• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 1983

In spite of the world-wide increase of incidence of pesticide poisoning due to greater use of pesticides, the epidemiological study of pesticide poisoning in Korea has been grossly neglected. The author gained access to the medical records for two year period (1981 through 1982) from local clinics, hospitals and health centers of Kyungpook area to investigate the status of the pesticide poisoning. During these two years, there were 1,618 cases of documented pesticide poisoning, of which in 1981 were 765 and in 1982 were 853. Those in the twenties decade of age was the most frequent and the male(70%) was more liable than the female (30%). In view of manner of poisoning, occupational poisoning was 27.8%, accidental 5.6%, and suicidal 66.6%. There are three distinct groups which make up the large majority of both fatal and nonfatal cases; young children who accidentally ingest pesticides, young to middle age adult who are occupationally poisoned, and middle age to older adults who suicidally ingest pesticides. The seasonal distribution of these poisonings disclosed the peak month to be July, with August next, followed by June and September. Only 11% of cases occurred during the three-month winter season of December to February. Thus pesticide caused poison- ing was primarily a summer and early fall occurrence. During these two years, average of 67 cases of poisoning was observed monthly. Of the pesticide poisoning documented, 49% were treated with poisoning patients from local clinic and 43% from hospital. The case fatality rate of occupational poisoning was 0.9%, accidental 5.6% and suicidal 20.3%. The mean overall case fatality rate was 14.1%. Annual incidence of pesticide poisoning was 25.4 per 100,000 population in the study area. There is a nationwide need for more reliable date on pesticide poisoning. This need can only grow more acute with the passage of time because of the increasing importance of pesticides as a cause of morbidity and mortality.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.68 no.3
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• pp.168-174
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• 2010

Background: Sepsis still has a high mortality rate despite adequate supportive care. Newer therapeutic modalities have been developed but they have generally ended in failure. Recently, insulin was reported to have an anti-inflammatory effect by inhibiting the $I{\kappa}B/NF-{\kappa}B$ pathway, and may have therapeutic potential in sepsis. However, the precise mechanism of the anti-inflammatory effect of insulin is unclear. This study examined the role of insulin in activating $I{\kappa}B/NF-{\kappa}B$ in macrophage. Methods: Raw 264.7 cells, a murine macrophage cell line, were used in this experiment. Western blotting using $I{\kappa}B$ Ab and phosphor-specific $I{\kappa}B$ Ab was performed to evaluate the degradation and phosphorylation of $I{\kappa}B$ cells. For the $I{\kappa}B$ Kinase (IKK) activity, an immune complex kinase assay was performed. The level of interleukin-6 (IL-6) was measured by ELISA to determine the level of proinflammatory cytokine. Results: $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ degradation began 30 min after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment. However, an insulin pretreatment suppressed the $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ degradation caused by the LPS treatment. The phosphorylation of $I{\kappa}B{\alpha}$ and IKK activity was also inhibited by the insulin pretreatment. Finally, the insulin pretreatment showed a tendency to suppress the induction of IL-6 by LPS. Conclusion: Insulin might have an anti-inflammatory effect though partial inhibition of the $I{\kappa}B/NF{\kappa}B$ pathway in macrophage cell lines.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.70-76
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• 2014

Purpose: Endoscopy has been recommended as a primary procedure for determining the extent of damage and prognosis in patients with caustic ingestions. Endoscopy within the first 24 hours has been suggested, however, such immediate endoscopy is not always possible. Therefore, we wanted to determine complications and possible delayed sequelae after the endoscopy performed dependent on time, including less than 24 hours and more than 24 hours, after ingestion of relatively high toxic caustic agents. Methods: From January 2005 to May 2013, 105 consecutive patients were diagnosed with caustic poisoning in the emergency department of the Wonju Severance Christian Hospital. Out of 95 patients who underwent endoscopy, while excluding 49 patients who ingested sodium hypochlorite and 15 patients due to insufficient data, 41 patients were ultimately included. We compared general characteristics, complications related to endoscopy, late sequelae, total admission length, and mortality between two groups. Results: Twenty eight patients (68.3%) were diagnosed with acid ingestion. Median endoscopy time was 17.8 (IQR 9.7-36.9) hours and performed in 16 patients (39%) after 24 hours. There were no complications, such as perforation and bleeding in either endoscopy within 24 hours group or endoscopy after 24 hours group. In addition, no difference in ingested materials, endoscopy grade, or late sequelae was observed between endoscopy within 24 hours group and endoscopy after 24 hours group. Conclusion: No difference in complications and late sequelae was observed between endoscopy within 24 hours group and endoscopy after 24 hours group when endoscopy was performed based on a clinician's assessment.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.594-600
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• 1989

