• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.11-28
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• 2024

This study aimed to establish the optimal amount of thickening agent for the appropriate viscosity in soups and beverages, which are part of the dysphagia diet. The soups were bean sprout soup and soybean paste soup; the beverages were orange juice, regular milk, and low-fat milk; the thickening agent was one type of xanthan gum product. After adding the thickening agents (from 1 g to 5 g per 200 mL of the test food), syringe tests were conducted over time (5, 10 and 15 minutes) to verify the effects of the amount of thickening agent added per sample and the time between addition and achieving the resulting viscosity, and to establish the optimal addition conditions to reach IDDSI levels 1, 2, and 3 of the dysphagia diet. Water (based on 200 mL) was used as the standard control. These results provide a useful basis for customized diets based on the patient's dysphagia severity. On the other hand, this study is limited by including only liquid foods in the dysphagia diet and one type of xanthan gum-based thickening agent. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct continuous research, based on the study results, to modify the viscosity of the dysphagia diet using various thickening agents and foods and prevent nutritional deficiencies by managing the diet according to the patient's swallowing ability.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.31.1-31.11
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• 2024

Objectives: The present study investigated the prevalence of mechanical allodynia (MA) in healthy teeth adjacent and contralateral to endodontically diseased teeth. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 114 patients with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis and apical periodontitis in permanent mandibular first molars who possessed healthy teeth adjacent and contralateral to the endodontically diseased tooth. The mechanical sensitivity of the teeth was determined by percussion testing. The presence or absence of pain on percussion in the teeth adjacent and contralateral to the endodontically diseased tooth and the tooth distal to the contralateral symmetrical tooth was recorded according to coding criteria. The prevalence of MA was computed as a percentage, and binary logistic regression analysis was done. The Fisher exact test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for binary and ordinal data. Results: Age and sex did not influence the prevalence of MA. An increased prevalence of MA was found in patients with higher levels of spontaneous pain (p < 0.001). The prevalence of allodynia was 57% in teeth adjacent to endodontically diseased teeth and 10.5% in teeth contralateral to endodontically diseased teeth. In addition, on the ipsilateral side, there were more painful sensations distal to the diseased tooth than mesially. Conclusions: Despite being disease-free, teeth adjacent and contralateral to endodontically diseased teeth exhibited pain on percussion. There was a direct association between the severity of the patient's pain and the presence of MA.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.810-822
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• 2024

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Korean medicine treatments in alleviating symptoms of dry mouth, with a specific focus on Yin deficiency. Methods: A 50-year-old female patient diagnosed with xerostomia was treated using Korean medicines, aimed at addressing Yin deficiency. The assessment included both subjective and objective measures. For subjective measures, we used the Yin Deficiency Questionnaire (YDQ) to diagnose and assess the Yin deficiency symptoms and the Dry Mouth Symptom Questionnaire (DMSQ) to evaluate the severity and frequency of dry mouth symptoms. For objective measures, we used the Oral Moisture Checking Device (Mucus®) to measure oral moisture levels. Additionally, we measured the heart rate variability (HRV) to assess the autonomic nervous system, focusing on indicators related to the parasympathetic nervous system. Results: We observed improvements in the patient's symptoms. The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores improved for all questions on both DMSQ and YDQ questionnaires. Additionally, the measurements taken with Mucus increased, and the HRV test indicators related to the parasympathetic nervous system showed improvement. Conclusion: Korean medicine treatment could be an effective and quick method for treating dry mouth symptoms.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.53-63
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• 2010

