• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.325-334
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• 2008

Statement of problem & Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a mouth guard material properties on the skull and brain when they were under impact loads on mandible. Material and methods: Two customized mouth protectors having different material propeerst ieach other were made for a female Korean who had no history of brain trauma, no cerebral diseases, nomal occlusion and natural dentition. The 3D finite element model of human skull and brain scanned by means of computed tomography was constructed. The FEM model of head was composed of 407,825 elements and 82,138 nodes, including skull, brain, maxilla, mandible, articular disc, teeth and mouth guard. The stress concentrations on maxillary teeth, maxilla and skull with two mouth guards were evaluated under oblique impact load of 800N onto mandibular 3 loading points for 0.1sec. And the brain relative displacement was compared in two different mouth guard materials under same condition. Result and Conclusion: The results were as follows; 1. In comparison of von Mises stress on maxillary teeth, a soft mouth guard material had significantly lower stress values on measuring point than a hard mouth protector materials (P < .05). 2. In comparison of von Mises stress on maxilla and skull, A soft mouth protector material had significantly lower stress values on measuring point than a hard mouth protector materials (P < .05). 3. For impact loads on mandible, there were more stress concentrated area on maxilla and skull with hard mouth guard than soft with mouth protector. 4. For impact loads on mandible, brain relative displacement had little relation with mouth guard material properties. In results of this study, soft mouth guard materials were superior to hard mouth guard materials for mandible impact loads for prevention of sports injuries. Although the results of this study were not enough to figure out the roles of needed mouth guard material properties for a human head, we got some knowledge of the pattern about stress concentration and distribution on maxilla and skull for impact loads with soft or hard mouth protector. More studies are needed to substantiate the relationship between the mouth guard materials and sports injuries.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.79-85
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• 2016

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze genetic mutations, clinical manifestations, and treatment of patients with benign HPA in Korea. Methods: This case series study involved ten HPA patients who were referred to our hospital because of high phenylalanine concentration. We investigated their demographic features, clinical manifestations, and mutations of the PAH gene through direct DNA sequencing. Results: Among ten patients with benign HPA, two pairs of patients were related (father-daughter, mother-daughter relationship) cases, and all of them showed no specific clinical manifestations or notable past history. Their plasma phenylalanine levels ranged between 1.2 and 4.2 mg/dL. In the tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) loading test, all patients were nonresponsive to BH4. In the confirmation test of PAH mutation analysis, we identified eleven different alleles out of twelve. The most common allele was R53H (c.158G> A). In addition, two novel PAH gene mutations, V423A (c.1268T>C) and V51A (c.152T>C), were identified. Although the patients did not receive any pharmacologic treatment or continuous phenylalanine restriction dietary therapy, their neurocognitive development was normal. Moreover, on serial outpatient follow-up tests, all patients maintained phenylalanine levels below 6 mg/dL. Conclusion: This study is the first in Korea to analyze benign HPA patients. All patients with benign HPA could maintain phenylalanine levels below 6 mg/dL with normal neurocognitive development, without continuous therapy. Therefore, performing mutation analysis and distinguishing benign HPA from phenylketonuria (PKU) are important to help improve life quality in patients with benign HPA by avoiding unnecessary lifelong therapy.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.48-59
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• 1999

Objectives. This study was conducted to evaluate the association between upper extremity musculoskeletal symptoms and Rapid Upper Limb Assessment(RULA) in vehicle assembly line workers. The goal of this study is to show the feasibility of RULA as a checklist for work related musculoskeletal symptoms (WMSDs) in Korean workers. Methods. The total number of 199 people from the department of assembly and 115 people from the department of Quality Control(QC) in automotive plant were subjects for this cross sectional study. A standard symptom questionnaire survey has been used for the individual characteristics, work history, musculosketal symptoms and non-occupational covariates. The data were obtained by applying one-on-one interview for the all subjects. RULA has been applied for ergonomic work posture analysis and the primary ergonomic risk sure was computed by RULA method. Association between upper extremity musculoskeletal symptoms and RULA were assessed by multiple logistic regression analysis. Results. A total of 314 workers was examined. The prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms by NIOSH case definition was 62.4%. The distribution of musculoskeletal symptoms by the part of the body turned out to be following; back:41.4%, neck: 32.8%, shoulder: 26.4%, arm: 10.5% and hand:29.3%. The relationship of the individual RULA scores were statistically significant for the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms. As the result of the multiple logistic regressioin analysis, grand final score (OR=2.250 95% CI: 1.402-3.612) was associated with musculoskeletal symptoms in any part of the body.; upper arm score(OR=1.786 95% CI: 1.036-3.079) and posture score A(OR=1.634 95% CI: 1.016-2.626) in neck; muscel use score(OR=3.076 95% CI:1.782-5.310) and posture score A(OR=1.798 95% CI: 1.072-3.017) in shoulder; upper arm score(OR=1.715 95% CI: 1.083-2.715) and muscel use score(OR=2.057 95% CI:1.303-3.248) in neck & shoulder; muscle use score(OR=10.662 95% CI: 3.180-35.742) in arm; writst/wist score(OR=2.068 95% CI: 1.130-3.786) and muscle use score(OR=2.215 95% CI: 1.284-3.819) in hand & wrist.; muscle use score of trunk (OR=2.601 95% CI: 1.147-5.901) in back. Conclusions. Musculoskeletal symptoms of the extremities were strongly associated with individual RULA body score. These results show that RULA can be used as a useful assessment tool for the evaluation of musculoskeletal loading which is known to contribute to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. RULA also can be used as a screening tool or incorporated into a wider ergonomic assessment of epidemiological, physical, mental, environmental and organizational factors. As shown in this study, complement of the analysis system for the other risk factors and characterizing between the upper limb and back part will be needed for future work.