• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제76권4호
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• pp.163-168
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• 2014

Background: Mycobacterial identification in active pulmonary tuberculosis (APTB) is confirmative, even though successful rates using self-expectorated sputum are limited. Sputum specimens collected by hypertonic saline nebulization showed higher bacteriologic diagnostic sensitivities over those of self-expectoration, mostly studied in smear-negative or sputum-scarce patients. The efficacy of induced sputum was rarely assessed in real clinical settings. Methods: A prospective randomized case-control study was performed in one hospital. The subjects highly suspicious of APTB were asked to provide 3 pairs of sputum specimens in 3 consecutive days. The first pairs of the specimens were obtained either by self-expectoration (ES) from the next day of the visit or sputum induction with 7% saline nebulization in clinic (SI), and the other specimens were collected in the same way. The samples were tested in microscopy, culture, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The outcomes of the bacteriological diagnosis were compared. Results: Seventy six patients were assigned to either ES (38 subjects, median age of 51, 65.8% male) or SI (38 subjects, median age of 55, 52.6% male). APTB was clinically confirmed in 51 patients (70.8%), 27 in ES and 24 in SI. Among the APTB, more adequate specimens were collected from SI (41/65, 63.1%) than ES (34/80, 42.5%) (p=0.01). Bacteriological confirmation was achieved in 14 (58.3%) patients in SI, and 13 (48.1%) in ES (p=0.46). In the same-day bacteriological diagnosis with microscopy and PCR, there were positive results for 9 patients (37.5%) in SI and 7 patients (25.9%) in ES (p=0.37). Conclusion: Sputum induction improves sputum specimen adequacy. It may be useful for the same-day bacteriological diagnosis with microscopic examination and PCR.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.215-227
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• 1999

Objectives: To investigate compliance of hypertension patients using modified Theory of Reasoned Action(TRA). Methods: The data were collected for 7-12 April 1997, by interviewing 190 Hypertension patients in Hwachon, Kangwon-do. The analytical techniques employed include contingency table analysis and logit analysis. Results: 15.1% of patients were unaware of the fact that he/she has hypertension and 11.2% did not know that he/she should take drug. 20.8% of patients took drug continuously, 20.1% had drug intermittently, and 53.1% had never have treatment. In the contingency table analysis, several variables were found to be significantly related to patient compliance. They included variables for attitude towards the consequences of taking drugs, normative beliefs, systolic BP at the enrollment, knowledge of how to take hypertensive drugs, variables for general health behavior and experience with having health worker's home visit. The logit analysis was performed by two steps. first step uses experience with drug treatment of hypertension as the dependent variable, and second step uses continuity of treatment. Included in the predictors that are significantly related to the former analysis are subjected norms produced by combining normative beliefs and motivation to comply, knowledge of how to take hypertensive drugs, and opinion about natural recovery of diseases. The only significant determinant of continuous treatment was knowledge of how to take hypertensive drugs. Conclusions: The results of analysis suggest the usefulness of TRA as a framework for the study of compliance of hypertensive patients. The findings have some practical implication as well. One is that efforts for enhancing compliance should be directed not only patients but also to other persons influencing patient's attitude and behavior. It also suggest that correct understanding of hypertension treatment is essential to perform the appropriate patient role.

• 한국보건간호학회지
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.15-24
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• 1992

This study was conducted to follow the patient referral system operated from the primary health care facilities to the hospital in a rural area of Korea. The subject for this study was sampled from a community health development project carried out by the Korea University in Yeoju Kun, Kyonggi Province. The data of referred patients from primary health care facilities were collected during the period from January 1989 to December 1989. The data was sorted out by a computer system using Database package. The results of this study were summarized as follows: 1. Characteristics of the referred patients were: males $32.0\%$. and females $68.0\%$. The more elderly of the patients visited to the hospital after having been referred there by CHPs or public physicians, $25.9\%$ has been to hospital on at least one previous occasion as against $74.1\%$ for whom it was there first visit. 2. The majority of patients who were referred to a hospital where: medicine $44.3\%$ and orthopedics$16.4\%$, major diseases were : diseases of digestive system $(21.3\%)$ ; symptoms and ill defined conditions $(17.3\%)$ ; diseases of the muscular skeletal system and connective tissue$(14.2\%)$. chronic illness was $82.0\%$ and acute illlness was $18.0\%$. 3. From Community health practitioners more patients referred than the public physicians. Categoris of diseases of the referred patients were different between community health practitioners and public physicians. Due to the. respective differences between the medical restrictions put on the nursing staffs at the community health practitioners and public physicians. From this study it was recommended to define the reason of differences between ~he two groups in futher study. Study as to 1) why one group should be referring more for hospital treatment than the other. And 2) why the two agencies should be referring different diseases.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• 제39권4호
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• pp.140-145
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• 2014

