• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

Objectives: To introduce to TKM scientific dose conversion methods of human to animal or animal to human for new drug investigations. Methods: We searched guidelines of the FDA and KFDA, and compared them with references for drug-dose conversion from various databases such as PubMed and Google. Then, we analyzed the potential issues and problems related to dose conversion in safety documentation of new herbal drugs based on our experiences during Investigational New Drug (IND) applications of TKM. Results: Dose conversion from human to animal or animal to human must be appropriately translated during new drug development. From time to time, investigators have some difficulty in determining the appropriate dose, because of misunderstandings of dose conversion, especially when they estimate starting dose in clinical or animal studies to investigate efficacy, toxicology and mechanisms. Therefore, education of appropriate dose calculation is crucial for investigators. The animal dose should not be extrapolated to humans by a simple conversion method based only on body weight, because many studies suggest the normalization method is based mainly on body surface area (BSA). In general, the body surface area seems to have good correlation among species with several parameters including oxygen utilization, caloric expenditure, basal metabolism, blood volume and circulating plasma protein. Likewise, a safety factor should be taken into consideration when deciding high dose in animal toxicology study. Conclusion: Herein, we explain the significance of dose conversion based on body surface area and starting dose estimation for clinical trials with safety factor.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.27-41
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• 2022

Objectives: There should be an objective analysis on the academic competency for incorporating Computer-based Test (CBT) in the education of traditional Korean medicine (TKM). However, the Item Response Theory (IRT) for analyzing latent competency has not been introduced for its difficulty in calculation, interpretation and utilization. Methods: The current study analyzed responses of 390 students of 8 years to the herbology test with 14 items by utilizing Rasch model, and the characteristics of test and items were evaluated by using characteristic curve, information curve, difficulty, academic competency, and test score. The academic competency of the students across gender and years were presented with scale characteristic curve, Kernel density map, and Wright map, and examined based on T-test and ANOVA. Results: The estimated item, test, and ability parameters based on Rasch model provided reliable information on academic competency, and organized insights on students, test and items not available with test score calculated by the summation of item scores. The test showed acceptable validity for analyzing academic competency, but some of items revealed difficulty parameters to be modified with Wright map. The gender difference was not distinctive, however the differences between test years were obvious with Kernel density map. Conclusion: The current study analyzed the responses in the herbology test for measuring academic competency in the education of TKM using Rasch model, and structured analysis for competency-based Teaching in the e-learning era was suggested. It would provide the foundation for the learning analytics essential for self-directed learning and competency adaptive learning in TKM.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.691-697
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• 2016

Methods: A stroke patient with hot flashes was treated for 4 weeks with acupuncture, herbal acupuncture, and herbal medicine. We then evaluated the frequency, intensity, and score (frequency×intensity) of the hot flashes, as well as the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), which shows subjective sleep quality. Results: After 4 weeks of traditional Korean medicine (TKM) treatment, the patient showed reductions in the frequency of hot flashes from a score of 7 to 4, the intensity of hot flashes from a score of 4 to 2, the scoring (frequency×intensity) of hot flashes from 28 to 4, and the PSQI from 13 to 4. Conclusions: This study validated the effect of TKM as a treatment for hot flashes in patients with stroke.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.105-126
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• 2021

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was the primary source of medical treatment for the people inhabiting East Asia for thousands of years. These ancient practices have incorporated a wide variety of materia medica including plants, animals and minerals. As modern sciences, including natural products chemistry, emerged, there became increasing efforts to explore the chemistry of this materia medica to find molecules responsible for their traditional use. Insects, including beetles have played an important role in TCM. In our survey of texts and review articles on TCM materia medica, we found 48 species of beetles from 34 genera in 14 different families that are used in TCM. This review covers the chemistry known from the beetles used in TCM, or in cases where a species used in these practices has not been chemically studied, we discuss the chemistry of closely related beetles. We also found several documented uses of beetles in Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM), and included them where appropriate. There are 129 chemical constituents of beetles discussed.

• Journal of Information Management
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.187-204
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• 2010

This study shows evaluation of how much OASIS meets "the korean web content accessibility guidelines" and analysis of some of the accessibility problems and their solutions in OASIS(Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System) which is the only web site that offers papers and project information related to Traditional Medicine in Korea. The evaluation criteria to determine if OASIS is accessible is classified into four sub items; Perceivable - if information and user interface components is presentable to users in ways they can perceive, Operable - if user interface components and navigation are operable, Understandable - if information and the operation of user interface are understandable, Robust - if content is robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies. Based on the measured results, OASIS has just been redesigned and implemented in more accessible and effective way. OASIS that improves web accessibility for the disabled is expected to help them study oriental medicine more easily and conveniently by providing equal access and equal opportunity to use the web.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.125-144
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• 2016

