• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.186-197
• /
• 2000

This study evaluated the improvement of autistic symptoms during the 4-7 year follow-up in autistic children. Fifty subjects(44 males and 6 females whose age ranged between one to 13 years) diagnosed with DSM-III-R autistic disorder were included in this study. Their autistic symptoms were assessed with DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria of autistic disorder(grouped as A, B and C which include 5, 6 and 5 items respectively). The mean of follow-up duration was 6.4${\pm}$1.1 years. Symptoms between baseline and follow-up were examined according to treatment types, age, sex, IQ and physical problems of them were identified. There were statistically significant decreases of symptom items at follow-up as a whole and A, B and C, respectively. The most symptom decrease occurred in communication and followed social interaction, and activities and interests at follow-up assessment. Symptom items that decreased more than 50% at follow-up evaluation include A1, A2, A3 and B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, and C1, C3. Groups with special education only and combined treatment of special education and seizure pharmacotherapy showed better improvement of symptoms than the group with psychiatric pharmacotherapy with special education. Age was a significant factors in the improvement of symptoms. The author concluded that some autistic children improved with aging, therefore they should be treated actively with special education, pharmacothrapy and other scientific methods.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.871-874
• /
• 2011

Purpose: In some patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI), Hypernasality can persist after surgical management. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) is applied to these patients for treating hypernasality. The purpose of this study is to report follow-up results of postoperative CPAP therapy. Methods: After performing palatal lengthening, CPAP therapy was applied to three patients for eight weeks from July of 2008 to November of 2009. Perceptual evaluation, nasometry, and nasopharyngeal endoscopy were performed to evaluate hypernasality, nasalance and size of the gap at velopharyngeal port. Each evaluation was made before surgery, right after CPAP therapy and during follow-up of more than a year after CPAP therapy. Results: All of the patients showed improvement in hypernasality right after CPAP therapy according to the auditory perceptual evaluation, nasometry and nasopharyngeal endoscopy. But the improvement in hypernasality in these patients did not last during follow-up. Conclusion: In this study, our results suggest that CPAP therapy is effective in reducing hypernasality for postoperative VPI patients immediately after the therapy, but hypernasality may be worsen in some patients during follow-up. Therefore we recommend follow-ups after CPAP therapy to see if the efficacy of CPAP therapy lasts.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.53-58
• /
• 2010

Objective : The purpose of this study was to review the safety and durability of aneurysms treated with stent-assisted coiling of ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysms with small parent vessels (< 2.0 mm). Methods : Retrospective review of all ruptured aneurysm treated with stent assisted endovascular coiling between March 2005 and March 2009 at our institution was conducted. We report 11 cases of the Neuroform stent placement into cerebral vessels measuring less than 2.0 mm in diameter (range, 1.3-1.9 mm) in anterior cerebral artery. Clinical follow-up ranged from 3 to 12 months and imaging follow-up was performed with cerebral angiography at 6 months and 12 months after discharge. Results : Complete occlusion was achieved in 10 patients, and a remnant neck was evident in one. No stent displacement or no dislodgement occurred during stent placement. There was no evidence of thromboembolic complication, arterial dissection and spasm during procedure. We performed follow-up angiography in all patients at 6 months and/or 12 months from the first procedure. The follow-up angiographic data showed successfully results except one in-stent stenosis case. All patients improved clinical performances except one patient with severe vasospasm who showed poor clinical condition initially. Conclusion : We have safely and successfully treated 11 vessels smaller than 2.0 mm in diameter with self-expanding stents with good short and intermediate term results. More clinical data with longer follow-ups are needed to establish the role of stent-assisted coiling in ruptured aneurysms with small parent vessels.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.174-183
• /
• 2009

