• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2005

Objectives : To analyze medical expenses by cancer site and survival time among cancer patients in their last year of life. Method : The study subjects were 45,394 people that had died of cancers in 2002, were registered by the Korea Central Cancer Registry and received National Health Insurance benefit in the last year (360 days) of life. Personal identification data, general characteristics, dates of death and cancer incidence, and site of cancer were collected from the National Statistical Office and the Korea Central Cancer Registry, and merged with the data of the individual medical expenses of the Health Insurance Review Agency. Results : Average monthly cost curves were U-shaped with high costs near the time of diagnosis and death, and lower costs in between. Medical expenses in the last year of life were around 30.3, 16.7, 13.0, and 12.1 million won among leukemia, lymphoma, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer patients, respectively. Digestive organ cancers including stomach, esophagus, liver, pancreas, and colorectal cancers had relatively low medical expenses. Medical expenses in the last year of life were inverse U-shaped with high expenses near one year of survival. Average monthly cost in the 12 months before death among the patients who had survived $10{\sim}15$ years were more than two-fold greater than the cost before diagnosis among those who had survived for less than one year. Conclusions : Leukemia was the most expensive cancer. It is possible that once diagnosed as cancer, medical expenses do not return to the level before diagnosis. Further research will be needed to understand the magnitude and change of the medical expenses among cancer patients with long term follow up data.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.137-142
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• 2011

Extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) have the ability to produce a variety of behavioral and physiological changes in animals. The stomach, as the most sensitive part of the neuroendocrine organ of the gastrointestinal tract, is crucial for the initiation of a full stress response against all harmful stress. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine whether ELF-MF stimuli induce changes in the activity of neuroendocrine cells, considering their involvement in endocrine or paracrine effect on surrounding cells. The exposure to ELF-MF (durations of 24 h and 1 or 2 weeks, 60 Hz frequency, 0.1 mT intensity) altered the distribution and occurrence of gastrin, ghrelin and somatostatinpositive endocrine cells in the stomach of rats. The change, however, in the secretion of those hormones into blood from endocrine cells did not appear significantly with ELF-MF exposure. Comparing with sham control, ELF-MF exposure for 1 and 2 week induced an increase in $BaSO_4$ suspension propelling ratio of gastrointestinal tract, indicating that ELF-MF affects gastrointestinal motility. Our study revealed that ELF-MF exposure might influence the activity of endocrine cells, an important element of the intrinsic regulatory system in the digestive tract. The pathophysiological character of these changes and the mechanism responsible for neuroendocrine cell are still unclear and require further studies.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.28-36
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• 1994

Studies on the food-safety of pheasant and mallard, which belong to wild fowl as new meat resources. were carried out. The results were summarized as follows : 1. Food poisoning bacteria including Salmonella spp, was not detected from the inspections of small intestine, cecum, and rectum. 2. Parasite inspection tests on blood, feces, digestive organ, and thoracic organs were negative. 3. Antibiotic residues from the carcass muscle by simplified disk methods were not detected. 4. Seven different pesticide residue tests, such as DDT and BHT, on the muscle and liver were negative. 5. Four different kinds of toxic heavy metals such as Cd were much lower than the permissible concentration. Studies on the food safety tests and inspections from the pheasant and mallard were revealed that from taking this new food resources, the toxicities would be very low for the human health by the direct influences.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.62-65
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• 2017

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease and despite the efforts of the past few decades, the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate remains disappointing and does not exceed 10% in Korea. Especially, only 15-20% of patients are candidates for surgical resection because most patients are diagnosed with locally advanced or metastatic disease, and their only treatment approach is palliative chemotherapy. Since the first chemo-regimen of Gemcitabine and Nanoparticle albumin bound (nab) - paclitaxel was brought to clinical practice in 2013, the improvement in overall survival, progression-free survival, and response rate was achieved in patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma. We report the case of a young patient with cardiogenic shock accompanied by multi-organ failure after 4^th cycle Gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel chemotherapy with partial response.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.451-466
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• 2023

