• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.139-149
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• 2012

Objectives : The aim of this study was to investigate clinical features of the patients admitted to the department of acupuncture and moxibustion in an oriental medicine hospital in order to provide clinical preliminary data for advancement of acupuncture and moxibustion Methods : Total 526 patients were admitted to the department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Dunsan Oriental Hospital of Daejeon University from September 1st, 2011 to August 31st, 2012. Of these patients 11 were discharged on the day that they were admitted and the remaining 526 patients who were hospitalized for over 2 days were investigated this study. We analyzed inpatients by discharge progress notes and medical records, using PASW statistics 18.0 for statistical analysis. Results : 1. There were 361 females(62.9%) and 213 males(37.1%). The age distribution was skewed to 40s and 50s and the average age of the patients was 42.91 years. 2. The prevalence of the diseases groups was in the order of musculoskeletal disease, neuromuscular disease, neuro-psychological disease, and EENT disease. The musculoskeletal disease and neuromuscular disease together made up 92% of all diseases. 3. The prevalence of individual diagnosis was in the order of Bell's palsy, cervical sprain, lumbar sprain, herniated lumbar disc, herniated cervical disc, and lumbar spinal stenosis. 4. There were 261 patients with single diagnosis and 193 with two and 120 with three or more diagnoses. The days of hospitalization significantly increased with the number of diseases the patients were diagnosed with. Conclusions : With high concentration of patients seen in certain disease groups, continuous efforts needed to expand the usage of acupuncture and moxibustion treatments to other disease groups and to explore and develop other diverse treatment methods for better outcome of the disease treated.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.50-54
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• 2014

Objectives: Digital infrared thermographic imaging (DITI) has been used widely for various inflammatory diseases, circulatory diseases, skin diseases, musculoskeletal diseases and cancers. In cases of ligament injury, obviously the temperature of the damaged area increases due to local inflammation; however, whether the temperature also increases due to DITI has not been determined. The purpose of the present study was to identify whether or not the changes of temperature in patient's with medial collateral ligament injury were really due to infrared thermography and to determine the applicability of DITI for assessing ligament injuries. Methods: Twenty patient's who underwent DITI for a medial collateral ligament injury from September 2012 to June 2014 were included in the current study. The thermographic images from the patient's knees were divided to cover seven sub-areas: the middle of the patella, and the inferomedial, the inferolateral, the superomedial, the superolateral, the medial, and the lateral regions of patella. The temperatures of the seven regions were measured, and the temperature differences between affected and unaffected regions were analyzed by using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results: The 20 patient's were composed of 14 women (70%) and 6 men (30%), with a mean age of $62.15{\pm}15.71$ (mean${\pm}$standard deviation (SD)) years. The temperature of the affected side, which included the middle of the patella, and the inferomedial, the superomedial, the superolateral, and the medial regions, showed a significant increase compared to that of the unaffected side (P < 0.05). The inferolateral and the lateral regions showed no significant changes. Conclusion: Our study results suggest that DITI can show temperature changes if a patient has a ligament injury and that it can be applied in the evaluation of a medial collateral ligament injury.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.125-145
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• 1994

The objectives of this study were to characterize the health status, the requirement of home nursing care, and dependency of daily life of the elderly so that the result could be used to provide basic data necessary for establishing home nursing care practices. The study subjects were 249 elders over 65 years old who resided at home in low income areas of three districts in Pusan. The field survey was conducted from December 27, 1993 through January 27, 1994, with a structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis was done by X²-test and Student's T-test using SPSS/PC/sup +/ program. The result were as follows; 1. Alcohol drinking rate was 50.0% for men and 27.7% for women, and cigarette smoking rate was 77.8% for men and 27.1% for women. 92.9% of elders aged 65-75 exercised regularly as compared to 81.9% of elders aged 75 and over(p<0.05). 2. 63.9% of male and 85.9% of female elders had chronic diseases showing singnificant differences(p<0.01), and both sexes had 1.7 kinds of chronic diseases in average; musculoskeletal diseases were the most common in 25.7%, while 6.8% of the elderly had cardiovascular diseases. 3. Partially movable elderly was 6.9% for men and 6.8% for woman, showing 47.1% of causes being cerebrovascular accidents. 4. The home nursing requirement was the highest for medication(66.3%), intramuscular injection(53.8%), and measurement of blood pressure·body·temperature·pulse rate(47.0%). 5. Among Physical Activities of Daily Life, bathing(10.4%) and movement(4.0%) showed high dependency rates, and among Instrumental Activities of Daily Life, phone calling(25.3%), shopping(24.5%), going out by bus(22.5%) showed high dependency rates. 6. For five categories of home nursing showing high requirements such as physical health examination, blood pressure·temperature·pulas rate measurements, medication, and intravascular injection, the requirements were different by age groups, education, and marital status(p<0.05).

