• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.63-68
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• 2002

Foot ulceration results in substantial morbidity in patients with peripheral neuropathy. The purpose of this study was to find the relationship of plantar foot pressures during walking to plantar ulceration in patients with Hansen's disease. The subjects were recuruited from two Welfare Clinic for Hansen's disease in Wonju and Uiwang city. Ten subjects (5 females, 5 males) with plantar ulceration and a mean age of 63 years were evaluated in this study. The mean duration of Hansen's disease in these subjects was 30 years. Plantar pressures were measured during self-selected comfortable walking speed by using MatScan system. Three subjects had plantar ulceration under the first metatarsal head. Five subjects had plantar ulceration under the second and third metatarsal head. Two subjects had plantar ulcers under the fifth metatarsal head. Eight of 10 subjects had plantar ulceration at highest pressure point that measured during walking. This result suggests that the abnormal high plantar pressure could be related factor to plantar ulceration in patients with Hansen's disease. Also the foot pressure measurement may be useful to evaluate the risk of plantar ulceration in patients with Hansen's disease.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.639-648
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify life experiences of Korean patients with Hansen's disease (leprosy). Methods: For this study, 5 participants from Sorok Island Hospital were purposively chosen. Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews from June to July 2014. Data analysis method was based on Colaizzi's approach. Results: The study results showed that experiences of patients with Hansen's disease consisted of 14 themes and six theme clusters: 1) Bad disease approaching as fate; 2) Family breakup and far from the village; 3) New life in Sorok Island Hospital; 4) Treatment of Hansen's disease and disability; 5) Life in the disease community; 6) Comfort and hope of life. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that health care professionals should pay attention to patients with Hansen's disease not only to reduce their physical and psychological suffering, but also to help the community and public culture to reduce the social stigma surrounding this disease and causing suffering for the patients. The results of the present study can help us to have a better understanding of various aspects of patients' lived experiences.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.133-145
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• 2004

Objectives: Depression is a major health concern that can be life threatening if not recognized and treated early. However, there is few report on the depressive disorder of Hansen disease patients in Korea. Therefore, the authors executed this study in order to check factors related to a depressive disorder of a Hansen disease patients and compare with factors to reach to a depressive symptoms of ordinary people with studying their life state and the trouble that Hansen disease patients were currently experiencing Method: The authors surveyed depressive symptoms using self-reported questionnaires in 74 Hansen disease patients and 84 controls. The severity of depressive symptoms was measured using Korean Form of Geriatric Depression Scale (KGDS) score. Result: Positive rate of depressive disorders among Hansen disease patients was 70.3% and that the referents was 31.0%. There is significant difference positive rate of depressive disorders between Hansen disease group and the referents in the factors such as gender, age, frequency of going out, familial type, and familial income. Depressive disorder of Hansen disease group was associated with sex, familial income. According to the multiple logistic regression, the odds ratios of the Hansen disease group versus referents, gender, familial income, frequency of going out were significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: Hansen disease patients had statistically significant higher depressive symptom score than the referents. Also, Hansen disease patients who have lower familial income were more likely to have depressive disorders. Therefore, Economical supports and policy are required for the Hansen disease patients.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.272-281
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify levels of perceived stigma, self-esteem, quality of life and factors influencing on quality of life in people with Hansens' disease. Methods: The subjects were 128 people in Sorokdo National Hospital, two nursing homes, and three settlements. The stigma scale, self-esteem scale, and World Health Organization's quality of life instrument were used. Data were collected through self-reported questionnaires from July to August, 2010 and analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, Ducan's multiple range test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression by SAS. Results: The level of perceived stigma was 3.93, self-esteem was 26.2, quality of life was 2.78. Self-esteem was positively associated with quality of life. Through the multiple regression, it was found that self-esteem and job were factors influencing of quality of life with 43% of predictability. Conclusion: It was found that self-esteem and job were important for people with Hansen's disease. To improve the quality of life in people with Hansen's disease, it is necessary to develop nursing interventions fostering self-esteem and decreasing perceived stigma.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.26-35
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of improvement in the balance control ability of the elderly affected by Hansen's disease. We tried to compare the effects for the elderly affected by Hansen's disease with and without foot deformity. The subjects consisted of 19 patients 65 years old and older. They participated in a balance training program twice per week for 8 weeks. The following results were obtained from the training program: 1. There were significant improvements in static balance ability in one leg standing (OLS), dynamic balance ability in tandem walk (TW) and four square step (FSS) (p<.05). 2. There was a significant difference between patients with and without single-foot deformity in TW before the program (p<.05). After training, however, the difference became less significant. Also, there was not much difference between recipients with and without single-foot deformity in terms of OLS and FSS. The results of this study suggest that we need to provide training programs and rehabilitation services for the elderly affected by Hansen's disease suffering from nerve injury and disability. Furthermore, further research efforts should be made concerning rehabilitation to overcome various forms of disability.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.93-101
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• 2011

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of maximum muscle activation of lower extremity of facility dwelled elderly Hansen's disease after isometric trunk exercise for 12weeks. Methods:18 elderly Hansen's disease who isometric trunk exercise for 12weeks were recruited for this study. They were instructed to perform maximum muscle activation of lower extremity after exercise. and the subjects were divided into normal sensory group, sensory loss in left foot group, sensory loss in right foot group and sensory loss in both feet group, according to the sensory condition ability on their soles. Results : After exercise, Hamstring muscle increased significantly (p<.05), and activation of the rectus femoris muscle decreased with a significance (p<05). In terms of Post-hoc test for examining the difference in MVIC according to sensory condition, there was significant difference in the normal sensory group, sensory loss in right and left foot group of left hamstring muscle before the exercise(p=.01) and the normal sensory group, sensory loss in both feet group of right hamstring muscle before the exercise(p=.04). Conclusion : These results indicate that the maximum muscle activation was changed after isometric trunk exercise. it could be improved maximum muscle activation of lower extremity muscle after the exercise although there was sensory loss.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.475-482
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• 2009

