• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.270-275
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• 2019

The incidence of degenerative valve disease also increasing with the increasing life expectancy of the elderly population. Rheumatic valve disease is decreasing gradually and the incidence of calcified degenerative aortic stenosis (AS) is growing. Echocardiography is a very important tool for evaluating the prognosis and treatment method as well as the time of operation and diagnosis of heart valve disease. When evaluating valvular heart disease, 2-dimensional echocardiography, which observes all heart valves in detail, should take precedence. Understanding the clinical findings of degenerative valve disease and performing precise echocardiography are extremely important. In addition, an assessment of the severity of aortic stenosis is necessary to determine the surgical indications. An assessment of the severity by echocardiography was explained with three cases of degenerative aortic stenosis. To perform echocardiography accurately, it is necessary to understand degenerative valve disease and its clinical findings accurately.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2015

Background: Sleep-related disturbances and sleep disorders are common in Parkinson's disease (PD) and have a great impact on daily life of PD patients. This study was done to find the sleep characteristics and sleep disturbing factors in PD patients according to disease severity through clinical interview and polysomnographic (PSG) study. Methods: Fifty patients with PD (22 males, age $60.6{\pm}6.4$, Hoehn and Yahr (HY) stage $2.7{\pm}1.0$) were recruited and thoroughly interviewed about their sleep. PSG was performed on the patients taking routine antiparkinsonian medications. Patients were grouped into mild and moderate/severe group according to HY stage, and the results were compared between each group. Results: Ninety-four percent of total patients had one or more sleep-related disturbances based on the interview or PSG. On interview, the moderate/severe group complained more insomnia and REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) than mild group. In PSG findings, the moderate/severe group showed lower sleep efficiency, longer sleep latency, REM sleep latency, waking time after sleep onset, and higher prevalence of RBD. Conclusions: In this study, most patients with PD had sleep disturbances. Clinical interview and PSG findings revealed deterioration of sleep quality along the disease severity. Our results suggest that sleep disturbances in PD patients are prevalent and warrant clinical attention, especially to the patients with advanced disease.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.6-12
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• 2009

Snow molds are the most important winter diseases of turfgrass in the United States and Canada. Eight isolates of three snow mold fungal species (three isolates of Typhula ishikariensis, three of T. incarnata, and two of Microdochium nivale) were collected from infected turfgrasses on golf courses. The isolates were evaluated for their relative aggressiveness on three cultivars (L-93, Penncross, and Providence) of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris) under the same controlled conditions. Four plant ages (15, 19, 23 and 27 week-old plants from germination to inoculation) were evaluated for their susceptibility to the three pathogens and for the recovery of the plants. Regardless of age or cultivar of the host plant, M. nivale was found to be more aggressive and faster to infect and colonize than Typhula species. After three weeks recovery, M. nivale-inoculated plants showed higher disease severity than plants inoculated with the two Typhula species. Plants infected by Typhula species displayed no significant difference in disease severity. As creeping bentgrass plants get older, the severity of disease caused by three snow molds gradually decreases. This effect was observed in all cultivars tested, suggesting expression of age-related resistance as the bentgrass plants matured.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.47-55
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• 2017

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to examine self-efficacy, severity, social support, and self-care compliance of patients with liver cirrhosis and to identify the factors that affect their self-care compliance. Methods: A total of 160 outpatients with liver cirrhosis visiting the gastroenterology clinic at an university hospital located in Busan were enrolled in this study. Data were collected via self-report questionnaires including self-efficacy, severity of disease, social support, and self-care compliance measures. The collected data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, $Scheff\acute{e}-test$, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple linear regression analysis. Results: The factors affecting self-care compliance were self-efficacy, severity of disease, age, and sex. These factors explained 28.4% of the variance in self-care compliance of patients with liver cirrhosis. Conclusion: Therefore, nursing interventions that enhance patients' self-efficacy are needed to promote self-care compliance in patients with liver cirrhosis. In addition, patients must be taught of the importance of self-care compliance so that even young patients and those with relatively mild disease. That would also be motivated to comply with self-care instructions.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.814-824
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• 2007

