• 혜화의학회지
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.55-70
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• 2005

In oriental medicine, Gamibangpungtongsungsan (KBTS) has been used as a therapeutic agent for the treatments of acute stage of cerebrovascular diseases and hypertension. In the present study, underlying mechanism on KBTS effects was investigated using spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) by determining related parameters such as blood pressure, heart-beat rates, and hormones and plasma constituents. The major finding are summarized as follows. 1. KBTS treatment at concentrations lower than $125\;{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ did not show any cytotoxicity on cultured human fibroblast cells. 2. KBTS treatment in SHR significantly decreased blood pressure and heart-beat rate compared with untreated control. 3. KBTS treatment in SHR decreased aldosterone levels in the blood compared with untreated control, but the difference was not statistically significant. 4. KBTS treatment in SHR significantly decreased dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine levels in the blood compared with untreated control. 5. KBTS treatment in SHR decreased plasma ion concentrations such as Na+, K+, Ca2+, Cl- compared with untreated control; decreases in Na+ and Cl- were statistically significant. 6. KBTS treatment in SHR significantly decreased TNF-$\alpha$, IL-6, and IL-10 levels in the blood compared with untreated control. Thus, the present data show evidence on anti-hypertension activity of KBTS in an experimental animal system, which can provide further insights into the development of anti-hypertension therapeutic agents.

• Journal of Computing Science and Engineering
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.119-128
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• 2014

The appearance of retinal blood vessels is an important diagnostic indicator of serious disease, such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke. Automatic segmentation of the retinal vasculature is a primary step towards automatic assessment of the retinal blood vessel features. This paper presents an automated method for the enhancement and segmentation of blood vessels in fundus images. To decrease the influence of the optic disk, and emphasize the vessels for each retinal image, a multidirectional morphological top-hat transform with rotating structuring elements is first applied to the background homogenized retinal image. Then, an improved multiscale line detector is presented to produce a vessel response image, and yield the retinal blood vessel tree for each retinal image. Since different line detectors at varying scales have different line responses in the multiscale detector, the line detectors with longer length produce more vessel responses than the ones with shorter length; the improved multiscale detector combines all the responses at different scales by setting different weights for each scale. The methodology is evaluated on two publicly available databases, DRIVE and STARE. Experimental results demonstrate an excellent performance that approximates the average accuracy of a human observer. Moreover, the method is simple, fast, and robust to noise, so it is suitable for being integrated into a computer-assisted diagnostic system for ophthalmic disorders.

• BMB Reports
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• 제39권6호
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• pp.703-708
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• 2006

During infection, the common respiratory tract pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae encounters several environmental conditions, such as upper respiratory tract, lung tissue, and blood stream, etc. In this study, we examined the effects of blood on S. pneumoniae protein expression using a combination of highly sensitive 2-dimensional electrophoresis (DE) and MALDI-TOF MS and/or LC/ESI-MS/MS. A comparison of expression profiles between the growth in THY medium and THY supplemented with blood allowed us to identify 7 spots, which increased or decreased two times or more compared with the control group: tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase, lactate oxidase, glutamyl-aminopeptidase, L-lactate dehydrogenase, cysteine synthase, ribose-phosphate pyrophosphokinase, and orotate phosphoribosyltransferase. This global approach can provide a better understanding of S. pneumoniae adaptation to its human host and a clue for its pathogenicity.

• 한국동물위생학회지
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• 제45권3호
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• pp.165-169
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• 2022

Immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA) is autoimmune disease which is anemia caused by own immune system destroying the red blood cells (RBC). It can be diagnosed with spherocytosis, positive auto-agglutination of RBCs and direct antiglobulin test (DAT, Coomb's test). The treatment for IMHA are blood transfusion, immunosuppressive agents including glucocorticoids and other supportive therapies. Danazol is synthetic androgen that has effect of interfering the autoimmune reaction to RBCs. It can be used as an adjunctive agent in addition to glucocorticoids. To investigate its effectiveness, the medical records of 10 IMHA-diagnosed dogs were evaluated. All subjects were treated with blood transfusion, prednisolone, mycophenolate mofetil, and intravenous human immunoglobulin G. Additionally, 6 subjects were administered with danazol and 4 subjects were not. The results of initial blood examination and responses to the treatment for IMHA were compared between the groups. There were significant differences in the number of blood transfusions; once in group with danazol, twice in group without danazol, duration of recovery to normal hematocrit; 7.67±3.08 days in group with danazol, 22.00±5.66 days in group without danazol, and hospitalization; 5.17±0.75 days in group with danazol, 12.75±2.22 days in group without danazol. Therefore, danazol has potential effective on treating IMHA for rapid improvement.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제33권11호
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• pp.1457-1466
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• 2023

