• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.138-162
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• 2004

This study was performed to investigate small area variation in rates of three common surgeries in general surgery department across 156 small areas. Three surgery rates were analyzed; Anal and/or stomal procedures, inguinal and/or femoral hernia procedures, appendectomy. Methods: We used health insurance claims data and the number of patients were 13,845, 2,154 and 7,151 persons respectively. Surgery rates were directly standardized with age and sex and logistic regression was used to analyze surgery rates. Results: Mapping of the surgery rates, there was small area variation in anal and/or stomal procedures. The clinic which was located in more competitive market and chose DRG payment system tends to do more anal and/or stomal procedures. There was no factor except DRG bed rates had effect on rate of inguinal and/or femoral hernia procedures. Conclusions: Findings of this study will contribute to developing investigation method on small area variation and policy to reduce the variation such as developing evidence based medical practice guideline.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.27.1-27.11
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• 2020

Although various studies on predictive markers in the use of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors are in progress, only PD-L1 expression levels in tumor tissues are currently used. In the present study, we investigated whether baseline serum levels of IL-6 can predict the treatment response of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. In our cohort of 125 NSCLC patients, the objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were significantly higher in those with low IL-6 (<13.1 pg/ml) than those with high IL-6 (ORR 33.9% vs. 11.1%, p=0.003; DCR 80.6% vs. 34.9%, p<0.001). The median progression-free survival was 6.3 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.9-8.7) in the low IL-6 group, significantly longer than in the high IL-6 group (1.9 months, 95% CI, 1.6-2.2, p<0.001). The median overall survival in the low IL-6 group was significantly longer than in the high IL-6 group (not reached vs. 7.4 months, 95% CI, 4.8-10.0). Thus, baseline serum IL-6 levels could be a potential biomarker for predicting the efficacy and survival benefit of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in NSCLC.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.146-154
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• 2009

Multiplex ligation dependent probe amplification (MLPA) is a PCR-based method to detect gene dosage. Since its introduction, MLPA has been used to test a large number of genes for major deletions or duplications. Genetic testing, as a diagnostic tool for genetic disease, has been used primarily to identify point mutations, including base substitutions and small insertions/deletions, using PCR and sequence analysis. However, it is difficult to identify large deletions or duplications using routine PCR- gel based assays, especially in heterozygotes. The MLPA is a more feasible method for identification of gene dosage than another routine PCR-based methods, and better able to detect deleterious deletions or duplications. In addition to detection of gene dosage, MLPA can be applied to identify methylation patterns of target genes, aneuploidy during prenatal diagnoses, and large deletions or duplications that may be associated with various cancers. The MLPA method offers numerous advantages, as it requires only a small amount of template DNA, is applicable to a wide variety of applications, and is high-throughput. On the other hand, this method suffers from disadvantages including the possibility of false positive results affected by template DNA quality, difficulties identifying SNPs located in probe sequences, and analytical complications in quantitative aspects.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Oriental Medical Informatics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-34
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• 2013

Objectives : A common cold is a viral disease. There exists only allopathy for it depending on symptoms because of no cure. Korean medicine has taken a serious view of common cold patients with digestive problems as well as patients of the common cold. Accordingly, this study is aimed at finding out the traits of patients with digestive problems among common cold patients. Methods : A survey was conducted with 62 cold patients who got medical treatment in Korean medicine clinics located in small cities and towns including metropolitan cities. The SPSS for Windows( 19.0 Version) was used for statistical analysis. Results : Depending on which clinic common cold patients decided to go to, there was a significant difference in the number of sick days. The group of patients who decided to go straight to oriental medicine clinics had fewer sick days. Only 9.7% of the group of patients who got treatment in Koean medicine clinics had more than 6 sick days. The group of common cold patients with digestive problems had more sick days than the group with no digestive problems, which showed that there was a significant correlation between digestive problems and sick days. When it came to digestive problems depending which clinic common cold patients decided to go to, there was no significant value because of little data collection. However, while 41.9% of the group who went to hospital at first and then to Koean medicine clinic had digestive problems, 24.2% of the group who directly went to Koean medicine clinic had digestive problems. On the whole, 66.1% of the entire common cold patients were shown to have digestive problems. Conclusion : There are relatively many patients with digestive problems among common cold patients, and there is a significant correlation between digestive problems and sick days on common cold.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.51-57
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• 2006

