• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.64-73
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• 2012

Objectives The purpose of this study is to see the prevalence and the patterns of the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in children and adolescent patients with allergies. Methods We analyzed data on 547 children and adolescents (age from 0-18 years old) chosen from all regions throughout the country with allergic diseases, including atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, asthma and allergic urticaria. We used multiple logistic regression modeling to predict CAM use based on predictor variables. Results The previous 12-months prevalence of CAM usage in overall was 70.7% (atopic dermatitis, 78.1%; allergic rhinitis, 52.9%; asthma, 70.3%; allergic urticaria, 86.3%). Central and southern regions displayed significantly lower rate of using CAM compare to the northern region, and CAM was less likely to be used for the allergic rhinitis patients than the atopic dermatitis patients. The most commonly used CAM type was natural products (62.2%). Top five of the most frequently used CAM modalities were softener water, vitamin, red ginseng, wood bathing and aloe oil. One of the main reasons for trying CAM was from the 'hope for a more effective outcomes in additional to the conventional medicine' (43.9%). The subjective effectiveness of CAM was found to be excellent in 74.0% of the patients, and 70.3% of the parents were willing to recommend CAM therapies to the others. Conclusions CAM is used widely to treat allergic diseases in children and adolescents in Korea. Korean medical doctors should actively discuss the use of CAM with the patients and provide information on the effectiveness and safety of CAM as guide in making choice for usage of CAM.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.229-244
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• 2014

Background: Antibiotic skin test(AST) is very useful for the diagnosis of drug allergies to prevent immediate allergic reactions. Although it is a safe and widespread method, it is performed very diversely by doctors and nurses without consistency and it also differs from countries and hospitals. This study aims to evaluate the current practice of AST by nurses in Korea and to compare it to the general guidelines. Methods: During January 1, 2013 to May 20, 2013, the study was conducted as questionnaires and case-based survey. The questionnaires were given to the nurses who were randomly selected in various University Hospitals (University Hospitals N=276, and Medical center N=19). The case-based surveys were given to the nurses who were conducting AST at various wards of a University Hospital (N=130). The analysis and evaluations of the responses were carried out. Results: The response rate for the questionnaires was 97.6% and 130 cases of the actual case-based surveys were collected. There were clear differences between the survey results and the general guidelines, such as the method of skin test (skin prick test was not conducted), the method of patient selection for AST, test drugs, concentration, volume and interpretation of AST. AST conducted by nurses was highly variable and inconsistent, even among nurses who worked in the same wards and hospitals. Manufactured standard concentration antibiotic solution of AST showed consistency of concentration to a certain degree. Conclusion: Although the general guidelines have been published by several countries including Korea, these are not a great help to nurses as they lack details for conducting AST, practical consideration for nurses in the clinical setting, propagation and education. Standardized guideline for nurses should be published and it should be a safe, clear, comfortable and easily accessible protocol. Futhermore, additional antibiotic solutions to standardize skin test should be developed and manufactured. Lastly, it would be the pharmacists role to compare their hospitals antibiotic skin test methods with the standard guidelines and develop a protocol within the hospital for patients' safety, and to strive to consistently implement it.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.43 no.11 s.353
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• pp.149-158
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• 2006

We proposed a method for improving a performance of TCP downstream between a desktop PC as a fixed host and a PDA as a mobile host in a wired and wireless network based on IEEE 802.11x wireless LAN. With data transmission between these heterogeneous terminals a receiving time during downstream is slower than that during upstream by 20% at maximum. The reason is that their congestion window size will be oscillated due to a significantly lower packet processing rate at receiver compared to a packet sending rate at sender. Thus it will cause to increase the number of control packets to negotiate their window size. To mitigate these allergies, we proposed two distinct methods. First, by increasing a buffer size of a PDA at application layer an internal processing speed of a socket receive buffer of TCP becomes faster and then the window size is more stable. However, a file access time in a PDA is kept nearly constant as the buffer size increases. With the buffer size of 32,768bytes the receiving time is faster by 32% than with that of 512bytes. Second, a delay between packets to be transmitted at sender should be given. With an inter-packet delay of 5ms at sender a resulting receiving time is faster by 7% than without such a delay.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.1068-1075
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• 2018

