• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2017

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify predictors of serious poisoning in patients with snake bite based on initial findings. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of patients with snake bite who were treated at the emergency department between January 2010 and December 2016. The patients were divided into two groups according to the severity of symptoms based on the traditional snakebite severity grading scale. The mild poisoning group (MP) was classified as those who had a grade I snakebite severity during the hospital stay, and the severe poisoning group (SP) was classified as patients who had grade I at the time of admission, but progressed to grade II-IV during hospitalization. Initial clinical manifestations and laboratory findings of the two groups were compared. Results: Bite to hospital time intervals of SP were longer than those of MP (p=0.034), and the local effect score (LES) was higher in SP (p<0.001). Laboratory analyses revealed that creatine phosphokinase (p=0.044), creatine phosphokinase MB isoenzyme (CK-MB, p=0.011) and serum amylase (p=0.008) were significantly higher in SP. LES, CK-MB and serum amylase were significant prognostic predictors as indicated by univariate logistic regression analysis. Multivariate analysis revealed the following two significant predictors: LES (odds ratio=3.983, p<0.001) and serum amylase (odds ratio=1.020, p=0.017). Conclusion: In managing cases of snake bites, clinical manifestations and laboratory findings must be carefully evaluated. LES and serum amylase are predictive factors for severe poisoning, which is especially important to rapid determination of the intensive care of the patient.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.13-21
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• 2017

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of acupuncture treatment (AT) in the tendency of increase of the need for AT for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) worldwide and to investigate the advancements in AT research in Korea and the future directions of research on this topic. Methods : Until May 2017, the PubMed, Scopus, Medline, and four Korean databases were searched. The searched keywords were "Parkinson's disease", "Acupuncture", and "Intervention study". The intervention groups from all screened original studies were analyzed and the methods used to determine the effect of AT on PD were examined. Results : A total of 17 studies were grouped by country on the basis of the first author's position, of which 10 studies were conducted in China, four in the United States, two in Korea, and one in Brazil. The most common type of intervention was electroacupuncture (nine studies), followed by AT (six studies), and a combination of AT and bee venom AT (two studies). The most frequently used acupoints in AT were Baihui (GV20), Taichong (LR3), Zusanli (ST36), Sanyinjiao (SP6), and Yanglingquan (GB34). The most commonly used tool for evaluation of PD was the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale III, which assesses motor functions. Conclusion : The screened studies reported that there were no adverse effects of AT on drug therapy, and AT reduced the dose of drugs used in PD treatment. Future studies on PD treatment with AT should use the acupoints GV20, LR3, ST36, SP6, and GB34, and the meridians Gallbladder meridian and Governor Vessel. Clinical studies on PD should use CONSORT or STRICTA to ensure the quality of national studies and allow the development of new tools for the assessment of the effect of AT on PD using the above criteria.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.109-119
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• 2004

Objective : To broaden our understanding on occupational disease of market workers and to evaluate the effect of TKM treatment focusing on acupuncture and herb medicine and to promote base studies and clinical trials on occupational disease. Materials and Methods : Analysis was done on 33 Ga-Rak market workers' chart which had been selected through investigation of 1508 outpatient's chart of Kyung Won University Hospital from Jun. 1st, 2002 to May. 31th, 2003. Results : 1. Out of 33 patients, Men had more occupational diseases than women had and Most people were in their forties. 2. Major cause of the disease include repetitve bending, heavy weight lifting and overwork. 3. Past History of patients mostly include frequent lumbar sprain, periarthritis of shoulder, lumbar HNP 4. The patients with occupational disease were diagnosed as lumbar sprain, periarthritis of shoulder, lumbar HNP, degenerative spondylosis, spinal stenosis and their chief complaints were low back pain, omalgia, back pain with radicular pain. 5. The duration of treatment was mostly within a week. 6. Acupuncture, Bee Venom Acupuncture, moxibustion, Herb-medicine, extract, taping therapy, physical therapy were used as treatment methods. 7. Applied herb medicine were composed of 8 kinds of prescriptions and extract were made up of 6 prescriptions 8. Applied acupoints belonged mainly to 14 meridians 9. The treatment of herb medicine combined with acupuncture proved effective in treating the ocupational disease. Conclusion : The occupational disease of patients working in Ga-Rak market were closely related with overwork, especially with repetitive bending and heavy weight lifting and TKM treatment focusing on acupuncture combined with herb medicine was effective in treating occupational disease.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.161-169
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• 2009