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to develop and examine the self-help and Tai Chi program for arthritis, and to identify the effect when combined with a supportive follow up phone-calls. Method: The design for this study was a 3*2 quasi-experimental design. Sixty-six participants were recruited in W-city, and assigned to Exp 1 group (n=21) or Exp 2 group (n=24) according to supportive follow-up phone call method, or to the control group (n=21). Fifty-two subjects (17 and 20 in Exp 1 and 2, and 15 in the control group) completed pretest and posttest. Both experimental groups participated in the self-help and Tai Chi program for arthritis once a week for 8 weeks. Exp 1 received automated follow up phone-calls made up in KT-SHUT program, and Exp 2 received follow up phone-calls made up by researchers. The control group received no education and no phone call. Measures used to examine the effect self-help and Tai Chi program for arthritis were joint flexibility, hand muscle strength, balance with closed eyes and self-efficacy. The final analysis of the post-test measures was conducted by ANCOVA with age and self efficacy as covariates. Results: Both experimental group had significantly increased right shoulder flexibility (p=.002), left shoulder flexibility (p=.000), right hand grip (p=.024), and self efficacy (p=.008) compared with the control group. But there were no significant differences between two experimental groups in any physical indicators and self efficacy. Conclusion: Automated follow up phone-call would be helpful in managing the self-help and Tai Chi program for arthritis as well as researcher's phone call. The automated follow up phone-call program which was a new method could be recommended for use to encourage home exercise practice and the program participation.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.48 no.2
• /
• pp.165-173
• /
• 2005

Purpose : We performed the study to evaluate the value of the follow-up echocardiogram performed 6 months to 1 year after the onset of Kawasaki disease(KD), as recommended by American Heart Association(AHA) guidelines, when echocardiograms in the convalescent period were normal. Methods : Patients were selected from 147 cases diagnosed with KD at Pusan Paik hospital from January 2000 to October 2003. A total of 45 KD patients belonged to AHA risk level I and II were performed follow-up echocardiography. The patient's medical records and echocardiogram were reviewed. Additionally, we sought the opinion of pediatric cardiologists on the subject by means of a multiple-choice survey. Results : 37 children were belonged to AHA risk level I and the remaining 8 patients were belonged to risk level II. Of these 45 children, none were noted to have abnormalities on later follow-up echocardiogram. In the results of questionnaire, 37 percent of the participants advocate no follow-up after convalescent period for risk level I, and 33.3 percent favor periodic follow-up with echocardiography for risk level II up to one year. But there were no consensus about the diagnostic criteria of coronary abnormalities and how to follow-up these patients. Conclusion : All children with KD should have an echocardiogram at present and a follow-up study 6 to 8 weeks after the onset of fever. However, additional echocardiographies are not justified if the 6- to 8-week follow-up echocardiogram is normal. We would recommend that the more reasonable diagnostic criteria for coronary abnormalities and the Korean guidelines for long-term cardiovascular management and follow-up of KD need to be established.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.161-169
• /
• 2011

International Organization for Standardization has recently published ISO 9001:2008 which is the basic requirements for a quality management system that an organization must fulfil to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products that enhance customer satisfaction and meet applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. Not many empirical researches based on ISO 9001:2008 have been done up until now. In this article we outline transitional features for ISO 9000 quality management system (QMS) since its first publication in 1987. In order to effectively maintain ISO 9001:2008 QMS certification and continuously enhance quality management activities, we perform statistical analysis for the minor nonconformity data generated from follow-up audits for subcontractors of shipbuilding industry based on ISO 9001:2008 requirements. A Kruskal-Wallis test is used to show relationships between the minor nonconformity data and three classification criteria: the type of business, the size of business, and the number of follow-up audits.

• Clinical Endoscopy
• /
• v.55 no.1
• /
• pp.67-76
• /
• 2022

Background/Aims: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) seroconversion may occur during screening for gastric cancer. Our study aimed to assess the number of seroconverted subjects with H. pylori and their results in follow-up tests. Methods: Data were consecutively collected on subjects who were H. pylori-seronegative and presented for gastric cancer screening. Subjects who were followed up using the same serology test and pepsinogen (PG) assays on the day of endoscopy were included in the study. Results: During the follow-up of 57.7±21.4 months, 61 (15.0%) of 407 seronegative subjects showed seroconversion. H. pylori infection was detected in six (9.8%) of 61 seroconverted subjects. A diffuse red fundal appearance, with a significant increase in the Kyoto classification scores for gastritis, was observed in the infected subjects (p<0.001). Compared to the false-seropositive subjects, infected subjects showed higher serology titers (p<0.001) and PG II levels (p<0.001) and lower PG I/II ratios (p=0.002), in the follow-up tests. Conclusions: Seroconversion occurred in 3.3% of seronegative subjects per year; however, only 9.8% had H. pylori infection. The majority (90.2%) of the seroconverted subjects showed false seropositivity without significant changes in the follow-up test results. The diffuse red fundal appearance could be an indicator of H. pylori infection.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.59-78
• /
• 1994