Liver cirrhosis (LC) is defined as comprising diffuse fibrosis and regenerating nodules of the liver. The biochemical and anatomical dysfunction in LC results from both reduced liver cell number and portal vascular derangement. Although several studies have investigated dysregulated genes in cirrhotic nodules, little is known about the genes implicated in the pathophysiologic change of LC or about their relationship with the degree of decompensation. Here, we applied cDNA microarray analysis using 38 HBsAg-positive LC specimens to identify the genes dysregulated in HBV-associated LC and to evaluate their relation to disease severity. Among 1063 known cancer- and apoptosis-related genes, we identified 104 genes that were significantly up- (44) or down- (60) regulated in LC. Interestingly, this subset of 104 genes was characteristically correlated with the degree of decompensation, called the Pugh-Child classification (20 Pugh-Child A, 10 Pugh-Child B, and 8 Pugh-Child C). Patient samples from Pugh-Child C exhibited a distinct pattern of gene expression relative to those of Pugh-Child A and B. Especially in Pugh-Child C, genes encoding hepatic proteins and metabolizing enzymes were significantly down-regulated, while genes encoding various molecules related to cell replication were up-regulated. Our results suggest that subsets of genes in liver cells correspond to the pathophysiologic change of LC according to disease severity and possibly to hepatocarcinogenesis.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.257-263
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• 2000

Infection with rice blast fungus (Magnaporthe grisea) significantly reduced foliar net photosynthesis (A) of rice cultivars: Ilpoom, Hwasung, and Choochung in greenhouse experiments. By measuring the amount of diseased leaf area with a computer image analysis system, the relation between disease severity (DS) and net photosynthetic rate was curvilinearly correlated (r=0.679). Diseased leaves with 35% blast symptom can be predicted to have a 50% reduction of photosynthesis. The disease severity was linearly correlated (r=0.478) with total chlorophyll (chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b) per unit leaf area(TC). Light use efficiency was reduced by the fungal infection according to the light response curves. However, dark respiration (Rd) did not change after the fungal infection (p=0.526). Since the percent of reduction in photosynthesis greatly exceeded the percent of leaf area covered by blast lesions, loss of photosynthetic tissue on an area basis could not by itself account for the reduced photosynthesis. Quantitative photosynthetic reduction can be partially explained by decreasing TC, but cannot be explained by decreasing Rd. By photosynthesis (A)-internal CO$_2$ concentration (C$_i$ curve analysis, it was suggested that the fungal infection reduced ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) activity, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) regeneration, and inorganic phosphate regeneration. Thus, the reduction of photosynthesis by blast infection was associated with decreased TC and biochemical capacity, which comprises all carbon metabolism after CO$_2$ enters through the stomata.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.244-252
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• 2001

Objective : Health insurers and policy makers are increasingly examining the hospital mortality rate as an indicator of hospital quality and performance. To be meaningful, a risk-adjustment of the death rates must be implemented. This study reviewed 5 severity measurement methods and applied them to the same data set to determine whether judgments regarding the severity-adjusted hospital mortality rates were sensitive to the specific severity measure. Methods : The medical records of 584 patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery in 6 general hospitals during 1996 and 1997 were reviewed by trained nurses. The MedisGroups, Disease Staging, Computerized Severity Index, APACHE III and KDRG were used to quantify severity of the patients. The predictive probability of death was calculated for each patient in the sample from a multivariate logistic regression model including the severity score, age and sex to evaluate the hospitals' performance, the ratio of the observed number of deaths to the expected number for each hospital was calculated. Results : The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 7.0%, ranging from 2.7% to 15.7% depending on the particular hospital. After the severity adjustment, the mortality rates for each hospital showed little difference according to the severity measure. The 5 severity measurement methods varied in their statistical performance. All had a higher c statistic and $R^2$ than the model containing only age and sex. There was a little difference in the relative hospital performance evaluation by the severity measure. Conclusion : These results suggest that judgments regarding a hospital's performance based on severity adjusted mortality can be sensitive to the severity measurement method. Although the 5 severity measures regarding hospital performance concurred, more often than would be expected by chance, the assessment of an individual hospital mortality rates varied by the different severity measurement method used.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.217-226
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• 2009

