• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 1999

Background: Early detection and surgical resection offer the most advantage out of all cures for lung cancer. Elderly patients may fail to benefit maximally from these interventions because of their general condition and residual lung function. To study the impact of age on stages, histology, symptoms, and treatments of the patients with non-small cell lung cancer, we undertook a retrospective review. Material and Method : Two hundred eleven patients with non-small cell lung cancer were operated on at Samsung Seoul hospital between October 1994 and June 1997. Patients were arbitrarily arbitrarily by age less than 70 years(176 patients) and 70 years or more(35 patients), and their medical records were reviewed. Result: There were no differences in pathologic staging and diagnosis. But there were differences in surgical methods, complications, and mortality rates between the two groups. There were much more complications in the 70 years or more group(p=0.02). We chose less invasive surgical methods in the 70 years or more group. Conclusion: More complications were experienced in the 70 years or more group. Although thoracic operation imparts the greatest survival advantage, this benefit is diminished in elderly patients because of their high complications and mortality rate. We recommend serious consideration of surgical indications and operative methods.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.118-124
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• 2020

Background: The poultry industry in Pakistan has flourished since the 1960s; however, there are scarce data regarding the impact of occupational exposure on the pulmonary health of farm workers in terms of years working in the industry. The objective of the present study was to assess the effect of poultry environment on the health of occupationally exposed poultry farmers in countries of warm climatic regions, such as Pakistan. This study will also show the effect of exposure to poultry facilities on the health of poultry farmers in the context of low-income countries with a relatively inadequate occupational exposure risk management. Materials and methods: The lung function capacity of 79 poultry workers was measured using a spirometer. Along with spirometry, a structured questionnaire was also administrated to obtain information about age, height, weight, smokers/nonsmokers, years of working experience, and pulmonary health of farm workers. The workers who were directly involved in the care and handling of birds in these intensive facilities were considered and divided into four groups based on their years of working experience: Group I (3-10 months), Group II (1-5 years), Group III (6-10 years), and Group IV (more than 11 years). The forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and the FEV1/FVC ratio were considered to identify lung function abnormalities. Statistical analysis was carried out using independent sample t test, Chi-square test, Pearson's correlation, and linear regression. Results: Based on the performed spirometry, 68 (86 %) of workers were found normal and healthy, whereas 11 (14 %) had a mild obstruction. Of the 11 workers with mild obstruction, the highest number with respect to the total was in Group IV (more than 11 years of working experience) followed by Group III and Group II. Most of the workers were found healthy, which seems to be because of the healthy survivor effect. For the independent sample t test, a significant difference was noticed between healthy and nonhealthy farmers, whereas Chi-square test showed a significant association with height, drugs, and working experience. Linear regression that was stratified by respiratory symptoms showed for workers with symptoms, regression models for all spirometric parameters (FVC, FEV1, and FEV1/FVC) have better predictive power or R square value than those of workers without symptoms. Conclusion: These findings suggest that lung function capacity was directly related to years of working experience. With increasing number of working years, symptoms of various respiratory problems enhanced in the poultry workers. It should be noted that most of the poultry workers were healthy and young, the rationale being that there is a high turnover rate in this profession. The mobility in this job and our finding of 86% of the healthy workers in the present study also proposed healthy worker survivor effect.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2010

Objectives : This study was aimed at investigating the relationship between internet game addiction and emotional and behavioral characteristics of students both in the 5th and 6th grade of elementary school and in middle school. Methods : Two elementary schools and two middle schools were chosen to participate. The students completed selfreport questionnaires designed by the authors, called the Internet Game Addiction Scale, Korean youth self-report (K-YSR). Results : Compared to previous studies, the rates of those in the obvious game addiction group were much lower in this study. We defined the upper 10% of internet game addiction scores as a high risk user group and the lower 10% as a control group. There were significant differences between the groups with respect to the the ages at which internet gaming began, the frequency of game play per week, and the average length of each game playing session. Significant associations were also found between the level of internet game addiction and the withdrawn and delinquency subscales of the K-YSR. However, the association between game addiction and the withdrawn subscale was found only in middle school students. Conclusion : The findings from this study suggested that withdrawn and delinquent behaviors could be predictors of internet game addiction. Results also suggested the importance of early childhood intervention for preventing the development of more severe psychopathology in early adolescence.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-43
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• 2012

