• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.187-194
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• 2015

Objectives To examine direct causes of attempted suicides, methods adopted to commit suicide, and psychiatric diagnoses among suicide attempters in South Korea. Methods A total of 1359 suicide attempters who had visited emergency department of 17 medical centers due to suicide attempt from May 2013 to Nov 2013 were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires. Results Psychiatric symptoms were the most common cause of suicide attempts (62.2%), followed by interpersonal relationships (24.4%). Women attempted suicide more often for interpersonal reasons, whereas men were more likely to do so for financial and job-related reasons. Half of participants (55.8%) attempted suicide by drug intoxication, which was more prevalent among females and those who had previous history of psychiatric disease or previous suicide attempt. Men were more likely to use more lethal methods such as pesticide poisoning and gas inhalation than women. Pesticide poisoning was also prevalent among the elderly group and the rural population. Near ninety-five percent (94.5%) of participants received a psychiatric diagnosis : the most frequent diagnosis was depressive disorder. Conclusions This is the first nationwide study of cases of attempted suicide. When stratified by age groups, gender, urbanicity, living alone or not, presence of physical illness, previous psychiatric history, and previous suicide attempt, there were significant differences with respect to causes, methods of attempted suicides and psychiatric diagnoses of suicide attempters.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.45 no.9
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• pp.1134-1140
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• 2002

Purpose : Childhood accidents have been increasing recently. Accidents rank as the leading cause of childhood mortality and morbidity. We performed this study to evaluate the causes of childhood accidents. Methods : The authors analysed retrospectively the medical records of 6,410 cases of childhood accidental injuries who visited the emergency room of Asan Medical Center from January 1990 to December 1999. Results : The most common type of accidents was trauma which accounted for 5,038 cases of the total accidents, followed by falls, burns, foreign body aspiration, and poisoning. The most common age of foreign body aspiration was under two years old and the male to female ratio was 2 to 1. The most common site of foreign body aspiration was the esophagus and the stomach, followed by the respiratory tract. In airways, the right and left main bronchus were the most common site for foreign body aspiration and were accompanied by the highest mortality. The most common foreign body in the gastrointestinal tract and respiratory tract were coins and peanuts, respectively. Conclusion : The most common cause of accidents was trauma, followed by falls, burns, foreign body aspiration, and poisoning. The incidence of foreign body aspiration and poisoning is increasing in infants. In cases of foreign bodies in airways, proper management is needed because of the high mortality rate.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.436-442
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• 2007

Purpose : To promote awareness and efforts by pediatricians to identity and prevent child abuse by investigation of characteristics of victim and types of injury caused by abuse. Methods : A retrospective study was performed with 20 patients who had been diagnosed or suspected as child abuse at Hallym University Hospital from January 1999 to December 2005. The medical records, radiologic documents, and social worker's notes were reviewed to investigate age, sex, visiting time, form of abuse, perpetrator, risk factor, and type of injury. Results : The mean age of the subjects was 2.8 years. Fourteen patients were between 0-1 years old, 2 patients between 1-6 years old, 3 patients between 7-12 years old, and 1 case over 13 years old. The ratio of male to female was 1:1. The majority of these patients (70%) visited via emergency department. Eight five percent of these patients reported with physical abuse, 5% psychological abuse, 5% sexual abuse, and 5% neglect respectively. The suspected perpetrator was the biological father in six cases, the biological mother in three cases, the stepmother in two cases, caregiver in one case, relatives in one case and "unknown" in six cases. Bruise and hematoma (80%) were the most common physical findings. Skull fractures were diagnosed in six cases, long bone fractures in two cases, hemoperitoneum in two cases, subdural hemorrhage in 10 cases, epidural hemorrhages in two cases, subarachnoidal hemorrhages in two cases, and retinal hemorrhages in five cases respectively. Seventeen cases required hospitalization and surgical operations performed were in nine cases. Four patients died and three patients had sequalae such as developmental delay and quadriplegia. Conclusion : Child abuse results in high mortality and morbidity in victims. Therefore early recognition and prevention is very important. Pediatricians should always suspect the possibilities of abuse in cases of fracture, intracranial hemorrhage, abdominal injury, or even any injury to the body. We recommend that the clinical investigation of suspicious children should include a full multidisciplinary social assessment, a skeletal survey and CT or MRI.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.163-194
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• 2017

