• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.234-242
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• 2020

Background: Bevacizumab-induced proteinuria is known to occur when vascular endothelial cell receptors are blocked, which leads to decreased protein filtration. Although several studies have analyzed the correlation between therapeutic effect of bevacizumab and proteinuria, no conclusion has been established. Methods: In this retrospective study, colorectal cancer patients who received bevacizumab and urinary protein check from January 2015 to December 2016, were included. The incidence of proteinuria and the grade according to Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) 4.0 were evaluated after bevacizumab administration. The primary objective was to correlate proteinuria with overall response rate (ORR) and time to progression (TTP). Primary lesion, metastasized organs, surgery or radiation therapy, chemotherapy were investigated for analysis of risk factors for proteinuria development. Results: A total of 149 patients included in the analysis. Proteinuria occurred 19.5% (n=29) in the study patients; 20 in grade 1, 7 in grade 2, and 2 in grade 3. ORR was 55.2% in the proteinuria group and 51.7% in the non-proteinuria group. There was no difference between two groups (p=0.89). The TTP through the survival curve was similar in both groups (10 months, p=0.97). The risk of proteinuria was high in patients who had liver metastasis (p=0.02) and no surgery (p=0.01). Conclusions: These result indicates that bevacizumab-induced proteinuria expression was not correlated with the therapeutic effect on patients with colorectal cancer. Further analysis is required to find out the correlation between proteinuria and therapeutic effects. The risk of proteinuria was increased from patients who had liver metastasis, and no surgery.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.115-124
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• 2021

Background: With an increase in the number of breast cancer survivors, greater importance is attached to health-related quality of life, particularly pain and symptom control. This study aimed to identify the factors that are associated with pain in cancer patients based on the patterns of prescribing opioid, non-opioid, and adjuvant analgesics. Methods: This analysis included new patients who had developed breast cancer between 2003 and 2012. The degree of pain was analyzed based on the socio-demographic (age, income quintile, number of hospitalizations, and duration of disease), indicator (Body Mass Index; BMI, Charlson Comorbidity Index; CCI, Cumulative Analgesic Consumption Score; CACS), operation (mastectomy, lymph node dissection), and therapy (chemotherapy, radiation therapy), as well as complication-related variable (lymphedema). Results: As for the patterns of prescribing analgesics by stages, non-opioid and opioid analgesics constituted 30.7 and 69.3%, respectively. The mean value and variance of CACS were 5.596 and 12.567, respectively. The factors that significantly affected the degree of pain were age (≥50; IRR: 1.848, 95% CI 1.564-2.184, p=0.000), income quintile (IRR: 0.964, 95% CI 0.938-0.991, p=0.008), BMI (≥ 25; IRR: 1.479, 95% CI 1.222-1.795, p=0.000), CCI (≥ 4; IRR: 1.649, 95% CI 1.344-2.036, p=0.000), and lymphedema (yes; IRR: 1.267, 95% CI 1.006-1.610, p=0.047). Conclusions: It is necessary to develop systematic and comprehensive pain control measures to improve the quality of life for breast cancer survivors, especially for those who are 50 years or older, lie in the lower-income quintile, have BMI of ≥25 and CCI score ≥ 4, or have lymphedema.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.662-668
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• 2021

The aim of the present study was to design ascorbyl glucoside (AG) loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) to improve skin penetration of AG. AG loaded SLNs were prepared using double emulsion method. The prepared AG loaded SLNs investigated particle characteristics (particle size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, loading capacity). Skin penetration study was carried out using SkinEthic RHE as one of the reconstructed human epidermis models. The mean particle size and zeta potential of SLNs were 172.65 - 347.19 nm and -22.90 - -41.20 mV, respectively. The loading capacity of AG loaded SLNs demonstrated that loading efficiency and loading amount were ranged from 44.18% to 57.77% and 12.83% to 16.15%, respectively. The results of penetration showed that all SLNs enhanced the skin penetration of AG and the amount of AG from SLNs were approximately 3.7 - 7.4 times higher than that from AG solution. Therefore, AG loaded SLN might be a promising topical drug delivery system.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 2021

