• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.939-948
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• 2022

Objective: Evidence supports the efficacy of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA)-based risk scores in cardiovascular risk stratification of patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). We aimed to compare two CCTA-based risk score algorithms, Leiden and Confirm scores, in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and suspected CAD. Materials and Methods: This single-center prospective cohort study consecutively included 1241 DM patients (54.1% male, 60.2 ± 10.4 years) referred for CCTA for suspected CAD in 2015-2017. Leiden and Confirm scores were calculated and stratified as < 5 (reference), 5-20, and > 20 for Leiden and < 14.3 (reference), 14.3-19.5, and > 19.5 for Confirm. Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) were defined as the composite outcomes of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and unstable angina requiring hospitalization. The Cox model and Kaplan-Meier method were used to evaluate the effect size of the risk scores on MACE. The area under the curve (AUC) at the median follow-up time was also compared between score algorithms. Results: During a median follow-up of 31 months (interquartile range, 27.6-37.3 months), 131 of MACE were recorded, including 17 cardiovascular deaths, 28 nonfatal MIs, 64 unstable anginas requiring hospitalization, and 22 strokes. An incremental incidence of MACE was observed in both Leiden and Confirm scores, with an increase in the scores (log-rank p < 0.001). In the multivariable analysis, compared with Leiden score < 5, the hazard ratios for Leiden scores of 5-20 and > 20 were 2.37 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.53-3.69; p < 0.001) and 4.39 (95% CI: 2.40-8.01; p < 0.001), respectively, while the Confirm score did not demonstrate a statistically significant association with the risk of MACE. The Leiden score showed a greater AUC of 0.840 compared to 0.777 for the Confirm score (p < 0.001). Conclusion: CCTA-based risk score algorithms could be used as reliable cardiovascular risk predictors in patients with DM and suspected CAD, among which the Leiden score outperformed the Confirm score in predicting MACE.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.246-254
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of knowledge and risk perception of coronavirus disease-2019 on preventive health behavior among nursing students. The survey participants were 291 students in A city. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires between August 1 and 20, 2020. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression in SPSS ver. 18.0. Knowledge of COVID-19 was significantly dependent on age and school records. Risk perceptions were significantly dependent on educational grades. Age, health status, knowledge, and risk perception had significant effects on preventive health behavior, which was found to be positively correlated with knowledge and risk perception. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that age significantly predicted preventive health behavior (β=.188, p<.01), health status (β=-.245, p<.001), knowledge (β=.254, p<.001), and risk perception (β=.191, p<.001) that it accounted for 18.9% (F=17.904, p<.001) of the variance. An educational program is required to enhance the preventive health behavior of nursing students in a background of COVID-2019 that considers student age, health level, knowledge, and perception of risk.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.121-128
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• 2014

Risk assessment system which is the point of occupational safety and health management system is recognized to be effective to prevent industrial accident and occupational disease internationally. Ministry of Employment and Labor developed guidance on risk assessment at workplace recently. This guidance presents standard model on risk assessment at workplace. However, enterprises may be confronted with many questions in the process of introducing and operating risk assessment. For risk assessment to be implemented properly and effectively at workplace, there are various questions that need to be considered in advance, including giving shape to standard on risk evaluation and clarifying the implementation system at workplace in advance. Also for risk assessment to be revitalized at workplace, several policy matters need to be settled. First, an administrative agency should present the implementation method of risk assessment more concretely. Secondly, it is necessary for an administrative agency to develop and spread various detailed manual, models and good practices related to risk assessment. Thirdly, a government agency need to apply an incentive & disadvantage policy actively to risk assessment.

• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.172-183
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• 2024

Background/Aims: This study aimed to identify the clinical characteristics of patients with concurrent rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and suspected non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections as well as determine their prognostic factors. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 91 patients with RA whose computed tomography (CT) findings suggested NTM infection. Subsequently, we compared the clinical characteristics between patients with and without clinical or radiological exacerbation of NTM-pulmonary disease (PD) and investigated the risk factors for the exacerbation and associated mortality. Results: The mean age of patients with RA and suspected NTM-PD was 65.0 ± 10.2 years. The nodular/bronchiectatic (NB) form of NTM-PD was the predominant radiographic feature (78.0%). During follow-up, 36 patients (41.9%) experienced a radiological or clinical exacerbation of NTM-PD, whereas 12 patients (13.2%) died. Combined interstitial lung disease (ILD), microbiologically confirmed NTM-PD, and NB with the fibrocavitary (FC) form on chest CT were identified as risk factors for the clinical or radiological exacerbation of NTM-PD. Hydroxychloroquine use was identified as a good prognostic factor. Conversely, history of tuberculosis, ILD, smoking, microbiologically confirmed NTM-PD, and NB with the FC form on chest CT were identified as poor prognostic factors for mortality in suspected NTM-PD. Conclusions: ILD and NB with the FC form on chest CT were associated with NTM-PD exacerbation and mortality. Hydroxychloroquine use may lower the risk of NTM-PD exacerbation. Therefore, radiographic features and presence of ILD should be considered when predicting the prognosis of patients with RA and suspected NTM-PD.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.204-212
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• 1982