Gastrointestinal cancer (GC) is a prevalent malignant tumor of the digestive system that poses a severe health risk to humans. Due to the specific organ structure of the gastrointestinal system, both endoscopic and MRI diagnoses of GIC have limited sensitivity. The primary factors influencing curative efficacy in GIC patients are drug inefficacy and high recurrence rates in surgical and pharmacological therapy. Due to its unique optical features, good biocompatibility, surface effects, and small size effects, nanotechnology is a developing and advanced area of study for the detection and treatment of cancer. Because of its deep location and complex surgery, diagnosing and treating gastrointestinal cancer is very difficult. The early diagnosis and urgent treatment of gastrointestinal illness are enabled by nanotechnology. As diagnostic and therapeutic tools, nanoparticles directly target tumor cells, allowing their detection and removal. XGBoost was used as a classification method known for achieving numerous winning solutions in data analysis competitions, to capture nonlinear relations among many input variables and outcomes using the boosting approach to machine learning. The research sample included 300 GC patients, comprising 190 males (72.2% of the sample) and 110 women (27.8%). Using convolutional neural networks (CNN) and artificial neural networks (ANN)-EXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), the patients mean± SD age was 50.42 ± 13.06. High-risk behaviors (P = 0.070), age at diagnosis (P = 0.037), distant metastasis (P = 0.004), and tumor stage (P = 0.015) were shown to have a statistically significant link with GC patient survival. AUC was 0.92, sensitivity was 81.5%, specificity was 90.5%, and accuracy was 84.7 when analyzing stomach picture.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.140-146
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• 2024

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare complication of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), causing multi-organ damage affecting the heart, lungs, kidneys, digestive tract, and nervous system. As the cases of MIS-C have been increasing following the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of appropriate management for MIS-C is becoming increasingly apparent. Immunomodulating agents such as anakinra, infliximab, and steroids are regarded as supplementary therapy to the first-line treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin. However, these immunomodulating therapies can potentially precipitate opportunistic infections, including those caused by cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus, and tuberculosis, or increase the risk of co-infections. Herein, we report a case of a 3-year-old boy who was treated with immunoglobulin, infliximab, and high-dose methylprednisolone for MIS-C, and subsequently developed a persistent fever lasting 32 days caused by a CMV infection.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.105-113
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• 2024

Background: Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a toxic metabolite generated by Aspergillus species and is commonly detected during the processing and storage of food; it is considered a group I carcinogen. The hepatotoxic effects, diseases, and mechanisms induced by AFB1 owing to chronic or acute exposure are well documented; however, there is a lack of research on its effects on the intestine, which is a crucial organ in the digestive process. Dogs are often susceptible to chronic AFB1 exposure owing to lack of variation in their diet, unlike humans, thereby rendering them prone to its effects. Therefore, we investigated the effects of AFB1 on canine small intestinal epithelial primary cells (CSIc). Methods: We treated CSIc with various concentrations of AFB1 (0, 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 40, and 80 μM) for 24 h and analyzed cell viability and transepithelial-transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER) value. Additionally, we analyzed the mRNA expression of tight junction-related genes (OCLN, CLDN3, TJP1, and MUC2), antioxidant-related genes (CAT and GPX1), and apoptosis-related genes (BCL2, Bax, and TP53). Results: We found a significant decrease in CSIc viability and TEER values after treatment with AFB1 at concentrations of 20 μM or higher. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis indicated a downregulation of OCLN, CLDN3, and TJP1 in CSIc treated with 20 μM or higher concentrations of AFB1. Additionally, AFB1 treatment downregulated CAT, GPX1, and BCL2. Conclusions: Acute exposure of CSIc to AFB1 induces toxicity, and exposure to AFB1 above a certain threshold compromises the barrier integrity of CSIc.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.211-221
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• 1999

