• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.26-34
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• 2018

Objectives : This study tried to explore the prevalence of chronic physical diseases in patients with schizophrenia and its effects on total medical costs. Methods : The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service data in 2014-2015 was employed. Only the injuries and diseases, identically diagnosed 3 times or more as a major or minor injury and disease, were classified into chronic physical diseases to improve data accuracy. Total medical costs included out-of-pocket and insurer's costs from health care system perspective. Results : It was shown that 24.5%, 17.3% and 23.4% of schizophrenia patients had one, two and three or more chronic physical diseases, respectively. There was a high prevalence of not only metabolic, but also musculoskeletal, diseases in those patients. The amount of 2015 total medical costs of patients with schizophrenia in 2014 was about 1.08 trillion won. The factors affecting the costs included sex, age, number of chronic physical diseases, and health insurance status. Conclusions : It is considered that clinical practice guidelines based on personal diseases may not sufficiently solve the problems for comorbidities in schizophrenia patients. Accordingly, it should be required to develop models for new types of medical systems capable of treating and caring varied illnesses at the same time.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.786-796
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• 1999

Background: It has been anticipated that the amount and composition of mucin are changed in patients with chronic airway diseases. We evaluated whether RTO3(mAb against rat tracheal mucins) could quantify the amount of mucin from the airway in the patients with chronic airway diseases. Methods and results; 1) RTO3 was bound to high molecular weight of mucin based on Western blot in sputum and BALF from patients with chronic airway diseases. 2) The goblet cells and submucosal glands in main bronchus from human were observed by PAS stain. And immunohistochemical stain with RTO3 showed immunoreactivity on some goblet cells. 3) The amount of mucin was more increased in patients with chronic airway diseases compared to those in normal subjects. 4) In the exacerbation of asthmatics, mucin amounts were more increased than stable asthmatics. Conclusion: We suggested that secreted mucin in chronic airway diseases can be quantified by ELISA with RTO3.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.83 no.2
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• pp.107-115
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• 2020

Aging is often viewed as a progressive decline in fitness due to cumulative deleterious alterations of biological functions in the living system. Recently, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying aging biology has significantly advanced. Interestingly, many of the pivotal molecular features of aging biology are also found to contribute to the pathogenesis of chronic lung disorders such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, for which advanced age is the most crucial risk factor. Thus, an enhanced understanding of how molecular features of aging biology are intertwined with the pathobiology of these aging-related lung disorders has paramount significance and may provide an opportunity for the development of novel therapeutics for these major unmet medical needs. To serve the purpose of integrating molecular understanding of aging biology with pulmonary medicine, in this review, recent findings obtained from the studies of aging-associated lung disorders are summarized and interpreted through the perspective of molecular biology of aging.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.71 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2011

Many findings suggest that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) imposes an enormous burden on patients, health-care professionals and society. COPD contributes to morbidity and mortality and to a significant use of health-care resources. In spite of a higher prevalence of COPD in Korea, the result of COPD treatment is not effective. The purpose of this article was to review recent advances in the study of COPD in Korea with the aim of improving effective management. This review highlights articles pertaining to the following topics; prevalence, assessment of COPD, risk factors for hospitalization, co-morbid diseases, phenotypes, and treatment issues.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.174-185
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• 2006

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) were evolved to detect invading pathogens and to induce innate immune responses in order to mount host defense mechanisms. It becomes apparent that the activation of certain TLRs is also modulated by endogenous molecules including lipid components, fatty acids. Results from epidemiological and animal studies demonstrated that saturated and polyunsaturated dietary fatty acids can differentially modify the risk of development of many chronic diseases. Inflammation is now recognized as an important underlying etiologic condition for the pathogenesis of many chronic diseases. Therefore, if the activation of TLRs and consequent inflammatory and immune responses are differentially modulated by types of lipids in vivo, this would suggest that the risk of the development of chronic inflammatory diseases and the host defense against microbial infection may be modified by the types of dietary fat consumed.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.120-129
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• 2023

Recent technical advances have enabled unbiased transcriptomic and epigenetic analysis of each cell, known as "single-cell analysis". Single-cell analysis has a variety of technical approaches to investigate the state of each cell, including mRNA levels (transcriptome), the immune repertoire (immune repertoire analysis), cell surface proteins (surface proteome analysis), chromatin accessibility (epigenome), and accordance with genome variants (eQTLs; expression quantitative trait loci). As an effective tool for investigating robust immune responses in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many researchers performed single-cell analysis to capture the diverse, unbiased immune cell activation and differentiation. Despite challenges elucidating the complicated immune microenvironments of chronic inflammatory diseases using existing experimental methods, it is now possible to capture the simultaneous immune features of different cell types across inflamed tissues using various single-cell tools. In this review, we introduce patient-based and experimental mouse model research utilizing single-cell analyses in the field of chronic inflammatory diseases, as well as multi-organ atlas targeting immune cells.

