• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.34-40
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• 2001

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in detecting rotaviral gastroenteritis in children comparing with that of commercial immunoassays. Methods: Stools from 79 children admitted Korea University Hospital due to diarrhea were collected from December 1999 to February 2000. Immunoassays were done using commercial rotavirus Latex kit and Rotatec (ELISA) kit. RT-PCR was performed to amplify group A rotavirus, most commonly pathogenic to human, using VP4- and VP7-specific primers. The detection rates of immunoassays and RT-PCR were compared. Results: ELISA assay was superior to LA assay and moderately concordant with RT-PCR in detecting rotaviral gastroenteritis. Conclusion: Although RT-PCR is known very sensitive, it does not have significant advantage over immunoassay in detecting rotaviral gastroenteritis.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.409-416
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• 2006

Clarithromycin resistance in Helicobacter pylori is a principal cause of failure of eradication therapies, and its prevalence varies geographically. The IceA gene is a virulence factor associated with clinical outcomes. The objective of this study was to determine the current state of clarithromycin resistance prevalence, and to investigate the role of iceA genotypes in 87 Turkish adult patients (65 with functional dyspepsia and 22 with duodenal ulcer). A2143G and A2144G point mutations were tested by PCR-RFLP for clarithromycin resistance. Among the patients in the study, 28 patients were tested by agar dilution as well. Allelic variants of the iceA gene were identified by PCR. A total of 24 (27.6%) strains evidenced one of the mutations, either A2143G or A2144G. IceA1 was found to be positive in 28 of the strains (32.2 %), iceA2 was positive in 12 (13.8 %) and, both iceA1 and iceA2 were positive in 22 (25.3 %) strains. In conclusion, we discovered no relationships between iceA genotypes and functional dyspepsia or duodenal ulcer, nor between clarithromycin resistance and iceA genotypes. clarithromycin resistance appears to be more prevalent in Turkish patients.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.23-34
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• 2015

Objectives: This study is aimed at assessing the reliability of a standard instrument of diagnosis and assessment for Spleen Qi deficiency pattern questionnaire (SQDQ) and examining the validity of the SQDQ by comparing the pattern identification scores of different groups. Methods: We conducted a survey of 72 participants (60 patients with chronic dyspepsia and 12 healthy subjects) using self-reported questionnaire. Participants were given written consent and this study was performed under the permission of institutional review board of Kyung-Hee university Korean medicine hospital. Results: The reliability and the validity of the questionnaire were inspected. Internal consistency of the SQDQ was excellent. Construct validity analyzed by exploratory factor analysis produced 4 factors, which were selected from eigenvalues that are greater than 1.0. The factor 1, 2, 3 and 4 showed 'fatigue', 'meal', 'diagnosis' and 'figure' respectively. For most of SQDQs' items, there were significant differences observed between the Spleen Qi and the non-Spleen Qi groups. However, the 'emaciation', 'tongue diagnosis' and 'pulse diagnosis' showed no significant differences. Conclusions: The SQDQ restructured in this study may provide a fundamental questionnaire and a further study is required for a more advanced, standardized and statistically proven questionnaire.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.124-142
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• 2017

Objectives: This study aimed to learn what should be considered in [Guideline of Clinical Trial with Herbal Medicinal Product for Gastric Cancer)] by analyzing the existing guidelines and clinical trials. Methods: The development committee searched guidelines for herbal medicinal product or gastric cancer developed already. Then, clinical trials for gastric cancer using herbal medicine were searched. The searched trials were analyzed in terms of inclusion and exclusion of participants, intervention, comparator, outcomes and trial design. Then, we compared the results of analysis with the regulations and guidelines of Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to suggest the issue that we will have to consider when making the [Guideline of Clinical Trial with Herbal Medicinal Product for Gastric Cancer]. Results: As a result, few guidelines for anti-tumor agent and clinical trial with herbal medicinal product were searched in the national institution homepage. In addition, 10 articles were searched by using the combination following search term; 'stomach neoplasm', 'herbal medicine', 'Medicine, Korean traditional', 'Medicine, Chinese Traditional', 'TCM', 'TKM', 'trial'. Most trials included gastric cancer participants with medical history of operation. The type of intervention was various such as decoction, granules, and fluid of intravenous injection. Comparators were diverse such as placebo, conventional treatment including chemotherapy and nutritional supplement. The most frequently used outcome for efficacy was quality of life. Besides, the symptom score, tumor response, and survival rate were used. Safety was investigated by recording adverse events. Conclusion: We found out some issue by reviewing the existing guidelines and comparing it with clinical trials for gastric cancer and herbal medicinal products. These results will be utilized for developing [Guideline of Clinical Trial with Herbal Medicinal Product for Gastric Cancer].

