• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.193-200
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• 2017

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of laser-assisted hatching (LAH) and various vitrification times for embryonic development and blastocyst cell numbers. Methods: First, 2-cell and 8-cell embryos were collected by flushing out the oviducts. In the control groups, they were vitrified for 8 or 10 minutes without LAH. The LAH groups underwent quarter laser zona thinning-assisted hatching before vitrification (4, 6, and 8 minutes or 4, 7, and 10 minutes, respectively). After incubation, double-immunofluorescence staining was performed. Results: The hatched blastocyst rate 72 hours after the 2-cell embryos were thawed was significantly higher in the 2LAH-ES8 group (33.3%) than in the other groups (p< 0.05). In the control-8 group ($22.1{\pm}4.6$), the cell number of the inner cell mass was higher than in the LAH groups (p< 0.05). The number of trophectoderm cells was higher in the 2LAH-ES6 group ($92.8{\pm}8.9$) than in the others (p< 0.05). The hatched blastocyst rate 48 hours after the 8-cell embryos were thawed was higher in the 8LAH-ES4 group (45.5%) than in the other groups, but not significantly. The inner cell mass cell number was highest in the 8LAH-ES7 group ($19.5{\pm}5.1$, p< 0.05). The number of trophectoderm cells was higher in the 8LAH-ES10 group ($73.2{\pm}12.1$) than in the other groups, but without statistical significance. Conclusion: When LAH was performed, 2-cell embryos with large blastomeres had a lower hatched blastocyst rate when the exposure to vitrification solution was shorter. Conversely, 8-cell embryos with small blastomere had a higher hatched blastocyst rate when the exposure to vitrification solution was shorter.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.19-23
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• 2004

Background and Objectives: Neck metastasis is one of the most important prognostic factor in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Recently, elective neck dissection has been widely accepted for accurate pathologic staging and elective treatment of neck. Occult metastasis rate of laryngeal cancer varies widely depending upon authors. To evaluate the rate and characteristics of occult metastasis and efficacy of the elective neck dissection in clinical N0 laryngeal cancer, we performed this study. Materials and Method: Seventy two patients (supraglottic cancer: 19 cases, glottic cancer: 53 cases) who underwent surgery for laryngeal cancer as an initial treatment from 1993 to 2002 were evaluated. All was underwent elective neck dissection at the time of surgery for the primary treatment. The record of patients and pathologic report were reviewed retrospectively. Results: Occult metastasis rate of supraglottic and glottic cancer were 42.1% (8/19) and 9.4% (5/53), respectively. According to T stage, the occult meastasis of supraglottic and glottic cancer was 20%, 0% in T1, 36.4%, 0% in T2, 100%, 40% in T2, 100%, 20% in T4, respectively. Occult metastasis was mostly confined within level II (69.2%), III (76.9%), IV (23.1%). Conclusion: Based on ours results, elective neck dissection might be needed in treating of clinically N0 all supraglottic cancer and advanced T3, T4 glottic cancer.

• Journal of Korea Association of Health Promotion
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2004

Background 'For many years, the Papanicolaou smear has been used to detect pre-malignant and malignant disease of the cervix. Although cervical cytology screening programmes have result in the reduction of cervical cancer incidence and mortality, Pap smear have been subjected to intense scrutiny and criticism in recent years. So cervicography is introduced. Cervicography is an adjunct method of cervical cancer screening intended to complement Papanicolaou smear. Cervicography involve obtaining and evaluating a photographic image of the cervix. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the efficacy of Papanicolaou smear and cervicography in cervical cancer screening. Materials & Methods : This study population was of 74 women, who visited department of obstetrics & Gynecology, Korea association of Health Promotion Chung-nam branch from January, 20O2 to October, 2003. All patients were taken Pap smear before cervicography, and then two cervicography was obtained with applying5% acetic acid. Those women in whom abnormalities were detected by either test subsequently obtained histologic specimen. Results : 1. The sensitivity and the specificity of Papanicolaou smear was 92.1% and 72.7%respectively.2. The sensitivity and the specificity of cervicography was 88.9% and 54.5% respectively. The false negative rate, and false positive rate of Papanicolaou smear were 7.9%, 27.2% respectively. The false negative rate, and false positive rate of cervicography were 11.1%,45.5% respectively. Conclusions . Papanicolaou smear is a useful method and an important tool for detecting cervical cancer. However when Papanicolaou smear and Cervicograpy is used together, the sensitivity is higher than for Papanicolaou smear used alone.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.72 no.2
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• pp.156-162
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• 2012

