• Journal of Biomedical and Translational Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.110-115
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• 2018

Transient ischemic attack (TIA) indicates high risk for major stroke and is considered a medical emergency. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) enables detection of acute ischemic lesions. The clinical significance of DWI positive lesions in TIA is obscure and its prevalence, clinical features are not established. Therefore, we performed a clinical, etiological and prognostic analysis through a cross-sectional analysis of 235 TIA patients, grouped according to presence of DWI lesion. Clinical features, underlying risk factors for stroke, outcome and rate of recurrence were analyzed. 3 months follow-up of modified Rankin Scales (mRS) were done with telephone survey. DWI positive lesions were present in 14.0% of patients. Etiological factors significantly associated with DWI lesions in TIA patients were male sex (p = 0.038), stroke history (p = 0.012) and atrial fibrillation (p < 0.001). Presence of at least one medium or high risk of cardioembolism from TOAST classification were not associated with lesions when excluding association to atrial fibrillation (p = 0.108). Clinical features showed no significant difference. Whether the patients had lesion-positive DWI was not related to an increase in mRS score during the hospital stay or at the 3-month follow-up after discharge. Future studies should include multi-center samples with large numbers, considering each unique medical environment. Routine acquisition of follow-up DWI for proper evaluation of the tissue-based definition of TIA should also be considered.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.368-370
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• 2013

Post-stroke atrial fibrillation has been frequently reported especially in the patients with right insular infarct as an evidence of cerebrogenic mechanism affecting on cardiac rhythm. However, conversion to normal sinus rhythm after stroke in patients who had atrial fibrillation has not been reported. A 88-year-old men who had untreated atrial fibrillation was admitted to hospital due to left middle cerebral artery territory infarction. During admission, second ischemic attack occurred in right middle cerebral artery territory. At that time, his atrial fibrillation converted spontaneously to normal sinus rhythm. Restored sinus rhythm sustained until he died due to sepsis. This case is evidence supporting a theory that brain is associated with control of cardiac rhythm. If no risk factor is revealed by intensive investigation in patients with acute cerebral infarctions that cardioembolism is strongly suspected as a cause, physicians should concern transformation of atrial fibrillation to normal sinus rhythm after stroke.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.1 s.69
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• pp.35-41
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• 2007

Objectives : To gain better insights on the characteristics of stroke patients admitted to oriental medical hospitals, we analyzed the data of 363 consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke from Hanbang Stroke Registry supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Korea. Methods : Subjects' enrollment was in the oriental medical hospitals of 3 universities located in the metropolitan region from October 2005 to October 2006. We assessed the subjects' general characteristics, risk factors, and etiology of stroke. Each patient's TOAST classification type was confirmed by two independent specialists. Those were small vessel occlusion (SVO), large artery atherosclerosis (LAA), cardioembolism (CE), stroke with other determined etiology (SOE), and stroke with undetermined etiology (SUE).Results 'The distribution of the subjects' general characteristics and risk factors for stroke were similar with result storm previous reports. However, in the TOAST classification, SVO was the major type occupying 78.5% in the total subjects, which is the highest share compared with other research with similar methods. These results imply that patients with more severe symptoms rarely visit oriental medical hospitals. Conclusion : Assuming that this research will continue adding patient's data continuously, this work will help us to understand the features of stroke patients at oriental medical hospitals, and contribute to expansion of the Korean Hanbang Stroke Data Bank.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.130-136
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• 2007

Objectives : Recent educational efforts have concentrated on patient's early hospital arrival after symptom onset. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the time interval between symptom onset and hospital arrival and to investigate its relation with clinical outcomes for patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods : A prospective registry of patients with signs or symptoms of acute ischemic stroke, admitted to the OO Medical Center through emergency room, was established from September 2003 to December 2004. The interval between symptom onset and hospital arrival was recorded for each eligible patient and analyzed together with clinical characteristics, medication type, severity of neurologic deficits, and functional outcomes. Results : Based on the data of 256 patients, the median interval between symptom onset and hospital arrival was 13 hours, and 22% of patients were admitted to the hospital within 3 hours after symptom onset. Patients of not-mild initial severity and functional status showed significant differences between arrival hours of 0-3 and later than 3 in terms of their functional outcomes on discharge. Logistic regression models also showed that arrival within 3 hours was a significant factor influencing functional outcome (OR=5.6; 95% CI=2.1, 15.0), in addition to patient's initial severity, old age, cardioembolism subtype, and referral to another hospital. Conclusions : The time interval between symptom onset and hospital arrival significantly influenced treatment outcome for patients with acute ischemic stroke, even after controlling for other significant clinical characteristics. The findings provided initiatives for early hospital arrival of patients and improvement of emergency medical system.

