• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.25-42
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• 2017

Objectives The goal of this review was to investigate clinical, experimental and literature studies of Korean medicine on atopic dermatitis (AD) of Korean children in Korean medicine literature, seeking for the better research methods for more effective treatments. Methods Electronic investigations were practiced on AKOP (The Association of Korean Oriental Pediatrics, http://www.akop.or.kr) to collect theses which were published by J Pediatr Korean Med. The key word 'Atopy' was used for searching to ensure that every related thesis was collected. The publication date was limited from 1996 to 2016. The selected literatures were assessed mainly according to distributions of study type, publication year, scale, treatment and its efficacy. Results 55 papers were selected from 59 studies. In these collected 55 related theses, there were 29 experimental studies (52.73%), 18 clinical studies (32.73%), 8 review studies (14.55%). In the 29 experimental studies, there were 20 studies (68.97%) using NC/Nga mouse as subjects. The mite antigen was used to trigger AD by 8 studies (27.59%). The studies have been utilizing DNCB and DNFB instead of mite antigen since 2011. All the experimental studies showed that the Korean medicine was effective in AD. In total 18 clinical studies, 3 studies (16.67%) were case reports, only 1 thesis (5.56%) was conducted by case control study and the rest were case series studies. 7 studies (38.89%) of 18 studies diagnosed AD according to Hanifin and Rajka's diagnostic criteria (1980), only 1 study (5.56%) according to the Korean standard and the rest 10 studies (55.56%) didn't mention diagnostic criteria. 12 clinical studies (66.67%) showed efficacy in treating AD. There were 10 studies (55.56%) only employing internal treatments and 1 thesis (5.56%) didn't mention the exact prescription. Naesowhajungtang-kamibang, Saenghyeoryunbue-um were used 3 times (16.67%) as the internal medicine respectively. 5 theses (27.78%) were combined with acupuncture therapy. Hegu (LI4), Sanyinjiao (SP6) were used in 4 theses, and Taichong (LR3), Quchi (LI11), Zusanli (ST36) in 3 theses. The number of acupoints chosen from The Spleen meridian of Foot-Taiyin was the largest. There were 8 review theses. 2 were about the foreign oriental medicine, 3 were about the external medicine or external treatment methods, and 3 other studies were about severity scoring systems, the methodological study in the latest clinical study, overview for pattern and results of herbal medicine-derived AD clinical researches. Conclusions The experimental studies and clinical studies showed the effectiveness of Korean medicine treatments. However, this study still needs improving by conducting more comparative studies and using better research methods, in order to find more effective treatments to improve clinical efficacy.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.306-325
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• 2020

Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a Dachaihu decoction for hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis (HLAP) by systematic review and meta-analysis of Chinese clinical studies. Methods: China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) was utilized as the major search engine. The date of the literature search was March 7, 2020. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about using a Dachaihu decoction for HLAP were included in this study. Meta-analysis was performed by synthesizing outcome data, including total effective rate, abdomen pain relief time, first bowel movement time, blood amylase recovery time, and triglyceride (TG) levels (mmol/L). The selected literature was assessed using Cochrane's risk of bias (RoB). Results: Twelve of 44 RCTs met the inclusion criteria. Most studies were evaluated with RoB as having unclear risk. The total effective rate of herbal medicine treatment based on the Dachaihu decoction was significantly higher than that of symptomatic supportive treatment in 10 articles (risk ratio=1.15, 95% CI: 1.08 to 1.21, p<0.00001, I²=0%). Herbal medicine treatment based on a Dachaihu decoction was significantly more effective than symptomatic supportive treatment in terms of reducing abdomen pain relief time (in all articles; mean difference=-1.70, 95% CI: -1.91 to -1.41, p<0.00001, I²=45%), first bowel movement time (in 7 articles; mean difference=-1.46, 95% CI: -1.86 to -1.05, p<0.00001, I²=73%), blood amylase recovery time (in 8 articles; mean difference=-1.48, 95% CI: -2.04 to -0.92, p<0.00001, I²=90%), and TG levels (in 8 articles; mean difference=-1.59, 95% CI: -2.28to -0.91, p<0.00001, I²=90%). Only one article reported side effects of treatment among the intervention group and control group, citing pancreatic ulcer and pancreatic pseudocyst formation. Conclusions: This study suggests that herbal medicine treatment based on a Dachaihu decoction could yield higher efficacy for HLAP than symptomatic supportive treatment alone. However, the results might be somewhat biased because of the poor quality and small sample size of the included RCTs. Well-qualified clinical studies are needed to prove the effectiveness of Dachaihu decoction therapy for HLAP.

• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.55-64
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• 1999

In Yugoslavia, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is one of the important national health problem, but no vaccine has been used to prevent HFRS. Since first HFRS case in 1952, sporadic cases of HFRS occurred every year and over 4,000 registered cases with $1{\sim}16%$ mortality so far. We performed a prospective, randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of $Hantavax^{TM}$ against HFRS in 3,900 healthy adults living in the endemic areas of Yugoslavia. 1,900 people were given 0.5 ml of Hantavax subcutaneously twice at one month interval and a booster shot at one year after. For controls other 2,000 healthy people were given 0.5 ml of physiolosical saline as a placebo. We investigated HFRS cases in both the vaccinated and nonvaccinated groups by monitoring the program for patient registration in the areas from 1996 to 1998, and the effect of vaccine was analyzed epidemiologically. No confirmed case of HFRS was observed among 1,900 Hantavax vaccinees, while 20 confirmed cases were observed among 2,000 nonvaccinated control group. There were no remarkable side effects among the vaccinees either locally or in general after inoculation of the vaccine. The Hantavax vaccine showed statistically significant protective efficacy against HFRS among Yugoslavian people.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.138-148
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• 2004

Objective : Insomnia is the disorder of initiation or maintenance in sleeping that results in daytime sleepiness and dysfunction, and it arises from multiple psychological, physiological and environmental factors. A number of stroke patients suffer from insomnia are classified as sleep disorder patients with physical illness. In addition, insomnia may have profound deleterious effects on the natural course of stroke. We are to assess the effectiveness of intradermal acupucture on stroke combined with insomnia. Methods : We recruited hospitalized patients with insomnia after stroke. Then, the subjects were allocated into a treatment group and a control group by randomization. The treatment group received intradermal acupuncture therapy at He-7(神門), EH-6(內關) correctly. However in control group, intradermal acupuncture were just attached to He-7(神門), EH-6(內關) without insertion. Treatment over time at first day and second day a various indexes were repeatedly checked such as sleep latency, total sleep time, sleep quality, condition on awakening, ability of concentration, morning sleepiness, Insomnia Severity Index, and Athens Insomnia Scale. In the second analysis, we divided the treatment group into a response and a non-response group by their response to intradermal acupuncture. With the acupuncture treatment, accompanied symptoms were checked Results : Among thirty two subjects, two of them were dropped out: One complained the pain from needle insertion, and the other underwent the change of his herbal medication. At baseline investigation with the residual 30 subjects, the control and the treatment group were assessed to have an equal comparability. In the treatment group, sleep latency, total sleeping time, a number of awakenings, sleep quality and ability of concentration showed improvement significantly compared with the control group. The non-response Group showed symptoms such as nausea and halitosis, belching and acid regurgitation, abundant expectoration, while Responder Group showed palpitation, oppressed feelings in chest and sleep disorder. Conclusions: The result of this clinical study suggests that the intradermal acupuncture at He-7(神門), EH-6(內關) is one of the effective treatments for the insomnia after stroke.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.3289-3293
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• 2014

Femtosecond laser ablation (fs LA) was used in this study to identify pollution by heavy metals and the distribution of elemental nutrients at different rice milling ratios. Polished rice (degrees of milling of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11) was collected from major Korean supermarkets and one sample thereof was selected. An internal quality control experiment was conducted using a rice flour certified reference material from the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS CRM) for the evaluation of the efficacy. To assess the effectiveness of the analysis method, the reliability was validated using a food analysis performance assessment scheme (FAPAS), with chili powder serving as an external quality control. The results of the analysis of the inorganic elements Ti, Ca, Al, Fe and Mn in white and brown rice with degrees of milling of 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 using ICP-MS, ICP-OES and AAS revealed contents of 0.40, 49.2, 2.43, 5.36 and 10.3 mg/kg in white rice and 0.59, 78.0, 7.52, 11.0 and 18.5 mg/kg in brown rice, respectively. Among the elements, there were remarkable differences in the measured contents. By comparing the contents of the elements at different degrees of milling, Ti, Co, As, Ca, Al, Cu, Fe, and Mn were determined to be distributed on the surface of the rice grains, whereas the contents of Cd and Pb increased toward the center of the rice grains, and Si was evenly distributed. After the quantitative analysis of rice samples polished to different degrees of milling, Ca and Al, which were contained in large amounts, and Si were analyzed with specificity by fs LA. The results show that Ca and Al were distributed in the rice husk (protective covering of rice) and Si was distributed in all parts of the rice.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.45-59
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• 2023