Background: The main goal of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nested PCR) in bronchial washing fluid with MAGE A1-6 common primers for the detection of lung cancers invisible by bronchoscopy. Methods: To determine the expression of MAGE A1-6 gene in 189 lung cancers diagnosed by conventional fluoroscopy-guided lung biopsy and 89 cancer-free controls, RT-nested PCR was performed in bronchial washing specimens. We analyzed MAGE A1-6 RT-nested PCR data according to tumor histology, stage, size, and compared them with cytological data. Results: 189 patients (111 cases in adenocarcinoma, 47 cases in squamous cell carcinoma, 22 cases in small cell lung carcinoma, and 9 cases in other cancers) and 89 benign patients were investigated. The expression of MAGE was performed by nested RT-PCR using common MAGE primer. Among 189 cancer patients, the expression rate of MAGE was 49.2%, and the positive predictive value was 89.4%. However, the expression rate of MAGE in patients with benign lesions was 12.4%. In peripheral lung cancer, the positive rate of MAGE expression was 57.4% in squamous cell carcinoma, 44.1% in adenocarcinoma and 59.1% in small cell lung cancer. Whereas the expression rate of bronchial washing cytology in peripheral lung cancer was 9.0% (p=0.011). Conclusion: MAGE RT-PCR in bronchial washing fluid gave us promising data for the detection of peripheral lung cancer. It could be a useful method for selecting diagnostic tools for peripheral lesions.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.169-175
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• 2018

It has been claimed that artificial insemination (AI) of cows with frozen-thawed semen treated with commercially produced kits, Wholemom (in favour of female gender) increases the birth chance of calves with desired sex ratio by approximately 85% without decrease of pregnancy rates. Hence, this study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of wholemom kits as combined with frozen-thawed bovine semen during in vitro fertilization on the in vitro fertilization and developmental efficiency and sex ratios such as some reproductive parameters in bovine. For this, 1,737 oocytes were in vitro fertilized and developed. Agglutination effects on bovine after treatment of Wholemom kit were observed by time passage and dose respectively. To determine sex of embryos, Bovine embryo Y-specific gene primers(ConEY) and Bovine specific universal primer(ConBV) were used as multiple PCR method. Fertilization rate of wholemom-treated group was significantly lower than its of control group[66.9% (1,156/1,737) in Wholemom-treated group; 75.0% (610/813) in control group]. However, developmental rate after fertilization of both wholemom-treated and control groups were not significantly different [26.1% (404/1,156) in Wholemom-treated group; 27.4% (224/610) in control group]. Sex ratio of in vitro fertilized embryo with frozen-thawed semen treated with wholemom kit was determined by multi PCR. Female ratio in wholemom-treated group [85.4% (173/201)] was significantly higher than its of control group [47.2% (66/141)]. In conclusion, wholemom treatments of semen used in the in vitro fertilization and development of bovine oocytes provided increase in female ratio with decrease of fertilization rate.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.163-168
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• 2010

With income growth and "well-being" trends, sales of corn has been increased recently. Corns are processed at processing facilities on the main production site. Corn processing steps include removing bract, steaming, vacuum packing, and storing. To replace manual corn bract removing, some bract removing machines were imported and used. However, the machines were abandoned shortly, because of high damaging ratio of corns. In this research, factors of successful bract removing was studied with rotating rollers and air-injection nozzles to develop corn bract removing system. The test device was composed of a cylindrical roller, an air spray nozzle, a regulator, and a motor. Designing factors were roller type, diameter of air spraying nozzle, spraying angle, and spraying pressure. The measured factors were bract removing rate and damaging rate. It was found that optimum cylindrical roller surface shape was cylindrical roller and linear grove roller. This roller shape produced lowest damaging rate. Test results of the efficacy of preprocessing showed that the air spraying after preprocessing produced highest performance. The rotational speed and inclination of the roller didn't affect the bract removing performance. Optimum injection angle of the air jet nozzle was $70^{\circ}$. To increase bract removing rate and to reduce corn damage, required injection pressure and injection nozzle diameter were decided to less than 0.4 MPa and 2.5 mm, respectively. More than 3 times of nozzle passing produced good bract removing performance and there were no significant difference between the number of passing times.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.316-320
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• 2015

