• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.72 no.2
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• pp.212-217
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• 2012

Massive hemoptysis is a life-threatening condition and sometimes leads to death due to airway obstruction rather than exsanguinations. In a critical hemoptysis, endotracheal intubation may be necessary to maintain adequate gas exchange and protect the unaffected side of the lung. Bronchial blockers (BBs), commonly used technique for one-lung ventilation in thoracic or cardiac surgeries, are valuable devices for protecting the airway in massive endobronchial bleeding. We report three cases intubated with BBs, Univent$^{(R)}$, in massive hemoptysis. We suggest that BBs are one of the indispensable equipments for respiratory specialized wards and intensive care units.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.165-175
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• 2016

Ambroxol is used in COPD and asthma to increase mucociliary clearance and regulate surfactant levels, perhaps through anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. To determine the role and effect of ambroxol in an experimental model of asthma, BALB/c mice were sensitized to ovalbumin (OVA) followed by 3 days of challenge. Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), lung cell composition and histology, and cytokine and protein carbonyl levels in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid were determined. Ambroxol was administered either before the first OVA challenge or was begun after the last allergen challenge. Cytokine production levels from lung mononuclear cells (Lung MNCs) or alveolar macrophages (AM) were also determined. Administration of ambroxol prior to challenge suppressed AHR, airway eosinophilia, goblet cell metaplasia, and reduced inflammation in subepithelial regions. When given after challenge, AHR was suppressed but without effects on eosinophil numbers. Levels of IL-5 and IL-13 in BAL fluid were decreased when the drug was given prior to challenge; when given after challenge, increased levels of IL-10 and IL-12 were detected. Decreased levels of protein carbonyls were detected in BAL fluid following ambroxol treatment after challenge. In vitro, ambroxol increased levels of IL-10, IFN-γ, and IL-12 from Lung MNCs and AM, whereas IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 production was not altered. Taken together, ambroxol was effective in preventing AHR and airway inflammation through upregulation of Th1 cytokines and protection from oxidative stress in the airways.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.416-423
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• 2015

The study was conducted targeting 25 patients who underwent the respiratory gated radiation therapy in the abdominal region at Radiation Oncology of a University Hospital from December 2013 to June 2014 and types of cancer included liver(64%), CBD(8%), gastric(8%), GB(8%), pancreas(8%), SMA(4%). The means of ITV and PTV volume are 471.44 cm3 and 425.48 cm3, showing an increase in volume. Normal tissue volume was also found to have increased due to the increase of the section selected from PTV section to ITV section. Right kidney showed a significant increase in differences between increase in normal tissue volume, increase in target volume and increase in therapy irradiation area and difference between the means of dose applied to normal tissue. There was no significant difference in the mean dose applied to normal tissue according to the respiratory average. Both kidneys showed a significant difference in the difference between mean doses of target moving and normal tissue. In this study, both therapy methods through PTV section and ITV section volume setting were appropriate for protection doses of normal tissue and distributed over 95% of the prescribed dose and therefore, it is considered to be okay to be optionally used depending on the patient's therapeutic purpose. But in order to minimize the unexpected side effect, the plan of PTV section and ITV section should be established and used by evaluating normal tissue protection dose.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.175-182
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• 1996

The lifetime fatal radiation-induced cancer for Korean has been estimated for both single and continuous radiation exposure using the BEIR V method. In case of single exposure, the major radiation-induced cancer type for young and old age is digestive and respiratory cancer, respectively. For the whole population of Korean, the major radiation-induced cancer type is digestive cancer. In case of 1mGy/yr continuous exposure from birth to death, the contribution of total radiation-induced cancer mortality to natural cancer mortality is about 3%.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1756-1763
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• 2010

Pasteurella multocida serogroup D strain, which produces P. multocida toxin (PMT), is a widespread and harmful pathogen of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and progressive atrophic rhinitis (PAR) in swine. Vaccination has been considered the most desirable and effective approach for controlling the diseases caused by toxigenic P. multocida. To investigate the antigenicity and immunogenicity of partial fragments of recombinant PMT, recombinant proteins of the N-terminal (PMT-A), middle (PMT-B), C-terminal (PMT-C), and middle-C-terminal (PMT2.3) regions of PMT were successfully produced in an Escherichia coli expression system. The molecular masses of PMT-A, PMT-B, PMT-C, and PMT2.3 were ca. 53, 55, 35, and 84 kDa, respectively, purified by nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid (Ni-NTA) affinity column chromatography. All the recombinant proteins except for PMT-A showed immune responses to antisera obtained from a swine showing symptoms of PAR. Moreover, high titers of PMT-specific antibodies were raised from mice immunized with each of the recombinant proteins; however, the immunoreactivities of the antibodies to authentic PMT and heat-inactivated whole bacteria were different, respectively. In the protection study, the highest protection against homologous challenge was shown in the case of PMT2.3; relatively poor protections occurred for the other PMT fragments.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2015

Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) causes a major upper respiratory tract infection often leading to severe illness and death in the elderly. Thus, it is important to induce safe and effective mucosal immunity against this pathogen in order to prevent pnuemocaccal infection. However, this is a very difficult task to elicit protective mucosal IgA antibody responses in older individuals. A combind nasal adjuvant consisting of a plasmid encoding the Flt3 ligand cDNA (pFL) and CpG oligonucleotide (CpG ODN) successfully enhanced S. pneumoniae-specific mucosal immunity in aged mice. In particular, a pneumococcal surface protein A-based nasal vaccine given with pFL and CpG ODN induced complete protection from S. pneumoniae infection. These results show that nasal delivery of a combined DNA adjuvant offers an attractive potential for protection against the pneumococcus in the elderly.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.120-126
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• 2021

