• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
• /
• 제28권3호
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2011

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to review laser acupuncture studies to find possibility for applying high intensity laser to acupuncture and moxibustion treatment. Methods : Searching papers was performed using search engines of five electronic databases, including Pubmed, Thomson ISI, EMBASE, Sciencedirect, and EBSCO, from inception to May 2011 without language limitation. Inclusion criteria were clinical studies with human, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), case-control studies, and case reports. Selecting papers was performed with titles and abstracts in first step, scrutinize full text in second step, and then the extrated data was analyzed by two authors independently. The methodological quality for RCTs was evaluated using Jadad's scale. Results : Total 8 papers, (3 RCTs, 5 controlld studies, and 1 case reports), were finally selected. The study dealt with surgical laser, argon and $CO_2$ laser was one for each, with GaAs laser was two, and with new semiconductor laser, GaN, were four. The output range was from 110 mW to 15 W. The study diseases were alcohol addiction, knee osteoarthritis, bronchopneumonia and asthma for children, and circulation. All studies reported positive effect. The methodological quality in all RCTs was low because of below 3 points and all studies had few subject numbers. Conclusions : We suggest that high intensity laser can be applied to acupuncture and moxibustion. Further rigorous and well-designed study will be needed for various disease. The oriental medical society needs to take active measures to study and clinical application of acupuncture and moxibustion treatment with high intensity laser.

• 대한한의학회지
• /
• 제40권4호
• /
• pp.16-28
• /
• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of Yukgunja-tang(YGJT, Rikkunshito, Liujunzi) on Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease(GERD). Methods: Sixteen electronic databases were used to search for studies published through March 2019, and a randomized controlled study was conducted to study the effects of YGJT or modified YGJT on GERD. Study quality was assessed using the risk bias tool provided by Cochran, and data analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.3.0 software Results: Two-hundred and forty articles were initially searched, and 13 studies that satisfied the study criteria were evaluated qualitatively; 11 of the 13 were included in the meta-analysis. In the two studies, the effects of YGJT and a placebo were compared. Meta-analysis showed that YGJT significantly improved FSSG (Frequency Scale for the Symptoms of GERD) scores, but not GSRS (Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale) scores (FSSG: MD -2.40, 95% CI [-5.31, 0.51], p=0.11, GSRS: MD 0.05, 95% CI [-0.12, 0.22], p=0.55). Meta-analysis of nine studies comparing the efficacies of YGJT and conventional medicine showed that YGJT had a significant clinical effect (OR 5.72; 95% CI [3.41, 9.61]; I2 p<0.00001). Conclusion: This study suggests that YGJT effectively relieves the symptoms of GERD. Unfortunately, owing to the small sample sizes, limitations of several methodological qualities, we believe large-scale clinical studies with less bias will provide evidence of qualitative improvement.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
• /
• 제26권5호
• /
• pp.331-343
• /
• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of short-wave therapy (SWT) for treatment of knee osteoarthritis (OA) as compared to placebo and control, and to assess the question of whether the effects are related to the mode, dosage, and application method. Methods: We searched randomized, placebo-controlled trials using electronic databases. We also manually reviewed sources in order to identify additional relevant studies. Results: Eight studies (597 participants) with OA were included in the meta-analysis. Pulse SWT had a significant effect on pain relief compared with control treatment, while did not favour compared with the placebo group. Pulse SWT had a significant effect on functional improvement compared with control and placebo treatment. Continuous SWT had no effect on pain relief and functional improvement. Capacitive SWT a significant effect on pain relief, functional improvement, and muscle strength. Continuous and capacitive SWT had increased muscle strength significantly. We found no clinical significance of all outcomes except pain and functional improvement in pulsed SWT with low dose. There was no difference in adverse events. None of the participants experienced any serious adverse events. Conclusion: Low dose pulsed SWT provided a short-term clinical benefit for pain relief and functional improvement. Pulsed SWD with low and high dose had effects on pain and function. There seems to be a placebo effect. We found significant effects on pain and function in capacitive SWT. Despite some positive findings, this analysis lacked data on how effectiveness is affected by mode, dosage, and application method of SWT. Further well-designed clinical studies are required in order to confirm the effectiveness of SWT.