As one of the mucous components of Cheonggukjang, traditional fermented soybean paste, $\gamma$-PGA is a natural substance with diverse functions. In this paper, an in-vivo experiment has been performed using NC/Nga mice in order to find out the efficacy of $\gamma$-PGA in human atopic dermatitis. The NC/Nga mice with BMAC-induced atopic dermatitis were administered $\gamma$-PGA (PGA-HM) with 300 kDa and low-molecular $\gamma$-PGA (PGA-LM), respectively. As a result, a significant decrease in clinical skin severity score was detected in the group that was administered PGA-LM. In terms of serum IgE levels, a significant decline was observed in PGA-LM, compared to the control group. The serum IgG1 levels also decreased more in PGA-LM than in the control group. However, no significant difference was observed in both groups. To witness the induction of $CD4^+CD25^+foxp3^+$ Treg cells, mRNA was sampled from the back of PGA-HM- and PGA-LM-administered NC/Nga mice with atopic dermatitis. In terms of the production amount of foxp3 mRNA, which was measured in real-time PCR, the group that was administered PGA-LM was twice as high as the control group. According to a biopsy on the skin on the backs of the mice, the experimental group was also far lower than the control group in terms of epidermis thickness, mast cell infiltration and the number of $CCR3^+$ cells. Therefore, it has been confirmed that the atopic dermatitis symptoms decreased more in the PGA-LM-administered NC/Nga mice than the PGA-HM-administered group by facilitating $CD4^+CD25^+foxp3^+$ Treg cells and suppressing the activity of eosinophils and production of IgE and pro-inflammatory cytokines.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.184-195
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• 1999

Objectives : As traumatic brain injury(TBI) leaves chronic sequelae in mind and body, the injured patients should rectify the meaning and object that they have pursued in their lives and set up a new purpose in life that they may make the rest of their lives meaningful. This study was designed to investigate the purpose and quality of life levels and the influence of demographic and clinical variables on the levels in the patients with TBI, and to be of some help to their rehabilitation. Methods : In order to assess the purpose in life(PIL) and the quality of life(QOL) levels, Purpose-in-Life Test, Sickness Impact Profile, Quality of Life Index, Head Injury Symptom Ckecklist, and Neurobehavioral Rating Scale were administered to the subjects. The subjects were thirty-two patients with TBI and the same numbered normal controls. The TBI group was composed of 16 to 65 year-aged patients who had received mild or severe TBI at least 12 months before, and the controls were siblings or friends of the patients whose age, sex, and educational level were similar to them. Results : 1) The PIL and QOL levels of the patients with TBI remained significantly lower than that of control group after their symptoms of injury were stabilized(p<.01, p<.01). 2) The mean PIL score of TBI group was $58.8{\pm}23.2$, which was to be regarded as the level of existential vacuum. 3) The PIL level of TBI group was significantly correlated with the QOL level(p <.01). 4) The subgroup with lower PIL level in patients with TBI has significantly higher rate of female than that with higher PIL(p<.05), the PIL level of female patients was significantly lower than that of male patients(p <.05). 5) The significant differences in PIL levels were not found, in which comparison was performed between each pair of subgroups of patients with TBI divided by severity of injury(mild vs severe), marital status(married vs unmarried), and occupational status prior to injury(employed vs unemployed). Conclusion : The PIL of patients with TBI still remained the level of existential vacuum after symptoms of sequelae had been stabilized, The QOL level was also extremely low, and as the PIL level was low the QOL was also low. The demographic and clinical variables except sex did not have influence on the PIL level in brain-injured patients. It is suggested that every patient should admit their mental and physical limitations caused by brain injury and revise their purpose in life for successful rehabilitation.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.57-64
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• 2007