This paper examines the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU)'s recent legal challenge on patents held by Myriad Genetics on two genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2) associated with a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Instead of analyzing the ACLU's objections to the BRCA patents in terms of its legal technicalities and normative ethical principles, this paper seeks to situate this legal case in the broader historical context of the shifting understanding of the relationship between private ownership, economic development, and the public interest in academic sciences. This paper first briefly chronicles a series of scientific developments and key legal decisions involving patenting of life forms, including genetically engineered micro-organisms animals and biological materials of human origins like cell cultures and genes, that led to the US Patent and Trademark Office(USPTO)'s official guidelines on human gene patenting in 2001. At another level, this paper analyzes the expansion of the scope of intellectual property rights in the life sciences in terms of shifting economic and legal assumptions about public knowledge and its role for economic development in the 1970s. I then show how these economic, legal, and ethical ideas that linked private ownership and the public interest have been challenged from the 1990s, calling for revisions in intellectual property laws regarding a wide array of life forms. The tragedy of the anticommons in human gene patenting, according to ACLU, has severely undermined creative scientific activities, medical innovations, access to health care and rights to life among cancer patient groups. ACLU's objection to human gene patenting on several US-constitutional grounds in turn suggests issues regarding intellectual property are critically linked to vital issues pertinent to the creative communities in arts and sciences, such as free exchange of ideas, censorship and monopoly, and free expression and piracy etc.

• Journal of Korean Medicine for Obesity Research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.52-68
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate the weight loss effects of auricular acupuncture in obese patients. Methods: Six databases (Research Information Sharing Service [RISS], Korean studies Information Service System [KISS], Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System [OASIS], PubMed, The Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure [CNKI]) were searched up to May 20, 2020. Eight eligible randomized controlled trials were included the present study. The quality of included studies was assessed by the Cochrane risk of bias tool and a meta-analysis was performed by Review Manager software. A meta-analysis was conducted using a random-effects model and a subgroup analysis was performed to detect the sources of heterogeneity, identify the selection of acupuncture methods and explore its contributions to the weight loss effects. Results: Among 8 trials, 5 trials used auricular acupuncture and 2 trials used auricular acupressure, 1 trial used both types of intervention. Most commonly selected acupoints were Shenmen (TF4) and stomach (CO4). Treatment duration was six to twelve weeks, and total treatment session was six to twelve. Compared to the control groups, auricular acupuncture significantly decreased body weight, body mass index (BMI), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL) and ghrelin. For the selection of acupuncture methods, both methods performed similarly in most outcome except waist circumference (WC), body fat percentage (BFP), and triglycerides (TG). Conclusions: We found that auricular acupuncture can be effective for weight loss and controlling appetite. However, the findings should be interpreted with caution due to heterogeneity. So further vigorous and well-designed studies should be conducted to strengthen the evidence of the use of auricular acupuncture for obesity.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.1057-1067
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• 2014

Many genetic variants have been identified to be associated with complex diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cancers throughout genome-wide association studies (GWAS). However, there still exist a serious missing heritability problem since the proportion explained by genetic variants from GWAS is very weak less than 10~15%. Gene-gene interaction study may be helpful to explain the missing heritability because most of complex disease mechanisms are involved with more than one single SNP, which include multiple SNPs or gene-gene interactions. This paper focuses on gene-gene interactions with the survival phenotype by extending the multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) method to the accelerated failure time (AFT) model. The standardized residual from AFT model is used as a residual score for classifying multiple geno-types into high and low risk groups and algorithm of MDR is implemented. We call this method AFT-MDR and compares the power of AFT-MDR with those of Surv-MDR and Cox-MDR in simulation studies. Also a real data for leukemia Korean patients is analyzed. It was found that the power of AFT-MDR is greater than that of Surv-MDR and is comparable with that of Cox-MDR, but is very sensitive to the censoring fraction.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.704-709
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• 2009