Background: Migraine is a common neurological disorder that affects the quality of life and causes several health problems. Preventive migraine treatment can reduce migraine frequency, headache severity, and health care costs. This study aimed to estimate the utilization of migraine preventive therapy and associated factors in eligible patients. Methods: We studied 534 patients with migraine who were eligible for migraine preventive therapy using 2017 National Patient Sample (NPS) data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA). We estimated the migraine days by calculating the monthly average number of defined daily dose (DDD) of migraine-specific acute drug. Patients with a monthly average number of DDD of 4 or more were considered as subjects for preventive treatment. Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to determine the association between the preventive therapy and the influencing variables. Results: Less than half of the eligible patients for prophylaxis (n=234, 43.8%) were prescribed preventive therapy. Multiple logistic regression results show that migraine preventive therapy was influenced by age, the type of migraine, and some comorbidities. Patients over the age of 50 tend to receive less prophylactic treatment than under the age of 40. On the other hand, migraine patients with epilepsy or depression were more likely to receive preventive therapy. Sumatriptan was the most preferred medication for acute treatment, and propranolol was the most commonly prescribed drug for prevention. Conclusions: More than half of the patients who were candidates for migraine prophylaxis were not receiving suitable preventive treatment. Positive factors affecting the use of migraine prevention were the presence of comorbidities such as epilepsy and depression.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.195-202
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• 2021

This study is a systematic review study to confirm the characteristics, effects, and application strategies of domestic and foreign virtual reality programs provided by dementia education. This study is based on the literature published up to July 2020, CINAHL, Cochrane, EMBASE, and Pubmed electronic databases were used overseas, and RISS, KISS, and DBpia were searched in Korea. Based on the selection criteria and exclusion criteria, the final six papers were used for analysis. As a result of the analysis, the subjects of the selected literature were two informal caregivers (33.3%), one general (16.7%), and three students (50.0%) including nursing students and medical and pharmacy students. The virtual reality program was effective in a total of five areas(empathy ability, dementia attitude including knowledge and comfort of dementia, trust in own abilities, dyadic relationship scale), of which 75% of the studies measured empathy ability had significant effects. The results of this study confirm that virtual reality technology can be used for human-centered nursing based on empathy.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.133-138
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• 2021

In this study, Niacinamide (NI) was loaded into solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and skin permeability was evaluated to improve skin permeability of NI, which was a skin whitening substance. NI was able to effectively load within SLN with a double-melting emulsification method, producing stable particles with average particle sizes of 263.30 to 436.93 nm and a zeta potential of -34.77 to -57.60 mV. Artificial skin tissue (SkinEthic^TM RHE) derived from skin keratinocytes derived from human epidermal tissue was used for the skin permeation study of NI. Skin transmittance and deposition experiments of NI confirmed that all SLN formulations improved skin transmittance and deposition rates of NI, approximately 5.4 ~ 7.6 and 9.5 ~ 20.8 improvement over SLN applications. Therefore, SLN manufactured in this study have shown sufficient results to improve the skin permeability of the functional whitening substance, NI.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.268-277
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• 2021