Kaempferia parviflora, an herbaceous plant in the family Zingiberaceae, is popular in many tropical regions. It is called as black ginger or krachaidum in Thailand and Laos, and its raw or dried root have been used as spices and teas. The rhizomes also have been traditionally used to treat gastrointestinal disorders, ulcers, gout, dysentery, allergies and to improve physical work capacity. Recently, its anti-obesity, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and blood clot-lysis activities were reported. In this study, the anti-thrombosis activity of black ginger was investigated, since improvement in blood fluidity leads to the prevention of various lifestyle-related diseases. The hot water and ethanol extract and their subsequent solvent fractions (hexane, ethylacetate, butanol fractions and water residue) were prepared, and their anti-coagulation and platelet aggregation inhibitory activities were determined, respectively. Among the black ginger extracts and their fractions, the ethylacetate fraction (EAF) of ethanol extract only showed significant extensions of blood coagulation time determined by thrombin time (TT), prothrombin time (PT), and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT). At 5 mg/ml concentration, TT, PT and aPTT were extended to 1.22, 1.49 and >15-folds compared to non-treatment. The EAFs of ethanol and hot water extract showed strong inhibitions against collagen-induced platelet aggregations, which are comparable to inhibitions of aspirin. Also the EAFs from black ginger did not show any hemolysis activity against human RBC up to 0.5 mg/ml. Our results suggest that the EAF of black ginger has a potential as novel anti-coagulation and ant-platelet aggregation agent. This report provides the first evidence of anti-coagulation activity of black ginger.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.104-109
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• 2020

Background: It is challenging to diagnose asthma in preschool children. The asthma predictive index (API) has been used to predict asthma and decide whether to initiate treatment in preschool children. Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the association between questionnaire-based current asthma with API, pulmonary function, airway hyperreactivity (AHR), fractional expiratory nitric oxide (FeNO), and atopic sensitization in preschool children. Methods: We performed a population-based cross-sectional study in 916 preschool children aged 4-6 years. We defined current asthma as the presence of both physician-diagnosed asthma and at least one wheezing episode within the previous 12 months using a modified International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood questionnaire. Clinical and laboratory parameters were compared between groups according to the presence of current asthma. Results: The prevalence of current asthma was 3.9% in the study population. Children with current asthma showed a higher rate of positive bronchodilator response and loose and stringent API scores than children without current asthma. The stringent API was associated with current asthma with 72.2% sensitivity and 82.0% specificity. The diagnostic accuracy of the stringent API for current asthma was 0.771. However, no intergroup differences in spirometry results, methacholine provocation test results, FeNO level, or atopic sensitization rate were observed. Conclusion: The questionnaire-based diagnosis of current asthma is associated with API, but not with spirometry, AHR, FeNO, or atopic sensitization in preschool children.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.256-269
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• 2011

Omega-3 fatty acids are a specific type of unsaturated fat that the body cannot manufacture on its own, so they must be obtained from food which is essential fatty acids (EFAs). Omega-3 fatty acids consist of three types which are a-Linolenic Acid (ALA), Eicosapentaenoic (ELA), and Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA). Especially, EFAs help to prevent skin and hair drying, acne, eczema, prevention from allergies, brittle nails, rashes, and tiny lumps. The aim of this study is to investigate improvement and protection for hair damaged by chemical treatment with omega-3 formulated shampoo. We selected virgin hair sample and divided into two groups for bleaching once and three times and then damaged hair by changing the number of hair bleaching (twice with interval of 15 minutes). Each bleached hair was treated by five different kinds of shampoo (Control, Horse shampoo, DHA shampoo, EPA shampoo, Omega-3 shampoo mixture). Apart from this, EPA/DHA 2, 5, 8, 10 and 12% shampoo were prepared and treated to hair for comparing rate of progress in damaged hair. To quantify improved condition of damaged hair, we performed Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) for ultrastructure of damaged hair fraction, measurement of thickness change and BCA Protein Assay for recovery rate of damaged hair. The moisture in hair was measured by Thermal analysis machine. In results, we observed the particle of hair surface damaged by bleaching treatment were well improved with treatment with EPA and DHA shampoo. Also, quantity of protein was lowered with higher concentration of EPA & DHA i.e., 8 and 12 % then compared with horse oil shampoo in three times treatment group. It shows that bleached hair have been recovered by treating rapidly and get protective coat. In conclusion, EPA and DHA shampoo improved damaged hair, especially with EPA / DHA 12% shampoo. Also, EPA shampoo could protect the damaged hair depending on increasing concentration of EPA. Therefore, we conclude omega-3 shampoo could make damaged hair protect and get healthy hair environment.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 2013