Enteric fever is caused by typhoidal Salmonella serovars (Typhi, Paratyphi A, Paratyphi B, and Paratyphi C). Owing to the importance of Salmonella serovars in clinics and public hygiene, reliable diagnostics for typhoidal serovars are crucial. This study aimed to develop a novel diagnostic tool for typhoidal Salmonella serovars and evaluate the use of human blood for clinically diagnosing enteric fever. Five genes were selected to produce specific PCR results against typhoidal Salmonella serovars based on the genes of Salmonella Typhi. Heptaplex PCR, including genetic markers of generic Salmonella, Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica, and typhoidal Salmonella serovars, was developed. Typhoidal Salmonella heptaplex PCR using genomic DNAs from 200 Salmonella strains (112 serovars) provided specifically amplified PCR products for each typhoidal Salmonella serovar. These results suggest that heptaplex PCR can sufficiently discriminate between typhoidal and non-typhoidal Salmonella serovars. Heptaplex PCR was applied to Salmonella-spiked blood cultures directly and provided diagnostic results after 12- or 13.5-h blood culture. Additionally, it demonstrated diagnostic performance with colonies recovered from a 6-h blood culture. This study provides a reliable DNA-based tool for diagnosing typhoidal Salmonella serovars that may be useful in clinical microbiology and epidemiology.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.3-12
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate self-perception of health and body image, blood lipid profiles and nutrient intake of adolescents. The subjects were 686 adolescent boys (379 middle school students, 307 high school students) and 613 adolescent girls (272 middle school students, 341 high school students) in Incheon. This cross-sectional survey was conducted by a self-administered questionnaire. Fasting blood samples were obtained and analyzed for triglyceride, total cholesterol and LDL- and HDL-cholesterol. Nutrient intakes collected from 3 day-recalls were analyzed by the Computer Aided Nutritional Analysis Program. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 10.0 program. Average age, height and weight of male middle school students were 13.8 years, 163.5cm, 56.0kg and those of male high school students were 16.5 years, 171.7cm, 64.3kg. In female, average age, height and weight of middle school students were 13.7 years, 157.1cm, 51.5kg and those of high school students were 16.6 years, 159.7cm, 56.8kg. Female middle school students perceived their health status significantly better compared to female high school students (p < 0.001). Female high school students perceived themselves significantly fatter compared to female middle school students (p < 0.05). Average TG level of female middle school students was significantly higher compared to female high school students (p < 0.01). Nutrient intakes of the male and female students except phosphorus were lower than the Korean RDA. Especially, calcium and iron intakes of male and female students were under the 65% of the Korean RDA. Therefore, proper nutrition education is required for Korean adolescents to encourage desirable food habits and maintain nutritional lipids status. (J Community Nutrition 5(1) : 3∼12, 2003)

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제36권2호
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• pp.155-162
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• 2010

Aflatoxin $B_1$, a known human carcinogen, is the member of aflatoxin subfamily that is most frequently found in contaminated foods. Epidemiological studies have suggested that aflatoxins may be associated with human liver cancer and acute hepatitis. Recently it was reported that the traditional medical herbs sold in domestic markets are contaminated with aflatoxins. Long-term administration of these contaminated medicines could result in adverse health effects. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the levels of exposure to aflatoxin in people who ingest traditional herbal medicines. Blood samples were collected, before and after the herbal medicine intake, from 151 subjects who visited the hospital. The metabolite of aflatoxin $B_1$ in blood, aflatoxin $B_1$-albumin (aflatoxin $B_1$-lysine), is reportedly an appropriate internal exposure indicator, and its levels in the collected bloods were therefore analyzed using a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The analytical method of aflatoxin $B_1$-lysine in blood was firstly optimized in Korea and the levels were detected below quantification limits (2 pg/mg albumin) in this study population. Consequently, the exposure levels of aflatoxin $B_1$ by ingestion of herbal medicines were low but it is important to monitor routinely due to the possibility of risk on the aflatoxin exposure.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제59권2호
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• pp.100-103
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• 2016