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to evaluate Oriental Medicine Therapy on the Lumbosacral plexitis patient. Methods : The patient was treated with dry needle acupuncture, bee venom pharmacupuncture, herb medicine, indirect moxibustion and physical therapy. We estimated S kinds of Symptoms by Visual Analog Scale, lower limb motor grade test, gait condition test and sensory examination to evaluate the effect of Oriental conservative treatment. Results : After treatment, patient's visual analogue scale score were generally decreased 10 to 4 and lower limb muscle power and gait condition were improved. Conclusions : Oriental Medicine Therapy might be an effective method to treat the Lumbosacral plexitis patient who was diagnosed as Wei Symptom. It is necessary to have more observation and many cases of patients with Lumbosacral plexitis.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.26-31
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• 1997

Bee venom (Apis mellifera) phospholipase $A_2$ solubilized in reversed micelles containing small amount of water stabilized by surfactant could catalyze the hydrolysis of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC). A sensitive and simple high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) methodology of phospholipase $A_2$ assay for the hydrolysis of DPPC was developed. Kinetic analysis of the phospholipase $A_2$-catalyzed reaction was found to be possible in reversed micelles. Among the surfactants and organic solvents tested, aerosol-OT and isooctane were most effective for the hydrolysis of DPPC in reversed micelles. Optimal temperature, optimal pH, $K_{m,app.},\;V_{max.,app.}$ and activation energy were determined to be $35{\sim}40^{\circ}C$, 7.0, 8.73 mM, 2.83 units/㎎ protein and 12.31 kcal/mole, respectively. The hydrolysis activity was dependent on water content and maximum activity was obtained at R value (=[water]/[aerosol-OT]) of 10.0.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.121-128
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• 2010

Objectives : This study was to investigate the effects of Oriental medical treatment on ALS. Methods : We investigated 12 ALS patients which were admitted to Gwang-Ju O.M.hospital for 3 months and follow-up at 8 months after discharge. All patients were treated by SAAM-acupuncture, herb medication, Bee venom Pharmacopuncture therapy, Needle-embedding therapy, etc and after discharge self-therapy at home. We evaluated patients using the Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Functional Rating Scale-Revised(ALSFRS-R), Medical Research Council (MRC) Scale. Results : After 1 month, mean ALSFRS-R score of patients was $29.08{\pm}7.99$, 2 months $28.70{\pm}7.17$, 3 months $28.16{\pm}8.23$, 1 year $21.33{\pm}9.93$ and mean MRC Scale of patients was $25.34{\pm}8.45$, 2 months $25.34{\pm}8.45$, 3months $21.56{\pm}9.20$. But in both cases, the variation was not statistically significant. Conclusions : We think that the results of this case be a pilot study that proves the effect of Oriental Medical treatment on ALS.

• BMB Reports
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.330-338
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• 2004

Different types of cardiotoxin (I-V and n) were isolated and purified from the venom of the Taiwan cobra (Naja naja atra). The effects of these cardiotoxins were studied on membrane-bound acetylcholinesterase, which was isolated from a sheep's brain cortex. The results showed that cardiotoxins I-III, V, and n activated the enzyme by modification of substrate inhibition, but cardiotoxin IV's reaction was different. The inhibition and activation of acetylcholinesterase were linked to the functions of the hydrophobicity index, presence of a cationic cluster, and the accessible arginine residue. Our results indicate that Cardiotoxins have neither a cationic cluster nor an arginine residue in their surface area of loop I; therefore, in contrast to fasciculin, cardiotoxins are attached by loop II to the peripheral site of the enzyme. As a result, fasciculin seems to stabilize nonfunctional conformation, but cardiotoxins seem to stabilize the functional conformation of the enzyme. Based on our experimental and theoretical findings, similar secondary and tertiary structures of cardiotoxins and fasciculin seem to have an opposite function once they interact with acetylcholinesterase.