Purpose: Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) is one of the most common diseases causing chronic orofacial pain. Prolotherapy is called 'regenerative injection therapy' or 'growth factor stimulation injection', and it induces the functional reactivation of tissues such as ligaments and tendons. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of ultrasound-guided prolotherapy with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for the patients who had the TMD symptoms, especially in temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain, restricted mouth opening, and TMJ sound. Methods: Twenty-seven patients visited Chosun University Dental Hospital with the symptoms of pain, restricted mouth opening, and TMJ sound were included in this study. When the patients visited the hospital, we measured; the degree of pain, range of mouth opening (ROM), and TMJ sound, and grouped them according to their chief complaints. TMJ pain and ROM were measured both at the first visit and the fourth week after the PRP injection, and also evaluated the impact of the treatment on their daily activities. Results: After the treatment, the patients in the TMJ pain group showed some improvement (visual analogue scale [VAS] 5.6 to 3.6), and the patients in the restricted mouth opening group exhibited increased ROM (26 mm to 32 mm; p<0.05). On the other hand, the patients in the TMJ sound group had no improvement. Conclusions: PRP prolotherapy could be effective for the treatment of TMJ pain and restricted mouth opening. However, further studies are still necessary in terms of TMJ sound and longterm effect of PRP prolotherapy.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• 제25권6호
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• pp.35-46
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• 2008

Objectives : Chronic pain affects and is affected by physical and psychosocial factors. It also has a complicated and indefinite mechanism. This research is for clarifying relations with chronic pain, stress, and autonomic nerve system by comparing HRV and Stress Reaction Index(SRI) of chronic pain patients with those of acute pain patients. Methods : The subjects were 32 patients who visited Kangnam Kyunghee Hospital for nuchal pain or low back pain treatment from March 2008 to September 2008. Among them, 16 patients who suffered over 6 months are classified chronic pain group and 16 patients who suffered under 6 months as acute pain group. All subjects had their HRV(SA-2000E: Medicore Co..Ltd. Korea) and SRI measured at first visit. We studied the difference of HRV between two groups.(Statistics by Student t-test, p<0.05) Results : R-MSSD, TP, VLF, LF, HF and LF/HF ratio of the chronic pain group were significantly lower than those of the acute pain group. Compared with those of the acute pain group, total SRI of the chronic pain group were low but it's not significant except frustration. Conclusion : The results of HRV of the chronic pain group patients show that chronic pain is related to psychosocial factor and autonomic disturbance.

• 대한골관절종양학회지
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.30-36
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• 1998

Squamous cell carcinoma is a neglected disease entity in orthopedic oncology. The purpose of this study was to analyze overall survival and the role of surgery on survival and to evaluate the significance of possible prognostic factors. From Oct, 1986 to Aug, 1996, 57 patients were enlisted and 42 patients ere eligible. Inclusion criteria included more than one year follow-up and no distant metastasis at the first visit. Staging and survival followed AJC classification and Kaplan-Meier plot. Stage II included 17 cases and stage III, 25 cases. Thirty-eight patients underwent operations, chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy, and the remaining four had operations only. The chemotherapeutic regimen was adriamycin-cisplatin. The average follow-up period was 45 months. The ten-year actuarial survival rate of whole patients was 65.4%. Location of primary lesion, stage, pathologic grading, and intensity of chemotherapy in the same stage showed a significant difference in survival. Nine out of 42 patients had local recurrence. Seven patients had inadequate wide margins and two had intralesional margins. Average period of recurrence from operation was 13(4-35)months. The operation itself had no impact on survival but a surgical margin of no less than 3cm from the lesion was important for local control. Pathological grade and staging were significant variables for long term survival. Acral lesion had a significantly higher chance of regional and distant metastasis but actual survival showed no difference. In stage II, aggressive chemotherapy could delay or reduce the chance of regional or distant metastasis.

• 대한신경과학회지
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• 제36권4호
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• pp.302-309
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• 2018

Background: Although orthostatic hypotension (OH) and cognitive impairment (CI) are common non- motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD), the relationship between OH and CI remains to be clarified. This study was aimed to investigate the relationship between OH and CI in PD. Methods: We recruited 192 patients who were diagnosed as PD based on the UK Brain Bank diagnostic criteria. The Hoehn & Yahr stages were ranged I to III and patients underwent extensive clinical evaluation, including brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for cerebral white matter hyperintensity (WMH), tilt table test, the Korean version of Montreal Cognitive Assessments and the Korean version of Mini-Mental Status Examination in one month from the first clinic visit. The participants were divided into two groups according to the presence of OH (OH+ vs. OH-) and cognitive function (cognitive normal, CN vs. CI), respectively. Results: Significant relationship between OH and cognitive function (p=0.04) was found in our patients. The patients with OH+ had higher risk of CI by 2.6 times than that of OH- patients. Maximum heart rate change during tilt table test was correlated with cognitive function and white matter changes, whereas blood pressure change during tilt table test showed no correlation with those parameters. Conclusions: There was significant relationship between OH and CI in PD. Therefore, PD patients with either symptom may need periodic evaluation and proper management for OH and cognitive functions.