The presence of left atrial thrombus in mitral stenosis has been reported to be associated with several factors. These are age, sex, presence of atrial fibrillation, episodes of congestave heart failure, calcification of mitral valve, embolic episode, etc. Since none of these single factor has been always related to the presence of left atrial thrombus, related risk factors to left atrial thrombosis were studied in patients with mitral stenosis using chi square test. We had operated on 191 cases of mitral valvular heart disease from Jan. 1978 to June 1981 at Severance Hospital, Yunsei University College of Medicine. The left atrial thrombi were present in 41 cases among 191 cases of mitral valvular heart disease and it was present in 31 cases among 89 cases of pure mitral stenosis. Only 10 cases among 74 cases of mitral stenoregurgitation had left atrlal thrombi, whereas no left atrlal thrombus was found in patients with pure mitral regurgitation. Related risk factors studied herein were sex, episodes of congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, mitral valve area calculated by Gorlin and Gorlin`s formula cardiac output and left atrial dimension by echocardiogram. In this study presence of atrial fibrillation was deemed to be one of the most potential risk factors and other factors of age, duration of symptoms, episode of embolization, calclfication of mitral valve, associated aortic and tricuspid valve disease, ejection fraction of left ventricle by cineangiocardiogram and echocardiogram were not significantly related to the presence of left atrlal thrombi in a statistical viewpoint.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.405-417
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• 2022

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory immune-mediated condition that has been identified as a potentially malignant oral disorder. Various therapies have been proposed for its management as alternative to corticosteroids. However, no definitive treatment has been identified that can result in complete remission or minimal recurrence. Hyaluronic acid has recently been used as an alternative therapy for the management of OLP. This study aimed to systematically review the effectiveness of Hyaluronic acid in the management of symptomatic OLP. Online electronic databases and manual searches were performed for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in English between January 2010 and April 2022. RCTs were identified that compared the efficacy of hyaluronic acid and other interventional therapies at baseline and during follow-up. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. Visual analog scale (VAS) scores, Thongprasom sign scores, lesion size, degree of erythema, clinical severity, and disease severity were assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Seven studies were analyzed. Five studies reported a high risk of bias while the remaining two studies reported an unclear risk of bias. The overall quantitative assessment of size, symptoms, degree of erythema, and sign score in OLP lesions treated with HA was not statistically significant compared to that in the control group (P > 0.05). In addition, subgroup analysis comparing HA with placebo or corticosteroids did not yield statistically significant (P > 0.05) results. Qualitatively, both HA and tacrolimus resulted in an effective reduction in signs and symptoms. Clinical/disease severity index/scores were inconsistent. A high degree of heterogeneity was observed among the included studies. None of the included studies reported the side effects of HA. These findings suggest that corticosteroids, tacrolimus, placebo, and HA could be equally effective in OLP management. The clinical/disease severity index or score reduction cannot be determined with certainty. Thus, OLP can be treated with HA as an alternative therapy. Owing to limited clinical trials on HA, high heterogeneity, and high risk of bias in the included studies, definitive conclusions cannot be derived.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.613-621
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between dietary quality and the risk of coronary heart disease (CBD) among Korean men by a case-control study. Methods: The cases were 108 male patients with a first acute myocardial infarction or a new diagnosis of angina pectoris who were admitted to a university teaching hospital in Seoul. Controls were 142 age-matched patients admitted to the departments of ophthalmology and orthopedic surgery at the same hospital. Dietary information was assessed by a nutritionist using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), and dietary quality index (DQI) scores were calculated. Results: The intakes of total fat and cholesterol and body mass index (BMI) in cases were significantly higher than those in controls. The mean DQI scores were 8.6 for the cases and 9.4 for the controls. A higher DQI, which was indicative of a better quality diet, was inversely associated with the risk of CHD when comparing the highest to lowest quatiles, but borderline significant (odd ratios 0.60, 95% confidence interval 0.25-1.39, P for trend ＝ 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that better dietary quality may reduce the risk of CHD among Korean men.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.62-67
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of deep neural network model in order to determine whether there is a risk factor for coronary artery disease based on the cardiac variation parameter. The study used unidentifiable 297 data to evaluate the performance of the model. Input data consists of heart rate parameters, which are SDNN (standard deviation of the N-N intervals), PSI (physical stress index), TP (total power), VLF (very low frequency), LF (low frequency), HF (high frequency), RMSSD (root mean square of successive difference) APEN (approximate entropy) and SRD (successive R-R interval difference), the age group and sex. Output data are divided into normal and patient groups, and the patient group consists of those diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, and hyperlipidemia among the various risk factors that can cause coronary artery disease. Based on this, a binary classification model was applied using Deep Neural Network of deep learning techniques to classify normal and patient groups efficiently. To evaluate the effectiveness of the model used in this study, Kernel SVM (support vector machine), one of the classification models in machine learning, was compared and evaluated using same data. The results showed that the accuracy of the proposed deep neural network was train set 91.79% and test set 85.56% and the specificity was 87.04% and the sensitivity was 83.33% from the point of diagnosis. These results suggest that deep learning is more efficient when classifying these medical data because the train set accuracy in the deep neural network was 7.73% higher than the comparative model Kernel SVM.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.80 no.4
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• pp.392-400
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• 2017

