• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2019

Transcranial Doppler (TCD) was introduced in 1982 to assess intracranial arteries noninvasively, since when it has been widely used to assess and monitor cerebrovascular hemodynamics. The clinical applications of TCD are broadening to include other fields that require monitoring of the cerebral blood flow. TCD has fewer temporal and spatial restrictions than other methods, can be performed on less-compliant patients, and causes no harm to the body. However, its reliance on high levels of examiner skill and experience, as well as a lack of standardized scanning protocols are obstacles that still need to be overcome. In this report we review TCD examination techniques and interpret their findings for several conditions.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.6.1-6.9
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• 2019

Understanding the role of the microbiome in human health and how it can be modulated is becoming increasingly relevant for preventive medicine and for the medical management of chronic diseases. The development of high-throughput sequencing technologies has boosted microbiome research through the study of microbial genomes and allowing a more precise quantification of microbiome abundances and function. Microbiome data analysis is challenging because it involves high-dimensional structured multivariate sparse data and because of its compositional nature. In this review we outline some of the procedures that are most commonly used for microbiome analysis and that are implemented in R packages. We place particular emphasis on the compositional structure of microbiome data. We describe the principles of compositional data analysis and distinguish between standard methods and those that fit into compositional data analysis.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2021

Endometriosis is a chronic disease associated with pelvic pain and infertility. Several classification systems for the severity of endometriosis have been proposed. Of these, the revised American Society for Reproductive Medicine classification is the most well-known. The ENZIAN classification was developed to classify deep infiltrating endometriosis and focused on the retroperitoneal structures. The endometriosis fertility index was developed to predict the fertility outcomes in patients who underwent surgery for endometriosis. Finally, the American Association of Gynecological Laparoscopists classification is currently being developed, for which 30 endometriosis experts are analyzing and researching data by assigning scores to categories considered important; however, it has not yet been fully validated and published. Currently, none of the classification systems are considered the gold standard. In this article, we review the classification systems, identify their pros and cons, and discuss what improvements need to be made to each system in the future.

• BMB Reports
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.70-88
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• 2021

Immunotherapy has revolutionized the landscape of cancer treatment and become a standard pillar of the treatment. The two main drivers, immune checkpoint inhibitors and chimeric antigen receptor T cells, contributed to this unprecedented success. However, despite the striking clinical improvements, most patients still suffer from disease progression because of the evolution of primary or acquired resistance. This mini-review summarizes new treatment options including novel targets and interesting combinational approaches to increase our understanding of the mechanisms of the action of and resistance to immunotherapy, to expand our knowledge of advances in biomarker and therapeutics development, and to help to find the most appropriate option or a way of overcoming the resistance for cancer patients.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.37-49
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• 2019

This paper determines if mandated alcohol health information labelling could be an obstacle to international trade by discussing international trade rules affecting member nations. WTO members could use alcohol labelling rules to protect human health, reduce the consumption of alcohol and provide product information. When a member uses alcohol labelling as a technical regulation or standard, it should comply with TBT Articles 2.2 and 2.4. If a member uses some specific warning messages for their objectives, it should be considered the contribution of the measure, trade restrictiveness, and alternatives. If WTO members want to employ their own alcohol labelling schemes for addressing carcinogenicity, intoxicating effects, dependence potential, effects on children, adolescents and pregnancy, it could be a technical barrier and also create adverse effects on international trade. Therefore, the harms of alcohol are supported by scientific evidence, and for this reason, the international harmonization for alcohol labelling should be discussed openly to prevent negative effects on trade.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.345-354
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• 2020

Early detection of gastric cancer is crucial because the survival rate can be improved through curative treatment. Although surgery and gastrectomy with lymph node dissection remain as the gold standard for curative treatment, early gastric cancer (EGC) with negligible risk of lymph node metastasis can be treated with endoscopic resection (ER), such as endoscopic submucosal dissection. Among gastric cancers, undifferentiated-type cancer is distinguished from differentiated-type cancer in various aspects in terms of clinical features and pathophysiology. The undifferentiated-type cancer is also known to be associated with an aggressive behavior and a poor prognosis. Therefore, the indication of ER for undifferentiated EGC is limited compared with differentiated-type. Recent studies have reported that ER for undifferentiated EGC is safe and shows favorable short- and long-term outcomes. However, it is necessary to understand the details of the research results and to selectively accept them. In this review, we aimed to evaluate the current practice guidelines and the short-term and long-term outcomes of ER for undifferentiated type EGC.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.164-177
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop effective management indicators for improving efficiencies of visiting nursing centers. Method: This was a methodological research study to develop the key performance indicators based on balanced score cards for long-term care visiting nursing centers. The main methods used in this study were literature review, focus group interview, and content validity index. The data analysis was used frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Results: The common vision of the long-term care visiting nursing centers was identified as "The healthy visiting nursing center to serve high quality cares." Eight action strategies and 15 key performance indicators to achieve this vision were developed. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, we suggest that the developed balanced score cards will be used as an effective managerial guideline to improve performances of long-term care visiting nursing centers.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.453-469
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• 2022

The study of immune cellular composition has been of great scientific interest in immunology because of the generation of multiple large-scale data. From the statistical point of view, such immune cellular data should be treated as compositional. In compositional data, each element is positive, and all the elements sum to a constant, which can be set to one in general. Standard statistical methods are not directly applicable for the analysis of compositional data because they do not appropriately handle correlations between the compositional elements. In this paper, we review statistical methods for compositional data analysis and illustrate them in the context of immunology. Specifically, we focus on regression analyses using log-ratio transformations and the alternative approach using Dirichlet regression analysis, discuss their theoretical foundations, and illustrate their applications with immune cellular fraction data generated from colorectal cancer patients.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.622-632
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• 2022

Microvascular decompression is the gold standard for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (TN). However, percutaneous techniques still play a role in treating patients with TN and offer several important advantages and efficiency in obtaining immediate pain relief, which is also durable in a less invasive and safe manner. Patients' preference for a less invasive method can influence the procedure they will undergo. Neurovascular conflict is not always a prerequisite for patients with TN. In addition, recurrence and failure of the previous procedure can influence the decision to follow the treatment. Therefore, indications for percutaneous procedures for TN persist when patients experience idiopathic and episodic sharp shooting pain. In this review, we provide an overview of percutaneous procedures for TN and its outcome and complication.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.111-117
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• 2022

Despite the lack of evidence-based standard guidelines to select the best surgical treatment option for end-stage ankle osteoarthritis, the rate of total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) is increasing rapidly relative to ankle arthrodesis (AA) with the development of implant designs and surgical techniques. Physicians and patients would benefit from a more comprehensive understanding of the differences in postoperative pain relief, functional improvement, the rates of complication or reoperation, and restoration of gait ability and sports activity. This paper overviews the current consensus on indications and contraindications for TAA and provides a literature review on a comparison of the clinical and functional results between TAA and AA.