• Journal of Korean Medicine for Obesity Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 2011

Objectives The objective of this study was to contribute to the development of pharmacupuncture for obesity treatment by reviewing the studies of pharmacupuncture experimentations and clinical trials. Methods We searched the papers with keywords of 'obesity' and 'pharmacupuncture' in the search site, RISS, Oriental medicine advanced searching integrated system(OASIS), Korean traditional knowledge portal, the society of Korean medicine for obesity research, Korean pharmacupuncture institute, the Korean academy of oriental rehabitation medicine and Korean acupuncture & moxibustion society. Results 1. We reviewed 37 articles searched. 27 articles(73.0%) were animal experimentations, 5 articles(13.5%) were cell experimentations, 4 articles(10.8%) were clinical trials and 1 article(2.7%) was study analysis. 2. The herbs, using for animal experimentations, were atratylodes japonica, coix lachrymajobi, ephedra sinica, crataegus pinnatifida, wild ginseng and etc. Acupucture points were joksamni(ST36), zhongwan(CV12), gansoo(BL18), pungnyung(ST40), umnungchon(SP9), bisu(BL20), gokji (LI11), cheun-chu(ST25) and etc. 3. For cell experimentations, preadipocytes and adipocytes performed on cell cultures with using rats, 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and porcine skin including fat tissue were treated with fel ursi, bovis calculus, ephedrae herba, spirodelae herba, wild ginseng. 4. For clinical trials, Sangsik no.1, Bigiheo, ephedra, green tea and sweet bee venom were injected at the region where a lot of fat like zhongwan(CV12), xiawan(CV10), kwanwon(CV4), cheun-chu(ST25) and thigh. Conclusion Through animal and cell experimentations and clinical trials, the treatment of obesity using local acupuncture therapy was effective. For clinical use, however, it is considered that animal and cell experimentation and clinical trial's connection using one kind of herb and studies about more clinical trials and associated side effects are needed.

• BMB Reports
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.185-190
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• 2016

Crotamine is a peptide toxin found in the venom of the rattlesnake Crotalus durissus terrificus and has antiproliferative, antimicrobial, and antifungal activities. Herein, we show that crotamine dose-dependently induced macrophage phagocytic and cytostatic activity by the induction of nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). Moreover, the crotamineinduced expression of iNOS and TNF-α is mediated through the phosphorylation of p38 and the NF-κB signaling cascade in macrophages. Notably, pretreatment with SB203580 (a p38-specific inhibitor) or BAY 11-7082 (an NF-κB inhibitor) inhibited crotamine-induced NO production and macrophage phagocytic and cytotoxic activity. Our results show for the first time that crotamine stimulates macrophage phagocytic and cytostatic activity by induction of NO and TNF-α via the p38 and NF-κB signaling pathways and suggest that crotamine may be a useful therapeutic agent for the treatment of inflammatory disease.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.101-108
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• 2016

Objectives: This study introduces the history and types of Korean pharmacopuncture and reports trends of research on Korean pharmacopuncture. Methods: Pharmacopuncture studies were searched from the first year of each search engine to 2014 by using seven domestic and foreign search databases. Selected studies were divided into the history of pharmacopuncture, kinds and features of pharmacopuncture, research types, and experimental and clinic studies and were then classified by year of publication, type of pharmacopuncture, disease, and topic. Results: Pharmacopuncture can be classified into four large groups: meridian field pharmacopuncture (MFP), eight-principles pharmacopuncture (EPP), animal-based pharmacopuncture (ABP) and mountain-ginseng pharmacopuncture, which is a single-compound pharmacopuncture (SCP). The largest numbers of studies were reported from 1997 to 2006, after which the numbers decreased until 2014. Of experimental studies, 51.9%, 18.7%. 14.3%, 9% and 3.4% were on SCP, ABP, MFP, formula pharmacopuncture (FP), and EPP, respectively. Of clinical studies, 54.7%, 15.3%. 14.9% 10.0% and 1.5% were on ABP, MFP, EPP, SCP, and FP (1.5%), respectively. Among clinical studies, case reports and case series accounted for 76.5%, followed by randomized controlled trials (RCTs, 16.4%) and non-RCT (13.9%). Musculoskeletal diseases, toxicity and safety tests, anti-cancer effects, and nervous system diseases were mainly treated in experimental studies while musculoskeletal diseases, nervous system diseases, toxicity and safety tests, and autonomic nerve function tests were addressed in clinical studies. Bee venom (BV) was the most frequently-used pharmacopuncture in mechanism studies. Pharmacopuncture was mainly used to treat musculoskeletal diseases. Conclusion: Pharmacopuncture and studies of it have made great progress in Korea. Studies on BV pharmacopuncture and musculoskeletal diseases accounted for most of the studies reported during the review period. Research on the types of pharmacopuncture and diseases has to be expanded. Especially, studies on the use of MFP and EPP for treating patients with various diseases are needed.