• 대한물리의학회지
• /
• 제12권4호
• /
• pp.139-146
• /
• 2017

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to systematically analyze the reliability and validity of the Korean-version of the balance assessment tools. METHODS: Two reviewers of this study independently evaluated the titles of articles and abstracts of studies published until December 2016 through electronic databases (RISS, NDSL, KISS, DBpia) using the keywords "Balance or posture or postural control or postural stability", "Test or assessment or measurement or outcome measure or assessment tool or measurement tool", "Korean version", "Reliability" and "Validity". Regarding the questions considered suitable for the purpose of this study, consensus was reached after reading the full text. Selecting journals suitable for the purpose of the study, they were analyzed as data. RESULTS: The reviewers selected nine papers suitable for the purpose of this study, and Korean-version of the balance assessment tools, included the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale, Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke (PASS), Motor Assessment Scale (MAS), Trunk Impairment Scale (TIS), Falls Efficacy Scale (FES), Tinetti-Balance scale, Fullerton Advanced Balance (FAB) scale, and Function In Sitting Test (FIST). Our study showed that the reliability and validity of the Korean-version of the balance assessment tools were high. CONCLUSION: The Korean-version of the balance assessment tools with high reliability and validity would enable physical therapists to make a more accurate evaluation of balance.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• 제39권5호
• /
• pp.433-437
• /
• 2006

Objectives: The aim of this study is to develop a methodology for estimating a nationwide statistic for hernia operations with using the claim database of the Korea Health Insurance Cooperation (KHIC). Methods: According to the insurance claim procedures, the claim database was divided into the electronic data interchange database (EDI_DB) and the sheet database (Paper_DB). Although the EDI_DB has operation and management codes showing the facts and kinds of operations, the Paper_DB doesn't. Using the hernia matched management code in the EDI_DB, the cases of hernia surgery were extracted. For drawing the potential cases from the Paper_DB, which doesn't have the code, the predictive model was developed using the data mining technique called SEMMA. The claim sheets of the cases that showed a predictive probability of an operation over the threshold, as was decided by the ROC curve, were identified in order to get the positive predictive value as an index of usefulness for the predictive model. Results: Of the claim databases in 2004, 14,386 cases had hernia related management codes with using the EDI system. For fitting the models with applying the data mining technique, logistic regression was chosen rather than the neural network method or the decision tree method. From the Paper_DB, 1,019 cases were extracted as potential cases. Direct review of the sheets of the extracted cases showed that the positive predictive value was 95.3%. Conclusions: The results suggested that applying the data mining technique to the claim database in the KHIC for estimating the nationwide surgical statistics would be useful from the aspect of execution and cost-effectiveness.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• 제10권1호
• /
• pp.288-307
• /
• 2016

Image distortions are typically characterized by degradations of structures. Dictionaries learned from natural images can capture the underlying structures in images, which are important for image quality assessment (IQA). This paper presents a general-purpose no-reference image quality metric using a GRadient-Induced Dictionary (GRID). A dictionary is first constructed based on gradients of natural images using K-means clustering. Then image features are extracted using the dictionary based on Euclidean-norm coding and max-pooling. A distortion classification model and several distortion-specific quality regression models are trained using the support vector machine (SVM) by combining image features with distortion types and subjective scores, respectively. To evaluate the quality of a test image, the distortion classification model is used to determine the probabilities that the image belongs to different kinds of distortions, while the regression models are used to predict the corresponding distortion-specific quality scores. Finally, an overall quality score is computed as the probability-weighted distortion-specific quality scores. The proposed metric can evaluate image quality accurately and efficiently using a small dictionary. The performance of the proposed method is verified on public image quality databases. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed metric can generate quality scores highly consistent with human perception, and it outperforms the state-of-the-arts.

• 대한한의학회지
• /
• 제41권1호
• /
• pp.55-83
• /
• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pharmacopuncture and bee venom acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis. Methods: We searched for randomized controlled trials that investigated the effects of pharmacopuncture and bee venom acupuncture on knee osteoarthritis through the electronic databases including Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane, CiNii, CNKI, KMBASE, KISS, NDSL, and OASIS. Meta-analysis was performed by Review Manager software and the quality of included studies were assessed by the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Results: A total of 20 articles with 1536 participants were identified. 12 trials about phamacopuncture and 8 trials about bee venom acupuncture showed significant improvement than sham treatment, western medicine treatment, and other Korean medicine treatment such as acupuncture in diverse scales. Six trials reported adverse events. Conclusions: These findings showed certain efficacy and safety of pharmacopuncture and bee venom acupuncture. It would be helpful for patients and Korean medicine doctors in the choice of the treatment for knee osteoarthritis. Well-designed studies with long term follow up and more number of participants should be conducted to strengthen the evidence of the use of pharmacopuncture and bee venom acupuncture.

