• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.119-123
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• 2013

We report here a case of oral myiasis in the Republic of Korea. The patient was a 37-year-old man with a 30-year history of Becker's muscular dystrophy. He was intubated due to dyspnea 8 days prior to admission to an intensive care unit (ICU). A few hours after the ICU admission, 43 fly larvae were found during suction of the oral cavity. All maggots were identified as the third instars of Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) by morphology. We discussed on the characteristics of myiasis acquired in Korea, including the infection risk and predisposing factors.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.211-214
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• 2005

Objective : Post-traumatic hydrocephalus is a complication of head injury and can present with several different clinical symptoms. However, the developing factors of post-traumatic hydrocephalus and treatment are still not well known. The authors design the study to focus on incidence, causing diseases and treatment of post-traumatic hydrocephalus. Methods : The 789patients of traumatic head injury followed by admission treatment over 7days from Jan. 1997 to Dec. 2001, were divided shunt group and shunt free group. We analyzed age, sex, causing diseases, developing time of hydrocephalus and effects of shunt operation in post-traumatic hydrocephalus. Results : The incidence of post-traumatic hydrocephalus for requiring shunt was 9.2% [64cases]. Chronic hydrocephalus which developed after 14days of injury was higher incidence [51cases]. We found following variables were significantly related to shunt-dependent hydrocephalus : low GCS score at admission, initial CT finding of traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage and intracerebral hemorrhage [including intraventricular hemorrhage]. The effect of shunt operation was not related with the spinal pressure, but had statistically significant correlation with the response of lumbar drainage. Conclusion : We conclude that development of hydrocephalus after head trauma is related to low GCS score, intracerebral hemorrhage [including intraventricular hemorrhage] and subarachnoid hemorrhage. The effect of preoperative lumbar drainage has a significant role in predicting the result of shunt operation in patient with post-traumatic hydrocephalus.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.132-134
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• 2019

Green tobacco sickness is an illness caused by dermal exposure to nicotine. The common symptoms of the disease include dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, severe general weakness, fluctuations of blood pressure or heartbeat, abdominal cramping, chills, increased sweating, salivation, and difficulty breathing. A 79-year-old female arrived at the emergency room for an evaluation of sudden onset dizziness. Magnetic resonance imaging and angiography of the brain did not show any relevant abnormal findings. Four days later, with supportive care, she said that she had harvested green tobacco for six hours on the day of admission and the tobacco harvest was the first time in her life. She sweated excessively during the hot and humid weather and the tobacco leaves were wet from rain the night before. The serum cotinine tested at five days of admission was 16ng/ml. She was diagnosed with acute nicotine poisoning by her clinical symptoms and the half-life of cotinine in the blood.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.161-165
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• 2019

This study was conducted to investigate whether treatment with Korean medicine might help to improve symptoms of patients diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. A patient diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome was hospitalized for 15 days from October 4, 2018 to October 18, 2018 and treated using Korean medicine (Sinbaro3 pharmacopuncture, acupuncture, electroacupuncture, and herbal medicine). Therapeutic effects were evaluated using the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), House-Brackmann grade, Yanagihara's score survey, and Digital Infrared Thermographic Imaging (DITI). After treatment, the Numerical Rating Scale score (6 at admission down to 2 points at discharge), House-Brackmann grade (Grade V down to Grade II), Yanagihara's score (6.0 up to 22.0), and Digital Infrared Thermographic Imaging showed improvement from admission to discharge. Treatment with traditional Korean medicine, may help improve symptoms of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome such as facial nerve paralysis, neuralgia after paraplegia, hearing difficulties, and dizziness.