The ultrastructural changes of cuticular surface, excretory and digestive organs of Anisakis simplex larvae chronologically recovered from experimental cats were observed with a SEM and TEM. The larva recovered from an experimental cat at 3 days post-infection (PI) retained the cuticular surface with regular transverse striations and a longitudinal groove on the lateral side of body. This finding suggests that the molting of the 3rd stage larva of A. simplex to 4th one occurred from the 3rd day after infection in cats. The excretory organ (renette cell) consisted of a large cell with numerous ductules ramified from the main duct, mitochondria and secretory granules in cytoplasm. Secretory granules in the renette cell of larvae recovered at 24 hours PI were round whereas those of control and larvae recovered at 6 hours PI were amorphous. Muscular esophagus and ventriculus also retained many secretory granules in the cytoplasm. The secretory granules in these organs of larvae recovered at $6\sim24$ hours PI were electron-dense and widely distributed whereas those of control worm were packed in a pocket and retained various electron densities. In the cytoplasm of intestinal epithelial cells, numerous fine glycogen particles and mitochondria were distributed. The chronological changes of secretory granules in renette cell, muscular esophagus and ventriculus seem to be related with the worm penetration into host tissue.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.21-35
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• 2007

Objectives : The aim of this study is to find the therapeutic meaning of the Portulacea in herbal medication. Methods : About the origin, the component, the processing the drug, the properties and tastes of drugs, the meridian tropism, the effects, the treating disease, the contraindication and the method of administration, I have researched thirty literatures to mention the Portulacea in time sequence. Results : 1. The Portulacea belongs to the Portulacaceae herbs and it consists of noradrenaline, potassium sometimes containing small amounts of dopamine, dopa, malic acid, citric acid, glutamine acid, asparagin acid, alanine, cane sugar, grape sugar, fruit sugar. 2. The processing of drug is wash of water clealy, and remove the foreign substance. Then the drug is cutting to use. The method of burnt to ashes is used, too. 3. The properties and tastes of drugs is acid, cold, nontoxic. The meridian tropism is mainly liver and the large intestine meridian. 4. From old times, Portulacea has come into general use to treat eczema, the rose erysipelas, an acne, hemorrhoids, discharge from the womb etc. because it is effective on neutralizing poison, reduce a swelling, a tumor, an abscess and stopping of bleeding 5. Portulacea must be stoped When person have a weak digestive organ becase it is cold herba. And don't take use with Fish and shellfish. 6. Portulacea is useful method to external care. To use the herba, pulverize amount of property and then apply to the the affected part Conclusions : This study showed that the Portulacea is useful herb to treat of skin disease and useful method to external care.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.430-435
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• 2000

Cleft lip and palate is one of the congenital anomalies which need comprehensive and multidisciplinary treatment plan because 1) oral cavity is an important organ with masticatory function as a start of digestive tract, 2) anatomic symmetry and balance is esthetically important in midfacial area, and 3) it is also important to prevent psycho-social problems by adequate restoration of normal facial appearance. There are many different protocols in the treatment of cleft lip and palate, but our department has adopted and modified the $Z{\"{u}}rich$ protocol, as published in the Journal of Korean Cleft Lip and Palate Association in 1998. The first challenge is feeding. Type of feeding aid ranges from simple obturators to active orthopedic appliances. In our department we use passive-type plate made up of soft and hard acrylic resin which permits normal maxillary growth. We use Millard's method to restore normal appearance and function of unilateral complete cleft lip. In consideration of both maxillary growth and phonetic problems, we first close soft palate at 18 months of age and delay the hard palate palatoplasty until 4 to 5 years of age. When soft palate is closed, posterior third of the hard palate is intentionally not denuded to allow normal maxillary growth. In hard palate palatoplasty the mucoperiosteum of affected site is not mobilized to permit residual growth of the maxilla. We have treated a patient with unilateral complete cleft lip and palate by Ajou protocol, which is a kind of modified $Z{\"{u}}rich$ protocol. It is as follows: Infantile orthopedics with passive-type plate such as Hotz plate, cheiloplasty with Millard's rotation-advancement flap, and two stage palatoplasty. It is followed by orthodontic treatment and secondary osteoplasty to augment cleft alveolus, orthognathic surgery, and finally rehabilitation with conventional prosthodontic treatment or implant installation. The result was good up to now, but we are later to investigate the final result with longitudinal follow-up study according to master plan by Ajou protocol.