Primary intracardiac repair of tetralogy of Fallot with low mortality and early good results, has been accomplished in recent years. But palliative procedures have been reserved for those hypoplastic pulmonary arteries, a hypoplastic left ventricle or anomalies of the coronary artery would make total correction difficult. And the Blalock-Taussig shunt operation is recognized as a standard and popular palliative procedure. I undertook a retrospective determination of the effect of the Blalock-Taussig shunt operation on the development of the main pulmonary artery and the right and left pulmonary arteries. Between January, 1980, and April, 1987, at the Severance Hospital, 16 patients were studied by cardiac catheterization and angiocardiography, before undergoing Blalock-Taussig shunting procedures for the palliation of severe symptoms of tetralogy of Fallot, and some time later, usually prior to a second procedure. The mean interval between catheterizations was 22.25 months. Patients with tetralogy of Fallot and pulmonary atresia or with an occluded shunt were not included. The primary and secondary angiograms of each patient were reviewed, and measurements of the diameter of the main pulmonary artery, the right and left pulmonary arteries, and the descending thoracic aorta were taken. The results are as follows; 1. The hematocrit decreased from 56.39% to 50.34%[p< 0.05], and the arterial oxygen saturation increased from 62.00 % to 81.31 %[p< 0.001] following shunt procedures 2. The ratio of the diameter of the right pulmonary artery plus the left pulmonary artery to the diameter of the descending thoracic aorta increased 1.30 k 0.28 times [p< 0.01]; but the ratio of the diameter of the main pulmonary artery to the diameter of the descending thoracic aorta increased 1.10 * 0.33 times, which was not. significant[p< 0.05]. 3. The interval between shunting and second catheterization was not related to the magnitude of change in the pulmonary arteries[r=0.141, p >0.05]. 4. The changes in the ratio of the diameter of the right pulmonary artery plus the diameter of the left pulmonary artery to the diameter of the descending thoracic aorta was inversely related to the initial ratio[r=0.757, p >0.001], but the change in the ratio of the diameter of the main pulmonary artery to the descending thoracic aorta was not related[r=0.059, p >0.05]. 5. There were no differences in enlargement of the pulmonary artery on the side of the shunt [ipsilateral] versus enlargement on the opposite side [p >0.05], nor according to the size of the shunt[p >0.05]. In conclusion, this study suggests that the Blalock-Taussig shunt is effective for the development of the right and left pulmonary arteries but not effective for the main pulmonary artery.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.74-79
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• 1982

Recently in Korea, integration of F.P. & MCH programs for effective and efficient implementation of the health programs has been discussed actively. In fact, categorical health workers in fields have been trained and changed as an integrated health workers by government. But one of the most important problems that had to be solved for successful integration of F.P. and MCH programs, is that there must be a common indicator for the evaluation of the two health services (integrated indicator). We regarded reproductive efficiency (=R.E.) that had been proposed by Charlotter M$\ddot{u}$ller et al, as the good integrated indicator. The object of this brief article is to introduce the meaning of reproductive efficiency and to illustrate the usefulnesses of R.E. as the integrated health indicator by applying this indicator to the data from preliminary survey of Seosan demonstration project for integration of F.P. & MCH service supported by WHO. The results and conclusions are as follows 1) Definition of R.E. is the percentage of pregnancies that succeed in production normal, surving children after taking into account the frequency of all measurable types of adverse outcomes (End point for evaluation of survival is one year of age). 2) On the basis of the past pregnant history, reproductive efficiency of the 2,484 eligible women (15-44 years) was roughly 75% (But, in the concept of good births, it is not regarded whether the survived infant is normal health or not). 3) Compared with the results of the other two surveys of the rural area in Korea, reproductive efficiency has been slightly decreased than before, in spite of family planning and MCH services for past 20 years. Because the quantity of increased abortion rate overwhelmed that of the decreased infant mortality rate. 4) Reproductive efficiency has the object for measure many events during the period from the conception (Wanted pregnancy) to an normal surviving children as an 1 year of age. So these heterogenous adversities, ie, induced abortion, still births, spontaneous abortion, neonate & infant death, are aggregated as R.E. However, if the information of these important events and reproductive efficiency were given, R.E. is used as the comprehensive evaluation indicator for F.P. and M.C.H. after meticulous analysis the various components of R.E. 5) Economic loss for adverse outcomes of preg were pregnancy were calculated applying the medical cost at the relatively small sized hospital of small city. Economic loss for 100 cases of adverse outcome is 10,420,000 won, and economic loss for infant death is 46.1% of the total loss. So, it is rational to invest much more effort and than before to MCH programs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6077-6081
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• 2012

