• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.525-534
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• 2019

Background In microtia patients with bilateral hearing impairment, hearing improvement is crucial for language development and performance. External auditory canal reconstruction (EACR) has been performed to improve hearing, but often results in complications. We performed transcutaneous bone conduction implant (TBCI) surgery in these patients. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of TBCI surgery. Methods A retrospective review was performed of five patients who underwent auricular reconstruction and TBCI surgery and 12 patients who underwent EACR between March 2007 and August 2018. Hearing improvement was measured based on the air-bone gap values using pure-tone audiometry over a 6-week postoperative period. We reviewed other studies on hearing improvement using EACR and compared the findings with our results. The surgical techniques for TBCI were reviewed through case analyses. Results Postoperative hearing outcomes showed a significant improvement, with a mean gain of 34.1 dB in the TBCI cohort and 14.1 dB in the EACR cohort. Both gains were statistically significant; however, the TBCI cohort showed much larger gains. Only three of the 12 patients who underwent EACR achieved hearing gains of more than 20 dB, which is consistent with previous studies. All patients who underwent TBCI surgery demonstrated hearing gains of more than 20 dB and experienced no device-related complications. Conclusions TBCI is a safe and effective method of promoting hearing gains in microtia patients with bilateral hearing impairment. TBCI surgery provided better hearing outcomes than EACR and could be performed along with various auricular reconstruction techniques using virgin mastoid skin.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.19
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• pp.8351-8359
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• 2014

Background: Recent epidemiological data have implicated human papilloma virus (HPV) infection in the pathogenesis of head and neck cancers, especially oropharyngeal cancers. Although, HPV has been detected in varied amounts in persons with oral dysplasia, leukoplakias and malignancies, its involvement in oral tongue carcinogenesis remains ambiguous. Materials and Methods: HPV DNA prevalence was assessed by PCR with formalin fixed paraffin embedded sections (n=167) of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma patients and the physical status of the HPV16 DNA was assessed by qPCR. Immunohistochemistry was conducted for p16 evaluation. Results: We found the HPV prevalence in tongue cancers to be 51.2%, HPV 16 being present in 85.2% of the positive cases. A notable finding was a very poor concordance between HPV 16 DNA and p16 IHC findings (kappa<0.2). Further molecular classification of patients based on HPV16 DNA prevalence and p16 overexpression showed that patients with tumours showing p16 overexpression had increased hazard of death (HR=2.395; p=0.005) and disease recurrence (HR=2.581; p=0.002) irrespective of their HPV 16 DNA status. Conclusions: Our study has brought out several key facets which can potentially redefine our understanding of tongue cancer tumorigenesis. It has emphatically shown p16 overexpression to be a single important prognostic variable in defining a high risk group and depicting a poorer prognosis, thus highlighting the need for its routine assessment in tongue cancers. Another significant finding was a very poor concordance between p16 expression and HPV infection suggesting that p16 expression should possibly not be used as a surrogate marker for HPV infection in tongue cancers. Interestingly, the prognostic significance of p16 overexpression is different from that reported in oropharyngeal cancers. The mechanism of HPV independent p16 over expression in oral tongue cancers is possibly a distinct entity and needs to be further studied.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.331-335
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• 1993

From January 1981 to December 1991, forty patients with localized advanced carcinoma of the pancreas were treated at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Seoul National University Hospital. The treatment protocol consisted of two split course external radiation therapy with each 2000 cGy over two weeks separated by two week rest period. Intravenous 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was administered on the first three days of each radiotherapy course. Twenty three of these patients were treated by maintenance 5-FU or FAM (5-FU, adriamycin, mitomycin) chemotherapy. Median survival was 9 months and the 2-year survival rate was $10.0\%.$ Good prognostic indicators were good performance status, palliative bypass surgery and tumor located in the head of pancreas.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2020