Objective : The main concern during transfemoral carotid artery stenting (CAS) is preventing cerebral embolus dislodgement. We compared clinical outcomes and intraprocedural embolization rates of CAS using a distal filter protection device or proximal balloon occlusion device. Methods : From January 2011 to March 2015, a series of 58 patients with symptomatic or asymptomatic internal carotid artery stenosis ${\geq}70%$ were treated with CAS with embolic protection device in single center. All patients underwent post-CAS diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) to detect new ischemic lesions. We compared clinical outcomes and postprocedural embolization rates. Results : CAS was performed in all 61 patients. Distal filter protection success rate was 96.6% (28/29), whose mean age was 70.9 years, and mean stenosis was 81%. Their preprocedural infarction rate was 39% (11/28). Subsequent DW-MRI revealed 96 new ischemic lesions in 71% (20/28) patients. In contrast, the proximal balloon occlusion device success rate was 93.8% (30/32), whose mean age was 68.8 years and mean stenosis was 86%. Preprocedure infarction rate was 47% (14/30). DW-MRI revealed 45 new ischemic lesions in 57% (17/30) patients. Compared with distal filter protection device, proximal balloon occlusion device resulted in fewer ischemic lesions per patient (p=0.028). In each group, type of stent during CAS had no significant effect on number of periprocedural embolisms. Only 2 neurologic events occurred in the successfully treated patients (one from each group). Conclusion : Transfemoral CAS with proximal balloon occlusion device achieves good results. Compared with distal filter protection, proximal balloon occlusion might be more effective in reducing cerebral embolism during CAS.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.98-105
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• 2013

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical factors affecting on the cure rate by invasive and open surgery for gastric cancer and to establish a subgroup of patients who can be applied by the early recovery after surgery program through this retrospective analysis. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, we analyzed 425 patients who underwent gastric cancer surgery between January 2011 and December 2011 and were managed with conventional clinical therapies. This clinical algorithm was made when the patient was in minimally invasive surgery group and discharged from hospital one day faster than them in open surgery group. Results: The completion rate of the clinical pathway was 62.4%. Despite the different applications of clinical pathway, completion rate in minimally invasive surgery group was significantly higher than that of open group (P<0.001). In multivariate analysis, the surgical procedure of minimally invasive surgery (odds ratio=4.281) was the most predictable factor to complete clinical pathway. Additionally, younger patients (odds ratio=1.933) who underwent distal gastrectomy (odds ratio=1.999) without combined resection (odds ratio=3.069) were predicted to accomplish the clinical pathway without any modifications. Conclusions: We concluded that high efficacy of the clinical pathway for gastric cancer surgery was expected to selected patients through retrospective analysis (expected completion rate=85.4%). In addition, these patients would become enrolled criteria for early recovery program in gastric cancer surgery.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.227-232
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• 2020

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare in vitro fertilization outcomes between fresh day 3 or day 4 embryo transfer cycles with dual progesterone (P) administration (intramuscular and vaginal) and cycles with single intramuscular P administration for luteal support. Methods: We selected 124 cycles from 100 women (under age 40 years) who underwent oocyte pick-up (number of trials ≤ 3, 4-14 oocytes obtained) and transfer of two or three day 3 or day 4 embryos at two infertility centers from January 2014 to June 2019. Dual P (intramuscular P [50 mg] daily+vaginal P) was used in 52 cycles and a single intramuscular administration of P (50 mg daily) was used in 72 cycles. Results: Women's age, infertility factors, number of oocytes retrieved, number of transferred embryos, and mean embryo score were similar between the dual P group and the single P group. Although the number of trial cycles was significantly higher (1.9 vs. 1.5), and the mean endometrial thickness on the trigger day (10.0 mm vs. 11.0 mm) was significantly lower in the dual P group, the implantation rate, clinical pregnancy rate, ongoing pregnancy rate, and miscarriage rate for both day 3 and day 4 transfers were similar between the two groups. Conclusion: In fresh day 3 or day 4 embryo transfer cycles, dual P administration did not demonstrate any clinical advantages. Intramuscular P alone appears to be sufficient for luteal support.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.122-131
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• 2010

This clinical study was performed to evaluate whether supplementation of proton pump inhibitor (PPI)-based triple therapy with Korean red ginseng can enhance Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication and reduce levels of halitosis-associated volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) in the stomach. Seventy-six patients were randomized into an eradication regimen-only group (n=45) or an eradication regimen plus 10 weeks of Korean red ginseng supplementation group (n=31). The eradication regimen consisted of PPI b.i.d., clarithromycin 500 mg b.i.d., and amoxicillin 1 g b.i.d.. for seven days. Korean red ginseng supplementation commenced on the last day of the eradication regimen. $^{13}C$-urea breath test and halimeter measurements were performed prior to protocol repetition. By intention-to-treat analysis, the H. pylori eradication rate in the Korean red ginseng group (77.4%, 24 of 31) was higher than that in the control group (45.0%, 26 of 45). However, by per protocol analysis, the eradication rate in the Korean red ginseng group was significantly higher than that in the control group (92.3%, 24/26 vs. 69.4%, 26/38; p<0.05). H. pylori infection was significantly associated with increased VSC levels. However, VSC levels decreased significantly in the Korean red ginseng group (p<0.05). In conclusion, supplementation of triple therapy with Korean red ginseng increased the H. pylori eradication rate and led to significant reductions in VSC levels, suggesting the usefulness of this substance in combating H. pylori infection.