Background: This study was performed to analyze the prognostic implications of pretreatment or preoperative thrombocytosis in women with gynecologic malignancies. Material and Methods: We surveyed 2 medical databases, PubMed and EMBASE, to identified all relevant studies. A total of 14 (n=3,490) that evaluated the link between thrombocytosis and 5-year survival were included. REVMAN version 5.1 was used for our analysis and publication bias was evaluated using the Begg's funnel plot and tested by STATA 11.0. Risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) generated by the random effect model were used to assess the strength of any association. Results: 709(20.3%) of the 3,490 patients exhibited thrombocytosis (platelet counts > $400{\times}10^9/L$) at primary diagnosis, and their mortality was 1.62-fold higher compared with the others (RR=1.62, 95%CI=[1.28-2.05], p<0.0001). Thrombocytosis failed to have a stronger effect on the survival of advanced patients of stages III to IV in our study (n=478, RR=1.29, 95% CI=[1.13-1.48], p=0.0003), nor in women with cervical cancer in stage IB (n=1371, RR=1.73, 95% CI=[1.71-2.58], p=0.007). In addition, when adjusted for different carcinoma, it was associated with worse prognosis for all except the ones with vulvar cancer (n=201, RR=0.43, 95% CI=[0.14-1.29], p=0.13). Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicated that thrombocytosis might be associated with a worse prognosis for patients with gynecologic malignancies but without specificity or sensitivity for the ones in advanced stage. When adjusted for different gynecologic malignancies, it showed a significant effect on survival of all except vulvar cancers.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6913-6917
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• 2013

Background: Although the PSA test has been used in Korea for over 20 years, the incidence of prostate cancer has risen, and the associated mortality has increased about 13-fold over the 20-year period. Also, several investigators have suggested that Asians in America are more likely to present with more advanced prostate cancer than Caucasians. We compared the characteristics of native Koreans and Americans (Caucasians and African-Americans) undergoing radical prostatectomies in Korea and the US. Materials and Methods: Study subjects comprised patients at Korean and US hospitals from 2004 to 2012 who had undergone radical prostatectomies. We compared the characteristics of the subjects, including age, preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, body mass index (BMI), Gleason score, and pathological T stage. Results: In total, 1,159 males (502 Koreans, 657 Americans) were included. The Korean and American patients had mean ages of $67.1{\pm}6.6$ and $59.2{\pm}6.7$ years, respectively. The mean preoperative PSAs were $15.4{\pm}17.9$ and $6.2{\pm}4.6ng/mL$ (p=0.0001) and the mean BMIs were $23.6{\pm}2.6$ and $28.7{\pm}4.4kg/m^2$ (p=0.0001), respectively. Pathological localized prostate cancer represented 71.7% of cases for Koreans and 77.6% for Americans (p=0.07). According to age, Koreans had higher T stages than Americans in their 50s (p=0.021) and higher Gleason scores than Americans in all age groups. According to PSA, Koreans had higher Gleason scores than Americans for PSA >10 ng/mL (p<0.05). According to prostate size and Gleason scores, Koreans had higher PSA values than Americans (p<0.01). Conclusions: These results show that Korean patients have elevated risk of malignant prostate cancers, as indicated by the significantly higher Gleason scores and PSAs, suggesting a need for novel prostate cancer treatment strategies in Korea.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.180-185
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• 2006