Purpose: Definitive radiotherapy remains a primary treatment option for early stage glottic cancer. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) has emerged as the standard treatment technique for advanced head and neck cancers, whereas three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) has remained standard for early glottic cancers. We used the National Cancer Database (NCDB) to identify predictors of IMRT use and effect on outcome in these patients. Materials and Methods: We queried the NCDB from 2004-2015 for squamous cell carcinoma of the glottic larynx staged Tis-T2N0 treated with radiation alone. Logistic regression was used to identify predictors of IMRT. Cox regression was used to identify factors predictive of overall survival. Propensity matching was conducted to account for indication bias. Results: We identified 15,627 patients, of which 11% received IMRT. IMRT use rose from 2% in 2004 to 16% in 2015. Predictors of IMRT include: increased comorbidity, T2 stage, urban location, chemotherapy, treatment at an academic center, and later treatment year. Predictors of improved survival were female gender, higher income, lower stage, no chemotherapy, academic facility, and more remote year. There was no difference in survival between 3D-CRT and IMRT across all stages. Conclusions: The rate of IMRT use for early stage glottic laryngeal cancer has increased over time. There was no difference in outcome in patients receiving IMRT versus 3D-CRT across the cohort.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.191-197
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: Autophagy is known to be associated with pathogen infection. However, the expression of autophagy-related proteins has not been studied in chronic otitis media without cholesteatoma (COM) or with cholesteatoma (CholeOM). This study aimed to determine whether there is a difference between COM and CholeOM in autophagy-related gene mRNA expression. Subjects and Methods: For 47 patients with chronic otitis media, the inflammatory tissues were classified into granulation tissue (COM) or cholesteatoma (CholeOM) according to biopsy results. Results: PI3K mRNA expression (COM vs. CholeOM, mean±SD, 0.009±0.010 vs. 0.003±0.004; p=0.004) was lower, whereas Beclin-1 mRNA expression (0.089±0.107 vs. 0.176±0.163; p=0.034) was higher in the CholeOM group. Expression of PI3K mRNA in the CholeOM group was lower than that in the COM subgroups with presence of bacteria (0.022±0.019 vs. 0.001±0.001; p=0.001), otorrhea (0.049±0.068 vs. 0.003±0.004; p=0.004), and hearing loss over 40 dB (0.083±0.130 vs. 0.003±0.004; p=0.005). Conclusions: The data suggested that different autophagy proteins play important roles in chronic otitis media according to the presence or absence of cholesteatoma.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.191-197
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: Autophagy is known to be associated with pathogen infection. However, the expression of autophagy-related proteins has not been studied in chronic otitis media without cholesteatoma (COM) or with cholesteatoma (CholeOM). This study aimed to determine whether there is a difference between COM and CholeOM in autophagy-related gene mRNA expression. Subjects and Methods: For 47 patients with chronic otitis media, the inflammatory tissues were classified into granulation tissue (COM) or cholesteatoma (CholeOM) according to biopsy results. Results: PI3K mRNA expression (COM vs. CholeOM, mean±SD, 0.009±0.010 vs. 0.003±0.004; p=0.004) was lower, whereas Beclin-1 mRNA expression (0.089±0.107 vs. 0.176±0.163; p=0.034) was higher in the CholeOM group. Expression of PI3K mRNA in the CholeOM group was lower than that in the COM subgroups with presence of bacteria (0.022±0.019 vs. 0.001±0.001; p=0.001), otorrhea (0.049±0.068 vs. 0.003±0.004; p=0.004), and hearing loss over 40 dB (0.083±0.130 vs. 0.003±0.004; p=0.005). Conclusions: The data suggested that different autophagy proteins play important roles in chronic otitis media according to the presence or absence of cholesteatoma.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.434-440
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• 1996

This experiment were conducted to elucidate the damage by viviparity during grain filling on grain quality and hulling recovery and to understand the varietal differences of viviparity and the effect of extractive from rice hull of hardly viviparous varieties on seed germination and seedling growth. Ten rice cultivars, such as three indica, four japonica and three Tongil-type rices, were used in this study. The brown rice yield was decreased along with increasing the artificial viviparous treatment periods. At six days after treatment, brown rice yield of Daeseongbyeo was reduce 20% as compared with control. The ratio of head rice was 41.3% at six days after viviparous treatment with $25^{\circ}C$ temperature and over 95% relative humidity, while it was 99.5% in control. Varietal differences of viviparity in three rice groups were ranged from 1.1 to 5.2% in indica rices, 9.2 to 79.7% in japonica rices and 2.1 to 63.7% in Tongil-type rices. Methanol extractives from rice hull of IR36, Shinunbongbyeo and Jungwonbyeo inhibited significantly the germination of Deaseongbyeo.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.193-202
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• 2011