Coronary artery disease has increased in Korea as the country enters the aged society. It is well known that the incidence of coronary artery disease is related to aging, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and dietary habit. For effective treatment of significant coronary stenosis, close coordination between cardiac surgery and cardiology team is essential. Especially cardiologists' decision whether to do the stent placement or CABG is very important because the cardiologists usually start to consult the patients for their treatment. Recently, non-surgical interventions(that is stent placement) in cardiology field have dramatically increased as the national insurance system removed the limitation of the number of stents deployed. However, accidents are often caused by inappropriate use of stents, especially in patients with triple coronary disease or left main disease with heavy coronary calcifications. Another aspect of stent placement is to cope with an emergency case in the event of coronary rupture or pericardial tamponade during coronary interventions without cardiac surgeons. In the past two years, the Korea Consumer Agency (Consumer Dispute Coordination Committee) analyzed eight cases of medical dispute settlement. Only two hospitals were manned with both cardiologists and cardiac surgeons. Seven patients died of procedures of stenting and five patients died on the day of the procedure. Among the 8 cases, 5 cases showed 3 vessel disease and the rest of the cases had either severe calcification, complete occlusion or poor coronary antomies for stenting According to a 2017 national data registry of coronary stenting, less than 3 drug-eluting stents were implanted in 98% of all patients. In 2015, the number of stent procedures was 38,922, and approximately in 800 (2%) cases, more than four stents were used per patient. We emphasize that it is necessary to seriously consider the cost-benefit analysis between stent and CABG. The patient has the right to choose the right procedure by asking the liability of 'instruction explanation obligation'. He should be well informed of the pros and cons of both procedures to avoid overuse of stent. It can be solved by intimate discussion of individual cases with the cardiac surgeon and the patient. Unilateral dialogue with the patient, forceful restriction on the number of stenting, lack of surgeon's backup in difficult cases should all be avoided. It is also necessary to solve the problem not only at the hospital level, such as multidisciplinary integrated medical care, but also a nationwide solution such as expanding cardiac surgeons as essential personnel to public officials.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2004

Purpose: In this study, we tried to evaluate the clinical characteristics or circumstances that lead to unintentionally the delay in the diagnosis of intussusception or to the wrong direction that prevent the proper management early. Methods: All the patients of intussusception with delayed diagnosis in the department of pediatrics or emergency room at Gyeongsang National University Hospital from 1990 to 2003 were enrolled and reviewed retrospectively. Results: There were 8 boys and 6 girls and their median age was 8 months (range 2 months to 10 years). Their initial symptoms and signs were vomiting, seizure, diarrhea, lethargy, irritability, bloody stool, palpable abdominal mass, foul odor of urine and tachycardia. Clinical diagnosis or impressions at admission consisted of acute gastroenteritis, shigellosis and toxic encephalopathy, convulsive disorders, urinary tract infections, sepsis, abdominal mass and intestinal obstruction. Eight patients were luckily diagnosed due to the delayed manifestations of cyclic irritability or currant jelly stool. Six patients were not paid attentions for the possibilities of intussusception and diagnosed serendipitiously by the abdominal sonography or CT during the evaluation of the abdominal mass or distension. Only five of 14 cases (35.7%) were successfully managed by barium or air reductions. The other 9 cases needed surgical operations. Conclusion: Delayed diagnosis of intussusception arise when doctors initially diagnose the patients incorrectly due to the unusual presentations or when they overlook the newly arising symptoms or signs suggestive intussusception after the admission because they are ardently attached to the first impressions or initial clinical diagnosis.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.49-62
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• 2020

Purpose: We aimed to investigate the disease phenotype of Korean pediatric Crohn's disease (CD) patients at diagnosis according to the Paris classification by comparison with patients from the European multicenter 5-years recruitment of children with newly developed IBD (EUROKIDS registry). Methods: Korean children and adolescents who had been newly diagnosed with CD at the age of <18 years during 2013-2016 were included in this multicenter retrospective study. Disease phenotype at diagnosis was classified according to the Paris classification, and compared with the published data from the EUROKIDS study. Results: A total of 255 patients were included. The median diagnosis age was 14.7 years (range, 0.8-17.9 years). No significant difference was observed in male-to-female ratio with EUROKIDS (1.9:1 vs. 1.45:1, p=0.062). The proportion of children aged <10 years was significantly lower in Koreans (7.1% vs. 19.6%, p<0.001). Colonic disease was less prominent (10.0% vs. 27.3%, p<0.001), while upper GI involvement was more prominent in Korean children (59.3% vs. 46.2%, p<0.001). The proportion with perianal fistulizing disease at diagnosis was significantly higher in Korean patients (44.8% vs. 8.2%, p<0.001). A separate analysis of Korean patients revealed that perianal fistulizing disease at diagnosis was positively associated with male sex and body mass index z-score (odds ratio [OR]=2.12, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.20-3.76, p=0.010; and OR=1.29, 95% CI=1.05-1.58, p=0.015, respectively). Conclusion: Approximately half of pediatric CD patients in Korea present with perianal fistulas and/or abscesses at diagnosis, which is a distinct feature of CD in Korean children and adolescents compared to their European counterparts. An underlying genetic difference between ethnicities may play a role in this expression of different phenotypes in pediatric CD.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.8 s.88
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• pp.1090-1099
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• 2007