Objectives The aim of this study was to analyze the trends of researches on oriental medicine treatments for supraspinatus tendinopathy. Methods We used five databases for searching researches; Korean studies Information Service System, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, Research Information Sharing Service, PubMed, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Only randomized controlled trials suitable for the subject were selected. The methodological quality of included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was assessed by the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Results Twenty randomized controlled trials were analyzed. There were 9 types of treatment interventions; acupuncture, acupotomy, pharmacopuncture, electroacupuncture, fire needling, warming needle, catgut-embedding therapy, herbal medicine, cupping. The most frequently used treatment intervention was acupuncture and acupotomy. There were 9 outcome measurements including visual analog scale (VAS), Constant-Murley Score (CMS), and range of motion. The most used measurement was VAS. As a result of meta-analysis, acupuncture was more effective than control group in VAS. Additionally, acupotomy was clinically significant compared to control groups in VAS and CMS. Conclusions In this review, we analyzed researches on effectiveness of oriental medicine for supraspinatus tendinopathy. A provisional conclusion can be produced that acupuncture and acupotomy showed beneficial effect to supraspinatus tendinopathy. Although there were some RCT studies, many of them had a high risk of bias, so it is hard to conclude that our study can include overall clinical status. Further well-designed trials are needed.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.190-200
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• 1996

Background : Mechanical ventilation constitutes the last therapeutic method for acute respiratory failure when oxygen therapy and medical treatment fail to improve the respiratory status of the patient. This invasive ventilation, classically administered by endotracheal intubation or by tracheostomy, is associated with significant mortality and morbidity. Consequently, any less invasive method able to avoid the use of endotracheal ventilation would appear to be useful in high risk patient. Over recent years, the efficacy of nasal mask ventilation has been demonstrated in the treatment of chronic restrictive respiratory failure, particularly in patients with neuromuscular diseases. More recently, this method has been successfully used in the treatment of acute respiratory failure due to parenchymal disease. Method : We assessed the efficacy of Bilevel positive airway pressure(BiPAP) in the treatment of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD). This study prospectively evaluated the clinical effectiveness of a treatment schedule with positive pressure ventilation via nasal mask(Respironics BiPAP device) in 22 patients with acute exacerbations of COPD. Eleven patients with acute exacerbations of COPD were treated with nasal pressure support ventilation delivered via a nasal ventilatory support system plus standard treatment for 3 consecutive days. An additional 11 control patients were treated only with standard treatment. The standard treatment consisted of medical and oxygen therapy. The nasal BiPAP was delivered by a pressure support ventilator in spontaneous timed mode and at an inspiratory positive airway pressure $6-8cmH_2O$ and an expiratory positive airway pressure $3-4cmH_2O$. Patients were evaluated with physical examination(respiratory rate), modified Borg scale and arterial blood gas before and after the acute therapeutic intervention. Results : Pretreatment and after 3 days of treatment, mean $PaO_2$ was 56.3mmHg and 79.1mmHg (p<0.05) in BiPAP group and 56.9mmHg and 70.2mmHg (p<0.05) in conventional treatment (CT) group and $PaCO_2$ was 63.9mmHg and 56.9mmHg (p<0.05) in BiPAP group and 53mmHg and 52.8mmHg in CT group respectively. pH was 7.36 and 7.41 (p<0.05) in BiPAP group and 7.37 and 7.38 in cr group respectively. Pretreatment and after treatment, mean respiratory rate was 28 and 23 beats/min in BiPAP group and 25 and 20 beats/min in CT group respectively. Borg scale was 7.6 and 4.7 in BiPAP group and 6.4 and 3.8 in CT group respectively. There were significant differences between the two groups in changes of mean $PaO_2$, $PaCO_2$ and pH respectively. Conclusion: We conclude that short-term nasal pressure-support ventilation delivered via nasal BiPAP in the treatment of acute exacerbation of COPD, is an efficient mode of assisted ventilation for improving blood gas values and dyspnea sensation and may reduce the need for endotracheal intubation with mechanical ventilation.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.489-495
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• 2020

Whereas the control of the hydration heat in mass concrete has been important as the concrete structures enlarge, many conventional strategies show some limitations in their effectiveness and practicality. Therefore, In this study, as a solution of controling the heat of hydration of mass concrete, a method to reduce the heat of hydration by controlling the hardening of cement was examined. The reduction of the hydration heat by the developed Phosphate Inorganic Salt was basically verified in the insulated boxes filled with binder paste or concrete mixture. That is, the effects of the Phosphate Inorganic Salt on the hydration heat, flow or slump, and compressive strength were analyzed in binary and ternary blended cement which is generally used for low heat. As a result, the internal maximum temperature rise induced by the hydration heat was decreased by 9.5~10.6% and 10.1~11.7% for binder paste and concrete mixed with the Phosphate Inorganic Salt, respectively. Besides, the delay of the time corresponding to the peak temperature was apparently observed, which is beneficial to the emission of the internal hydration heat in real structures. The Phosphate Inorganic Salt that was developed and verified by a series of the aforementioned experiments showed better performance than the existing ones in terms of the control of the hydration heat and other performance. It can be used for the purpose of hydration heat of mass concrete in the future.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.64 no.6
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• pp.983-994
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• 2021

