• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.100-106
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• 2011

This study was conducted to investigate the residue amount of harmful materials on the 113 commercial fruit teas (Gugija, Omija, Sansuyu) in Gwangju area. It was performed using the GC-ECD, GC-NPD, GC-MSD and the LC-UVD, LC-FLD, LC-MSD to analyze 200 pesticides. The heavy metals were determined using a Mercury analyzer and AAS. The sulfur dioxides were analyzed by modified Monnier-Williams method. The residual pesticides were detected in 4 samples (Gugija). The mean values of heavy metal contents (mg/kg) were Pb, 0.024; Cd, 0.031; As, 0.010; Hg, 0.003. The measured values of Pb, Cd, As, Hg showed within MRLs. The sulfur dioxides were over MRLs in 4 samples (Gugija). These results will be used to establish on the regulation of commercial fruit teas in Gwangju area.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.300-309
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• 2001

Background : Sepsis is a clinical syndrome characterized by a systemic inflammatory and hemodynamic response to severe bacterial infections that involve various mediators. Endothelin (ET)-1, a potent vasoconstrictor is associated with mu1tiple organ failure, and interleukin (IL)-8, a proinflammtory cytokine, plays a major role in neurophil activation. Both have been reported to be useful parameters in the clinical assessment of sepsis. The levels of ET-1 and IL-8 in the blood were measured in patients with sepsis, and the correlation of both parameters and their relationship with the clinical data was assessed. Methods : 19 sepsis patients and 17 controls were studied. Blood samples of the sepsis patients were drawn in day 1, 3, 7, and 14. The APACHE III scores were calculated in concurrent days. The ET-1 and IL-8 levels were measured using immunoassay methods. Results : The ET-1 levels of patients with sepsis were significantly higher than in the controls. In patients with sepsis, non-survivors had higher ET-1 levels than survivors on day 1 and 7, and patients with shock also had higher ET-1 levels than normotensive patients on admission. The ET-1 levels were significantly correlated with the creatinine levels on day 1, 7, and 14. The IL-8 levels showed a significant correlation with the ET-1 levels on day 14. Conclusion : ET-1 was found to be closely related with the clinical outcome, shock, and renal failure, and showed a correlation with IL-8. These mediators can be considered not only to play pathophysiologic roles but also as useful parameters in the clinical assessment of sepsis.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 1997

Recent reports indicate that the clinical usefulness of prostate specific antigen (PSA), particulary in the differentiation of benign prostate hyperplasia from prostate cancer, can be improved by measuring the amount of free PSA in serum. Measuring free PSA is especially useful in attempts to improve diagnositc performance of PSA in the diagnostic gray zone of total PSA. The objective of this study was to develop free PSA assay kit using sandwich microplate enzyme immunoassay format. We chose a test format with polyclonal anti-PSA antibodies coated on the wells and monoclonal anti-free PSA antibodies for quantification to gain higher test sensitivity. We adpoted 10 uL of specimen and 2 hours of first incubation time with detecting antibody for free PSA EIA format using microplate. The within-day and between-day precision (%CV) in the high and low concentration ranges were below 4%. The correlation coefficient between in-house free PSA assay and commercial assay kit was r=0.9965 (slope=0.0984, y intercept=0.0173, N=27). No hook effect was found by 40 ng/mL and correlation coefficient (r) value of the fitted linear regression was over 0.995. The recovery tests were in the range of 98.9∼104.1％ for free PSA. In conclusion, in-house free PSA enzyme immune assay is cost effective, simple and rapid and could be useful for the prognosis after theraphy as well as for the differential diagnosis between prostate cancer and benign prostate hyperplasia.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.133-139
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• 2002

Purpose: Scintillation Proximity Assay (SPA) does not require the physical separation of receptor bound form from free form. SPA was applied to the study of interaction of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and $anti-{\alpha}$ hCG in serum. Materials and methods: $Anti-{\alpha}$ hCG was biotinylated for the binding to streptavidin. The assay was based on the simple competitive binding method between $[^{125}I]hCG$ and the hCG in sample serum, with $anti-{\alpha}$ hCG-coated beads. Aliquots of biotinylated $anti-{\alpha}$ hCG were dispensed into scintillation vials containing $100{\mu}{\ell}\;[^125}I]hCG\;and\;200{\mu}{\ell}$ of either a standard concentration of hCG for preparation of standard curve or unknown sample, and incubated for 20 min. at room temperature. Then $20{\mu}{\ell}$ streptavidin-coated beads were added to vials, and finally incubated for 10 min at room temperature. Values for unknown samples were then calculated from the standard curve. Results: Optimal background counts were certificated using varied radioactivity of radionuclides. Appropriate standard curve was obtained from SPA method successively, and the concentration of hCG from unknown serum was determined by standard curve. The result from SPA assay was similar to that of RIA. Conclusion: This observation confirms that SPA method could be useful for clinical diagnosis.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.427-431
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• 2018

We report a case of a patient with necrotizing fasciitis followed by liver abscess. A 51-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with a 5-day history of fever and chills with painful swelling of the right thigh. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan showed fluid collection with numerous dark signal intensities considered as air-bubbles between the posteromedial and posterolateral groups of the right thigh, resulting in presumptive diagnosis of necrotizing fasciitis. At the time of admission, an ultrasonograph of the abdomen showed increased parenchymal echogenicity of both kidneys and no liver abscess. Ten days after fasciotomy, an abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan showed intrahepatic abscess. Sonography-guided percutaneous drainage was performed. Both cultures of pus specimens from the liver abscess and right thigh yielded Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae). The patient was treated with fasciotomy several times and parenteral antibiotics, after which he began to improve. After 5 weeks, liver abscess size was reduced, and after 10 weeks, liver abscess disappeared. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of K. pneumoniae-necrotizing fasciitis followed by liver abscess.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.86-90
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• 2009