Myristicin, l-allyl-3,4-methylenedioxy-5-methoxybenzene, was one of the major essential oils of nutmeg. However, its anti-allergic effect in the Th1/Th2 immune response was poorly understood. Recently, it was shown that T-bet and GATA-3 was master Th1 and Th2 regulatory transcription factors. In this study, we have attempted to determine whether myristicin regulates Th1/Th2 cytokine production, T-bet and GATA-3 gene expression in ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthma model mice. Myristicin reduced levels of IL-4, Th2 cytokine production in OVA-sensitized and challenged mice. In the other side, it increased $IFN-{\gamma}$, Th1 cytokine production in myristicin administrated mice. We also examined to ascertain whether myristicin could influence eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) activity. After being sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin (OVA) showed typical asthmatic reactions. These reactions included an increase in the number of eosinophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, an increase in inflammatory cell infiltration into the lung tissue around blood vessels and airways, and the development of airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR). The administration of myristicin before the last airway OVA challenge resulted in a significant inhibition of all asthmatic reactions. Accordingly, these findings provide new insight into the immunopharmacological role of myristicin in terms of its effects in a murine model of asthma.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.410-416
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• 2016

After the Sewol Ferry accident, the importance of maritime safety has been emphasized in Korea. In particular, educational and experience training are not only being conducted for maritime personnel but also in schools and at maritime-related organizations in order to broadly instill maritime safety awareness. Based on SOLAS regulations, safety education for sailors conducted every 10 days passenger boats, and fire-fighting drills and abandon-ship training should be conducted once a month on merchant ships. After the Sewol Ferry accident, the maximum number of trainees was reduced from 40 to 20 in order to improve the effectiveness of these training sessions by requiring all trainees to participate in the actual training. The current training process consists of two steps: textbook-based theoretical training and actual practice. Current training environment provides limited capability from human and facility recourses which limit the numbers of trainee participated and system operation time. By introducing the simulation training, it will improve the trainee skill and performance prior to the on-site training and allow the more effective and rapid progress on actual practice. Therefore, it will be proposed the three-step training method in order to improve the effectiveness on fire-fighting drill in Maritime Safety Education on this study. This study suggests a three step training method that would increase the efficiency of maritime safety education. An image-training step to enhance individual task awareness and equipment usage via simulation techniques after theoretical training has been added. To implement this simulation, a virtual training session will be conducted before actual training, based on knowledge obtained from theoretical training, which is expected to increase the speed with which trainees can adapt during the practical training session. In addition, due to the characteristics of the simulation, repeated training is possible for reaction drills in emergency circumstances and other various scenarios that are difficult to replicate in actual training. The efficiency of training is expected to improve because trainees will have practiced before practical training takes place, which will decrease the time needed for practical training and increase the number of training sessions that can be executed, increasing the efficiency of training overall. This study considers development methods for fire-fighting drill simulations using virtual reality techniques.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.58-74
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• 2002

