectively. Further study may be needed to be peformed to find optimal PET/CT acquisition protocols for reducing the patient exposure with good image qualify.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• v.1 no.3
• /
• pp.236-243
• /
• 2001

Background: An immunological approach for aging mechanism appears to be important. Lymphocyte subsets analysis in peripheral blood is widely performed to assess the immune status and to diagnose and monitor various diseases. Some lymphocyte subsets are known to change with age, but only few data about age-related reference ragnes for these subsets in healthy individuals have been reported. So we attempted to report reference ranges for these subsets in each age group and review changes of the results with age for the secondary studies about immune cell function as lymphocyte blast transformation and immunoglobulin gene rearrangement (VDJ) including recombination activating genes (RAG-1 and RAG-2). Methods: Lymphocyte subset analysis was performed on 302 subjects, 189 males and 113 females with age group of all decades of life. Two color direct immunofluorescene flow cytometry (FCM) was done using $Simultest^{TM}$ IMK-Lymphocyte kit (Becton Dickinson, USA), $FACScan^{TM}$ (Becton Dickinson, USA) and $FACSCalibur^{TM}$ (Becton Dickinson, USA). Lymphocyte subsets analysed were T ($CD3^+$) and B cells ($CD19^+$), helper/inducer T ($CD4^+$) and suppressor/cytotoxic T cells ($CD8^+$), helper/suppressor ($CD4^+/CD8^+$) ratio and natural killer (NK) cells ($CD3^-CD16^+/CD56^+$). The absolute numbers of each subset were calculated from total lymphocyte counts. Data collected was analysed using SAS 6.12. A P-value of < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: We reported the counts and percentages of lymphocyte and these subsets in each age group. There were no statistically significant differences between male and female subjects. The percentage of $CD4^+$ T cells, and the count of NK cells did not show the significant difference among the various age groups. The age-related changes observed in our study were as following: 1) a decrease in the percentages of T cells, B cells and $CD8^+$ T cells ; 2) a decrease in the counts of B cells and $CD8^+$ T cells ; 3) an increase in the percentage and count of NK cells ; and 4) an increase in the $CD4^+/CD8^+$ ratio. Conclusion: The characteristics of aging process appeared to be showing a marked decrease of lympocyte subsets T and B cells as well as T8 ($CD8^+$). The age-related increase of the percentage of cells bearing NK marker can be interpreted as a compensatory consequence to cope with the decrease of T cells related to the thymic involution. These changes with age appeared to be for the secondary study about immune cell function as lymphocyte blast transformation and immunoglobulin gene rearrangement.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.27-57
• /
• 2008

Many consumers enjoy the challenge of purchasing a brand that matches well with their own values and personalities (for example, Ko et al., 2008; Ko et al., 2006). Therefore, the personalities of consumers can impact on the final selection of a brand and its brand personality in two ways: first, the consumers may incline to purchase a brand or a product that reflects their own personalities; second, consumers tend to choose a company that has similar brand personalities to those brands that are being promoted. Therefore, the objectives of this study are following: 1. Is there any empirical relationship between a consumer's personality and the personality of a brand that he or she chooses? 2. Can a corporate brand be differentiated by the brand personality? In short, consumers are more likely to hold favorable attitudes towards those brands that match their own personality and will most probably purchase those brands matching well with their personality. For example, Matzler et al. (2006) found that extraversion and openness were positively related to hedonic product value; and that the personality traits directly (openness) and indirectly (extraversion, via hedonic value) influenced brand effects, which in turn droved attitudinal and purchase loyalty. Based on the above discussion, the following hypotheses are proposed: Hypothesis 1: the personality of a consumer is related to the brand personality of a product/corporate that he/she purchases. Kuksov (2007) and Wernerfelt (1990) argued that brands as a symbolic language allowed consumers to communicate their types to each other and postulated that consumers had a certain value of communicating their types to each other. Therefore, how brand meanings are established, and how a firm communicate with consumers about the meanings of the brand are interesting topics for research (for example, Escalas and Bettman, 2005; McCracken, 1989; Moon, 2007). Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 2: A corporate brand identity is differentiated by the brand personality. And there are significant differences among companies. A questionnaire was developed for collecting empirical measures of the Big-Five personality traits and brand personality variables. A survey was conducted to the online access panel members through the Internet during December 2007 in Korea. In total, 500 respondents completed the questionnaire, and considered as useable. Personality constructs were measured using the Five-factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) scale and a total of 30 items were actually utilized. Brand personality was measured using the five-dimension scale developed by Aaker (1997). A total of 17 items were actually utilized. The seven-point Likert-type scale was the format of responses, for example, from 1 indicating strongly disagreed to 7 for strongly agreed. The Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) was used for an empirical testing of the model, and the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) was applied to estimate numerical values for the components in the model. To diagnose the presence of distribution problems in the data and to gauge their effects on the parameter estimates, bootstapping method was used. The results of the hypothesis-1 test empirically show that there exit certain causality relationship between a consumer's personality and the brand personality of the consumer's choice. Thus, the consumer's personality has an impact on consumer's final selection of a brand that has a brand personality matches well with their own personalities. In other words, the consumers are inclined to purchase a brand that reflects their own personalities and tend to choose a company that has similar brand personalities to those of the brand being promoted. The results of this study further suggest that certain dimensions of the brand personality cause consumers to have preference to certain (corporate) brands. For example, the conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion of the consumer personality have positively related to a selection of "ruggedness" characteristics of the brand personality. Consumers who possess that personality dimension seek for matching with certain brand personality dimensions. Results of the hypothesis-2 test show that the average "ruggedness" attributes of the brand personality differ significantly among Korean automobile manufacturers. However, the result of ANOVA also indicates that there are no significant differences in the mean values among manufacturers for the "sophistication," "excitement," "competence" and "sincerity" attributes of the corporate brand personality. The tight link between what a firm is and its corporate brand means that there is far less room for marketing communications than there is with products and brands. Consequently, successful corporate brand strategies must position the organization within the boundaries of what is acceptable, while at the same time differentiating the organization from its competitors.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.154-172
• /
• 1999