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2016

Purpose: Early diagnosis of gastric cancer is still the exception in Western countries. In the East, as in Japan and Korea, this disease is an endemic disorder. More conservative surgical procedures are frequently performed in early gastric cancer cases in these countries where sentinel lymph node navigation surgery is becoming a safe option for some patients. This study aims to evaluate preliminary outcomes of patients with early gastric cancer who underwent sentinel node navigation surgeries in Brazil, a country with non-endemic gastric cancer levels. Materials and Methods: From September 2008 to March 2014, 14 out of 205 gastric cancer patients underwent sentinel lymph node navigation surgeries, which were performed using intraoperative, endoscopic, and peritumoral injection of patent blue dye. Results: Antrectomies with Billroth I gastroduodenostomies were performed in seven patients with distal tumors. The other seven patients underwent wedge resections. Sentinel basin resections were performed in four patients, and lymphadenectomies were extended to stations 7, 8, and 9 in the other 10. Two patients received false-negative results from sentinel node biopsies, and one of those patients had micrometastasis. There was one postoperative death from liver failure in a cirrhotic patient. Another cirrhotic patient died after two years without recurrence of gastric cancer, also from liver failure. All other patients were followed-up for 13 to 79 months with no evidence of recurrence. Conclusions: Sentinel lymph node navigation surgery appears to be a safe procedure in a country with non-endemic levels of gastric cancer.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2016

This study evaluates the performance of an optical sensor and measurement system (CMA-24) which can analyze the fluctuation of dissolved oxygen and pH simultaneously. In the optical sensor system, the fluorescent materials, Rudpp and HPTS which are sensitive to dissolved oxygen and pH, respectively, are coated on the bottom of a 24-well -plate by the sol-gel technology. The detection times of the emission light of the oxygen sensor were $4,186{\pm}13.90{\mu}s$ and $4,452{\pm}36.68{\mu}s$ for the dissolved oxygen of 17% $O_2$ and 7.6% $O_2$, respectively. On the other hand, the detection times of the pH sensor were $6,699.43{\pm}14.64{\mu}s$, $6,722.24{\pm}6.21{\mu}s$, and $6,748.52{\pm}2.63{\mu}s$ using pH 6, 7, and 8, respectively. When we determined cellular respiration levels of C2C12 myocytes with CMA-24, $O_2$/pH measurement system, the ratio of the uncoupled to coupled OCR (oxygen consumption rate) was 1.41. The results mean that this CMA-24 system shows almost the same sensitiveness as the commercial system.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.178-182
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• 2008

We report here a case of a gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) in the stomach that was diagnosed by endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology (EUS-FNA). A 67 year old male patient underwent regular check-ups for five years due to the presence of a submucosal tumor that was found in the fundus of the stomach incidentally. EUS-FNA was performed to evaluate the tumor, which had increased in size from 1 cm to 2.8cm. A cytologic smear revealed cohesive sheets or clusters of spindle cells with elongated nuclei. Immunohistochemical staining revealed a strong positive reaction for c-kit and CD34, without any reaction for smooth muscle actin and Ki-67. Therefore, a diagnosis of GIST was made.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.299-307
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• 2015

Severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) is normally related to multiorgan dysfunction and local complications. Studies have found that local pancreatic renin-angiotensin system (RAS) was significantly upregulated in drug-induced SAP. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of angiotensin II receptors inhibitor valsartan on dual role of RAS in SAP in a rat model and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. 3.8% sodium taurocholate (1 ml/kg) was injected to the pancreatic capsule in order for pancreatitis induction. Rats in the sham group were injected with normal saline in identical locations. We also investigated the regulation of experimentally induced SAP on local RAS expression in the pancreas through determination of the activities of serum amylase, lipase and myeloperoxidase, histological and biochemical analysis, radioimmunoassay, fluorescence quantitative PCR and Western blot analysis. The results indicated that valsartan could effectively suppress the local RAS to protect against experimental acute pancreatitis through inhibition of microcirculation disturbances and inflammation. The results suggest that pancreatic RAS plays a critical role in the regulation of pancreatic functions and demonstrates application potential as AT1 receptor antagonists. Moreover, other RAS inhibitors could be a new therapeutic target in acute pancreatitis.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.80-84
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• 2006

Rice allergen has low antigenicity, and thus, anaphylactoid reactions to rice are exceedingly rare. We experienced a case of isolated rice allergy in a 5 month-old girl who had been fed a milk formula without incident. However, after feeding a powdered weaning milk formula containing rice, she developed symptoms of projectile vomiting and diarrhea, at this time rice specific antigen tests were all negative. One month later a challenge test was performed using a rice gruel, and her symptoms recurred. Endoscopic and microscopic findings showed hyperemic mucosa in the duodenum and subtotal villous atrophy. Thereafter, she showed no adverse reaction to almost all foods appropriate for her age, but after feeding rice gruel at 10 months, she developed symptoms of cyanosis and vomiting. However, none of the allergic symptoms were demonstrated at 13 months upon repeated challenge test. Currently, she is 28 months old and tolerates all foods including rice.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.85-91
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• 2006

PFAPA syndrome is characterized by periodic fevers associated with aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, and cervical adenitis and is unusual in infants and children. We report on a case of PFAPA syndrome mimicking cyclic vomiting syndrome in a 42-month-old girl. She had experienced multiple episodes of cyclic vomiting with abdominal pain from age 20 to 30 months. When she was 30 months old, periodic fever with pharyngitis was combined with cyclic vomiting, and when 40 months old, aphthous stomatitis and cervical adenitis were added. These periodic symptoms and signs were not treated with prokinetics or antibiotics. Symptom duration of an episode was 3 days. After cimetidine therapy (150 mg three times daily for 6 months), her febrile and cyclic vomiting episodes ceased. At the time of writing she had not received therapy for 10 months and has remained well without periodic attack.