• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.1-10
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• 2014

Objectives: The effectiveness of Blood ${\beta}$-ketone testing by using self-monitoring strip on diabetic patients. Methods: Clinical effectiveness of blood ${\beta}$-ketone testing was assessed through correlation with reference test that measured blood ${\beta}$-ketone value through gas chromatography or enzyme method, diagnostic accuracy, time taken for the test and time taken for confirmative diagnosis of diabetic ketosis by selecting literatures on researches that conducted this test on ketosis(suspected) patients or diabetic ketosis(suspected) patients. Each of the stages from literature search to application of selection standards and extraction of data were carried out independently by the Subcommittee along with 2 researchers. Results: 7 reports were selected. ${\beta}$-ketone testing displayed high level of correlation in the range of r=0.92~0.99 with test using enzyme method as the reference standard. Regarding the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity of 0.82, specificity of 0.74. The time taken for the test was 30seconds for the index test, which is shorter than reference standard test. Conclusion: Blood ${\beta}$-ketone testing was assessed to be a safe and effective test to monitor ketosis and assess the level of risk of ketosis by measuring the blood ${\beta}$-ketone on ketosis patients and diabetic ketosis patients since it has high level of correlation with reference test and short period of testing.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.689-692
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• 2012

Objective: To investigate correlations between adenosine triphosphate chemotherapy response assay (ATP-CRA) and clinical outcomes after ATP-CRA-based chemotherapy for drug selection in patients receiving intravesical chemotherapy to prevent recurrence of superficial bladder cancer after surgery. Methods: The chemosensitivities of 12 anticancer drugs were evaluated, including 5-Fu ADM, and EPI, using ATP-CRA and primary tumor cell culture in 54 patients. In addition, a further 58 patients were treated according to clinical experience. Differences in post-chemotherapeutical effects between drug sensitivity assay and experience groups were compared. Results: The evaluable rate of the test was 96.3%, the clinical effective rate was 80.8%, the sensitivity rate was 97.6% (41/42), the specificity was 20%, the total predicting accuracy was 74.3%, the positive predictive value was 83.7% (41/49), the negative predictive value was 66.7% (2/3); in the drug sensitivity test group, the clinical effective rate was 80.8%, the experience group response rate was 63.8%, with a significant difference in clinical effects between the ATP-based sensitivity and experience groups (${\chi}^2$=7.0153, P<0.01). Conclusion: ATP-CRA is a stable, accurate and potentially practical chemosensitivity test providing a predictor of chemotherapeutic response in patients with superficial bladder cancer.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.29-32
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• 2008

Although various criteria on the diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy are applied from trial to trial, being tailored in concert with its purpose, the utmost evidences of the diagnosis are subjective symptoms and objective signs of neurologic deficit. The application and interpretation of auxiliary electrophysiological test including nerve conduction study (NCS) should be made on the context of clinical pictures. The evaluation of the functions of small, thinly myelinated or unmyelinated nerve fibers has been increasingly stressed recently with the advent of newer techniques, e.g., measurement of intraepidermal fiber density, quantitative sensory testing, and autonomic function test. And the studies with those techniques have shed light to the nature of the evolution of diabetic neuropathy. The practical application of these techniques to the diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy in the individual patients, however, should be made cautiously due to several shortcomings: limited accessibility, wide overlapping zone between norm and abnormality with resultant unsatisfactory sensitivity and specificity, difficulty in performing subsequent tests, unproven quantitative correlation with clinical deficit, and invasiveness of some technique. NCS, as an extension of clinical examination, is still the most reliable electrophysiological test in evaluating neuropathy and gives the invaluable information about the nature of neuropathy, whereas the newer techniques need more refinement of the procedure and interpretation, and the accumulation of large scaled data of application to be considered as established diagnostic tools of peripheral neuropathy.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.239-243
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• 2007

Many allergists are currently focusing on the development of new diagnostic tools, and are attempting to improve both the sensitivity and specificity. A multiple allergen simultaneous test-chemiluminescent assay (MAST-CLA) is one of the most popular diagnostic tools used in the Republic of Korea. However, there remains controversy among allergists with regard to the cut-off point for a positive result. The present study was conducted in order to determine the validity of MAST-CLA as compared with that of the skin prick test, with particular emphasis on arthropod allergens, on the basis of percentage agreement rates and k-values, and also to suggest the optimal positive cutoff points using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The study was conducted with 97 subjects (54 men, 43 women). Optimal individual cut-off points were calculated as follows; class II for Dermatophagoides farinae, class I for Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, and trace for a cockroach mix. These findings suggest that attempting to apply optimal individual cut-off points will be a good way of improving diagnostic tests, particularly MAST-CLA.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2010

Brucellosis is a serious zoonosis, recognized worldwide. It primarily affects animals, which act as reservoirs for human infection as well as being of economic significance to the agri-food industry. Bangladesh has been reported as an endemic area for brucellosis. So a cross sectional study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence and potential risk factors of brucellosis in cattle in Dinajpur and Mymensingh districts of Bangladesh. A total of 182 cattle were examined by Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT) between September 2008 and October 2009. Then Positive, doubtful, and negative samples were further confirmed with slow agglutination test (SAT) and both indirect and competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA and cELISA). A questionnaire was used to collect epidemiological information of the animals. The overall animal-level prevalence was 3.30%. Brucellosis seroprevalence was higher (4.76% by cELISA) in cattle above 48 months than those under 48 months. Female showed higher seroprevalence (10.67%) than male (6.25%). Higher seroprevalence was also found in cattle bred naturally (20.0%) than artificially (8.77%) and cattle that aborted or with previous abortion record (22.22%) showed higher seroprevalence than non-aborted (7.69%). The sensitivity of RBT and SAT was found 100% as compared to cELISA standard test, whereas specificity of RBT (95.35%) was higher than that of SAT (94.32%).