In order to analyse the prevalence rate of hypertension and the actual conditions of control, we selected five districts out of eleven eups and myuns in Chinan Country. We administered structured questionaries to 309 adults above the age of 40, computerized the data using SPSS - PC+. More than 40.1% of adults over 40 in Chinan County have health disorders ranging from high blood pressure to hypertension including alert high blood pressure at 36.2%, relatively high. Among general characteristics, differences in the rate of hypertension were influenced by age, occupation and places of residence. Over 71 who are engaged in agriculture, who don't have jobs, who reside in Sungsu, Jungchun, Chinan-eup all have higher hypertension rates than other groups. Accordingly, the control of hypertension should be focused on these people. As a result of the control of blood pressure, the survey showed 93.0% of the subjects were checked mainly at hospitals clinics, health centers subhealth centers and community health posts more than once a year, relatively high level of blood pressure management. However, the difference between their blood pressure measurements at ordinary times and the level of blood pressure at the time of research was quite considerable. Only 47.3% of the subjects diagnosed with high blood pressure and 70.3% of the subjects with normal blood pressure recognized their blood pressure accurately 52.7% of the subjects diagnosed with high blood pressure showed errors in understanding their blood pressure at normal times. Because these errors can cause problems in the control of blood pressure, proper management should be executed through a systematic examination. As a result of the high blood pressure control condition, the average period of hypertension was 74.5( ${\pm}92.8$) months, 92.3% of the subjects were diagnosed with high blood pressure at hospitals clinics, health centers subhealth centers community health posts, but only 29.5% were examined after a general check up on high blood pressure was completed. 70.5% were diagnosed with high blood pressure only after measuring their blood pressure. 14.1% of the subjects were hospitalized because of falls influenced by high blood pressure. 33.3% attended hospitals and health centers regularily for medical treatment and this shows how low the rate of the control of blood pressure. Most people did not undergo medical treatment, because they had no painful symptoms (46.7%), they didn't need to take the medicine(28.9%), or they forget to take the medicine(20.0%). These problems in the control of hypertension were discovered in the process of diagnosing high blood pressure at health medical institutions. Many people did not recognize the need for consistent control of blood pressure. That is, although the diagnosis for high blood pressures performed at hospitals clinics, health centers subhealth centers and community health posts, was 92.3%, more than 70.5% of the subjects were not examined completely with regard to blood pressure. Accordingly, heath medical institutions must diagnose high blood pressure not only by only measuring blood pressure but also by using systematic process of examination. As for the people diagnosed with high blood pressure, one should perform consistent medical approaches and help them to recognize the importance of the continuous control of blood pressure through subject-oriented education. Problems the subjects experienced were the following numbness in the limbs easily paralyzed stitches in their shoulders which felt painful, stiff necks, occiputs felt heavy, headaches when they got up in the morning, felt dizzy when standing and moving their heads and poor eyesight. The rate of knowledge related to high blood pressure was 78.7 points, comparatively low. Whether they had normal blood pressure or hypertension made no difference. These results are not desirable. Adult-oriented education forgot the prevention and management of high blood pressure should be implemented. Hypertensive-oriented education should be especially reinforced. Because there was a difference in the level of knowledge according to age, academic career, occupation or place of residence, education related to hypertension should be intensified and focused on those over the age of 71 those who did not attend school, those who do not have jobs and are engaged in agriculture and residents living in Bugui, Jungchun regions. The degree of healthy life practice in hypertensives is poor, particularly weight control, as opposed to people who have normal blood pressure. It makes no difference in smoking, the amount of daily smoking, drinking, the control of salt because each result means that they are not practicing healthy life or modifying their life-style. The development and programs to improve a healthy life should be executed.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.57 no.5
• /
• pp.419-424
• /
• 2004