The definition of edible ice is frozen water for the use of food manufacturing, processing, or cooking, as well as for the direct eating. It has been reported that in the process of ice manufacturing and its selling, edible ice is contaminated with some microorganisms, which causes food poisoning and gastroenteritis. It was shown that besides in the edible ice, germ growth caused by various reasons occurred in the mineral water, tap water, water filtering system, and water purifier. With public awareness, in order to examine the sanitary conditions of edible ice in the Northern area of Daegu metropolitan city, 15 places were randomly selected. As a result, 14 places were found to be contaminated with microorganisms. After incubating on the Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) agar plate, 80% of Gram-negative bacilli, 17% of Gram-positive cocci, and 3% of Gram-negative cocci were cultured. Enterobacter cloacae, Chryseomonas luteola, Pantoea spp., Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus or Providencia rettgeri were detected. Gram-positive cocci cultured in BHI agar plate from 5 specimens were identified as Staphylococcus aureus or Staphylococcus xylosus, which is well known bacteria causing strong food poisoning. This present paper raises questions on the importance and awareness of sanitary conditions of edible ice and the identification of pathogenic microorganisms living in the edible ice in relation to their distribution. The examination of sanitary conditions of edible ice in other areas in Daegu seems to be also needed to find out if there are similar cases.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 1993

Specific antibody test in serum and cerebrosinal fluid (CSF) is still the main mode of serological diagnosis of cystiercosis. Of different techniques of artibody test, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (micro-ELISA) has widely been applied. This study was undertaken to observe whether diagnostic capability can be Improved by applying more sensitive techniques such as Protein A-ELISA and avidin biotin complex ELISA (ABC-ELISA). When evaluated using 115 sera of human cysticercosis, the antibody positive rates were not significantly improved in Protein A-ELISA (82.6%) and in ABC-ELISA (86.1%) than in micro-ELISA (81.7%). The specificities, evaluated in 165 sera from other diseases and normal controls, were significantly improved (88.5% by micro-ELISA, 93.3% by Protein A-ELISA and 93.8% by ABC-ELISA). Antibody levels (absorbance, abs.) in individual serum were correlated well (r : 0.83∼0.86) each other. An actual benefit of Protein A-ELISA and ABC-ELISA was that they needed smaller amount of test sample.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2020

Purpose: This pilot study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of high dose ampicillin-sulbactam and colistin combination therapy for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) caused by carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) in the pediatric intensive care unit of Pusan National University Children's Hospital. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 17 pediatric patients with VAP caused by CRAB from June 2017 to August 2018. Ten (58.8%) patients were treated with high dose ampicillin-sulbactam and colistin combination therapy (combination therapy group), whereas 7 were treated with colistin only or with various combinations with or without colistin (other antibiotics group). Clinical and bacteriological outcomes were compared between the groups. Results: The mean duration of fever after antibiotic use was 1.30±1.70 days in the combination therapy group and 1.71±1.49 days in the other antibiotics group. The mean duration of days for negative conversion of endotracheal aspirate bacterial culture after antibiotic therapy was 3.40±1.71 days in the combination therapy group and 11.80±8.86 days in the other antibiotics group. The mortality rate within 30 days of antibiotic therapy was 1/10 (10%) in the combination therapy group and 3/7 (42.9%) in the other antibiotics group. Conclusions: High dose ampicillin-sulbactam and colistin combination therapy as early antibiotic treatment in VAP caused by CRAB in children could improve clinical outcomes.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.90-93
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• 2001

Purpose : The accurate diagnosis and proper treatment of group A streptococal infection should be emphasized concerning about possible development of late sequelae, such as acute rheumatic fever and acute glomerulonephritis. Inadequate & improperance of antobiotics have resulted in increased number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We would like to know the clinical usefulness of rapid strep test compared with conventional throat culture in out-patients with acute pharyngotonsilitis. Methods : From Sep. 2000. to Jan. 2001, rapid strep test(LINK 2 Strep A, USA) & throat culture were taken from 87 patients with clinically suspect pharyngotonsilitis from Masan Fatima hospital & kyunghee university hospital. Results : Of 87 cases with pharyngitis, 39 cases proved to have group A streptococci by throat culture. The positive predictive value of rapid test was 92.3%(36 of 39 cases) and sensitivity test was 81.8%(36 of 44 cases). The specificity of rapid test was 93.0%(40 of 43 cases) and negative predictive value was 83.3%(40 of 48 cases). Conclusion : The positive predictive value & specificity of rapid strep test is high. And so, this test will give the pediatricians practical guidance of antibiotic use in patients with pharyngitis. But more efforts should be made to prevent antibiotics abuse and correct diagnosis of pharyngitis.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2017

Purpose: Pertussis can be prevented with a vaccine. Despite this, there have been an increasing number of cases worldwide, and also in Korea. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of the recent outbreak in the Changwon area. Methods: Patients who visited Changwon Fatima Hospital from July 2015 to March 2016 with respiratory symptoms, including spasmodic cough, cough induced vomiting, inspiratory 'intake' sound (whooping), and a night-time cough for >1 week were included in this study. Respiratory specimens were collected from patients and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and detected anti-pertussis immunoglobulin G enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit test were performed. Patients with underlying diseases, or those who had received a DTaP or Tdap vaccination in recent 1 year were excluded. Results: Pertussis was diagnosed in 37 of 50 patients, two patients were positive according to the PCR, and 37 patients were positive according to serologic tests. The age distribution of the patients was 1 month to 15 years. After administering antibiotics, all patients recovered without complications. Conclusions: A pertussis outbreak occurred in Changwon in 2015 and 2016. This data can provide the basis for further study on the epidemiology of pertussis in Korea.