This study is concerned with image information management system for small scale hospital. We intended to developing image management system which is used of the existing analog devices such as medical camera, supersonic analyser, endoscope etc. We developed a video in interface board based USB 2.0 for handling image in real time. It is capable of transmitting image input signal like as NTSC, PAL to personal computer through USB 2.0. The developed the board of 40 speeds compared with the exiting system based USB 1.0. Especially the developed system is very helpful for small hospital like as dental clinic, because it is easy and convenient to manage image information without expert. So it will provide reduction of time and cost for handling image information(collecting, saving, retrieval, transmitting image).

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.41-70
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to identify a tendency in patients who seek oriental medical service and factors influencing patient satisfaction. The study was conducted with 1,520 residents of a community during the period from February 5, 2005 through June 30, 2005 using a questionnaire. This study results are summarized as follows : 1. Of subjects who sought oriental medical service, 66.2% had musculoskeletal disorder and connective tissue disease, 18.9% had digestive tract disease, 16.4% had respiratory disease, 8.2% had endocrinemetabolic disease, 7.5% had circulatory disease and the remaining subjects had other diseases(p<0.001). 2. Of subjects who sought oriental medical service for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorder, 84.9% preferred acupuncture. Of those who had digestive tract diseases, 47.0% preferred packaged herbal medicine. Of those who had respiratory disease, 63.0% preferred packaged herbal medicine. 3. Acupuncture was the most often sought by subjects with musculoskeletal disorder. Packaged herbal medicine was sought by subjects with respiratory disease, digestive tract disease, endocrine-metabolic disease or circulatory disease. Tablet-type herbal medicine was sought by subjects with musculoskeletal disorder or digestive tract disease. Combined therapy was sought by subjects with musculoskeletal disorder, digestive tract disease, hematopoietic disease or immune disorder. 4. The level of satisfaction with oriental medical service was higher in subjects with circulatory disease, subjects with digestive tract disease, subjects with neurological disorder and subjects with musculoskeletal disorder in descending order. Of total subjects, 39.4% experienced side effects of oriental medical care, 38.1% experienced side effects of herbal medicine. About 51.9% considered the price of herbal medicine costly while 23.2% considered it reasonable. 5. Subjects' knowledge of herbal medicine was measured as $29.2{\pm}3.83$ out of 42 scores or 69 out of 100 points, indicating a low knowledge level. Subjects' knowledge was influenced by occupation, religion, side effects, sex, age, residence area, the type of insurance. These variables explained 15.2% of the variance. 7. Of total subjects, 56.8% were satisfied with oriental medical service. Patient satisfaction varied with occupation, religion, the type of insurance, health state and treatment outcomes. These variables explained 37.3% of the variance. Conclusion : The majority of subjects were satisfied with oriental medical service. However, oriental medical care are not widely used to treat all kinds of diseases while its use skews to a small categories of diseases. It is therefore necessary for the government and oriental medical service providers to develop new therapy approaches for the treatment of a broader range of diseases.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.352-358
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• 2005

Microsatellites are short tandem repeated nucleotide sequences that are present throughout the human genome. Variations in the repeat number or a loss of heterozygosity around the microsatellites have been termed a microsatellite alteration (MA). A MA reflects the genetic instability caused by an impairment in the DNA mismatch repair system and is suggested to be a novel tumorigenic mechanism. A number of studies have reported that MA in the DNA extracted from the plasma occurs at varying frequencies among patients with a non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). The genomic DNA from 9 subjects with a non-small cell lung cancer (squamous cell cancer 6, adenocarcinoma 2, non-small cell lung cancer1) and 9 age matched non-cancer control subjects (AMC: tuberculosis 3, other inflammatory lung disease 6) and 12 normal control subjects (NC) were extracted from the peripheral blood leukocytes and plasma. Three microsatellite loci were amplified with the primers targeting the Gene Bank sequence D21S1245, D3S1300, and D3S1234. MA in the form of an allelic loss or a band shift was examined with 6% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and silver staining. None (0/12) of the NC subjects less than 40 years of age showed a MA in any of the three markers, while 88.9%(8/9) of the AMC above 40 showed a MA in at least one of the three markers (p<0.05). Sixty percent(6/10) of the control subjects with a smoking history showed a MA in one of the three markers, while 9.1%(1/11) of the control subjects without smoking history showed a MA (p<0.05). However, not only did 66.7%(6/9) of lung cancer patients show a MA in at least one of the three markers but so did 88.9%(8/21) of the AMC patients (p>0.05). In conclusion, a MA in the D21S1245, D3S1300, and D3S1234 loci using DNA extracted from the plasma was detected in 66.7% of lung cancer while no MA was found in the young non-smoking control subjects. However, many of the non-cancer control subjects (aged smokers) also showed a MA, which compromised the specificity of the MA analysis as a screening test. Therefore, a further study with a larger sample size will be needed.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.161-169
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• 2008

