• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.401-410
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• 2020

Purpose: This study was performed to identify the prevalence of menstrual disorders in Korean women based on body mass index (BMI) and lifestyle factors, by utilizing the Korean National Health Insurance Database. Methods: A retrospective observational study design was used for the secondary data analysis. Data of women aged 15 to 49 years who were diagnosed with menstrual disorders were extracted from The National Health Insurance Service-National Health Screening Cohort in Korea from 2009 to 2016. The age-standardized prevalence rate of menstrual disorders was calculated using SAS version 9.4, and a Chi-square test and Cochran-Armitage test were performed. Results: In total, 2,219,445 cases were extracted from the database. The prevalence of menstrual disorders significantly increased from 8.6% to 11.6% (Z=135.16, p for trend <.001) over the past eight years. In particular, it was higher in underweight women than in women with normal weight across all years (Z=-4.18~-14.72, p<.001). Moreover, statistically significant differences in the prevalence of menstrual disorders were found to be associated with drinking and smoking in all years and with physical activity levels in part (p<.05~.001). Conclusion: These findings present compelling evidence on the prevalence of menstrual disorders based on a national database. Since the prevalence of menstrual disorders has steadily increased and differs based on BMI and lifestyle factors, educational and clinical interventions are necessary to promote risk awareness and appropriate behavioral changes among Korean women.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.109-113
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• 2017

Single analytical procedure including extraction, liquid chromatography, and mass spectrometric analysis was evaluated for the simultaneous measurement of lysophospholipids (LPLs). LPLs, particularly, lysophosphatidic acids (LPA) and sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) are lipid messengers ubiquitously found in various biological matrix. The molecular species mediate important physiological roles in association with many diseases (e.g. cancer, inflammation, and neurodegenerative disease), which emphasize the significance of the simple and reliable analytical method for biomarker discovery and molecular mechanistic understanding. Thus, we developed analytical method mainly focusing on, but not limited by those lipid species S1P and LPA using reverse phase liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (RPLC-ESI-MS-MS). Extraction method was modified based on Folch method with optimally minimal level of ionization additive (ammonium formate 10 mM and formic acid). Reverse-phase liquid-chromatography was applied for chromatographical separation in combination with negative ionization mode electrospray-coupled Orbitrap mass spectrometry. The method validation was performed on human blood plasma in a non-targeted lipid profiling manner with full-scan MS mode and data-dependent MS/MS. The proposed method presented good inter-assay precision for primary targets, S1P and LPA. Subsequent analysis of other types of LPLs identified a broad range of lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs) and lysophosphatidyl-ethanolamines (LPEs).

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.177-182
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• 2012

A new composition of standardized Scutellariae Radix extract (HPO12) was developed for treatment of Alzheimer's disease. For the preclinical pharmacokinetic study of HPO12, a rapid, sensitive, and selective LCMS/MS method was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of 4 bioactive compounds, baicalein, baicalin, wogonin, and wogonoside. After extraction with ethylacetate, chromatographic analysis was performed on a Thermo $C_{18}$ column ($150mm{\times}2.1mm$, $3{\mu}m$) with a mobile phase consisting of 0.1% formic acid (A) and 0.1% formic acid in 95% acetonitrile (B) by using gradient elution at a flow rate of $250{\mu}L/min$. Analytes introduced to a mass spectrometer were monitored by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) in positive ion mode. Using $25{\mu}L$ of plasma sample, the method was validated over the following concentration ranges: 25-5000 ng/mL for baicalein, 20-40000 ng/mL for baicalin, 1-1000 ng/mL for wogonin, and 5-10000 ng/mL for wogonoside. The intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy of the quality control samples at the 4 concentrations showed $\leq$ 13.7% relative standard deviation (RSD) and 86.6-105.5% accuracy. The method was successfully applied to determine the concentrations of baicalein, baicalin, wogonin, and wogonoside in rat plasma after intraperitoneal and oral administrations of HPO12.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.26-31
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• 2010

High performance liquid chromatographic method with diode-array detection (HPLC-DAD) has been performed for the simultaneous determination of four marker constituents, paeoniflorin, trans-cinnamic acid, schisandrin and glycyrrhizin in traditional herbal medicinal preparation, So-Cheong-Ryong-Tang (SCRT). The presence of paeoniflorin, trans-cinnamic acid, schisandrin and glycyrrhizin in this decoction was ascertained by retention time, spiking with each authentic standard, UV spectrum and ESI mass spectrum. All four compounds showed good linearity ($r^2$ > 0.998) in a relatively wide concentration ranges. The RSD for intra-day and inter-day precision was less than 3% and the limits of detection (LOD) were less than 30 ng. The mean recovery of each compound was 94.1-113.0% with RSD values less than 3.0%. These results suggest that the developed HPLC method is simple, effective and could be readily utilized as a quality control method for commercial SCRT products.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.195-201
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• 2023

Background: Hematocrit is usually measured from venous blood collected by invasive venipuncture. This study was performed to determine hematocrit accurately and precisely using minimally invasive volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS) technique. Such technique is to be applied to determining hematocrit in various clinical settings for the care, including therapeutic drug monitoring, of neonatal or epileptic patients, or patients with high risk of infection or bleeding. Methods: The study was performed using 31 VAMS samples obtained from 21 pancreatic cancer patients. Hematocrit was determined using the values of potassium concentrations obtained from blood in VAMS tips (Hct_VAMS). Hct_VAMS was compared with hematocrit measured from blood collected by venipuncture (Hct_VP). The accuracy and precision of Hct_VAMS in comparison to Hct_VP were evaluated using Bland-Altman plot, Deming regression and mountain plot. Results: Bland-Altman plot displayed a random scattering pattern of the differences between Hct_VAMS and Hct_VP with the mean bias of -0.010 and the 95% limit of agreement ranging from -0.063 to 0.044. Deming regression for Hct_VAMS and Hct_VP line demonstrated very small proportional and constant biases of 1.04 and -0.003, respectively. Mountain plot exhibited a narrow and symmetrical distribution of the differences with their median of -0.011 and central 95% range from -0.049 to 0.033. Conclusion: Hematocrit was accurately and precisely determined using less invasive VAMS technique. Such technique appears to be applicable to determining hematocrit in situations that venipuncture is not favorable or possible.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.168-172
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• 2008

