• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.281-286
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• 1999

Background: The purpose of this study is to analyze the types of complications, the incidences of complications, and preoperative and postoperative risk factors affecting the incidence of the complication. Material and Method: Between August 1990 and August 1997 in Asan Medical Center, 42 patients(24 men and 18 women) underwent surgical resection for pulmonary aspergilloma. The mean age was 46.6${\pm}$11.5 years(range 29 to 69 years). Hemoptysis(90%) was the most common presentation. Pulmonary tuberculosis was the most common predisposing cause(81%). The associated diseases were bronchiectasis(n=11), active puolmonary tuberculosis(n=9), diabetes mellitus(n=8), lung carcinoid(n=1), and acute myeloblastic leukemia(n=1). Lobectomy was done in 32 cases(76%), segmentectomy or wedge resection in 4, pneumonectomy in 2, and lobectomy combined with segmentectomy in 4. Result: Operative mortality was 2%. The most common postoperative complication was persistent air leakage(n=6). The variables such as age, sex, pulmonary function test, amount and duration of hemoptysis, associated diseases(diabetes mellitus, active pulmonary tuberculosis), mode of preoperative management(steroid, antifungal agent, bronchial arterial embolization), and modes of operative procedures were statistically insignificant. The radiologic extent of infiltration to normal lung parenchyme was statistically significant(p=0.04). Conclusion: We conclude that the extent of the infiltration to normal lung parenchyme in preoperative radiologic studies should be carefully evaluated to reduce the postoperative complications in surgery for pulmonary aspergilloma.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.64-70
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• 2010

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to retrospectively evaluate the incidence of hypothyroidism in locally advanced head and neck cancer patients who received radiotherapy (RT) either with or without neck dissection. Materials and Methods: From January 2000 to December 2005, 115 patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer and who received definitive RT or postoperative RT including standard anterior low-neck field were recruited to be part of this study. Nineteen patients had undergone ipsilateral neck dissection, whereas, 18 patients underwent bilateral neck dissection, and 78 patients were received RT alone. Patients' ages ranged from 28 to 85 years (median, 59 years) and there were a total of 73 male and 42 female patients. The primary tumor sites were the oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, larynx, and other sites in 18, 40, 28, 22 and 7 patients, respectively. Radiation dose to the thyroid gland ranged from 44 Gy to 66 Gy with a median dose of 50 Gy. Follow-up time ranged from 2 to 91 months, with a median of 29 months. Results: The 1- and 3- year incidence of hypothyroidism was 28.7% (33 patients) and 33.0% (38 patients), respectively. The median time to detection of hypothyroidism was 8.5 months (range, 0 to 36 months). A univariate analysis revealed that neck node dissection was a risk factor for hypothyroidism (p=0.037). However, no factor was statistically significant from the results of a multivariate analysis. Conclusion: Patients treated for advanced head and neck cancer with radiotherapy with or without neck dissection will develop hypothyroidism. It is important to check the thyroid function periodically in these patientsespecially with the risk factor of neck node dissection.

• Journal of the Korean Child Neurology Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.227-232
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• 2018

Purpose: Febrile seizure (FS) is the most common type of seizure in children between 6 months to 5 years of age. A family history of febrile seizures can increase the risk a child will have a FS. Yet, prevalence of FS regarding external environment has not been clearly proved. This study attempts to determine the association between prevalence of FS and weather. Methods: This study included medical records from the Korea National Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. Data were collected from 29,240 children, born after 2004, diagnosed with FS who were admitted to one of the hospitals in Seoul, Korea, between January 2009 and December 2013. During the corresponding time period, data from the Korea Meteorological Administration on daily monitoring of four meteorological factors (sea-level pressure, amount of precipitation, humidity and temperature) were collected. The relationships of FS prevalence and each meteorological factor will be designed using Poisson generalized additive model (GAM). Also, the contributory effect of viral infections on FS prevalence and weather will be discussed. Results: The amount of precipitation was divided into two groups for comparison: one with less than 5 mm and the other with equal to or more than 5 mm. As a result of Poisson GAM, higher prevalence of FS showed a correlation with smaller amount of precipitation. Smoothing function was used to classify the relationships between three variables (sea-level pressure, humidity, and temperature) and prevalence of FS. FS prevalence was correlated with lower sea-level pressure and lower humidity. FS prevalence was high in two temperature ranges (-7 to $-1^{\circ}C$ and $18-21^{\circ}C$). Conclusion: Low sea-level pressure, small amount of precipitation, and low relative air humidity may increase FS prevalence risk.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.205-210
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• 2010

