• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.69-74
• /
• 1996

Background: The diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) based on clinical findings is often elusive and therefore requires confirmative diagnostic method. Pulmonary angiography, though the gold standard for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, is an invasive method and requires trained personnel and special equipment. Lung V/Q scan, on the other hand, is a noninvasive method but the diagnostic specificity and sensitivity arc not satisfactory in case that the results are either intermediate or low probability scan. Plasma D-dimer is generated when a thrombus is fibrinolysed by plasmin and is known to be increased in various thrombotic disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the value of the determination of plasma D-dimer level in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. Methods: Pulmonary angiography was performed in 17 patients who were clinically suspected to have pulmonary embolism. 9 patients(PE, $56{\pm}13.4$ yrs, M:F=8:1) were diagnosed to have pulmonary embolism by pulmonary angiography. The control group were the 8 patients with negative pulmonary angiography and 13 orthopedic patients with no evidence of pulmonary embolism on scintigraphic and impedance plethysmographic studies(n=21) (non-PE, $54.5{\pm}11.1$ yrs, M:F=11:10). Plasma D-dimer was measured by latex agglutination method in study subjects and the results were analyzed according to the presence or absence of pulmonary embolism. Results: 1) The increased level of plasma D-dimer was more frequently observed in the patients with pulmonary embolism than in the controls(>0.5 mg/L, 8 in PE, 10 in non-PE; <0.5 mg/L, 1 in PE, 11 in non-PE, p=0.049). 2) The diagnostic value of plasma D-dimer level higher than 0.5 mg/L were as follows: sensitivity 88.9%(8/9), specificity 52.4%(11/21), positive predictive value 44.4%(8/18), and negative predictive value 91.7%(11/12). Conclusion: Plasma D-dimer determination showed high sensitivity and negative predictive value in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism and is therefore thought to be useful in excluding the possibility of pulmonary embolism.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.52 no.1
• /
• pp.87-92
• /
• 2009

Purpose : Many gene polymorphisms are associated with coronary artery abnormalities in Kawasaki disease. Catechol-O- methyltransferase (COMT) plays an important role in the metabolism of catecholamines, catechol estrogen, and catechol drugs. Polymorphisms of the COMT gene are reported to be associated with myocardial infarction and coronary artery abnormalities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between COMT gene polymorphisms and coronary artery abnormalities in Kawasaki disease patients. Methods : One hundred and one Korean children with Kawasaki disease and 306 healthy Korean control subjects were enrolled in this study. The polymorphisms of the COMT gene were analyzed by direct sequencing. Results : There were no differences in the genotype and allelic frequency of the rs4680 and rs769224 polymorphic sites between Kawasaki disease and control subjects. Further, no significant difference was found in the rs4680 polymorphism between patients with coronary artery abnormalities and patients without coronary artery abnormalities (codominant P=0.32, dominant P=0.74, recessive P=0.13). However, the distribution of the rs769224 polymorphism was significantly different between patients with coronary artery abnormalities and patients without coronary artery abnormalities (codominant P= 0.0077, dominant P=0.0021, recessive P=0.16). Conclusion : Our results indicate that the polymorphisms of the rs769224 gene might be related to the development of coronary artery abnormalities in Kawasaki disease.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.515-525
• /
• 2005