Background: Most patients with influenza recover spontaneously or following treatment with an anti-viral agent, but some patients experience pneumonia requiring hospitalization. We conducted a retrospective review to determine the incidence and risk factors of pneumonia in hospitalized patients with influenza A or B. Methods: A total of 213 patients aged 18 years or older and hospitalized with influenza between January 2012 and January 2015 were included in this study. A reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay was used to detect the influenza A or B virus in the patients' sputum samples. We collected demographic and laboratory data, combined coexisting diseases, and radiologic findings. Results: The incidence of pneumonia was higher in patients in the influenza A group compared to those in the influenza B group (68.6% vs. 56.9%), but this difference was not statistically significant. The presence of underlying respiratory disease was significantly associated with pneumonia in the influenza A group (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 3.975; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.312-12.043; p=0.015). In the influenza B group, the white blood cell count (adjusted OR, 1.413; 95% CI, 1.053-1.896; p=0.021), platelet count (adjusted OR, 0.988; 95% CI, 0.978-0.999; p=0.027), and existence of an underlying medical disease (adjusted OR, 15.858; 95% CI, 1.757-143.088; p=0.014) were all significantly associated with pneumonia in multivariate analyses. Conclusion: The incidence of pneumonia was 65.7% in hospitalized patients with influenza A or B. The risk factors of pneumonia differed in hospitalized patients with influenza A or B.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.34
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• pp.40.1-40.9
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• 2022

Background: According to the occupational accident status analysis in 2020, of 1,180 occupational deaths, 463 were caused by cardiovascular disease (CVD). Workers should be assessed for CVD risk at regular intervals to prevent work-related CVD in accordance with the rules on occupational safety and health standards. However, no previous study has addressed risk and mortality. Therefore, this longitudinal study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between 10-year cardiovascular risk of the general health checkup and mortality. Methods: The study included 545,859 participants who visited Kangbuk Samsung Total Healthcare Centers from January 1, 2002, to December 31, 2017. We performed 10-year cardiovascular risk assessment for the participants and the risk was divided into 4 groups (low, moderate, high, and very high). The study used death data from the Korea National Statistical Office for survival status as an outcome variable by December 31, 2019, and the cause of death based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10^th Revision (ICD-10) was identified. Statistical analysis was performed using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, and the sum of the periods from the first visit to the date of death or December 31, 2019, was used as a time scale. We also performed a stratified analysis for age at baseline and sex. Results: During 5,253,627.9 person-years, 4,738 overall deaths and 654 cardiovascular deaths occurred. When the low-risk group was set as a reference, in the multivariable-adjusted model, the hazard ratios (HRs) (95% confidence interval [CI]) for overall mortality were 3.36 (2.87-3.95) in the moderate-risk group, 11.08 (9.27-13.25) in the high-risk group, and 21.20 (17.42-25.79) in the very-high-risk group, all of which were statistically significant. In cardiovascular deaths, the difference according to the risk classification was more pronounced. The HRs (95% CI) were 8.57 (4.95-14.83), 38.95 (21.77-69.69), and 78.81 (42.62-145.71) in each group. As a result of a subgroup analysis by age and sex, the HRs of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality tended to be higher in the high-risk group. Conclusions: This large-scale longitudinal study confirmed that the risk of death increases with the 10-year cardiovascular risk of general health checkup.