This paper constitutes a descriptive investigation and used a structured questionnaire to investigate nurses' and doctors' recognition of cancer patients. The subjects were extracted from the medical personnel working at the internal medicine, the surgery ward, the obstetrics and gynecology department, the pediatrics department, the cancer ward, and the emergency room of five general hospitals located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The research lasted from August, 2001 to September 2001. Total 137 nurses and 65 doctors were included and made out the questionnaires directly distributed by the investigator. The study tool was also developed by the investigator and consisted of such items as the demographic and social characteristics, the medical personnel's recognition degree of cancer and cancer patients, their recognition of the management of cancer patients, and their participation in a hospice. The results were analyzed using the SPSS Window program in terms of technological statistics, ranks, t-test, and ANOVA. The reliability was represented in Cronbach' α=.75. The nurses' and doctors' recognition degree of cancer and cancer patients had an overall average of 3.86 at the 5 point-scale. The items that received an average of 4.0 or more included 'Medical personnel should explain about the cancer cure plans to the cancer patient and his or her family', 'A patient whose case has been diagnosed as a terminal cancer should be notified of it, 'If I were a cancer patient, I would want to get informed of it,' and 'Cancer shall be conquered whenever it is'. In the meantime, the items that received an average of 3.0 or less was 'My relationship with the cancer patient's family has gotten worse since I announced his or her impending death.' And according to the general characteristics and the difference test, the recognition degree of cancer and cancer patient was high among the subgroups of nurses, females, married persons, who were in their 30s, who had a family member that was a cancer patient, and who received a hospice education. The biggest number of the nurses and doctors saw 'a gradual approach over several days'(68.8%) as a method to tell a cancer patient about his or her cancer diagnosis or impending death. Those who usually tell tragic news were the physician in charge(62.8%), the family members or relatives(32.1%) and the clergymen(3.8%) in the order. The greatest number of them recommended a cancer patient's home as the place where he or she should face death because they thought 'it would stabilize his or her mentality'(91.9%) while a number of them recommended the hospital because they 'should give the psychological satisfaction to the patient'(40%) or 'should try their best until the last moment of the patient's death'(30%). A majority of the medical personnel regarded 'smoking or drinking' and 'diet' as the causes of cancer. The biggest symptom of a cancer patient was 'pain' and the pain management of a cancer patient was mostly impeded by the 'excessive fear of drug addiction, tolerance to drugs and side effects of drugs' by medical personnel, the patient, and his or her family. The most frequently adopted treatment plan of a terminal cancer patient was 'to do whatever the patient or his or her family wants' to resort to a hospice' and 'to continue active treatment efforts' in the order. The biggest reasons why a terminal cancer patient went to see a doctor were 'pain alleviation' 'control of symptoms other than pain(intravenous supply)' and 'incapability of the patient's family' in the order. Terminal cancer patients placed their major concern in 'spiritual(religious) matter' 'emotional matters' their family' 'existence' and 'physical matters' in the order. 113(58.5%) of the whole medical personnel answered they 'would recommend' an alternative treatment to a terminal cancer patient mostly because they assumed it would 'stabilize the patient's mentality.' Meanwhile, 80(41.5%) of them chose 'not to recommend it mostly due to the unverified effects and high cost of it(78.7%). A majority of them, I. e. 190(94.1%) subjects said they 'would recommend' a hospice to a terminal cancer patient mostly because they thought it would help the patient to 'mentally prepare'(66.6%) Only 17.3% of them, however, had received a hospice education, most of which was done through the hospital duty education(41.4%) and volunteer training(34.5%). The follows are results of this study: 1. The nurses and the doctors turned out to be still passive and experience confusion in dealing with a cancer patient despite their great sense of responsibility for him or her. 2.Nurses and Doctors realize the need of a hospice, but an extremely small number of them participate in a hospice education or performance. Thus, a whole recognition of a hospice should be changed, for which purpose a hospice education for nurses and doctors should be provided. 3.Terminal cancer patients preferred their home to a hospital as the place to face their impending death because they felt it would bring 'mental stability.' And most of nurses and doctors think it would be unnecessary for them to be hospitalized just for control of their symptoms. Accordingly a terminal cancer patient can be cared at home, and a home hospice care needs to be activated.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.341-351
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• 2017

This study aimed to investigate the medically inclined college students' knowledge, attitude, and compliance on the preventive behaviors of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). A cross-sectional study was conducted on 251 medically inclined college students in Jeonju Kijeon College from June 8 to 13, 2015, using a scale on the knowledge and attitude toward MERS and a structured questionnaire. The t-test, analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. The participants consisted of 46.6% college students majoring in dental hygiene, 30.7% in clinical pathology, and 22.7% in emergency rescue, and 69.7% of them had been educated on MERS prevention. This study revealed that students who received MERS prevention training (t=3.457, p=0.001) and female students (t=-2.945, p=0.005) had more knowledge on MERS, while students from the dental hygiene department (F=8.048, p<0.001) and those in their third year (F=3.978, p=0.020) showed a more positive attitude toward MERS. Regarding the correlation between knowledge, attitude, fear of infection and compliance on the preventive behaviors, students were more knowledgeable (r=0.133, p=0.036), presented a more positive attitude (r=0.158, p=0.012) and had more fear of infection (r=0.312, p<0.001), were more likely to comply with the preventive measures. For an effective prevention of MERS, a newly found infectious disease, we suggest that medically inclined college students must improve their knowledge of and have a positive attitude toward MERS infection management at a medical institution in compliance with the MERS infection preventive behaviors. Furthermore, this study shows that an infection management education program should be developed, so that which students could learn about the causes, dissemination routes, and preventive methods of infectious diseases, including the newly discovered ones, prior to their clinical training at a medical institution.