Background: Most antipsychotic drugs studies have been mainly conducted on side effects, randomized clinical trials, utilization rates, and trends. But there have been few studies on the influencing factors in elderly patients. The purpose of this study was to analyze the influencing factors on the outpatient prescription of antipsychotic drugs in the elderly patients. Methods: Active ingredients of antipsychotic drugs in Korea were selected according to the Korean Pharmaceutical Information Center (KPIC)'s classification. Data source was Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) claims data in 2020 and target patient group was the elderly patient group. We extracted patients who have been prescribed one or more antipsychotic drugs and visited only one medical institution. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square, t-test, negative binomial regression. Results: A number of outpatients were 245,197 and prescriptions were 1,379,092. Most characteristics of patients were 75-85 year's old, female, health insurance type, no disease (dementia, schizophrenia), atypical drugs, cci score (>2) and characteristics of medical institution were neurology in specialty, rural region, general hospitals. Results of regression showed that patient's characteristics and medical center characteristics had significant effect on the outpatient prescription of antipsychotic drugs in the elderly patients. Conclusion: This study suggests that national policy of antipsychotic drugs in the elderly patients, with the consideration of the patients' and medical institutions' characteristics, is needed.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.301-310
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• 2021

Background: Trust is a key component for the good relationship between patients and healthcare professionals but trust for community pharmacists has not been studied much. Objectives: This study aimed to measure public trust in community pharmacists and to investigate variables that affect trust level in South Korea. Methods: A total of 25 questions, including 13-items for three dimensions of trust (pharmacists' behavior/attitude, technical competence, communication skills) and 1-item for overall trust were developed. The survey was conducted online and the data from 416 respondents were analyzed with a t-test, an ANOVA and a multiple linear regression analysis. Results: The average scores (mean ± standard deviation) for the three dimensions of trust in community pharmacists were 3.47±1.05 (out of 5 points) for pharmacists' behavior/attitude, 3.67 ± 0.99 for technical competence, and 3.66±0.99 for communication skills. The average of the 13 items incorporating all parameters was 3.56±1.02 and the overall trust level was 7.16±1.62 (out of 10 points). The total sum of the 13 items differed significantly by age group (p=0.02) and frequency of pharmacy visits (p=0.04). Each dimension had an independent impact on the trust level, and pharmacists' behavior/attitude had the greatest impact on trust levels. Conclusions: This study showed that pharmacists' behavior/attitude had the most significant impact on the trust level. However, the level of trust in pharmacists' behavior/attitude is not yet sufficiently satisfactory, and further improvements are required to increase trust in community pharmacists.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.119-125
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• 2022

In the study, we endeavored to investigate the effect of phenylephrine, isoprenaline and prazosin on the tissue-specific vascular contractility and to determine the mechanism involved. There were few reports addressing the question whether thin or thick filament modulation is included in phenylephrine, isoprenaline and prazosin-induced regulation. We hypothesized that isoprenaline and prazosin play a role in tissue-dependent regulation of vascular contractility. Denuded arterial muscles of Sprague-Dawley male rats were suspended in organ baths and isometric tensions were transduced and recorded using isometric transducers and an automatic data acquisition system. Interestingly, sustained continuous contraction of thoracic and abdominal aorta. Furthermore, isoprenaline and prazosin together with phenylephrine inhibited transiently and persistently vasoconstriction of thoracic and abdominal aorta suggesting that additional mechanisms (e.g. decreased receptor density, chemical interaction, postreceptor signaling or distribution of agonists) might be included in the modulation of vascular contractility.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.131-137
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• 2022

In the study, we endeavored to assess the convergence effect of Silybum marianum-derived silymarin and epidemiologically-correlated alcohol intake on vascular contractility and to determine the mechanism involved. There were few reports addressing the question whether thin or thick filament modulation is included in ethanol and silymarin-induced regulation. We hypothesized that ethanol at a low concentration and silymarin play a role in agonist-dependent regulation of vascular contractility. Denuded arterial muscles of Sprague-Dawley male rats were suspended in organ baths and isometric tensions were transduced and recorded using isometric transducers and an automatic data acquisition system. Interestingly, both silymarin and ethanol didn't encourage silymarin alone-induced inhibition in agonists-induced contraction suggesting that endothelial nitric oxide synthesis might be involved in ethanol or silymarin-induced modulation of vascular contractility and additional pathways besides endothelial nitric oxide synthesis such as ROCK inactivation might be involved in the silymarin-induced modulation of vascular contractility.