Several studies have shown that plant-derived polyphenols reduce cardiovascular accidents in high-risk patients and the inhibition of platelet function may be responsible for part of this benefit. Lindera obtusiloba is widely used in traditional herbal medicine for the treatment of cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. Therefore, the antiplatelet and antithrombotic activities of Lindera obtusiloba Extracts (LOE) on in vitro platelet aggregation, radical scavenging activity and in vivo murine pulmonary thrombosis were examined. LOE was able to directly scavenge the stable DPPH radical in a concentration-dependent manner and its $IC_{50}$ value was 3.9 ${\pm}$ 0.1 ${\mu}g$/ml. LOE significantly inhibited collagen- and ADP-induced platelet aggregation in a concentration-dependent manner and its $IC_{50}$ value is 0.9 ${\pm}$ 0.1 mg/ml and 0.4 ${\pm}$ 0.1 mg/ml respectively. The inhibitory effect of LOE was comparable to aspirin ($IC_{50}$ values were 1.0 ${\pm}$ 0.5 and 1.0 ${\pm}$ 0.7 mg/ml, respectively). Furthermore, oral administration of LOE suppressed the death of mice with pulmonary thrombosis induced by intravenous injection of collagen plus epinephrine. Taken together, our results suggest LOE may be a promising candidate for antithrombotic agent, and the antithrombotic effect of LOE may be due to, at least in part, antiplatelet activity.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.71-77
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• 2013

Most of the maritime accidents are the crash that occurred by complex coastal terrain, increased maritime traffic and frequent weather changes. Therefore, transportation safety is exactly determined using accurate environmental informations, but if informations are inaccurate or insufficient, accident risk can be increased. Therefore, ship need the system that can accurately generate transportation safety information. This paper proposes the transportation safety system and performance evaluation in the real environment. The proposed system includes database of environment informations and navigation algorithm using PPP method to estimate the accurate ship position. Therefore, this system can accurately calculate distance or freeboard between ship with other factors. Futhermore, when weather is deteriorated, crew can sail with database based 3-D monitoring module in the transportation safety system. To verify the function and performance, data of Kyungin ARA waterway and ferry is used to evaluation.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.4619-4628
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between alcohol use and drinking problems among college students. Data were collected by structured questionnaires from 400 college students by convenient sampling methods from September 26 to October 14, 2011. Data were analyzed by SPSS/WIN 15.0 program. The results were as follows: According to the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), subjects were classified into four groups such as 40.2% of no problem, 36.7% of drinking problem, 6.8% of high risk drinking problem and 16.3% of alcohol dependence. The alcohol use and drinking problems were significant difference for gender, age, type of residence, age of first drinking, cause of drinking, frequency and amount of drinking. The alcohol use was correlated with drinking problems: social function impairment(r=.601, p<.01), behavior problem(r=.579, p<.01), family and interpersonal impairment(r=.637, p<.01). The influencing factors of drinking problems were alcohol use(${\beta}$=.640, p=.000). This study concludes that it is necessary to establish alcohol use policies on campus and develop temperance education program to reduce alcohol consumption and drinking problems.

• The Journal of Dong Guk Oriental Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.69-79
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• 1999

Hemifacial spasm including blepharospasm is characterized by spontaneous clonic an d tonic muscle spasm on one side of the face with synkinesis. Though the etiology of hemifacial spasm is not entirely understood, generally there are two. One is nuclear hypothesis and the other is peripheral hypothesis. There are two ways of treatment of hemifacial spasm. One is internal medicine and the other is operative method. In oriental medicine, hemifacial spasm is very similar to diseases such as Anpojindo (眼胞振跳), Poryunjindo(胞輪振跳), or Aunido(眼眉跳) in symptoms. The diseases such as Anpojindo(眼胞振跳), Poryunjindo(胞輪振跳), Anmido(眼眉跳) is related to the function of liver(肝) and risk factors are regarded as Pung(風). The acupuncture therapy of hemifacial spasm is based on Liver meridian(LV), Gallbladder meridian(GB). And ear-acupuncture is recommended as a good method for hemifacial spasm.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.3903-3907
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• 2013