We know that humans are able to live comfortably when there is a balance between the living environment that surrounds us and us. Clothing, one of the necessities of life, serves a dual purpose of functioning as protection for the body as well as providing visual satisfaction, and so is the most effective bonding mechanism. A different type of comfort that has been provided through industrialization and advancements in technology has resulted in pollution problems in the environment, and it has reached a point of seriously thinking about its effects. The biggest problems in environmental pollution are air pollution and waste disposal, and something that cannot be ignored is that environmental hormones and harmful heavy metals have been discovered in the synthetic dyes used in the clothing product, and not only are they harmful to the body, but they also have adverse effects on skin allergies such as atopic dermatitis. Its effects on clothing, especially underwear and baby products, can become a serious issue. The use of natural vegetable dye can be considered the basis for the traditional Korean dyeing process, however not all natural dyeing process can be thought of as traditional Korean dyeing. This is because natural dyeing used to be the most common method of dyeing before synthetic dyes came along and became the dye of choice for most clothing. Natural dyes are beneficial to the body, and the nature colors, achieved from the natural materials, relieve eye strains as well as have a healing effect for people who are suffering from psychological instability such as stress. However, the use of mordant in order to increase the fastness and get better color effects can lead to even more damage to the environment, and it cannot be a dyeing method that is good for the body. Traditional natural dyeing is different from regular natural dyeing because it uses colors that the Korean people can identify with and applies specific methods in order to achieve those colors. Even though experimental study with dyestuff and practical use of the dyeing methods for traditional Korean dyeing has been started(Soh, H., 1983) and has been ongoing, it is still not easy for regular people to use the method on their own. At the present time, natural dye materials are getting made and sold more than ever, but there is a lot of confusion among consumers regarding the difference between traditional Korean dyeing and natural dyeing, as companies are using the two terms interchangeably to market their natural dye products. So getting a better understanding of the characteristics of traditional Korean dyeing and traditional colors should be considered first priority at this time. The purpose of this thesis is to study the traditional Korean view of color, which developed the culture of traditional dyeing in Korea, and the characteristics of traditional Korean dyeing, a method that pursued achieving Korea's color through natural dyeing.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.49 no.10
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• pp.1061-1066
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• 2006

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to research whether measurement of cow's milk specific IgE on the newborn would be helpful in the diagnosis of cow's milk allergy. We tried to find out the relation between cow's milk specific IgE and other allergy diseases by following up cases. Methods : We reviewed clinical features of 87 episodes in infants less than 4 weeks old who were positive in cow's milk specific IgE test. For the study group, history taking, physical examinations, elimination and cow's milk specific IgE tests were carried out. We investigated the connection among cow' milk specific IgE, allergic disease and family history in 40 of 87 patients we could follow up on. Results : The mean age of the study group was $17.2{\pm}5.4days$. The subjects were classified in four groups according into allergens : 87 milk allergy positive patients, 24 casein positive, 38 ${\alpha}$-lactoalbumin positive, and 75 ${\beta}$-lactoglobulin positive. The number of patients who had follow-ups for more than 6 months to was 40(45.9 percent). The patients whose parents had allergic disease numberred 10(25 percent). Fiften patients had allergic diseases, 4 had asthma and 11 atopic dermatitis. According to the follow-up study, there is a significant relation between casein positive patients and allergic disease. But there is no statistical and significant relation between cow's milk specific IgE and a family history of allergic disease. Conclusion : For the newborn babies, elimination tests and cow's milk specific IgE tests can be useful in the diagnosis of IgE-mediated or mixed milk allergies.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.616-628
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine symptom experiences, sleep quality, and quality of life in asthma patients and investigate any correlation among these factors. The study was conducted on 146 asthma patients that visited the Internal Medicine Department of Allergies at a hospital in Korea from March to June, 2015. Tools that were originally developed by Oh (1999) were used to measure the symptom experience of asthma patients. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) while quality of life was measured by the Short Form 36-Items Heath Survey (SF-36). The dates were analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient using the SPSS 20.0 program. Symptom experiences of asthma patients showed a positive relation with sleep quality (r=.468, p<.001) and negative relationship with quality of life; PCS (r=-495, p<.001) and MCS (r=-.411, p<.001). The symptom experiences of an asthma patient along with sleep quality and quality of life turned out to be correlated. Therefore, this study is expected to be utilized as a basis for the development of assessment tools and arbitration programs to elucidate symptom experiences of asthma patients from various aspects and enhance their sleep quality and quality of life.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.1023-1029
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• 2016

Probiotic functional foods are known to have various functional effects such as intestinal regulation, modulation of immune system, reduction of allergies, and lowering of cholesterol. The purpose of this study was to select probiotic strain that is most suitable for freeze-dried coffee for the development of functional coffee products. The survival rate of probiotics, at drinking condition of coffee, at acid, at bile and after freeze-dried in coffee were measured on 1 strain isolated from commercial freeze-dried coffee, 8 strains used as fermented milk starter, 1 Bifidobacterium and 1 Bacillus coagulans. Bacillus coagulans showed the highest survival rate from $2.4{\times}10^7cfu/g$ to $2.0{\times}10^7cfu/g$ especially after freeze-drying. The results at drinking condition of coffee, at acid tolerance, at bile tolerance and at storage test showed significantly better survival rate of Bacillus coagulans than that of control (Lactobacillus casei). Especially, Bacillus coagulans showed 3.8-fold higher survival rate at acid tolerance (pH 1, 120 minutes) than control. Thus, the lactic acid-producing Bacillus coagulans is characterized as a probiotic strain suitable for functional coffee formulation and commercialization.