Purpose: Clinically, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) occurs within 72 hours after acute exposure of risk factors. Because of its high fatality rate once ARDS progresses, early detection and management are essential to reduce the mortality rate. Accordingly, studies on early changes of ARDS were started, and serum ferritin, as well the as injury severity score (ISS), which has been addressed in previous studies, thought to be an early predictive indicator for ARDSMethods: From March 2003 to March 2005, we investigated 50 trauma patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit in Dongguk University Medical Center, Gyeongju. The patients were characterized according to age, sex, ISS, onset of ARDS, time onset of ARDS, serum ferritin level (posttraumatic $1^{st}\;&\;2^{nd}$ day), amount of transfused blood, and death. Abdominal computed topography was performed as an early diagnostic tool to evaluate the onset of ARDS according to its diagnostic criteria. The serum ferritin was measured by using a $VIDAS^{(R)}$ Ferritin (bioMeriux, Marcy-1' Etoile, France) kit with an enzyme-linked fluorescent assay method. For statistical analysis, Windows SPSS 13.0 and MedCalc were used to confirm the probability of obtaining a predictive measure from the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve. Results: The ISS varied from 14 to 66 (mean: 33.8) whereas the onset of ARDS could be predicted with the score above 30 (sensitivity: 90.0%, specificity: 60.0%, p<0.05). On the posttraumatic $1^{st}$ day, the serum ferritin levels were measured to be from 31 mg/dL to 1,200 mg/dL (mean: 456 mg/dL), and the onset of ARDS could be predicted when the value was over 340 mg/dL (sensitivity: 80.0%, specificity: 65.0%, p<0.05). On the posttraumatic $2^{nd}$ day, the serum ferritin levels were measured to be from 73 mg/dL to 1,200 mg/dL (mean: 404 mg/dL), and the onset of ARDS could be predicted when the value was over 627 mg/dL (sensitivity: 60.0%, specificity: 92.5%, p<0.05). The serum ferritin levels and the ISS were significantly higher on the posttraumatic $1^{st}$ and $2^{nd}$ day in the ARDS group, suggesting that they are suitable indices predicting the onset of ARDS, however relationship between the serum ferritin levels and the ISS was not statistically significant. Conclusion: In this study, we discovered increasing serum ferritin levels in multiple- trauma patients on the posttraumatic $1^{st}$ & $2^{nd}$ day and concluded that both the serum ferritin level and the ISS were good predictors of ARDS. Although they do not show statistically significant relationship to each other, they can be used as independent predictive measures for ARDS. Since ARDS causes high mortality, further studies, including the types of surgery and the methods of anesthesia on a large number of patients are essential to predict the chance of ARDS earlier and to reduce the incidence of death.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.259-265
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• 2018

Since Korean housewives are responsible for the dietary practices of family at home, it is important to know what information will make them to buy safe food. This study was designed to determine the role of perceived threats, behavioral assessments, and self-efficacy factors known to promote healthy behavior in health belief models (HBM) based on food safety awareness and behavior of housewives. This study involved 191 housewives, based on key variables such as perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, and purchase behavior. The results showed that higher levels of education and urbanization increased the threat perception and the likelihood of buying safe food. The correlation analysis showed that increased awareness and knowledge of safe foods and interest in health contributed to higher relative benefit or self-efficiency of food, and thus, ensured food safety. The conceptual model of food safety behavior based on the HBM was verified via structural equation analysis. The findings suggest that a suitable model showcasing knowledge levels and relative benefits resulted in a greater impact on purchasing behavior than perceived threats. This study suggests that it is more effective for housewives to provide more preventive information than risk information to purchase safe food.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.1-18
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• 2008

Objectives: Galgeunhaegitang-gamibang(GH) and Samhwangseze-gamibang(SG) has been known that they are helpful for treatment of atopic dermititis clinically, but there is no report about the effect of GH and SG. So, author aimed to investigate the effects of GH and SG on atopic dermititis of NC/Nga mice. Methods : NC/Nga mice were divide into three group : normal, control, and experimental group. Atopic dermatitis was induced in the control and experimental group by spreading DNCB. Then GH was orally administered three times in a week for 8 weeks to the experimental group and SG was spreaded two times in a day for 8 weeks to the experimental group, while the control group was given normal saline. We observed changes of clinical skin severity score, serum IgE, IL-4, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IgM, IgGl, $IFN-{\gamma}$ and so on. We used one-way ANOVA test statistically(p<0.01). Results : Clinical skin severities of experiment group in 13 and 16weeks were significantly decreased by 48% and 55% compared to the control group. Serum IgE, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IgM, IgGl levels of experimental group were singnificantly decreased compared to the control group. Serum $IFN-{\gamma}$ level of the experimental group was significantly increased against control group. mRNA expression levels of IL-4, IL-5, IL-6 and CCR3 in the skin tissues of experimental group were significantly decreased compared to the control group. In contrary, $IFN-{\gamma}$y mRNA expression level were increased compared to the control group. Histological observation of the ear and skin tissues showed that the extents of inflammation and infiltrated immune cells in the epidermis and dermis of experimental group were highly deminished compared to the control group. Judging from that $IL-1{\beta}$, $TNF-{\alpha}$, IL-6 expression of gene, the effects of inflammatory cytokine revelation were significantly decreased compared to the control group. In the model inducing COX-2 activity in RAW 264.7 cell, COX-2 activity was significantly inhibited depending on the density of GH compared to the control serum. According to cell multiplication, examination of cell toxicity showed that GH is safe at the density of 10, 50, 100mg/l and even 1000mg/l. Conclusion : Accordin to the above results, it is considered that GH and SG is effective treatment for the atopic dermatitis.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.177-185
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• 1998