Invasive Pseudomonas infections most often occur in the immunocompromised patients and are associated with high mortality rate. Rarely this disease may develop in healthy infants and children. We report two cases of invasive Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections that were diagnosed in otherwise healthy infants. The first case was a previously healthy 5-month-old infant with ecthyma gangrenosum and septicemia. She presented with fever, swelling of left periorbital area and multiple erythronodular skin lesions. Each skin lesion formed a black eschar surrounded by an erythematous areola over time. Cultures of blood, urine and discharge from skin lesions grew P. aeruginosa. On the day of visit, she showed pancytopenia which was normalized after 10 days. The patient responded well to the management with ceftazidime and tobramycin. The other case was a previously healthy 9-month-old infant with community-acquired pneumonia. He was referred from an outside hospital with fever and cough. Chest x-ray revealed pneumonic infiltrations on both lower lungs with pleural effusion on the right side. Cultures of blood and pleural fluid grew P. aeruginosa. Chest CT performed on the ninth day demonstrated pneumatoceles, lung abscess and necrosis of lung parenchyma. He was managed with ceftazidime and amikacin for 50 days. No residual pulmonary complications were noted during the three month follow-up. Laboratory results to evaluate immunologic defects of phagocytic cells, complement components and T- and B-lymphocytes were all within normal range in both patients. It should be kept in mind that Pseudomonas can be, though uncommon, a cause of community-acquired invasive infections in the previously healthy infants.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 2015

Purpose: Intracorporeal anastomosis is the most difficult procedure during pure single-incision distal gastrectomy (SIDG) that affects its generalization. We introduced unaided delta-shaped anastomosis (uDelta), a novel anastomosis technique, for gastroduodenostomy after pure SIDG, and compared the results with those of previously reported Roux-en-Y anastomosis (RY). Materials and Methods: Between March 2014 and March 2015, SIDG with D1+ lymph node dissection was performed for early gastric cancer through a 2.5-cm transumbilical incision without any additional port. uDelta was performed by the operator alone, without any intracorporeal assistance. Results: uDelta was performed on 11 patents, and uncut RY was performed on 5-patients without open or multiport conversion. R0 resection was performed in all cases. No significant differences were observed in mean age and body mass index between patients who underwent uDelta or RY. Mean operation times were $214.5{\pm}36.2$ minutes for uDelta and $240.8{\pm}65.9$ minutes for RY, which was not significantly different. Reconstruction time for uDelta was shorter than that for RY, with marginal statistical significance ($26.1{\pm}8.3$ minutes vs. $38.0{\pm}9.1$ minutes, P=0.05). There were no intraoperative transfusions, 30-day mortality, or anastomosis-related complications in either group. Average length of hospital stay was $8.2{\pm}1.9$ days in the uDelta group and $7.2{\pm}0.8$ days in the RY group (P=0.320). Conclusions: After carefully considering indications, uDelta can be a feasible and can be a reproducible reconstruction method after SIDG in early gastric cancer.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.57-61
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• 2016

Isovaleric acidemia (IVA) is an autosomal recessively inherited organic acid disorder due to a defect of the enzyme isovaleryl-CoA dehydrogenase in the leucine metabolic pathway. Deficiency of this enzyme results in the accumulation of derivatives of isovaleryl-CoA. In acute illness in IVA, isovaleric acid and its derivatives accumulate and profound metabolic acidosis with ketosis, characteristic pungent body odor, hypoglycemia, and hyperammonemia can be developed. Additionally, recurrent vomiting, failure to thrive, developmental delay, epilepsy and mental retardation are chronic presenting symptoms and signs for IVA. On the result of newborn screening for inherited metabolic disorders, increased levels of isovalerylcarnitine (C5) are shown. However, C5 elevation can be accompanied with short/branched-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (SBCAD) and therapy with certain antibiotics containing pivalic acid. Quantitative measurement of organic acids in urine and acylcarnitine profiles in plasma are necessary to differential diagnosis. Molecular genetic analysis of the IVD gene for IVA and ACADSB is also helpful to confirm IVA and SBCAD deficiency, respectively. Considering that IVA can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality at acute presentation of metabolic crisis, early diagnosis prior to the onset of symptoms by newborn screening enable to introduction of early treatment and prevention of acute and chronic complications.