Recently, appearance is recognized as competitiveness as well as self expressing means, so understanding of general people have been rapidly changed. Also, since modem people have interest in an operation as well as various cosmetic treatment fields, a plastic surgery clinic is expanding its region to laser treatment and skin care for modem people. However, the plastic surgery clinic is not located in a building for only hospitals, but located in general neighborhood living facilities or an office building, so medical treatment is performed at the place. It is often found that a building plan can not conform to conditions that the hospital requires. This study is to understand a plane deciding factor of the plastic surgery clinic by analyzing it in a limit of building space and functional aspects of the plastic surgery clinic. A study method is first to investigate space composition according to the function, area allocation according to the function and a space privacy region after classifying study objects into large, middle, small scales so as to understand a functional role of the plastic surgery clinic, and secondly to analyze on the base of length of long and short edges of space and a moving line system after classifying common space types of the plastic surgery clinic through plane analysis of the study objects. As a result of the study, functional space difference according to the scale was shown, and the common space types were affected by length of the long and short edges, and it can influence space composition.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.305-309
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• 2020

Breast cancer treatment-related lymphedema (BCRL) is a common comorbidity in breast cancer survivors. Although magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is widely used to evaluate therapeutic response of patients with various medical conditions, it is not routinely used to evaluate lymphedema patients. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify studies on the use of MRI to evaluate therapy for BCRL. We hypothesized that MRI could provide information otherwise not possible through other examinations. On October 21, 2019, we conducted a systematic review on the PubMed/MEDLINE and Scopus databases, without time frame or language limitations, to identify studies on the use of MRI to evaluate therapy for BCRL. We excluded studies that investigated other applications of MRI, such as lymphedema diagnosis and surgical planning. Of 63 potential articles identified with the search, three case series fulfilled the eligibility criteria. In total, 53 patients with BCRL were included and quantitatively evaluated with MRI before and after manual lymphatic drainage. Authors used MRI or MR lymphagiography to investigate factors such as lymphatic vessel cross-sectional area, tissue water relaxation time (T₂), and chemical exchange saturation transfer. The only study that compared MRI measurement with standard examinations reported that MRI added information to the therapy evaluation. MRI seems to be a promising tool for quantitative measurement of therapeutic response in patients with BCRL. However, the identified studies focused on only manual lymphatic drainage and were limited by the small numbers of patients. More studies are necessary to shed light on the topic.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.532-534
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• 2011

Temple trauma that appears initially localized to the skin might possess intracranial complications. Early diagnosis and management of such complications are important, to avoid neurologic sequelae. Non-penetrating head injuries with intracranial hemorrhage caused by a driven bone fragment are extremely rare. A 53-year-old male was referred to our hospital because of intracerebral hemorrhage. He was a mechanic and one day before admission to a local clinic, tip of metallic rod hit his right temple while cutting the rod. Initial brain computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated scanty subdural hematoma at right temporal lobe and left falx and intracerebral hematoma at both frontal lobes. Facial CT with 3-D reconstruction images showed a small bony defect at the right sphenoid bone's greater wing and a small bone fragment at the left frontal lobe, crossing the falx. We present the unusual case of a temple trauma patient in whom a sphenoid bone fragment migrated from its origin upward, to the contralateral frontal lobe, producing hematoma along its trajectory.