• 한국병원경영학회지
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.13-28
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• 2020

Purposes: The purpose of this study is to analyze the institutional and personal factors that affect the medical utilization of patients transferred to tertiary medical institutions. Methodology: We retrospectively analyzed the 2 weeks electronic medical records of 1,556 patients, who were referred to the tertiary hospital, from June 15 to 26, 2015. The patient's personal characteristics, referral hospital, referral path, medical experiences and expenses were analyzed for 6 months after the patient's first visit. Findings: The largest proportion (848; 54.5%) of referrals was referred from primary clinic but the referrals of the same tertiary hospital level were one in seven (228; 14.7%) of the patients. Most patients (1,401; 90%) were referred from the clinics and hospitals directly and only one in ten (155; 10%) of the patients utilized the medical referral center. Patients who had been referred from tertiary care institutions had significantly higher medical costs than those referred to primary care (7,560,000 vs 2,333,000 won). The institutional factors including the numbers of visits to outpatient clinic, previous history of hospitalization and operation, consultation to other medical departments and hospitalization fee significantly influenced on medical utility pattern. Personal factors including patient's medical diagnosis and department of disease have a highly correlation with patient's referrals. Practical implications: The medical utilization of medical expenses and experiences is influenced by institutional and individual factors, and it is important to establish a referral system considering the institutional factors of the type of referral hospital.

• 대한상한금궤의학회지
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.45-59
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• 2021

Objectives: This study was conducted to confirm the reproducibility of the diagnosis of greater yin disease (太陰病) and the efficacy of herbal treatment using Gyejigajakyak-tang or Gyejigadaehwang-tang in somatic symptom disorder (SSD). We also further refined the characteristics of greater yin disease in SSD. Methods: We analyzed the demographic and treatment data of seven patients with SSD from four Korean medical clinics. The reliability of diagnosis and the efficacy of the treatments were evaluated by the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), a numerical rating scale (NRS), and the patients' statements. Finally, we analyzed patients according to the diagnostic points of Shanghanlun provision 273. Results: Seven SSD patients took Gyejigajakyak-tang or Gyejigadaehwang-tang. The mean age of the patients was 52.1±15.8 years old, and the herbal medication period was 82.2±38.2 days. At the first visit, the patients showed hypochondriasis, obvious stress, and a severe BAI score (40.4±10.9). The NRS significantly decreased from 8.9±1.6 to 0.7±0.7 after the treatments. There were no side effects reported. As a result of analyzing these 7 cases, hypochondriasis, obvious stress, and anxiety were identified, which had been previously suggested as 自痛, 因爾, and 結硬. Conclusions: We confirmed the reproducibility of greater yin disease in 7 SSD cases from 4 medical institutions. These results imply that there could be a considerable relation between SSD and greater yin disease as defined by the Shanghanlun provisions.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• 제25권6호
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• pp.500-509
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• 2022

Purpose: We compared the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of children and adolescents with functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs) and organic abdominal pain disorders (ORGDs). Methods: This was a single-center, cross-sectional, observational study. The PedsQL 4.0 generic cores scales parent proxy-report was administered to parents/caregivers of 130 and 56 pediatric patients with FAPDs and ORGDs respectively on their first visit. The self-reported pain intensity in the patients was assessed using a visual analog scale (VAS) and facial affective scale (FAS). Results: Irritable bowel syndrome was the most prevalent FAPDs, and the most prevalent ORGDs were reflux esophagitis (41.1%) and gastritis associated with Helicobacter pylori (21.4%). There was no difference in HRQOL among patients diagnosed with ORGDs and FAPDs (p>0.05). Patients with ORGDs and FAPDs had lower HRQOL Scale scores than healthy Brazilian and American children's references, with a high proportion of children at risk for impaired HRQOL (p<0.0001). There was no difference in the VAS and the FAS scores between the ORGDs and the FAPDs. FAPDs had a higher prevalence of girls' and couples' disagreement (p<0.02), although poor school performance (p<0.0007) and bullying (p<0.01) were higher in patients with ORGD. Conclusion: This study revealed that there was a difference in impaired HRQOL between patients with ORGDs and FAPDs. Thus, considering the high prevalence of chronic abdominal pain in children, a well-founded treatment plan is necessary for a multidisciplinary cognitive-behavioral Pain management program.