The present study is to determine of sensitive nicorandil analysis method using HPLC and measure the pharmacokinetics parameters (bioavailability, $C_{max}$, $T_{max}$, Ke, $T_{1/2}$) of nicorandil (5 mg, Tab; Choongwae Pharma Corporation). Plasma (500 ul) was mixed with furosemide (internal standard, 500 ug/ml). Detection wavelength was 256 nm. The mixture of 0.01 M ammonium acetate and acetonitrile 80:20 (v/v) was used mobile phase. The HPLC separation was accomplished on ODC reverse HPLC column. The nicorandil was analyzed by a HPLC system, which consists of CAPCELL PAK C18 column (5 ${\mu}$m, 4.6 × 150 mm) and a chromatography data analysis S/W, using a isocratic mobile phase (mixture of 0.01 M ammonium acetate and acetonitrile 80:20 ) at 1.0 ml/min. Its sensitivity, selectivity, accuracy and precision must be adequate for the bioavailabilty study of nicorandil, and the linearity ($r^2$ ≥ 0.9994) of nicorandil was also proved in the range of 0.05 ug/ml . 3 ug/ml. The pharmacokinetic parameters of nicorandil (5 mg) tablets were measured as the follow. AUC: 0.19 ug/ml·hr, $C_{max}$: 0.14 ug/ml, $t_{max}$: 0.58 hr, Ke: 0.11 hr., $t_{1/2\beta}$: 6.76 hrs. This method is simple and sensitive HPLC method using UV detector for determination of nicorandil in human plasma.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.156-161
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• 2017

Transcriptome analysis has been widely used to make biomarker panels to diagnose cancers. In breast cancer, the age of the patient has been known to be associated with clinical features. As clinical transcriptome data have accumulated significantly, we classified all human genes based on age-specific differential expression between normal and breast cancer cells using public data. We retrieved the values for gene expression levels in breast cancer and matched normal cells from The Cancer Genome Atlas. We divided genes into two classes by paired t test without considering age in the first classification. We carried out a secondary classification of genes for each class into eight groups, based on the patterns of the p-values, which were calculated for each of the three age groups we defined. Through this two-step classification, gene expression was eventually grouped into 16 classes. We showed that this classification method could be applied to establish a more accurate prediction model to diagnose breast cancer by comparing the performance of prediction models with different combinations of genes. We expect that our scheme of classification could be used for other types of cancer data.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.142-146
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• 2017

More effective production of human insulin is important, because insulin is the main medication that is used to treat multiple types of diabetes and because many people are suffering from diabetes. The current system of insulin production is based on recombinant DNA technology, and the expression vector is composed of a preproinsulin sequence that is a fused form of an artificial leader peptide and the native proinsulin. It has been reported that the sequence of the leader peptide affects the production of insulin. To analyze how the leader peptide affects the maturation of insulin structurally, we adapted several in silico simulations using 13 artificial proinsulin sequences. Three-dimensional structures of models were predicted and compared. Although their sequences had few differences, the predicted structures were somewhat different. The structures were refined by molecular dynamics simulation, and the energy of each model was estimated. Then, protein-protein docking between the models and trypsin was carried out to compare how efficiently the protease could access the cleavage sites of the proinsulin models. The results showed some concordance with experimental results that have been reported; so, we expect our analysis will be used to predict the optimized sequence of artificial proinsulin for more effective production.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.147-155
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• 2017

Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) is an enzyme responsible for the initial step in the base excision repair pathway and is known to be a potential drug target for treating cancers, because its expression is associated with resistance to DNA-damaging anticancer agents. Although several inhibitors already have been identified, the identification of novel kinds of potential inhibitors of APE1 could provide a seed for the development of improved anticancer drugs. For this purpose, we first classified known inhibitors of APE1. According to the classification, we constructed two distinct pharmacophore models. We screened more than 3 million lead-like compounds using the pharmacophores. Hits that fulfilled the features of the pharmacophore models were identified. In addition to the pharmacophore screen, we carried out molecular docking to prioritize hits. Based on these processes, we ultimately identified 1,338 potential inhibitors of APE1 with predicted binding affinities to the enzyme.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.9-14
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• 2014

Purpose : The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of nap between therapeutic interventions on motor learning in patients with stroke. Method : Thirty stroke patients with hemiplegia were participated in this study. After the screening by questionnaire about nap time, the patients were assigned to nap or non-nap group. Therapeutic interventions for 30 min were provided two times per day for 5 days per week and the serial reaction time tasks were conducted 2 times before and after a nap per day for 3 days per week. Between the therapeutic interventions, a nap for 60~120 minutes was allowed to the nap group while non-nap group was not. Intervention programs were carried out during the total 15-day. Result : Compared with the non-nap group, the reaction-precision level of nap group was increased (p<.05) for the non-affected upper extremity in the serial reaction time tasks. Conclusion : This study demonstrated that nap between therapeutic interventions has positive effects on motor learning in patients with stroke.