Objectives : About 13% of the medicines used by traditional korean medicines(TKM), are called animal medicines and are derived from non-herbal sources such as animals and insects. However, the clinical use of these preparations from animal medicines is often based on tradition and belief, rather than on evidence of toxicity and efficacy. As a result, animal medicines containing toxin have caused serious problems from injecting patients with venom. Here, various venoms frequently used as TKM were reviewed in terms of their instinct toxity and tried to estimate their safety classification. Methods : The estimation of safety classification was based on human equivalent dose(HED)-based MOS (margin of safety) and clinical dose applied for patients. Results and Conclusions : Except that of snake venom due to no clinical dose, they were evaluated as class 3 for bee venom, class 4 for cantharidin, toxin from blister beetle, and class 1 for venom from scolopendrid. In conclusion, animal medicines showed a wide range of safety classification from class 1 to class 4. This wide range is estimated to result from extremely limited applications of each venom for patients because of their strong toxicity. However, it should be cautious for application in clinics since animal medicines can produce anaphylactic reactions particularly after veinous administration even with a tiny amount of venom.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2010

1. Objectives: Voice diagnosis has been used to classify individuals into the Sasang constitution in SCM(Sasang Constitution Medicine) and to recognize his/her health condition in TKM(Traditional Korean Medicine). In this paper, we purposed a new speech classification algorithm for Sasang constitution. 2. Methods: This algorithm is based on the SVM(Support Vector Machine) technique, which is a classification method to classify two distinct groups by finding voluntary nonlinear boundary in vector space. It showed high performance in classification with a few numbers of trained data set. We designed for this algorithm using 3 SVM classifiers to classify into 4 groups, which are composed of 3 constitutional groups and additional indecision group. 3. Results: For the optimal performance, we found that 32.2% of the voice data were classified into three constitutional groups and 79.8% out of them were grouped correctly. 4. Conclusions: This new classification method including indecision group appears efficient compared to the standard classification algorithm which classifies only into 3 constitutional groups. We find that more thorough investigation on the voice features is required to improve the classification efficiency into Sasang constitution.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.114-121
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• 2015

More and more patients suffering from hepatitis A, the number of patients representing symptoms that are uncharacteristic to hepatitis A is also increasing. There are occasions of serious complications among adult hepatitis A patients that can cause fulminant hepatitis or cirrhosis which can be fatal. A 43-year-old male was diagnosed as acute hepatitis A and was treated at a Western hospital over the course of three months, which included two months of hospitalization. However, his symptoms did not improve, so he was admitted to Oriental hospital. We prescribed Chunggan extract (CGX) four times a day. Acupuncture was performed twice a day. From the twenty-fourth day of admission, the total bilirubin fell under 10 mg/dL for the first time and next day he was discharged. Following his discharge, he consistently took CGX three times a day. 21 days after discharge all of his symptoms disappeared. This study demonstrated that traditional Korean medicine (TKM) for acute viral hepatitis with cholestatic hepatitis might be effective and safe with no adverse effects.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.25-36
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• 2011

Objective: To check the status of traditional Korean medical doctors' medical services amid the continual increase in the number of traditional Korean medicine clinics. Methods: A survey of traditional Korean medicine clinics based on questionnaire sheets mailed to 4,200 out of 10,895 clinics, of which 465, or 11.0%, responded, in the June 1, 2008 to December 9, 2008 period. Results: 1. 65.6% of the traditional Korean responding clinics are doing business in a rented space; 92.1%of them are one-person institutions; 24.4% of them, i.e., the largest group of those surveyed, operate in a space sized 41 (123 $m^2$)~50 pyeong (150$m^2$). The number of sick beds installed in their facilities comes to 7.9 on average. 2. Concerning support staff, 190 of them (or 40.9%), i.e., the largest group of those surveyed, employ two people in this capacity. They generally comprise assistant nurses (48.7%) and others (47.6%). 3. The size of the space used by the clinics is showing a tendency to increase. The number of sick beds and support staff, including assistant nurses, reached a peak in 2006, and has been on the decrease since then. 4. The average number of on-days comes to six days a week among 92.6% of those surveyed. Their average daily service hours come to 9 hours and 33 minutes (from 9:17 am to 6:50 pm). 5. Per-patient service time: 14 minutes on average; per-patient acupuncture time: 18.8 minutes; per-patient moxa cautery time: 10.1 minutes per-patient; boil-cupping time: 5.7 minutes; per-patient physical treatment: 28 minutes. Conclusion: Periodical studies should be carried out concerning desirable ways of developing traditional Korean medicine clinics with the focus on the facilities, doctors' service hours, and types of service.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.119-124
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• 2016

Objectives: To demonstrate a clinical course and feature of a female patient with a severe liver injury (DILI) during antituberculosis treatment for her intestinal tuberculosis, whom traditional Korean medicine completely recovered. Methods: A female patient with diagnosed as DILI by antituberculosis drugs had been treated with herbal drugs; and then the clinical outcome and biochemical parameters had been monitored. Result: A 45-year old female had taken antituberculosis drugs for about 2 months, and complained severe abdominal discomfort and dyspepsia. The RUCAM score was 10, which met the criteria for DILI (AST 584 IU/L, ALT 1212 IU/L, ALP 100 IU/L, and GGT 161 IU/L, total bilirubin 0.9 mg/dL). She had been treated with herbal drugs and acupuncture as inpatient and outpatient, and then her symptoms had been completely recovered with normalization of hepatic enzymes. Conclusion: This report provides a clinical characteristic for a severe hepatotoxicity induced by antituberculosis drugs, and showed an example of TKM-based application.