Background: We assessed the efficacy of intraoperative intra-aortic balloon pump therapy for achieving hemodynamic instability during off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery. Material and Method: We studied seven hundred ninety-six patients who underwent off-pump coronary artery bypass between January 2000 and December 2006. The patient were divided into group I (n=39), which received intraoperative intra-aortic balloon pump therapy, and group II (n=757), which did not receive intraoperative intra-aortic balloon pump therapy. Result: There were no differences in the operative mortalities (2.6%, 1/39 vs 0.8%, 6/757; p=0.195) and morbidities such as atrial fibrillation (p=0.691), stroke (p=0.908) and mediastinitis (p=0.781) between the 2 groups, although the ventilator support time, the length of the intensive care unit stay and the length of the hospital stay were longer in group I than in group II (p<0.05). Multivariate analysis failed to prove that group I was a high risk group for operative mortality (p=0.549). There were 3 intraoperative intra-aortic balloon pump-related complications in group I (7.9%). However, no longer complications occurred after 2003, when the surgeons began using a smaller sized 8 F catheter that was inserted using a sheathless technique. Conclusion: Intraoperative intra-aortic balloon pump therapy for achieving hemodynamic instability during off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery can be performed safely and it showed comparable clinical results to that of not using intraoperative intra-aortic balloon pump therapy.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 2002

Cryopreservation is commonly used for an efficient utilization of semen, oocytes and embryos but has disadvantage in the survival, development of the post-thawed eggs. The high risk in the survival, development of eggs after thawing is thought to be caused by inappropriate internal regulation of $Ca^{2+}$ and/or formation of intracellular ice crystals. In this experiment, we tested whether the $Ca^{2+}$ current (iCa), a decisive factor to $Ca^{2+}$ entry, was altered in post-thawed oocytes by using whole cell voltage clamp technique. The quality and survival rates of the oocytes derived from both fresh and frozen groups were examined by morphology and FDA-test. Vitrified oocytes (VOs) were incubated for 4 hr after thawing and then donated to this experiment. Ethyleneglycol-ficoll-galactose (EFG) was used as a cryoprotectant for vitrification. The membrane potential was held at -80 mV and step depolarizations of 250 ms were applied from -50 mV to 50 mV in 10 mV increments. The survival rates showed a higher in VOs vitrified with EFG containing $Ca^{2+}$ than in VOs vitrified with EFG under the $Ca^{2+}$-free condition (82.0% vs 14%). In group with/without $Ca^{2+}$, the survival rates were significantly (P<0.01) difference. In the fresh metaphase II oocytes (FOs), current-voltage (I-V) relationship showed that iCa began to activate at -40 mV and reached its maximum at -10 mV. With same voltage pulses, inward currents were elicited in VOs. I-V relationships observed in VOs were similar to those in FOs. Time constants of activation and inactivation of the inward current shown in VOs were not different to those in FOs. This accordance in I-V relations and time constants in FOs with those in VOs indicates that the inward currents in FOs are unaltered by vitrification and thawing. Therefore, vitrification with EFG does not play as a factor to deteriorate $Ca^{2+}$ entry across the membrane of the oocytes.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1732-1741
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• 2006