Purpose of study: Lingual nerve damage can be caused by surgery or trauma such as physical irriatation, radiation, chemotherapy, infection and viral infection. Once nerve damage occurred, patients sometimes complain taste change and loss of taste along with serious disturbance of tongue. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of unilateral lingual nerve transection on taste as well as on the maintenance of taste buds. Materials & Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 220-250g received unilateral transection of lingual nerve, subjected to the preference test for various taste solutions (0.1M NaCl, 0.1M sucrose, 0.01M QHCl, or 0.01M HCl) with two bottle test paradigm at 2, 4, 6, or 8 weeks after the operation. Tongue was fixed with 8% paraformaldehyde. After fixation, they were observed with scanning electron microscope(JSM-$840A^{(R)}$, JEOL, JAPAN) and counted the number of the dorsal surface of the fungiform papilla for changes of fungiform papilla. And, Fungiform papilla were obtained from coronal sections of the anterior tongue(cryosection). After cryosection, immunostaining with $G{\alpha}gust$(I-20)(Santa Cruz Biotechnology, USA), $PLC{\beta}2$(Q-15)(Santa Cruz Biotechnology, USA), and $T_1R_1$(Alpha Diagnostic International, USA) were done. Immunofluorescence of labeled taste bud cells was examined by confocal microscopy(F92-$300^{(R)}$, Olympus, JAPAN). Results: The preference score for salty and sweet tended to be higher in the operated rats with statistical significance, compared to the sham rats. Fungiform papilla counting were decreased after lingual nerve transaction. In 2 weeks, maximum differences occurred. Gustducin and $T_1R_1$ expressions of taste receptor in 2 and 4 weeks were decreased. $PLC{\beta}2$ were not expressed in both experimental and control group. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the taste recognition for sweet and salty taste changed by week 2 and 4 after unilateral lingual nerve transection. However, regeneration related taste was occurred in the presence of preserving mesoneurial tissue and the time was 6 weeks. Our results demonstrated that unilateral lingual nerve damage caused morphological and numerical change of fungiform papilla. It should be noted in our study that lingual nerve transection resulted in not only morphological and numerical change but also functional change of fungiform papillae.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.50 no.1
• /
• pp.106-116
• /
• 2001

Background : Pulmonary thromboembolism is relatively frequent and potentially fatal. However, it is commonly misdiagnosed. The incidence of pulmonary thromboembolism is not decreasing despite advances in diagnosis and effective prophylatic measures. Its potential for significant sequela necessitates a prompt diagnosis and treatment. Unfortunately, there are many difficulties and problems regarding accurate diagnosis. There is a low prevalence of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary thromboembolism in Korea and only few reports on this subject are available. Method : The clinical features of 36 patients, who were diagnosed with pulmonary thromboembolism at the Korea University medical center, were reviewed. Results : 1) There was no significant difference in prevalence between men an women, and the mean age was 50.9 years in men 59.2 years in women. 2) The frequent causes of pulmonary thromboembolism were malignancies (22.2%), surgery (22.2%), and heart disease(8.2%). Specific causes were not identified in 33.3%. 3) The most common symptom was dyspnea(72.2%), and the most common sign was tachypnea(61.1%). 4) The EKG findings were normal in 28.6%, an S1Q3T3 pulmonale pattern in 25.7%, ST or QRS changes in others. 5) The chest X-ray findings indicated pulmonary infiltration in 37.5%, cardiomegaly in 15.6%, pleural effusion in 12.5%, and normal in 27.8%. The perfusion lung scan showed a high probability in 66.7%, and intermediate or low probability in 33.3%. 6) The pulmonary arterial pressure(PAP) in the high probability groups was 57.9mmHg with a higher mortality rate(35%). Conclusion : Pulmonary thromboembolism is not uncommon in Korea and its clinical features do not differ greatly from thase reported in the literature. When pulmonary thromboemblism of unknown causes are diagnosed, a search for an occult malignancy is recommended. Rapid diagnosis and treatment are achieved when thromboemblism is suspected.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.113-123
• /
• 1995

This study was intended to identify the neurotic traits related to sexual abuse in female high school students. The Neurosis Scale of Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire was conducted to 320 female high school students in Taegu, Korea from July 10 to July 17, 1994. The results were as follows: 1) The sexual abuse victim group showed significantly higher neurotic traits of Free floating anxiety (p<0.05), Phobic(p<0.01), Obsession(p<0.01), Somatic(p<0.05), Depression(p<0.01) than the control group. 2) The Neurotic traits of Somatic(p<0.01), Depression(p<0.01), Hysteric(p<0.01) were higher in the multiple-abused than the single-abused. 3) When the duration of being abused was concerned, subjects with more than 1 year duration had significantly higher neurotic traits of Obsession(p<0.05), Somatic(p<0.05), Depression(p<0.05) than subjects with less than 1 year duration. 4) The neurotic traits of Phobic, Somatic, Depression were significantly higher in the subjects with higher intensity of sexual abuse than with lower intensity. S) Among 68 victims, 31 girls(45%) were assaulted by strangers, 10(14%) were by relatives, 7(10.3%) were by siblings, 6(8.8%) were by neihbors. Among them, 34 girls(50%) bad counselling or psychotherapy and the people to whom they had sought for help were friends(23 girls; 68%), parents (7 girls; 11.7%) and mental health professonals (2 girls; 5.9%).