Background: Patients with colorectal cancer are usually treated with chemotherapy, which reduces the number of blood cells, especially white blood cells, and consequently increases the risk of infections. Some research studies have reported that aromatherapy massage affects the immune system and improves immune function by, for example, increasing the numbers of natural killer cells and peripheral blood lymphocytes. However, there has been no report of any study which provided good evidence as to whether aromatherapy with Thai massage could improve the immune system in patients with colorectal cancer. The objectives of this study were to determine whether the use of aromatherapy with light Thai massage in patients with colorectal cancer, who have received chemotherapy, can result in improvement of the cellular immunity and reduce the severity of the common symptoms of side effects. Materials and Methods: Sixty-six patients with colorectal cancer in Phichit Hospital, Thailand, were enrolled in a single-blind, randomised-controlled trial. The intervention consisted of three massage sessions with ginger and coconut oil over a 1-week period. The control group received standard supportive care only. Assessments were conducted at pre-assessment and at the end of one week of massage or standard care. Changes from pre-assessment to the end of treatment were measured in terms of white blood cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes, CD4 and CD8 cells and the CD4/CD8 ratio and also the severity of self-rated symptom scores. Results: The main finding was that after adjusting for pre-assessment values the mean lymphocyte count at the post-assessment was significantly higher (P=0.04) in the treatment group than in the controls. The size of this difference suggested that aromatherapy with Thai massage could boost lymphocyte numbers by 11%. The secondary outcomes were that at the post assessment the symptom severity scores for fatigue, presenting symptom, pain and stress were significantly lower in the massage group than in the standard care controls. Conclusions: Aromatherapy with light Thai massage can be beneficial for the immune systems of cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy by increasing the number of lymphocytes and can help to reduce the severity of common symptoms.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2020

Smoking is associated with increased inflammation and is a risk factor for a range of diseases. Conversely, yogurt has beneficial effects on health. This study examined the effects of yogurt consumption on the hematological parameters and fibrinogen levels in smokers. The participants were categorized into four groups. Non-smokers were assigned to the control and yogurt groups while smokers were assigned to the smoking and combined (yogurt plus smoking) groups. The participants consumed yogurt, and either smoked or did not smoke for three weeks. The changes in hematological parameters and fibrinogen levels were examined. In the combined group, the proportion of neutrophils and fibrinogen levels increased significantly, whereas the lymphocyte proportion decreased. The eosinophil proportion increased significantly in the Smoking group, but no change was observed in the combined group. In addition, the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration increased in the smoking and combined groups, indicating that smoking may affect the lifespan of red blood cells. In conclusion, this study showed that yogurt consumption might influence the immune function by modulating the levels of neutrophils, lymphocytes, and fibrinogen in smokers. Furthermore, the absence of any increase in the eosinophil proportion in the combined group, unlike in the smoking group, suggests that yogurt consumption may have an inhibitory effect on allergic reactions.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.283-293
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• 2015

Purpose: The aims of this study are to analyze and to visualize distribution of patients visiting at a dental college hospital, using geographic information system (GIS). The visualized data can be utilized in patient care and treatment planning, ultimately leading to the assessment of risk evaluation and prevention of dental diseases. Materials and Methods: Patient information data was obtained from Dankook University Dental Hospital including the unit number, gender, date of birth, and address from 2007 to 2014. Patient distribution was visualized using GIS. Statistical analyses were performed using SAS 9.3 and ArcGIS 10.1. Five factors including proximity, accessibility, age, gender, and socioeconomic status were investigated as the explanatory variables of the patient distribution. Results: The visualized patient data showed a nationwide scale of the patient distribution. There was a little difference in characteristics for each department. As closer at Dankook University Dental Hospital, visitors increased. And it strongly showed that elderly patients in rural areas tend to visit more. Conclusion: The distribution of patients has been shown to be significantly affected by the proximity, accessibility, age, gender and socioeconomic status. The underlying reason remains to be further studied.