The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of farming in greenhouses with respect to subjective fatigue symptoms among farmers and the degree of symptoms. The study compared 176 green-house farmers with 216 open field farmers using a subjective fatigue symptoms rating scale developed by the Industrial Research Institute of Fatigue, Japanese Association for industrial Hygiene. 1. With respect to complaint rates of the subjective fatigue symptoms, the results indicated that greenhouse farmers have, in order of severity, high degrees of low back pain, difficulty in collecting thoughts, and apt to forget. 2. With respect to cumulative scores of fatigue symptoms, the results indicated that both groups of farmers exhibited a lack of attentiveness and a high degree of dullness and sleepiness(category I), body projection of fatigue(category II), and difficulty in concentration(category III). 3. With respect to general characteristics, it was found that the degrees of subjective fatigue symptoms were found to be higher among females, people with lower educational levels, and the elderly, regardless of the group. 4. With respect to work related factors, farmers with more years of experiences were found to have higher degrees of subjective fatigue symptoms, except for open field farmers with less than nine years experience. Both groups of farmers were found to have high degrees of subjective fatigue symptoms when working less than eight hours a day and less than six months a year. 5. With respect to health habits, for people who get less than eight hours of sleep per day exhibited higher fatigue scores than people who get more than eight hours. People who do not smoke and drink also exhibited higher fatigue scores than people who smoke and drink. 6. The results of multiple regression showed that the risk factors related to the subjective fatigue symptoms of farmers in the greenhouse group were ages, levels of education, sex and for the comparison group, were sex. years of farming, and hours of sleep. The R-square were 12.5% in the greenhouse group and 12.1% in the comparison son group. The differences between the greenhouse and open field farmers in the degrees of fatigue symptoms were found not to be statistically significant even if the working conditions of the greenhouse farmers were poor. This may be attributed to non-work related factors, i.e., social, economical, and psychological factors among greenhouse farmers.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.439-452
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• 1997

Mothers of handicapped children experience many problems and difficulties related to the child's prolonged dependency and demands for special care. Social support can be identified as stress-relieving factor, social support is considered to decrease the amount of negativeness in an individual or family. This study attempted to identify the level of burden and social support in mothers of children who are handicapped, and to determine whether social support is an effective strategy for burden relief in these mothers. The method used in the study was a correlational descriptive survey using a questionnaire. The subjects for the study were 42 mothers who have the handicapped children, between two to twelve years of age, being treated at S General Welfare House for Handicapped and S Rehabilitation Center in Seoul. The data were collected during 1 month from March 20 to April 20, 1996. The instruments used for this study was a structured questionnaire which was the Burden scale developed by Suh Mihae and Oh Kasil(1993) and the PRQ(Personal Resource Questionnaire) scale developed by Brandt & Weinert(1981). The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS computer program, yielding frequencies, percentiles, means, standard deviations, $x^{2}$-test, Pearson's correlation coefficienct, t-test and ANOVA. The results of this study are as follows ; 1)The range of age in the subjects was $29{\sim}44$ years, the range age in the handicapped children was $2{\sim}12$ years. 2) The mean score of burden, for the mothers of the handicapped children was 2.75(standard deviation was 0.47) of a possible total of 5. 3) The mean score of social support, for the mothers of the handicapped children was 4.99 (standard deviation was 0.59) of a possible total of 7. 4) There was an negative correlations hip between burden level and the social support, but there was no statistically significant correlationship between burden level and the social support(r = -.2252, p = .076) 5) In the general characteristics influencing on the burden level was significantly related with the sex(t = - 2.87, p = .007) and the degree of child's handicap level(F = 11.8680, p = .000l). In the general characteristics influencing on the social support was significantly related with the family(husband) support(F = 3.5199, p = .0240). There were significant differences in the mother's levels of burden depending upon the severity of child's handicap. In other words, the degree of mother's burden was directly proportionate to the degree of child's handicap level. There were significant differences in the mother's levels of social support depending upon the family(husband) support. In conclusion, on the basis of the results of this study, there was no statistically significant correlationship between burden level and the social support. Above results suggest that strategies for the intervention programs in diminishing the mother's burden and reinforcing the social support.