In some observational studies, we have often random censoring model. However, the data available may be partially observable censored data consisting of the observed failure times and only those nonfailure times which are subject to follow up. In this paper, we present an extension of the problem of partially parametric estimation of the survival function to such partially observable censored data. The proposed estimator treats the observed failure times nonparametrically and uses a parametric model only for those nonfailure times which are subject to follow-up. We discuss the motivation and construction of the proposed estimator and investigate the limiting properties of the proposed estimator such as asymptotic normality. Also, when the assumed parametric model is exponential, the asymptotic variance of the estimator is obtained. Furthermore, an example is given to compare the proposed estimator with the modified Kaplan Meier(MKM) estimator. From the results, it is shown that the relative efficiency of the proposed estimator is higher than that of the MKM estimator in the follow-up study with increasing time.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.69.2-69.2
• /
• 2013

The direct detection of gravitational wave has a very important meaning as a basis for verification of the theory of relativity. Several laser interferometer detectors have attempted to detect GW directly (e.g. LIGO, VIRGO), but positional accuracy of GW detector is too wide (about 10~100sq deg) to find which objects emit GW. One of the main sources of GW is gamma-ray burst which can be detected even in electromagnetic wave. Then to verify Gamma-ray burst object as a GW source, we proceed EM follow-up observation with wide field of view. A first program initiating EM follow-ups to possible transients GW events has been developed and exercised by LIGO and VIRGO community in association with several partners. Using QUEST optical data, we tested the method of cross-convolution recommended by EM follow-up community. We will describe the results of that test.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.2711-2717
• /
• 2016

Background: Through search the possible randomized control trials, we make a renewed meta-analysis in order to assess the impact of aspirin in preventing the recurrence of colorectal adenoma. Materials and Methods: The Medicine/PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Chinese biomedical literature service system (SinoMed) databases were searched for the related randomized controlled trials until to the April 2016. Three different authors respectively evaluated the quality of studies and extracted data, and we used the STATA software to analyze, investigate heterogeneity between the data, using the fixed-effects model to calculate and merge data. Results: 7 papers were included the renewed meta-analysis, among these studies, two pairs were identified as representing the same study population, with the only difference being the duration of follow-up. Thus there were only five papers included our meta-analysis, and one Chinese paper were also included the work. Results were categorized by the length of follow-up, different kinds of people, varied dose of oral aspirin. The relative of adenoma in patients taking aspirin vs placebo were 0.73 (95% CI 0.55-0.98, P=0.039) with 1 year follow up; 0.84 (95% CI 0.72-0.98, P=0.484) with greater than 1 year follow up; for the advanced adenoma, the RR 0.68 (95% CI 0.49-0.94, P=0.582),for one year; RR=0.75 (95% CI 0.52-1.07, P=0.552) for greater one year. Furthermore the white population could divided into two subgroups according to the different length of follow-up time. When the length of follow-up time less than 3-year, The RR of two subgroups respective were RR=0.86 (95% CI 0.76-0.98, P=0.332), $I^2=0%$, RR=0.68 (95% CI 0.47-0.98, P=0.552), $I^2=64.6%$, But with the extension of follow-up time greater than 2-year, with the white, oral aspirin without considering dose had no efficacy on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma, the RR was 0.86 (95% CI 0.71-1.05, P=0.302), $I^2=16.4%$. Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicated that oral aspirin is associated with a remarkable decrease in the recurrence of any adenoma and advanced adenomas in patients follow-up for 1 year without concerning the dose of aspirin, but with the extension of follow-up time for greater than 1 year, oral aspirin can be effective on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma, but for the advanced adenoma, the result indicated that oral aspirin had no efficacy, According to the inclusion of ethnic groups, we also divided relevant papers into two subgroups as the yellow and white group. Then the follow-up time was less than 3 years, oral aspirin without considering the dose, had an significant efficacy on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma. But with the follow-up greater than 2 years, oral aspirin had no effect in the white.