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.101-109
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• 2009

Objectives : This study aimed to investigate the present status of physical therapies provided in the Korean medicine clinics, and to find out the priorities among and the estimated fees of physical therapies for the National Health Insurance plan. Methods : We administered nationwide survey to Korean medicine doctors using the on-line survey system. 16 physical therapies were listed in the Web-based questionnaires, and responders were asked to mark the therapies they used for their patients, and, for each therapy they marked, to fill in the form including the frequencies of service, service fees, target diseases, and priorities for health insurance coverage, etc. Results : Of 488 respondents, 93.7% provide more than one physical therapy for their patients, and each responder uses 5.9 physical therapies on average. 60-90% of physical therapies are being given to patients for free because they are not covered by the National Health Insurance. There is little evidence that the specialties of Korean medicine doctors are related with the use of physical therapies, but, in some therapies, the doctors with longer career years use the physical therapy more frequently. Most physical therapies are applied to the patients with musculoskeletal diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and nervous diseases, etc. Conclusions : Physical therapies are widely used among Korean medicine doctors without proper compensation. This could be the one of the main factors distorting the profit structure of Korean medicine clinics, and it encourages the National Health Insurance to cover physical therapies provided in the Korean medicine clinics.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.5217-5221
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• 2016

Objective: A study of primary cancer morbidity among children and subsequent calculation of average annual incidence were carried out for boys and girls, and young men and women in Kazakhstan. Methods: The investigated population lived in three areas of the Aral Sea region: designated catastrophe (Aral, Kazalt, Shalkar regions), crisis (Zhalagash, Karmakshy, Shiely regions), pre-crisis (Irgiz, Arys, Ulytau regions). Zhanaarka region of Karaganda oblast was applied as a control. Parameters were retrospective analyzed for the 10 years from 2004 to 2013. Result: The results indicate that indices of children cancer morbidity were slightly higher in the Aral Sea region than in the control district, but they were comparable with similar data from studies in other regions. In all areas of the Aral Sea region, except for Ulytau, primary cancer morbidity exceeded the control level by 1.3-2.7 times (4.7%000). Hematological malignancies, including solid tumors - tumors of musculoskeletal system and skin, digestive system, brain and central nervous system predominated. Stress levels in zones of the Aral Sea region were slightly higher in the crisis zone than in the catastrophe zone that can be explained by the phenomenon of wave-like dynamics of disease growth risk. Gender differences in characteristics of malignancy formation were not more pronounced in the studied region. Conclusion: Indices of children cancer are slightly higher in the Aral Sea region than in the control area of Kazakhstan, but they are comparable to results for other regions.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.434-441
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• 2008

Objectives: This study was conducted to measure the decline in the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) associated with some diseases in South Korean adults. Methods: The EQ-5D health states in the 2005 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHNES) and the Korean EQ-5D valuation set were used to obtain the EQ-5D indexes of the study subjects. Each disease group was defined when the subjects reported to the NHNES that they were diagnosed with the corresponding disease during the previous 1 year by physicians. Since the distributions of the EQ-5D indexes in each subgroup were negatively skewed, median regression analysis was used to estimate the effects of specific diseases on the HRQoL. Median regression analysis produced estimates that approximated the median of the EQ-5D indexes and there are more robust for analyzing data with many outliers. Results: A total of 16,692 subjects (6,667 patients and 10,025 people without any disease) were included in the analysis. As a result of the median regression analysis, stroke had the strongest impact on the HRQoL for both males and females, followed by osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, rheumatic arthritis, and herniation of an intervertebral disc. While asthma had a significant impact on the HRQoL only in men, cataract, temporo-mandibular dysfunction, and peptic ulcer significantly affected the HRQoL only in women. Conclusions: Stroke and musculoskeletal diseases were associated with the largest losses of the HRQoL in Korean adults.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.159-171
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• 2020

