• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.3861-3866
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• 2015

Background: The aim of this study was to analyze the patterns of relapse and survival outcomes in Northern Thai women with recurrent endometrial cancer (EC). Materials and Methods: Medical records were abstracted from EC patients who underwent primary surgery from 1999 to 2012. Data on clinicopathologic variables, sites of first recurrence, time to relapse of disease, and overall survival (OS) was analyzed. Associations between the clinicopathological variables and the rates of disease recurrence were determined. Results: Among 1,204 reviewed records, 42 eligible patients were identified with recurrent disease. The median age was 55 years and the median follow-up time was 26.0 months. The median times to recurrence (TTR) after completion of the initial treatment in the group of local relapse (LR) and distant/combined sites of recurrence (DCSR) was 6.6 (95% CI=4.6 to 8.6 months) and 16.9 months (95% CI=5.6 to 28.2 months), respectively (p=0.36). The 2-year survival and 3-year survival probability in the group of LR was 54.2% (95% CI=27.2 to 81.3%) and 34.7% (95% CI=9.2 to 60.2%), compared to 50.4% (95% CI=41.1 to 59.7%) and 42.1% (95%CI= 24.1 to 60.1%) for those with DCSR. Distant recurrence was the most frequent pattern of relapse. Overall survival was not significantly different in patients with local relapse when compared to those with DCSR (p=0.69). Conclusions: Patients with recurrence of EC after primary treatment had a worse prognosis and clinical aggressiveness. LR and DCSR occurred most during the first three years. The common sites of relapses were vaginal cuff, pelvis, and lungs. No significant clinicopathological predictor for survival outcomes was identified.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.117-124
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• 2016

Intrafractional motion of patients, such as respiratory motion during radiation treatment, is an important issue in image-guided radiotherapy. The accuracy of the radiation treatment decreases as the motion range increases. We developed a control system for a robotic patient immobilization system that enables to reduce the range of tumor motion by compensating the tumor motion. Fusion technology, combining robotics and mechatronics, was developed and applied in this study. First, a small-sized prototype was established for use with an industrial miniature robot. The patient immobilization system consisted of an optical tracking system, a robotic couch, a robot controller, and a control program for managing the system components. A multi speed and position control mechanism with three degrees of freedom was designed. The parameters for operating the control system, such as the coordinate transformation parameters and calibration parameters, were measured and evaluated for a prototype device. After developing the control system using the prototype device, a feasibility test on a full-scale patient immobilization system was performed, using a large industrial robot and couch. The performances of both the prototype device and the realistic device were evaluated using a respiratory motion phantom, for several patterns of respiratory motion. For all patterns of motion, the root mean squared error of the corresponding detected motion trajectories were reduced by more than 40%. The proposed system improves the accuracy of the radiation dose delivered to the target and reduces the unwanted irradiation of normal tissue.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.371-374
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• 2012

Toxoplasma gondii is one of the major agents of infectious abortions and due to its worldwide distribution can threat healthy pregnant women who had no previous exposure to this parasite. The present study was designed to investigate the contribution of T. gondii to spontaneous abortions in Zanjan, Northwest of Iran, using ELISA method. Blood Samples were collected from 264 mothers referred to the provincial hospitals of Zanjan due to spontaneous abortion. The sera were isolated and subjected to evaluate the anti-Toxoplasma IgG, IgM and IgA antibodies. The results showed IgG positive ($IgG^+$) in 99 cases (37.5%). A total of 68 women (25.8%) showed seroconversion with IgM or IgA or both IgM and IgA. They included: $IgM^+$ in 21 (8.0%), $IgA^+$ in 23 (8.7%) and both $IgM^+$ and $IgA^+$ in 24 (9.1%) subjects. In 23 cases, positive titers of IgM and IgG were accompanied. In general, the analysis of anti-Toxoplasma antibody patterns, showed that about 17% of the spontaneous abortions were associated with serological patterns of acute infection. According to these findings, a considerable proportion of spontaneous abortions can be attributed to T. gondii in the study area.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.76-101
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• 2004

The primary purpose of this study was to provide the basic information for improving collaborating care of Korean traditional medicine and western medicine by surveying utilization and attitude on it among cerebral apoplexy(CA) patients hospitalized at a general hospital with both the western and Korean traditional medical department in Busan metropolitan city, Korea. The survey was conducted on 170 patients, 80 from Korean traditional medical department, and 90 from western medical department. The major results of this study were as below: First, CA patient's medical utilization patterns including selecting medical institution, term of treatment and type of medical institution at first-aid were significantly variated by their socio-demographic characteristics such as religion and job. Second, the perceptions of collaborating care, such as effectiveness and reduction of treatment period, were better at respondents who were hospitalized at oriental medical department and had been experienced with collaborating care. Third, the major contents of collaborating care which utilized by respondents in side of western medicine were physical therapy, x-ray, pathologic diagnosis, and medication, and in side of Korean traditional medicine were acupuncture, herbal medication, moxa cautery, cupping a boil therapy. Fourth, overall satisfaction on collaborating care was good(3.5 of 5.0) and was significantly variated by age and religion. Fifth, respondents perceived that collaborating care was most helpful for rehabilitation and the major problem of current duplicate medical system was increasement of medical expenditures, and the major obstacle of collaborating care was prejudice against each other medicine. The results of this study imply that effective marketing for collaborative care suitable for age and religion of customers and patient satisfaction strategy is needed to activate collaborating care.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.117-123
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• 2018