Background: This paper aims to evaluate the clinical utility and radiation dosimetry, for the mobile X-ray imaging of patients with known or suspected infectious diseases, through the window of an isolation room. The suitability of this technique for imaging coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients is of particular focus here, although it is expected to have equal relevance to many infectious respiratory disease outbreaks. Materials and Methods: Two exposure levels were examined, a "typical" mobile exposure of 100 kVp/1.6 mAs and a "high" exposure of 120 kVp/5 mAs. Exposures of an anthropomorphic phantom were made, with and without a glass window present in the beam. The resultant phantom images were provided to experienced radiographers for image quality evaluation, using a Likert scale to rate the anatomical structure visibility. Results and Discussion: The incident air kerma doubled using the high exposure technique, from 29.47 µGy to 67.82 µGy and scattered radiation inside and outside the room increased. Despite an increase in beam energy, high exposure technique images received higher image quality scores than images acquired using lower exposure settings. Conclusion: Increased scattered radiation was very low and can be further mitigated by ensuring surrounding staff are appropriately distanced from both the patient and X-ray tube. Although an increase in incident air kerma was observed, practical advantages in infection control and personal protective equipment conservation were identified. Sites are encouraged to consider the use of this technique where appropriate, following the completion of standard justification practices.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.89-112
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• 2000

Although dental laboratory technicians are prone to be exposed to various work-related health hazardous materials such as dusts, chemicals, etc., the prevalence and nature of work-related health problems of them have not been a matter of great concern in the field of occupational health service in Korea. The purpose of the present investigation was to describe a collected profile of subjective health symptoms and their attributable factors in Korean dental laboratory technicians. A questionnaire listing five groups of health symptoms and five health symptom-related factors was mailed to randomly selected 1,900 dental laboratory technicians. Among them, 1,344 dental laboratory technicians filled out the questionnaires and returnde them. Five groups of health symptoms included musculoskeletal symptom, dermal symptoms, respiratory symptoms, eys symptoms, and ear symptoms. Five health symptom-related factors were occupational environment-related health risk factors, work history, health related habits and status, use of personal protective equipment and general characteristics. Detailed parameters of health risk factors were work posture, vibration, and chemical or physical hazards such as dust, fume, vapor, solvent, light, and noise for occupational environment-related factors; work place, area, number of employees, work hours, career, work part, and work load for work history; Broca's index, hours of sleep, eating, smoking, alcohol, exercise, health examination, and self assessed health status for health habits and status; face masks, goggles, and so on for use of personal protective equipment, and; age, sex, marital status, and education for general characteristics. Before the start of main survey, a pilot survey was carried out for validity and reliability tests of the questionnaire. All the data obtained were coded and analyzed with PC/SAS 6.12 program. The prevalence of health symptoms was the highest in musculoskelton (87.3%), and followde by eyes (78.9%), respiratory organs (64.3%), ears (57.8%), and skin (52.2%) in descending order. Statistically significant risk factors by multiple logistic regression analyses were sex, health examination, self assessed health status, and hand/finger posture in musculoskeletal symptoms; sex, self assessed health status, career, acid gas, and hand contact with resin mixture in deraml symptoms; Broka's smoking, exercise, self assessed health status, and face mask in respiratory symptoms; sex, hours of sleep, self assessed health status, work hours, work load, plaster dust, inadequate lighting, and goggle in eys symptoms, and eating, smoking, self assessed health status, and work load in ear symptoms. With the above considerations in mind, prevalence of subjective symptoms among Korean dental laboratory technicians was relatively high, and they were attributable to most of the occupational environment-related factors, work history, use of personal protective equipment, health habits and status, and general characteristics. Particularly, it is suggested that health promotion programs for promoting self- assessed health status and smoking cessation, preventive measures for protection of the female technicians’health, and reducing work load be necessary, since those factors were associated with more than one subjective symptom.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.282-288
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• 2022

Facial masks have become indispensable in daily life to prevent infection and spread through respiratory droplets in the era of the corona pandemic. To understand how effective two different types of masks (i.e., KF-94 mask and dental mask) are in blocking respiratory droplets, i) we preferentially analyze wettability characteristics (e.g., contact angle and contact angle hysteresis) of filters consisting of each mask, and ii) subsequently observe the dynamic behaviors of microdroplets impacting at high velocities on the filter surfaces. Different wetting properties (i.e., hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity) are found to exhibit depending on the constituent materials and pore sizes of each filter. In addition, the pneumatic conditions for stably and uniformly dispensing microdroplets with a certain volume and impacting behaviors associated with the impacting velocity and filter type change are systematically explored. Three distinctive dynamics (i.e., no penetration, capture, and penetration) after droplet impacting are observed depending on the type of filter constituting the masks and droplet impact velocity. The present experimental results not only provide very useful information in designing of face masks for prevention of transmission of infectious respiratory diseases, but also are helpful for academic researches on droplet impacts on various porous surfaces.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.528-535
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• 2013

Air pollution in large cities is reduced through the environmental health policies, but due to increased population and automobile, some pollutants are still a problem. These air pollutants are known to cause asthma and respiratory diseases. According to an OECD report, the number of premature deaths will increase. Hazardous air pollutants should be managed through a systematic monitoring, risk assessment, and many studies are in progress. In order to manage hazardous air pollutants, transformation of policy for the protection of human health is required. management policy through the calculation of the excess number of deaths that occur from hazardous air pollutants for the public health is necessary. Korea has put a lot of efforts for air quality, but health risk assessment should be more considered.