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.52 no.4
• /
• pp.383-398
• /
• 2019

Purpose: This study investigated an association between dietary quality and use of convenience foods at convenience stores among high school students. Methods: A total of 474 high school students (225 boys and 249 girls) residing in Incheon participated in this questionnaire survey in June 2018. The subjects were divided into three groups according to the frequency of consumption of convenience foods at convenience stores; less than once a week, 1 ~ 2 times a week, and more than 3 times a week. Dietary quality was assessed using a nutrient quotient for adolescents (NA-Q). Logistic regression was used to investigate an association between dietary quality and use of convenience foods at convenience stores among high school students. Results: For boys and girls, higher monthly allowance was significantly associated with the higher frequency of consumption of convenience foods at convenience stores, whereas school grade, mother's occupational status, family size, extracurricular study, and eating speed were not significantly associated with the frequency of consumption of convenience foods. Higher intake frequency of cookies or sweet and greasy bread, processed beverage, Ramyon, night-time snack, and street food was significantly associated with the higher frequency of consumption of convenience foods for boys or girls. Boys and girls, who had a higher frequency of consumption of convenience foods at convenience stores had significantly greater odds for being in the low grade of dietary quality, especially in the moderation factor. Conclusion: The students who used convenience stores more often appeared to have more monthly allowance and to consume undesirable foods more often. Higher frequency of using convenience foods at convenience stores among high school students was associated with lower dietary quality. These study results can support efforts to provide nutrition education programs and guidelines to students who frequently use convenience foods at convenience stores.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.75-86
• /
• 2007

Objectives: The research was aimed at analyzing the contents of university intranet for systematically execution of the healthy information provision and healthy consultation services from 2000 January to 2004 December. Methods: We have analyzed 300(28.3%) the instances of accomplished health consultation cases from the whole 1,059 instances which were the replied in a university intranet. Results: According to the contents of health consultation in ICPC code, a general symptom 91 cases(30.3%) was most, muscle-skeletal system 44 cases(14.7%), and digestive system 43 cases(14.3%) in order of cases of health counselling. The symptoms and complaint with 155 cases(51.7%) were most in the distribution of the health counselling contents by 17 charter of ICPC. The most common reason of counselling by 17 charter of ICPC were as follows; questions about the symptom and diagnosis(118 cases, 39.3%), the preventive and treatment methods(91 cases, 30.0%), and medical fee(20cases, 6.7%) in order. We mainly answer on the content of health counselling were as follows; make an offer of medical information and knowledge(48.3%), recommend visit clinic or hospital(23.7%), guide to treatment(12.7%), and so on. Conclusions: This research showed that the program of health counselling may not meet completely the high quality and adequate distribution of health counselling by the intranet in a university by content analysis. The finding suggests that health counselling by intranet in a university may be used to supplement of systemic improvement on the intranet Q/A format from current lack of essential health information and security for the quality of the health counselling.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.29 no.5
• /
• pp.674-680
• /
• 2016