• Archives of Obesity and Metabolism
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.71-75
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• 2023

Obesity is closely related to chronic diseases and cancer. The present case report aims to discuss the anti-obesity treatment strategy and the evaluation of the clinical progress in a patient with obesity and concurrent fatty liver disease. Following five months of treatment with liraglutide and rosuvastatin, the patient had a weight reduction of 3 kg (4.7%), a decrease in fasting blood sugar by 42 mg/dl (26.6%), a decrease in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol by 82 mg/dl (60.2%), and decrease in alanine transaminase. This case report documented the treatment of a patient with common chronic diseases encountered in the outpatient setting. Based on the therapeutic effects documented in clinical and laboratory indices, the anti-obesity treatment plan significantly aided in managing chronic diseases.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.109-118
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• 2010

Objectives : This pilot study is designed to reveal the effect of Carthami-semen acupuncture treatment on chronic daily headache. Methods : 1. All the voluntary subjects were diagnosed as CDH. 2. Carthami-semen acupuncture is applied 2 times a week for 4 weeks. 3. The patients were assessed by Headache impairment test score(HIT), Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey, and Headache Free Days(HFD) before and after 4 weeks treatment, and two weeks the treatment finished. Results : The result were as follows ; 1. HIT score decreased from $65.3{\pm}5.5$ to $53.1{\pm}9.4$, and furthermore declined to $49.5{\pm}8.0$ after 2 weeks the treatment finished. 2. HFD increased from 19.1% to 31.5% during the treatment time. Moreover it showed continuous effectiveness after 2 weeks the treatment finished. 3. SF-36 showed significant improvement on all of the QOL items. Conclusions : This pilot study suggests that Carthami-semen acupuncture treatment has an effect on the CDH patients.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.84 no.1
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• pp.35-45
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• 2021

Globally, cardiovascular diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are the leading causes of the non-communicable disease burden. Overlapping symptoms such as breathing difficulty and fatigue, with a lack of awareness about COPD among physicians, are key reasons for under-diagnosis and resulting sub-optimal care relative to COPD. Much has been published in the past on the pathogenesis and implications of cardiovascular comorbidities in COPD. However, a comprehensive review of the prevalence and impact of COPD management in commonly encountered cardiac diseases is lacking. The purpose of this study was to summarize the current knowledge regarding the prevalence of COPD in heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and atrial fibrillation. We also discuss the real-life clinical presentation and practical implications of managing COPD in cardiac diseases. We searched PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and Google Scholar for studies published 1981-May 2020 reporting the prevalence of COPD in the three specified cardiac diseases. COPD has high prevalence in heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and ischemic heart disease. Despite this, COPD remains under-diagnosed and under-managed in the majority of patients with cardiac diseases. The clinical implications of the diagnosis of COPD in cardiac disease includes the recognition of hyperinflation (a treatable trait), implementation of acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) prevention strategies, and reducing the risk of overuse of diuretics. The pharmacological agents for the management of COPD have shown a beneficial effect on cardiac functions and mortality. The appropriate management of COPD improves the cardiovascular outcomes by reducing hyperinflation and preventing AECOPD, thus reducing the risk of mortality, improving exercise tolerance, and quality of life.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2013

Objectives : This article is a study on to which categories of modern diseases blood stasis patterns are assigned and the meaning of blood stasis interpreted with perspectives of Korean Medicine and modern medicine. Methods : We reviewed "Neijing", "Shanghanlun", "Yilingaicuo", "Xuezhenglun" and other books and modern clinical papers related with blood stasis. Results : 1. Blood stasis patterns are related with disorders of hemorrheology, hemodynamics, platelet function, microcirculation, microelements and endothelial damage. 2. From the types of syndrome differentiation, diverse diseases classified in type of qi deficiency with blood stasis and type of blood stasis due to qi stagnation are reported, which reflects qi and blood are closely connected. And many diseases are classified in type of kidney deficiency with blood stasis, which has something in common with chronic diseases can achieve effect from treatment considering blood stasis. 3. Diseases related with kidney involve menopausal disorder, mazoplasia, prostatitis, erectile dysfunction, chronic nephritis, renal calculus, osteoporosis and bursitis. Diseases related with heart involve coronary artery disease, arrhythmia and cerebral thrombosis. Diseases related with spleen involve gastritis, colonitis and digestive organ ulcer. Diseases related with liver involve hepatitis, hyperthyroidism and stroke. Diseases related with lung involve neurodermatitis, bronchitis and paranasal sinusitis. Conclusions : Blood stasis pattern which is one of the areas to draw medicine's attention has broad clinical application.