Patients with hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) can rapidly develop profound anemia as the disease progresses, as a consequence of red blood cell (RBC) hemolysis and inadequate erythropoietin synthesis. Therefore, RBC transfusion should be considered in HUS patients with severe anemia to avoid cardiac or pulmonary complications. Most patients who are Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusion, even in the face of life-threatening medical conditions due to their religious convictions. These patients require management alternatives to blood transfusions. Erythropoietin is a glycopeptide that enhances endogenous erythropoiesis in the bone marrow. With the availability of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO), several authors have reported its successful use in patients refusing blood transfusion. However, the optimal dose and duration of treatment with rHuEPO are not established. We report a case of a 2-year-old boy with diarrhea-associated HUS whose family members are Jehovah's Witnesses. He had severe anemia with acute kidney injury. His lowest hemoglobin level was 3.6 g/dL, but his parents refused treatment with packed RBC transfusion due to their religious beliefs. Therefore, we treated him with high-dose rHuEPO (300 IU/kg/day) as well as folic acid, vitamin B12, and intravenous iron. The hemoglobin level increased steadily to 7.4 g/dL after 10 days of treatment and his renal function improved without any complications. To our knowledge, this is the first case of successful rHuEPO treatment in a Jehovah's Witness child with severe anemia due to HUS.

• 대한의용생체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한의용생체공학회 1997년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.575-578
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• 1997

Myocardial blood low (MBF) in human can be noninvasively quantified using dynamic N-13 ammonia PET and two-compartment tracer kinetic model. In this study, factor analysis was used to extract the "pure" blood-pool time-activity curves (TACs) and to generate actor images. ive human N-13 ammonia PET dynamic studies were obtained. Three actors and their corresponding actor images were extracted rom each study. The accuracy of MBF estimated by the actor analysis (FA/FA MBF) was examined by comparing to the values estimated using the conventional ROI method (ROI/ROI MBF). MBF obtained by the actor analysis linearly correlated with MBF obtained by the ROI method (slope=0.98, r=0.91). Input unctions obtained by the two methods agreed well. In conclusion, MBF can be measured accurately and noninvasively with dynamic N-13 ammonia PET imaging and actor analysis. This method is simple and acurate and can measure MBF without blood sampling, ROI drawing nor spillover correction.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• 제34권3호
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• pp.212-218
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• 2010

Korean red ginseng (KRG) has been shown to enhance endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation in experimental animals; however, little is known about its pharmacological effects on vascular stiffness in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial was carried out to determine whether KRG has beneficial effects on arterial stiffness, cardiovascular risk factors such as plasma lipid profiles and blood pressure (BP), and Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) activity. Twenty patients (mean age, 62.5 years) with stable angina pectoris were given KRG (2.7 g/day) and a placebo alternatively for 10 weeks. Blood biochemical analysis and pulse wave velocity (PWV) recording were performed on day 0 and after the completion of each treatment. ROCK activity was assessed based on the level of phospho-$Thr^{853}$ in the myosin-binding subunit of myosin light chain phosphatase, determined by Western blot analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. KRG significantly decreased the systolic BP, brachial ankle PWV, and heart femoral PWV in the patients (all p<0.05), but did not significantly alter the serum lipid profiles, including triglycerides and total, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. The ROCK activity tended to decrease (p=0.068) following KRG treatment. The placebo did not significantly alter any of the variables. In conclusion, KRG decreased systolic BP and arterial stiffness, probably via the inhibition of ROCK activity, in patients with CAD, but had a neutral effect on serum lipid profiles. Our data suggest that KRG has a therapeutic effect on CAD.