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1994.02b
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• pp.164-168
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• 1994

Single serologic tests may occasionally influence clinicians in making diagnoses. The antistreptolysin O (ASO) test is a frequently used tool for detecting recent Streptococcus pyogenes infection and is helpful in the diagnosis of diseases like rheumatic fever. Using data from a 1989 prospective study of 600 healthy male military recruits, in which 43% experienced S. pyogenes upper respiratory tract infection (2-dilution rise in ASO), this report compared two methods of interpreting a single ASO titer. Using the 'upper limit of normal' (80 percentile) method, recruits with an ASO titer of greater than 400 showed evidence of recent S. pyogenes infection. This method had a sensitivity and specificity of only 65.9 and 81.9% respectively. In contrast to the 'yes-no'. dichotomy of the 'upper limit of normal' method. the likelihood ratio method statistics were ASO value specific, more consistent with clinical judgment, and better emphasized the caution clinicians must use in interpreting a single ASO test.

• Psychiatry investigation
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.1030-1036
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• 2018

Objective In this study, we aimed to develop a model predicting individuals with suicide ideation within a general population using a machine learning algorithm. Methods Among 35,116 individuals aged over 19 years from the Korea National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey, we selected 11,628 individuals via random down-sampling. This included 5,814 suicide ideators and the same number of non-suicide ideators. We randomly assigned the subjects to a training set (n=10,466) and a test set (n=1,162). In the training set, a random forest model was trained with 15 features selected with recursive feature elimination via 10-fold cross validation. Subsequently, the fitted model was used to predict suicide ideators in the test set and among the total of 35,116 subjects. All analyses were conducted in R. Results The prediction model achieved a good performance [area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC)=0.85] in the test set and predicted suicide ideators among the total samples with an accuracy of 0.821, sensitivity of 0.836, and specificity of 0.807. Conclusion This study shows the possibility that a machine learning approach can enable screening for suicide risk in the general population. Further work is warranted to increase the accuracy of prediction.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.643-654
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop and psychometrically test the Korean Geriatric Loneliness Scale (KGLS). Methods: The initial items were based on in-depth interviews with 10 older adults. Psychometric testing was then conducted with 322 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 or older. Content, construct, and criterion-related validity, classification in cutoff point, internal consistency reliability, and test-retest reliability were used for the analysis. Results: Exploratory factor analysis showed three factors, including 15 items explaining 91.6% of the total variance. The three distinct factors were loneliness associated with family relationships (34.3%), social loneliness (32.4%), and a lack of belonging (24.9%). As a result of confirmatory factor analysis, 14 items in the three-factor structure were validated. Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that the KGLS' cutoff point of 32 was associated with a sensitivity of 71.0%, specificity of 80.2%, and area under the curve of .83. Reliability, as verified by the test-retest intraclass correlation coefficient, was .89, and Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ was .90. Conclusion: As its validity and reliability have been verified through various methods, the KGLS can contribute to assessing loneliness in South Korean older adults.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.257-263
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• 2021

Human gnathostomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by Gnathostoma nematode infection. A rapid, reliable, and practical immunoassay, named dot immuno-gold filtration assay (DIGFA), was developed to supporting clinical diagnosis of gnathostomiasis. The practical tool detected anti-Gnathostoma-specific IgG4 in human serum using crude extract of third-stage larvae as antigen. The result of the test was shown by anti-human IgG4 monoclonal antibody conjugated colloidal gold. The sensitivity and specificity of the test were both 100% for detection in human sera from patients with gnathostomiasis (13/13) and from healthy negative controls (50/50), respectively. Cross-reactivity with heterogonous serum samples from patients with other helminthiases ranged from 0 (trichinosis, paragonimiasis, clonorchiasis, schistosomiasis, and cysticercosis) to 25.0% (sparganosis), with an average of 6.3% (7/112). Moreover, specific IgG4 antibodies diminished at 6 months after treatment. This study showed that DIGFA for the detection of specific IgG4 in human sera could be a promising tool for the diagnosis of gnathostomiasis and useful for evaluating therapeutic effects.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.173-179
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• 2022

Malaria remains a global health threat. Approximately 97% of the population is at risk in sub-Saharan countries, particularly Nigeria. This study compared the performance of 2 diagnostic methods in assessing malaria endemicity in the rural communities of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. A total of 1,140 study participants were screened for malaria parasite using Rapid Diagnostic Test kits (RDT) in the field, while thick and thin films for microscopy were examined in the laboratory. Our result showed that malaria prevalence was 56.8 by RDT and 38.6% by microscopic test. Age group under 10 years had the highest prevalence of 28.9% (RDT) and 23.6% (microscopy), respectively. The highest prevalence of 19.5% by RDT was recorded in Onicha Local Government Area, while the highest prevalence of 13.4% with microscopy was recorded in Ezza North Local Government Area. The sensitivity and specificity of microscopic examination were both 100%, while those of RDT were 95.5% and 75.9%, respectively.