Obesity is chronic disease which influenced on health severly. The causes of obesity have been known as life change, lack of excercise, genetic factor, mental and social economic factors. Especially the obesity of women increased the risk of the diseases such as DM, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and infertility. The limitations of the widely used negative definition of health as the absence of disease and WHO's 1946 definition of health as total social, psychological and physical well-being have long been recognized (WHO 1958). The Quality of Life (QoL) includes functional ability, the degree and quality of social and community interaction, psychological well-being as somatic sensation and life satisfaction. I investigated to compare the differences between obese women (n=63), non-obese women (n=37) in clinic and general women (n=43, control) on baseline characteristics and WHO QoL-BREF. The purpose of this study is to assist the diagnosis and treatment of obesity. WHO QoL-BREF is self administered type which consisted of 26 questions. The prospective question is calculated with 5 scores by Likert's method. The results are as follows : The means of physical, psychological, social, overall and total scores of QoL were significant among BMI group (P<0.05). The score of control group (BMI < 25) was higher than other groups significantly (P<0.05). In multiple regression analysis, the variable of high school/below middle school was significant in environmental and overall domain of QoL scores (P<0.05). The variable of college/below middle school was significant in environmental, overall domain and total score of QoL scores (P<0.05). The variable of above university/below middle school was significant in physical health, environmental, overall domain and total score in QoL scores (P<0.05). The variable of Health perception (moderate/bad) was positively significant in physical health, environmental, overall domain and total score of QoL scores (P<0.05). The variable of Health perception (good/bed) was positively significant in physical health, environmental, social, overall domain and total score of QoL scores (P<0.05). The variable as BMI non-=obese women/control was negatively significant in social domain of QoL scores (P<0.05). Above the results, It suggests that the variable as BMI did't affect on the QoL in patients and control, but the variables as education and health perception affected on the QoL scores. Further study is required to conduct QoL differences between before and after treatment of obese patients.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.577-583
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• 2017

Objective : Laminoplasty is an effective surgical method for treating cervical degenerative disease. However, postoperative complications such as kyphosis, restriction of neck motion, and instability are often reported. Despite sufficient preoperative lordosis, this procedure often aggravates the lordotic curve of the cervical spine and straightens cervical alignment. Hence, it is important to examine preoperative risk factors associated with postoperative kyphotic alignment changes. Our study aimed to investigate preoperative radiologic parameters associated with kyphotic deformity post laminoplasty. Methods : We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 49 patients who underwent open door laminoplasty for cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) or ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) at Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital between January 2011 and December 2015. Inclusion criteria were as follows : 1) preoperative diagnosis of OPLL or CSM, 2) no previous history of cervical spinal surgery, cervical trauma, tumor, or infection, 3) minimum of one-year follow-up post laminoplasty with proper radiologic examinations performed in outpatient clinics, and 4) cases showing C7 and T1 vertebral body in the preoperative cervical sagittal plane. The radiologic parameters examined included C2-C7 Cobb angles, T1 slope, C2-C7 sagittal vertical axis (SVA), range of motion (ROM) from C2-C7, segmental instability, and T2 signal change observed on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Clinical factors examined included preoperative modified Japanese Orthopedic Association scores, disease classification, duration of symptoms, and the range of operation levels. Results : Mean preoperative sagittal alignment was $13.01^{\circ}$ lordotic; $6.94^{\circ}$ lordotic postoperatively. Percentage of postoperative kyphosis was 80%. Patients were subdivided into two groups according to postoperative Cobb angle change; a control group (n=22) and kyphotic group (n=27). The kyphotic group consisted of patients with more than $5^{\circ}$ kyphotic angle change postoperatively. There were no differences in age, sex, C2-C7 Cobb angle, T1 slope, C2-C7 SVA, ROM from C2-C7, segmental instability, or T2 signal change. Multiple regression analysis revealed T1 slope had a strong relationship with postoperative cervical kyphosis. Likewise, correlation analysis revealed there was a statistical significance between T1 slope and postoperative Cobb angle change (p=0.035), and that there was a statistically significant relationship between T1 slope and C2-C7 SVA (p=0.001). Patients with higher preoperative T1 slope demonstrated loss of lordotic curvature postoperatively. Conclusion : Laminoplasty has a high probability of aggravating sagittal balance of the cervical spine. T1 slope is a good predictor of postoperative kyphotic changes of the cervical spine. Similarly, T1 slope is strongly correlated with C2-C7 SVA.