This study investigated the effects of feeds naturally contaminated with mycotoxins on growth performance, serum biochemical parameters, carcass traits, and splenic heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) mRNA expression levels in broiler chickens. The efficacy of yeast cell wall (YCW) adsorbent in preventing mycotoxicosis was also evaluated. Three hundred 1-d-old Arbor Acres broiler chicks were randomly allotted to 3 treatments in completely randomized design for 42 d. Each treatment group had 5 replicate pens with 20 birds. The treatments were as follows: i) basal diet (control), ii) naturally contaminated diet (NCD), and iii) NCD+0.2% YCW adsorbent (NCDD). The NCD decreased average daily gain (ADG) (p<0.01) of 0 to 21 d, 22 to 42 d, and 0 to 42 d, and increased feed conversion ratio (p<0.01) of 22 to 42 d and 0 to 42 d. Both the breast meat percentage and thigh meat percentage of the NCD group were significantly higher (p<0.01) than that of the control group on d 21. The NCD group showed significantly increased levels of triglycerides (p<0.05) and cholesterol (p<0.05) on both d 21 and d 42 compared to the control group. However, the NCD significantly reduced (p<0.01) the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) on d 42 compared to controls. Compared with the NCD, supplementation with YCW significantly improved (p<0.01) the ADG of 0 to 21 d and 0 to 42 d, and increased (p<0.01) concentrations of HDL on d 42, and on d 21, and triglycerides (p<0.05) on d 21 and d 42. Supplementation with YCW reduced (p<0.01) the breast meat percentage, the thigh meat percentage, the concentrations of cholesterol (p<0.01) and the low-density lipoprotein (p<0.05) on d 21, and improved (p<0.01) the splenic Hsp70 mRNA expression levels compared with the NCD group. The results of this study indicated that feeding NCD for 42 d had adverse effects on broiler chickens, and that YCW might be beneficial in counteracting the effects of mycotoxins.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2015.05a
• /
• pp.41-41
• /
• 2015

BSA-seq technologies, combined Bulked Segregant Analysis (BSA) and Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), are making it faster and more efficient to establish the association of agronomic traits with molecular markers or candidate genes, which is the requirement for marker-assisted selection in molecular breeding. Clubroot disease, caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae, is a serious threat to Brassica crops. Even we have breed new clubroot resistant varieties of Chinese cabbage (B. rapa ssp. pekinesis), the underlying genetic mechanism is unclear. In this study, an $F_2$ population of 340 plants were inoculated with P. brassicae from Xinye (Pathotype 2 on the differentials of Williams). Resistance phenotype segregation ratio for the populations fit a 3:1 (R:S) segregation model, consistent with a single dominant gene model. Super-BSA, using re-sequencing the parents, extremely R and S DNA pools with each 50 plants, revealed 3 potential candidate regions on the chromosome A03, with the most significant region falling between 24.30 Mb and 24.75 Mb. A linkage map with 31 markers in this region was constructed with several closely linked markers identified. A Major QTL for clubroot resistance, CRq, which was identified with the peak LOD score at 169.3, explaining 89.9% of the phenotypic variation. And we developed a new co-segregated InDel marker BrQ-2. Joint BSA-seq and traditional QTL analysis delimited CRq to an 250 kb genomic region, where four TIR-NBS-LRR genes (Bra019409, Bra019410, Bra019412 and Bra019413) clustered. The CR gene CRq and closely linked markers will be highly useful for breeding new resistant Chinese cabbage cultivars.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.153-164
• /
• 2014

This study is to investigate the effects of intangible assets such as research & development, education & training and advertisement on firm values of high-technology firms and low-technology firms listed in the KOSDAQ market, and to analyze the value-relativeness between the audit quality of companies and the expenditure of intangible assets. The substitute measurement of firm values is Tobin's Q model. The sample period for positive analysis is from 2003 to 2008, and the samples, excepting for financial business, are manufacturing companies of closing accounts corporate on December, based on companies of KOSDAQ that are listed in security. Finally, data from about 305 companies are used in this analysis. Followings are the results of the analysis. First, research & development, education & training of high-technology firms have an effect on firm values, and education & training of low-technology have an effect on firm values. Second, we find that audit quality(BIG4) increases the value relevance of R&D expenditures of high-technology firms and audit quality(BIG4) increases the value relevance of education & training expenditures of low-technology firms. This paper is meaningful in that it verified the value-relativeness of cost of intangible assets compared with high-technology firms to low-technology firms.