Objective : The effectiveness of gamma knife radiosurgery (GKR) in the treatment of brain metastases is well established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of maximizing the radiation dose in GKR and the factors influencing tumor control in cases of small and medium-sized brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods : We analyzed 230 metastatic brain tumors less than 5 mL in volume in 146 patients with NSCLC who underwent GKR. The patients had no previous radiation therapy for brain metastases. The pathologies of the tumors were adenocarcinoma (n=207), squamous cell carcinoma (n=18), and others (n=5). The radiation doses were classified as 18, 20, 22, and 24 Gy, and based on the tumor volume, the tumors were categorized as follows : small-sized (less than 1 mL) and medium-sized (1-3 and 3-5 mL). The progression-free survival (PFS) of the individual 230 tumors and 146 brain metastases was evaluated after GKR depending on the pathology, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance score (PS), tumor volume, radiation dose, and anti-cancer regimens. The radiotoxicity after GKR was also evaluated. Results : After GKR, the restricted mean PFS of individual 230 tumors at 24 months was 15.6 months (14.0-17.1). In small-sized tumors, as the dose of radiation increased, the tumor control rates tended to increase (p=0.072). In medium-sized tumors, there was no statistically difference in PFS with an increase of radiation dose (p=0.783). On univariate analyses, a statistically significant increase in PFS was associated with adenocarcinomas (p=0.001), tumors with ECOG PS 0 (p=0.005), small-sized tumors (p=0.003), radiation dose of 24 Gy (p=0.014), synchronous lesions (p=0.002), and targeted therapy (p=0.004). On multivariate analyses, an improved PFS was seen with targeted therapy (hazard ratio, 0.356; 95% confidence interval, 0.150-0.842; p=0.019). After GKR, the restricted mean PFS of brain at 24 months was 9.8 months (8.5-11.1) in 146 patients, and the pattern of recurrence was mostly distant within the brain (66.4%). The small and medium-sized tumors treated with GKR showed radiotoxicitiy in five out of 230 tumors (2.2%), which were controlled with medical treatment. Conclusion : The small-sized tumors were effectively controlled without symptomatic radiation necrosis as the radiation dose was increased up to 24 Gy. The medium-sized tumors showed potential for symptomatic radiation necrosis without signifcant tumor control rate, when greater than 18 Gy. GKR combined targeted therapy improved the tumor control of GKR-treated tumors.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.385-395
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• 2012

Objectives : Meridian sinew theory was introduced in Miraculous Pivot, Huangdi's Internal Classic, to explain in relation with locations of meridian sinews, causes, mechanisms, and treatment of diseases. The meridian sinews are understood to include muscles, tendons and ligaments, or muscles in the superficial body made up with muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascia etc. This theory shows the similarity or organic relationship between the meridian sinews and muscles. From the Hippocrates(460-385 BC) ages, traction therapy was used as a treatment method on muscular diseases such as low back pain, scoliosis, etc in western medicine. The effects of traction therapy, however, were unclear so that this study was purposed to illustrate the effectiveness of continuous traction therapy and to develop meridian sinews treatment. Methods : We made 2 hypotheses to explain the cause of scoliosis occurrence, muscles contraction and relaxation. As the hypothesis, we made the spinal model having 3 joints with wood and rubber bands. Each of the three joints in the spinal model represents the case of normal(NT; control), contraction(AT 1)and relaxation(AT 2) condition, and distance between the vertebrae joints was measured. Results : Under normal circumstance models, the normal type 1(NT 1; muscle relax state) and normal type 2(NT 2; muscle contract state) all joints were being towed equally. But in an unusual contracted situation, regardless of the relationship of joint area, contracted part of joint was not released. And in a relaxed situation, regardless of joint areas, released parts of joint were further released. These observation results mean that the effects of traction might be different from the purpose of traction therapy of Hippocrates. Conclusions : To explain the effect of traction therapy for scoliosis, the spinal cord model and scoliosis model were made. After vertebral bodies were pulled with different tensile forces, we compared the observed length of the each joints pulled. The results suggested that there were no effects of traction in objected parts with traction method from Hippocrates' design, continuous traction method. Moreover, it may worsen the symptom in worst case. Of course, our results are just the result of experimental models and clinical results may be different. More careful studies, therefore, are required.