Background : Although bronchodilator reversibility testing is widely performed to diagnose asthma or COPD, there is debate upon its usefulness and methods to differentiate asthma from COPD. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the role of bronchodilator reversibility testing in differentiating asthma from COPD and to confirm which method is better at evaluating bronchodilator reversibility. Methods : 26 asthma patients and 31 COPD patients were reviewed retrospectively. Spirometry was performed before and after bronchodilator inhalation to get $FEV_1$, FVC. To evaluate bronchodilator reversibility, the increase in $FEV_1$ or FVC was expressed as three methods, 'percentage of the baseline value', 'percentage of the predicted value', or 'absolute value'. Area under the ROC curve was measured to compare the three methods. In addition, the criteria of American Thoracic Society (ATS) for bronchodilator reversibility were compared to those of European Respiratory Society (ERS). Results : 1. In differentiating asthma from COPD, 'percentage of the predicted value', or 'absolute value' method was useful but 'percentage of the baseline value' was not. However, the ability to differentiate was weak because areas under the ROC curves by all methods were less than 0.75. 2. The criteria of ERS were superior to those of ATS for bronchodilator reversibility to differentiate asthma from COPD because likelihood ratio (LR) of a positive test by ERS criteria was greater than ATS criteria and because LR of a negative test by ERS criteria was less than ATS criteria. Conclusion : In differentiating asthma from COPD, bronchodilator reversibility testing has a weak role and should be considered as an adjunctive test.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
• /
• v.30 no.2 s.79
• /
• pp.235-243
• /
• 2000

Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) of the temporomandibular joint(TMJ) is very useful method to diagnose internal derangement of the TMJ because of its high specificity foy identification of condyle-disc relationships. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the existence, incidence and severity o』 internal derangement o』 the TMJ by the MRI of Patients who are suspected to have TMJ disorder. MRI sample was composed of 50 subjects(10 males, 40 females) and the mean age was 22.9 years. 43 subjects of the sample were found to have positive findings. $56\%$ of the subjects with positive findings had ADD(anterior disc displacement) without reduction, and $65\%$ had internal derangement of bilateral joints. Distributions in the types of malocclusion in patients with positive findings, the Angle's classification had shown : the largest $41.9\%$ for Cl II ($39.6\%$ for Cl II div 1 and $2.3\%$ for Cl II div 2), $37.2\%$ for Cl I, $18.6\%$ for Cl III, and $2.3\%$ for the unidentified. $8.6\%$ of the subjects with positive findings had facial asymmetry and $55.8\%$ had openbite. We can conclude that the percentage of Cl II is the highest in patients with internal derangement of the TMJ. Openbite or facial asymmetry is considered to be uncompensated or compensated deformity which results from facial skeleton remodeling in the process of degenerative joint disease(DJD) due to TMJ degeneration. Therefore it is recommended to screen the patients with facial asymmetry or openbite by MRI before the beginning of orthodontic treatment. Differential diagnosis is essential because the tendency of relapse is high after the orthodontic treatment and continuous observation of TMJ is needed in patients with TMJ disorder.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.18
• /
• pp.28-53
• /
• 1975

Experiments on the physiological root activity and its related characteristics of rice varieties were carried out in order to obtain some basic informations for the application of the results obtained to a rice breeding program. A significant positive correlation was found not only among the various characteristics related to conducting and ventilating systems which connects top and root of rice plant, but also between these characteristics and root activity. On the other hand, a significant difference in physiological root activity was recognized among different varieties and also between different groups of recognized 7 rice varieties differing in the their origin. It was also found that varieties with higher root activity (root activity indices) after ear formation stage tended to have more number of lower green leaves and consequently resulted in higher grain yield. Therefore, it may be possible to diagnose indirectly the root activity by examining the number of green leaves of the rice plant at later growth stage when breeders make selections of parent material for crossing or of hybrid lines in pedigree nurseries.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.51 no.5
• /
• pp.386-395
• /
• 2006