Background: Prostatitis, one of the most common diseases of the prostate, is a complex disease with various clinical features. This study aims to analyze the utilization and prescribing patterns of antibiotics in Korean patients with prostatitis between 2008 and 2015. Methods: We used the National Health Insurance Database complied from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA). The outcomes included the number of claims, number of patients, medical cost, and length of stay for each year. In addition, the prescribing patterns of antibiotics, including fluoroquinolone, and low-dose use of ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin were investigated. Results: The total number of patients and medical cost increased by 9.5% and 51.7% from 2008 to 2015, respectively. Most prostatitis patients were classified as chronic prostatitis patients. The prescribing proportion of antibiotics for chronic prostatitis outpatients decreased from 71.0% to 66.9% from 2008 to 2015, and fluoroquinolone accounted for more than half of the total antibiotics. Over 80% of prescription of levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin was identified to be for low-dose use. Conclusion: Most of the patients with prostatitis experienced pain relief and condition improvement after antibiotic treatment; however, chronic prostatitis and chronic pelvic pain syndrome recur easily. Therefore, active disease management and further studies are needed to enhance our understanding of effective treatment for prostatitis.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2016

Background: To investigate how many rookie pitchers suffered from injuries while playing in the amateur league without guidelines for prevention of excessive pitching, we analyzed their amateur pitching patterns based on the pitch count, use of breaking balls, and pitches during winter camp. Methods: Forty-one rookie pitchers who graduated from high school or university in 2013 and joined professional baseball teams. Participants were interviewed by a trainer using our questionnaire. Injury inclusion criteria were 1) history of shoulder surgery, 2) history of elbow surgery, 3) shoulder pain requiring treatment, and 4) elbow pain requiring treatment. Results: Mean number of pitches per game and warm-up pitches for practice was 84.5 pitches (range, 15 to 130 pitches) and 16.4 pitches (range, 2 to 210 pitches), respectively. Mean number of pitches during the last year was 906.9 (range, 80 to 2,000). Mean number of maximal pitches was 127 pitches (range, 50 to 210 pitches). Fourteen pitchers had pitched over 150 pitches. Twenty-seven pitchers (65.9%) had pitched in spite of enduring pain. During winter training (mean 1.8 months), mean number of pitches per day was 162.5 pitches, and 20 pitchers (48.8%) had practiced pitching excessively despite the cold weather. Twenty-six rookies (63.4%) had shoulder pain or history of shoulder surgery, and 31 pitchers (75.6%) had elbow pain or history of elbow surgery. Only four participants (9.8%) did not have pain and history of surgery. Conclusions: For young baseball pitchers, guidelines for prevention of excessive pitching and for regulating the winter training program may be needed.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.271-277
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• 2009

Purpose: Scapular dyskinesis is an alteration in the normal position or motion of the scapula during coupled scapulohumeral movements. Vast majority of shoulder pathologies are known to be related with scapular motion abnormalities. Because there being enthusiasm about scapular pathology in recent literatures, understanding scapular dyskinesis seems to be an important subject. The authors describe the importance of scapular abnormality in terms of shoulder pathology. Materials and Methods: Usually the inhibition or disorganization of activation patterns in scapular stabilizing muscles lead to scapular dyskinesis. This motion abnormality has more important values in Elite Athletes because it might be the sign of future shoulder pathology; for example, SLAP and internal impingement. Treatment of scapular dyskinesis is directed at managing underlying causes and restoring normal scapular muscle activation patterns by kinetic chain-based rehabilitation protocols. Treatment is also important to prevent secondary shoulder injuries. Results and Conclusion: Understanding scapular pathology may be the main key to approach to the shoulder pathology. Also treating scapular pathology might be important in preventing secondary shoulder injuries.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.395-399
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• 1997

Lintnerization properties and yield of enzyme-resistant starch in maize starches with different amylose content were investigated. Hydrolytic patterns of starches showed two distinct stages. With decreasing the amylose content, hydrolysis extents of starch increased. X-ray diffraction patterns of Amloca, PFP and commercial maize starch were the A crystalline type, and those of Amaizo 5 and Amylomaize VII were the B crystalline type. As acid hydrolysis time increased, the relative crystallinity of starches increased. After heating-cooling treatment was repeated up to 4 times, the yield of RS increased with increasing the amylose content. The yields of RS in lintnerzed maize starches decreased with acid treatment.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.205-210
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• 1988

The changes in peroxidase and catalase activities, and isoperoxidase patterns in different parts of mung bean seedling caused by the treatment with plant growth substances, $GA_3$ and ABA, were examined. As germination proceeded, the activity of peroxidase in all part except hypocotyl was increased, while that of catalase decreased. The separate application of $GA_3$ and ABA increased the activity of peroxidase which was more influenced by $GA_3$ than by ABA only in cotyledon, while that of catalase was more affected by ABA than by $GA_3$. Electrophoretic study revealed that the number of isoperoxidase was increased continuously in all parts during development. A greater influence was exerted on the intensity of isozyme than the number of isozyme by the hormonal treatment.