Kompsat EOC-1 imagery, high resolution air-photo imagery and Shalstab model were used to analyze the geomorphic characteristics of the place of debris flow occurred by typhon "RUSA" in 2002, Macheon-Myen, Gyeongsang prefecture, Republic of Korea. On gully-head over 35 degree of slope angle, almost debris flow started, where slope angle is more than internal friction angle. The result simulated by Shalstab model presented larger vulnerable area to debris flow than the area where debris flow really occurred, this error would be attributed to the assumption for steady-state condition with full saturated surface. To predict the debris flow accurately, further study for rainfall and soil water flow will be needed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.56-63
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• 2018

The management of Combined Sewer Overflows(CSOs) and Separated Sewer Overflows(SSOs) discharge directly to the effluent system in an untreated state, which occurs when the facility capacity is exceeded due to heavy rain, has become an important issue in recent years as the heavy rain becomes a regular phenomenon. Despite the continuous development of filtration technology, targeting densely populated urban areas, CSOs are rarely applied. Therefore, this study was carried out to optimize the process to apply CSOs in a pilot-scale horizontal flow filtration system with a rope-type synthetic fiber. The research was carried out in two steps: a preliminary study using artificial samples and a field study using sewage. In the preliminary study using an artificial sample, head loss of the filter media itself was analyzed to be approximately 1.1cm, and the head loss was increased by approximately 0.1cm as the linear velocity was increased by 10m/hr. In addition, the SS removal efficiency was stable at 81.4%, the filtration duration was maintained for more than 6 hours, and the average recovery rate of 98% was obtained by air backwashing only. In the on-site evaluation using sewage, the filtration duration was approximately 2 hours and the average removal efficiency of 83.9% was obtained when belt screen (over 450 mesh) was applied as a pre-treatment process to prevent the premature clogging of filter media. To apply the filtration process to CSOs and SSOs, it was concluded that the combination with the pre-treatment process was important to reinforce the hydraulic dimension for the stable maintain of operation period, rather than efficiency. Compared to the dry season, the quality of incoming sewage was lower in the rainy season, which was attributed to the characteristics of the drainage area with higher sanitary sewerage. In addition, the difference in removal efficiency according to the influent quality of the wet season and dry season was small.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.191-195
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• 2000

Background: Vascular occlusive event is one of the etiologies of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Stellate ganglion block (SGB) induces dramatic and intense vasodilatation in head and neck. Based on this principle, SGB has used as one of the treatment modalities in SNHL. This study was performed to evaluate immediate response of SGB on pure tone audiogram (PTA) in SNHL. Methods: Forty patients were studied. Each patient received daily ipsilateral SGB in paratracheal approach using 0.2% bupivacaine for 2 weeks. On first, third, and fifth day of treatment, we checked their PTA twice 1 hour before (Pre-PTA) and after (Post-PTA) SGB. Pre- and Post-PTA were compared. Several factors were analyzed as a prognostic factor of therapeutic results. Results: Eleven of 40 patients revealed decreased PTA after SGB. Degree of decreased PTA were insignificant ($2.5{\pm}1.6$ dB). Initial and final PTA results was $76.2{\pm}22.5$ and $49.8{\pm}28.3$ dB, respectively. Thirty-one of 40 patients were improved their PTA over 10 dB. The recovery was mainly influenced by the severity of initial hearing loss (P<0.001) and slightly by age (P<0.05). However, the change of PTA after SGB, time interval to receive SGB, sex, site, and number of SGB were not correlated to therapeutic outcome. Conclusions: These results suggest that vasodilatation by SGB has no immediate improvement in SNHL. Therefore, we question whether SGB is beneficial to all patients with SNHL as a therapeutic modality.