Rifampicin is a macrocyclic antibiotic which is used extensively for treatment against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other mycobacterial infections. Recently, a number of studies have focused on the immune-regulatory effects of rifampicin. Therefore, we hypothesized that rifampicin may influence the TLR2 expression in LPS-activated RAW 264.7 cells. In this study, we determined that rifampicin suppresses LPS-induced TLR2 mRNA expression. The down-regulation of TLR2 expression coincided with decreased production of TNF-$\alpha$ Since NF-${\kappa}B$ is a major transcription factor that regulates genes for TLR2 and TNF-$\alpha$, we examined the effect of rifampicin on the LPS-induced NF-${\kappa}B$ activation. Rifampicin inhibited NF-${\kappa}B$ DNA-binding activity in LPS-activated RAW 264.7 cells, while it did not affect IKK$\alpha/\beta$ activity. However, rifampicin slightly inhibited the nuclear translocation of NF-${\kappa}B$ p65. In addition, rifampicin increased physical interaction between pregnane X receptor, a receptor for rifampicin, and NF-${\kappa}B$ p65, suggesting pregnane X receptor interferes with NF-${\kappa}B$ binding to DNA. Taken together, our results demonstrate that rifampicin inhibits LPS-induced TLR2 expression, at least in part, via the suppression of NF-${\kappa}B$ DNA-binding activity in RAW 264.7 cells. Thus, the present results suggest that the rifampicin-mediated inhibition of TLR2 via the suppression of NF-${\kappa}B$ DNA-binding activity may be a novel mechanism of the immune-suppressive effects of rifampicin.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.253-257
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• 2011

Background: The active metabolite (1, 25- dihydroxycholecalciferol) of vitamin D (25-hydroxycholecalciferol) leads to activation of macrophages and deficiency of vitamin D seems to be involved in the risk of tuberculosis. The effects of vitamin D are exerted by interaction with the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and may be influenced by polymorphism in the VDR gene. In this study, variation in the VDR gene was investigated in Korean population with tuberculosis. Methods: We typed three VDR polymorphisms of restriction endonuclease sites for TaqI, BsmI and FokI in 155 patients with tuberculosis and 105 healthy volunteers. Results: The frequencies of FokI genotypes determined from TB patients were 29.13% for FF, 56.31% for Ff, and 14.56% for ff. We observed 1.4-fold increased prevalence of the Ff genotype in TB patients compared with normal healthy groups (p=0.0857). However, there was no significant association between the genotype groups, TB patient and normal control, for FokI polymorphism. There was also no significant association between VDR gene and tuberculosis in another polymorphism (BsmI and TaqI). Conclusion: Three polymorphisms (TaqI, BsmI and FokI) in the VDR gene do not appear to be responsible for host susceptibility to human tuberculosis in Korean population.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.77-85
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• 2012

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of trunk exercises on the balancing ability of elderly Hansen's disease patients with lower extremity dysfunction. Method : A total of 24 elderly Hansen's disease patients were divided into two groups: 10 without lower extremity dysfunction and 14 with lower extremity dysfunction. The groups exercised for 60 minutes, two days a week, for a total 12 weeks; balancing ability was measured with the one leg standing test, tandem walking test, and timed up-and-go test. The patients were tested and their results were compared both before and after the completion of their exercise programs. Lower extremity dysfunction was assessed according to the following criteria: unilateral foot-drop, toe-loss, and below-knee amputation. Results : After the exercises, participants in both groups showed a positive, statistically significant difference in balance, compared with before the exercises (the one leg standing test, tandem walking test, and timed up-and-go test; p<.05). For comparison purposes, the group with dysfunction and the group without dysfunction were tested before and after the completion of their exercises. Before the exercises, there was a statistically significant difference in the one leg standing test, tandem walking test, and timed up-and-go test (p<.05). However, after the exercises, there was no significant difference in the one leg standing test, tandem walking test, and timed up-and-go test (p>.05). Conclusion : Ultimately, balancing ability was improved in both of the groups after trunk exercises were performed. Although balancing ability was improved, elements of lower extremity dysfunction remained, such as unilateral foot-drop, toe-loss, and below-knee amputation.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.115-121
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• 2011

This study was to investigate the change of muscle fatigue through maximum contraction during flexion and extension of knee joint before and after the isometric trunk exercise was implemented on elderly Hansen's disease. 18 subjects exercised for 60 minutes twice a week for 12 weeks. The subjects were divided into normal sensory group, group with sensory loss in left sole, group with sensory loss in right sole, and group with sensory loss in both soles, according to the sensory condition on their soles. We obtained following results. Muscle fatigue in normal sensory group, there were significant differences in left right hamstring, left rectus femoris(p<.05), in group with sensory loss in left sole, there were significant differences in left right hamstring(p<.05), in group with sensory loss in right sole, there were significant differences in left right hamstring, right rectus femoris and group with sensory loss in both sole, there were significant differences in right hamstring(p<.05). The differences of muscle fatigue according to the sensory condition on their soles, there were significant differences in left hamstring between normal sensory group and group with sensory loss in both sole(p<.05).