• Journal of the Korean neurological association
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.337-340
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• 2018

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection can result in ischemic stroke via several mechanisms, including opportunistic infection, vasculopathy, cardioembolism, and coagulopathy. HIV-vasculopathy is related to endothelial dysfunction, stenosis and aneurysm formation, infectious vasculitis, dissection and accelerated atherosclerosis during highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). We represent a case of HIV infection manifested as an acute ischemic stroke attack. After 4 months during HAART, our patient experienced a recurrent ischemic stroke with progression of middle cerebral artery stenosis.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.82-89
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• 2010

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine distribution patterns of TOAST subtypes of ischemic stroke patients admitted to oriental hospitals and to get a better understanding of present conditions in oriental medicine by comparing with the Korea stroke registry (KSR), the largest and representative data. Methods: Clinical data were collected from acute ischemic stoke patients. MRI studies including vascular images were performed in all cases. TOAST criteria were used to determine subtypes of ischemic stroke patients. According to the duration from disease onset to hospital admission time, patients were assigned to 3 groups (Group I0 to 3 d, Group II4 to 7 d, Group III8 to 28 d) and the distribution of TOAST subtypes were compared among these three groups. Results: We collected 514 sets of clinical data from 10 oriental hospitals between May 2007 and September 2009. Small vessel occlusion (SVO) subtype was the most common (57.62%), followed by large artery atherosclerosis (LAA, 29.98%). Compared with TOAST distribution of KSR, the proportion of ischemic stroke patients with SVO subtype was higher than that of KSR. On the other hand the proportion of patients with stroke of undetermined etiology (SUE) was lower. Distributions of SVO, LAA and cardioembolism (CE) in group were I 66.4%, 23.8% and 8.9%, respectively; those in group IIIwere 51.03%, 34.71% and 11.57%, respectively. Conclusions: In oriental hospitals, the proportion of ischemic stroke patients diagnosed as SVO type was higher than that of KSR. At early stage (from onset to 2 d) proportion of SVO was very high, however after 7 days from onset it decreased with concomitant increases in proportions of LAA and CE. These phenomena may be due to the facts that 1) at early stage emergency treatments are limited in oriental hospitals, 2) after early stage many patients prefer oriental treatments, including rehabilitation.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.905-914
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• 2006

Background and Purpose : The purpose of this study was to classify according to the TOAST classification (Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment) acute stroke patients (first-ever stroke) treated at the Department of Internal Medicine of Kyungwon University In-cheon Oriental Medical Hospital. Methods : In the time period Oct. 2005 to Oct. 2006. 101 patients with a first-ever stroke admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine of Kyungwon University In-cheon Oriental Medical Hospital were included. Patients were hospitalized within 14 days after the onset of stroke. They had neurological deficits for a time more than 24 hours. We classified patients according to the original TOAST classification (Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment) Results : The incidence in males was 54.4%, in females was 45.6%. Ischemic stroke (86.l%) was more common than hemorrhagic stroke (13.9%). The results of TOAST classification in this study were as follows: small-vessel occlusion, 72.4% large-artery atherosclerosis. 14.9 % cardioembolism, 4.6% stroke of other determined etiology, 4.6%: stroke of undetermined etiology, 3.5%. Patients in the small-vessel occlusion subgroup in this study were the most frequent. The result of this study is that Korean stroke registry is not in accordance with western medicine. Conclusions : The TOAST classification system is the most widely accepted tool to categorize stroke subtypes in western medicine, but in oriental medicine, it is not yet widely accepted. The authors suggest the general use of the TOAST classification to determine adequate management for stroke patients, to predict the prognosis and recurrence of stroke and to develop a Korean standard of stroke in oriental medicine.