The core questions for determining nitrogen topdress rate (Npi) at panicle initiation stage (PIS) are 'how much nitrogen accumulation during the reproductive stage (PNup) is required for the target rice yield or protein content depending on the growth and nitrogen nutrition status at PIS?' and 'how can we diagnose the growth and nitrogen nutrition status easily at real time basis?'. To address these questions, two years experiments from 2001 to 2002 were done under various rates of basal, tillering, and panicle nitrogen fertilizer by employing a rice cultivar, Hwaseongbyeo. The response of grain yield and milled-rice protein content was quantified in relation to RVIgreen (green ratio vegetation index) and SPAD reading measured around PIS as indirect estimators for growth and nitrogen nutrition status, the regression models were formulated to predict PNup based on the growth and nitrogen nutrition status and Npi at PIS. Grain yield showed quadratic response to PNup, RVIgreen around PIS, and SPAD reading around PIS. The regression models to predict grain yield had a high determination coefficient of above 0.95. PNup for the maximum grain yield was estimated to be 9 to 13.5 kgN/10a within the range of RVIgreen around PIS of this experiment. decreasing with increasing RVIgreen and also to be 10 to 11 kgN/10a regardless of SPAD readings around PIS. At these PNup's the protein content of milled rice was estimated to rise above 9% that might degrade eating quality seriously Milled-rice protein content showed curve-linear increase with the increase of PNup, RVIgreen around PIS, and SPAD reading around PIS. The regression models to predict protein content had a high determination coefficient of above 0.91. PNup to control the milled-rice protein content below 7% was estimated as 6 to 8 kgN/10a within the range of RVIgreen and SPAD reading of this experiment, showing much lower values than those for the maximum grain yield. The recovery of the Npi applied at PIS ranged from 53 to 83%, increasing with the increased growth amount while decreasing with the increasing Npi. The natural nitrogen supply from PIS to harvest ranged from 2.5 to 4 kg/10a, showing quadratic relationship with the shoot dry weight or shoot nitrogen content at PIS. The regression models to estimate PNup was formulated using Npi and anyone of RVIgreen, shoot dry weight, and shoot nitrogen content at PIS as predictor variables. These models showed good fitness with determination coefficients of 0.86 to 0.95 The prescription method based on the above models predicting grain yield, protein content and PNup and its constraints were discussed.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.65-72
• /
• 1998

Recently there have been frequent reports on human infection caused by the Diphyllobothridae in Korea. The adequate opportunities for Koreans to eat raw fish, the primary infection medium of cestodes and the human infection through drinking water by cyclops, the first intermediate host are believed to be main reasons for the infection. The first task of this study was to classify and diagnose the species by differentiating morphological characteristic between scolex and proglottids of cestodes. However, the initially available diagnosis was done with the patient's symptoms and the eggs obtained from his stool. It is important to differentiate the species by the eggs of Diphyllobothrium latum especially in that it can help get advance information for a more reliable analysis in the near future. The morphological and diagnostic results from proglottids and eggs of Diphyllobothrium latum, Diphyllobothrium latum parvum and Spirometra erinacei are as follows； In each kind of cestodes from the patient's stool, the shape and size of 50 eggs were measured. Eggs of Diphyllobothrium latum had an operculum and were ovoidal or ellipsoid to elliptical in shape. Eggs of Diphyllobothrium latum parvum were more ovoidal in shape and smaller in size than Diphyllobothrium latum. And eggs of Spirometra erinacei were asymmetrical in width and long and slender in shape. The average lengths and widths of Diphyllobothrium latum, Diphyllobothrium latum parvum and Spirometra erinacei were 61.4$\times$41.7 $\mu\textrm{m}$, 55.9$\times$41.4 $\mu\textrm{m}$ and 66.7$\times$36.4 $\mu\textrm{m}$, respectively. After the segments of each cestode were fixed, embedding and hematoxylin-eosin dyeing on a microtome-made specimen were done. The micrographs of the semicon's aceto-carmine dyed specimen showed that Diphyllobothrium latum and Diphyllobothrium latum parvum had a centrally-located genital gland and an opened uterine pore. The yolks were observed on both sides of proglottids and had a typical rosette pattern. Yet, Diphyllobothrium latum parvum was shown smaller than Diphyllobothrium latum in the micrograph. Proglottids of Spirometra erinacei displayed that the uterus was rolled spirally more than five to seven times, and connected successively to the seminal vesicle in the cirrus sac. Shown above, this study was performed to measure the size of eggs and analyze the morphological characteristics of proglottids and provided the measurements of three types of cestodes obtained by a light microscope.