Objectives : This study aimed to understand the characteristics of the cases covered in the case studies on traditional Korean medicine (TKM) and furthermore, to provide basic information that can lead the discussion on 'what cases are worth reporting' in future case reports. Methods : Case reports on TKM were searched using the OASIS. The searched researches were analyzed according to the type of case, including information on disease/symptoms and intervention. Results : A total of 940 researches were searched. The most frequently reported type of case study was the report on the effectiveness of intervention. Case reports, which were only two cases in the 1970s, increased rapidly in the 2000s, and in particular, 314 cases within the last five years accounted for about 33% of the total literature. As for the number of studies by disease, the cases dealing with musculoskeletal diseases such as spine, shoulder and knee joint disorders were the most prevalent. Besides, there were many case reports related to cardiovascular, gynecological, cancer, psychiatric, and dermatological diseases. In a total of 51.9% of the included case reports, a combination of two or more Korean medical treatments such as acupuncture and herbal medicine was used at once, and western treatment was used with Korean medical treatment in 28.2% of the studies. The types of Korean medical treatments were varied, such as acupuncture, moxibustion, pharmacopuncture, electroacupuncture, Chuna, acupotomy, herbal medicine, external preparation, and psychotherapy. The main purpose of the publication of the included case reports was analyzed as a report of TKM treatment for rare diseases, or the application of TKM treatment to diseases or symptoms that are "uncommon in TKM treatment" even if it is not a rare disease. Conclusions : Case reports have the strength of generating new scientific hypotheses by detecting the basic needs and novelty of medicine. The current case studies of TKM do not seem to be sufficient to highlight these strengths. It is necessary to discuss which cases are reported as cases of patients worth publishing, and based on this, it is necessary to activate case studies of TKM by utilizing diagnostic tools and science technology.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.209-221
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• 2021

Objectives : The aim of this study was to compare and analyze studies related to fire acupuncture (FA) published in South and North Korea. Methods : FA studies published in South Korea were searched through domestic and overseas databases (KISS, RISS, OASIS, and EMBASE). For North Korean studies, databases from the Information Center on North Korea and Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information were used. Among the searched literatures, clinical studies using FA as a treatment intervention were selected (i.e., randomized controlled trials, and case reports). Finally, information such as the disease for which FA was used, the characteristics of FA, and details of treatment methods for FA were extracted from the screened literatures and the results of South and North Korean studies were compared and analyzed. Results : This review included 28 South Korean studies and 9 North Korean studies. All studies in South Korea, except for the three articles that used traditional FA treatment, applied "warm needling"-like acupuncture (WA) in the form of heating the handle of the needle after inserting the needle into the skin, and most studies were conducted on diseases of the musculoskeletal system. Whereas in the North Korean studies, FA was applied to various diseases such as trigeminal neuralgia, skin diseases, and gastrointestinal diseases, and standardized FA tools were used. Conclusions : Studies on traditional FA treatment have rarely been reported in South Korea. The amount of information described in the FA studies in North Korea was limited. In this review, the characteristics of FA treatment tools in South and North Korean studies were mainly analyzed. In the future, FA studies from more diverse perspectives are needed.

• Clinical Pain
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.82-87
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• 2019

Objective: To evaluate which Korean pain descriptors are frequently used in the patients with neuromusculoskeletal diseases and compare the frequency of Korean pain descriptor according to age, gender, pain pattern and intensity, and clinical diagnosis. Method: Two hundreds sixty nine patients with neuromusculoskeletal diseases were enrolled in this study. The patients were asked to fill out a pain questionnaire using Korean. The Korean pain descriptors were collected and classified according to neurophysiological mechanism. The frequency of Korean pain descriptor was analyzed by age, gender, pain pattern and intensity, and clinical diagnosis. They were divided into axial spine and peripheral joint pain group depending on the location of causal disease and shoulder pain descriptors were divided into intra-articular and bursa group. Results: Among 24 Korean pain descriptors, 'arida' was the most common pain descriptor, followed by 'ssusida' and 'jjireunda'. When the pain descriptors were classified according to neurophysiological mechanism, superficial somatic pain was the most common, followed by deep somatic pain. There was a significant difference in the frequency of the pain descriptor between axial spine and peripheral joint pain group (p=0.007). The pain descriptor 'danggida' was used significantly more in the patients with axial spine pain than peripheral joint pain (p=0.024). However, there was no significant difference in other factors. Conclusion: The patients with neuromusculoskeletal diseases expressed their pain using various Korean pain descriptors with stabbing nature and superficial somatic pain. Our results may be helpful to assess and develop a new Korean pain quality measure in the patients with neuromusculoskeletal diseases.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.192-208
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• 2003

Burning acupuncture is one of the methods of curing and preventing many kinds of diseases by inserting and taking out of the needle into particular points of the body so called acupuncture points, using a heated Dae-Chim which is one of the nine kinds of needles used in ancient times or by inserting a thick needle after its been heated to certain temperature. Nowadays in China, Burning Acupuncture is used thoroughly from musculoskeletal diseases to, internal medicine, gynecology and many other clinical departments. But in Korea, this method of cure is practiced by only a few clinicians, therefore by studying historical documents, our object is to recognize the importance of the Burning acupuncture and to offer the basis for the scientific researches and clinical application.