1. Objective To investigate characteristics of menstrual patterns according to Sasang Constitutional disease, and to utilize for diagnosis and treatment of Sasang Constitutional disease. 2. Method The recruited subjects were 430 women who convinced their Sasang Constitution by taking herbal medicine and improving of chief complaint. The items of data contain age at menarche, age at menopause, menstrual cycle, menstrual duration, cyclic regularity of menstruation, severity of menstrual pain, the worst day of menstrual pain, type of menstrual pain, amount of menstruation. 3. Results 1) Severity of menstrual pain, the worst day of menstrual pain, menstrual pain accompanied with nausea were significant among Sasang Constitutional diseases. 2) In Bae-chu-pyo-byeong disease (背椎表病證), Wi-wan-han disease (胃院寒證), So-eum disease (少陰證) and Tae-eum disease (太陰證), menstrual pain was severer than other diseases. 3) In Hae-yeok disease and So-yang-sang-pung disease (少陽傷風證), the worst day of menstrual pain was a day before menstruation. In Hyung-gyeok-yeol disease (胸膈熱證), Tae-eum disease (太陰證), So-eum disease (少陰證), the frequency of a day after menstruation in the worst day of menstrual pain was higher than other diseases. In Wi-wan-han disease (胃院寒證), Mang-yang disease (亡陽證), the frequency of two day after menstruation in the worst day of menstrual pain was higher than other diseases. 4) In So-yang-sang-pung disease (少陽傷風證), Mang-eum disease (亡陰證), Eum-heo-o-yeol diasese (陰虛午熱證), Ul-gwang disease (鬱狂證), Tae-eum disease (太陰證), So-eum disease (少陰證), the frequency of menstrual pain accompanied with nausea were higher than other diseases. 4. Conclusion Menstrual patterns, especially menstrual pain is different among Sasang Constitutional diseases. Assessing menstrual pain can be used for diagnosing Sasang Constitutional diseases, deciding treatment course, determinating prognosis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.58 no.5
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• pp.507-514
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• 2005

Background : Measurement of the $FEV_1$ and PEFR in COPD patients is a significant indicator of the disease severity, the response to treatment and the acute exacerbation. However, it is not known if PEFR can be used to determine the severity of COPD because the agreement between PEFR and $FEV_1$ in COPD patients is not well known. Methods : From September, 2003 to August, 2004, 125 out patients with COPD who were treated at the pulmonary clinic in KonKuk University Hospital were enrolled in this study. The $FEV_1$ and PEFR of each patient were measured and all the data was analyzed using SPSS. Results : The average predicted $FEV_1$ % and PEFR % was $56.98{\pm}18.21%$ and $70{\pm}27.60%$, respectively. There was linear correlation between the predicted $FEV_1$ % and predicted PEFR %. There was no correlation between age of the COPD patients and the predicted PEFR %. There was correlation between dyspnea, which is a subjective symptom of the patients, and the predicted PEFR %. Conclusion : In COPD patients, the classification of the severity by PEFR tends to underestimate the state of the disease compared with the classification of the severity by the $FEV_1$. Therefore, the classification of the severity by PEFR should be interpreted carefully in patients with severe symptoms. Once the classification of the severity has made, the follow-up examination may use the PEFR instead of the $FEV_1$.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.123-131
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• 2015

In this study, viral disease samples were obtained between 2006 and 2010 from pepper fields in 11 major pepper-growing districts in Gangwon-do, and in 83 areas from other provinces, with the exception of Gyeongsangnam-do and Jeju island in Korea. In order to assess the type of infection, field surveys were conducted with regard to viral disease severity and virus type, based on typical symptoms on leaves. The means of single and mixed-virus infections were 46.6% and 48.0%, respectively, during those periods, suggesting that viruses are the agents that most severely decrease pepper production in field cultivation in Korea. In terms of single infection, Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) was the most prevalent virus based on its disease severity ratings (34.8%). Next, Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) and Pepper mottle virus (PepMoV) were shown to cause severe viral diseases in pepper, with disease severities of around 5-10%. On the other hand, Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) occurs in a limited area in Chungcheongnam-do and Jeollanam-do. Thus, the viral disease caused by CMV, PMMoV, and PepMoV in pepper can be severe, and these virus types should remain considered critical reasons for decreased pepper production in field cultivation in Korea. In addition to single infection, mixed infections are frequently observed in collected pepper samples from all areas. The ratios of mixed infection were therefore studied to evaluate the disease severity of mixed infections and to define individual virus types. These data showed that different types of viruses were present, and CMV was the most abundant virus for mixed infection, as in the case of single infection. Among mixed infections, the highest disease severity was seen with CMV+Broad beam wilt virus 2 (BBWV2), followed by other types of mixed infection such as CMV+PepMoV and CMV+PMMoV. However, further work is needed to reduce the severe damage caused by viruses and to assess mixed infection types involving three or more viruses.