• 대한한방소아과학회지
• /
• 제34권2호
• /
• pp.57-74
• /
• 2020

Objectives The purpose of this study is to analyze clinical studies on the efficacy and safety of herbal medicine in vitiligo by analyzing randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Methods Three electronic databases including the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane library were used to search for randomized controlled trials, by using specific key words and criteria up to January 4^th, 2020. Data in regards to years of publication, nation, demographic information, disease characteristics, duration of diseases, treatment methods, treatment period, outcome measures, results and adverse events were collected for this study. Results A total of 11 randomized controlled trials were selected and analyzed. The total effective rate of the treatment group treated with herbal medicine was significantly higher than that of the control group. In the other outcome measures, the treatment group also showed statistically significant differences in improving the outcome measures compared to the control group, or showed similar treatment effects to the control group. The most commonly used herbal medicines were Carthami Flos (紅花), Angelicae Gigantis Radix (當歸), Angelica dahurica Bentham et Hooker f. (白芷), Astragali Radix (黃芪), Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma (甘草), Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix (丹參), Persicae Semen (桃仁), Araliae Continentalis Radix (獨活), Tribuli Fructus (白蒺藜), Psoraleae Semen (補骨脂) etc. Hardly any severe adverse events were reported from the trials selected. Conclusions Based on the results of the clinical studies, herbal medicine treatment could be an effective and safe option for vitiligo treatment and symptom improvement.

• 여성건강간호학회지
• /
• 제18권3호
• /
• pp.209-222
• /
• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether upright position is effective in labor through systematic review in randomized controlled trials. Methods: We established the PICO (Patient-Intervention-Comparator-Outcome) strategy, and reviewed 282 literatures from national and international electronic databases, and finally selected 9 references based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. We evaluated the quality of references and carried out a meta-analysis. Results: The maternal outcomes showed that the duration of their second-stage labor was 2.29 minutes shorter than that of the women in the recumbent position, and were less likely to have episiotomy. The other outcomes, including the mode of delivery, blood loss, hemoglobin level, use of oxytocin, use of analgesics, and perineal laceration, did not differ between the groups. The fetal heart rate abnormality occurred less than in the control group. The Apgar scores of the groups did not differ. Conclusion: There is evidence that an upright position in the second stage of labor reduces the duration of the second stage of labor, the incidence of episiotomy, and an abnormal fetal heart rate.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• 제17권2호
• /
• pp.867-872
• /
• 2016

Background: Esophageal cancer is one of the most serious malignancies. Due to the aggressive nature of this cancer, the prognosis is poor. A network meta-analysis with simultaneous comparison of multiple treatments can help determine better treatment options that have higher effects on overall survival of patients with lower adverse events. The aim of this review is to simultaneously compare efficacy and adverse events of treatment interventions for esophageal cancer. Materials and Methods: In this review, only randomized control trials (RCT) will be considered for network meta-analysis. All international electronic databases including Medline, Web of Sciences, Scopus, Cochran's library, EMBASE and Cancerlit will be searched to find randomized control trials which compared two or more treatment interventions for esophageal cancer. A network plot will be drawn for visual representation of all available treatment interventions. Bayesian approach will be used to combine the direct and indirect evidence. Treatment effects (e.g. hazard ratio for time to event outcomes, risk ratio for binary outcomes, and rate ratio for count outcomes with 95% credible interval) will be reported. Moreover, cumulative probability of the treatment ranks will be reported using the surface under the cumulative ranking (SUCRA) graphs. Consistency assumption will be assessed by the loop-specific and design-by-treatment interaction approaches. Conclusions: The results of this study may be helpful for the patients, clinicians and health policy makers in selecting treatments that have the best effect on survival and lowest adverse events.