• Korean Journal of Schizophrenia Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.58-64
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• 2020

Objectives: In this study, we conducted an exploratory analysis of the current media trends on schizophrenia using text-mining methods. Methods: First, web-crawling techniques extracted text data from 575 news articles in 10 major newspapers between 2018 and 2019, which were selected by searching "schizophrenia" in the Naver News. We had developed document-term matrix (DTM) and/or term-document matrix (TDM) through pre-processing techniques. Through the use of DTM and TDM, frequency analysis, co-occurrence network analysis, and topic model analysis were conducted. Results: Frequency analysis showed that keywords such as "police," "mental illness," "admission," "patient," "crime," "apartment," "lethal weapon," "treatment," "Jinju," and "residents" were frequently mentioned in news articles on schizophrenia. Within the article text, many of these keywords were highly correlated with the term "schizophrenia" and were also interconnected with each other in the co-occurrence network. The latent Dirichlet allocation model presented 10 topics comprising a combination of keywords: "police-Jinju," "hospital-admission," "research-finding," "care-center," "schizophrenia-symptom," "society-issue," "family-mind," "woman-school," and "disabled-facilities." Conclusion: The results of the present study highlight that in recent years, the media has been reporting violence in patients with schizophrenia, thereby raising an important issue of hospitalization and community management of patients with schizophrenia.

• The Journal of the Society of Stroke on Korean Medicine
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 2009

Object : The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether herbal medication may injure the liver function and kidney function in stroke patients. Method : We observed the serum AST, ALT, r-GTP, Creatinine, BUN of 78 patient from May 1. 2008 to June 30. 2009 admitted in Oriental Hospital of Daejeon University. Liver function and Kidney function tests were done on admission and before discharge. And all patients take herbal medicine with Western medicine. Result : AST, ALT, r-GTP, Creatinine, BUN decreased on discharge compared with the value on admission. The liver function and kidney function test score(AST, ALT, r-GTP, Creatinine, BUN) by administration period of herbal medication was not significantly changed. Conclusion : This study suggests that general herbal medication does not injure liver function and kidney function of human.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.406-413
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• 2013

Objectives The purpose of this case study was to report improvement of palpitation, epistaxis, nausea, and anorexia after treatment with Dojeokgangki-tang gamibang in a middle-aged woman who has been taking Panax Ginseng continually. Methods Upon beginning her Dojeokgangki-tang gamibang regimen the patient was asked to self-evaluate the degree of discomfort in her symptoms using a using a number scale from 0 (no symptoms) to 10 (most severe). Evaluation of palpitation and chest discomfort was made a high priority. Results The palpitation the patient experienced, and self-evaluated as an "8" on the number scale at the time of her admission to the hospital, had disappeared (become "0") by the fourth day of hospitalization. The numerous symptoms which accompanied her palpitations (chest discomfort, nausea, anorexia, general weakness, weight loss, and depression) also improved accordingly. Conclusions Health functional food can pose serious health risks such as sudden bleeding and palpitations in individuals with pre-existing health problems. One must exercise extreme caution in deciding to take such supplements. As seen in the case of the middle-aged woman, the quality of life of patients who had experienced adverse reactions to such supplements can be treated through the administration of Dojeokgangki-tang gamibang.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.187-192
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• 2020

Sacral insufficiency fractures (SIF) are a common, but often underdiagnosed source of lower back pain without apparent trauma. This report presents the clinical outcome of a 75-year-old female with SIF, and an underlying medical history of osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. She was treated non-operatively, in-hospital, with Korean medicine. Patient progress was assessed using the numerical rating scale and self-reported symptoms. Post-treatment, the numerical rating scale score for pain in her hip decreased from 7 to 2. At admission, the patient was unable to sit, and could only walk 3 m with assistance. At discharge, she could sit for longer than 1 hour and walk further than 200 m unassisted. On the follow-up visit, the patient was asymptomatic, and x-ray scans showed ossification of the sacral and pubic fractures. These results suggest that, Korean medicine can effectively reduce pain and aid rehabilitation in patients with SIF, without the need for surgery.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.399-402
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• 2017

We report the case of a patient with penetrating chest trauma (right chest) who had undergone a left pneumonectomy due to pulmonary tuberculosis 24 years ago. We performed an emergent thoracotomy, finding an opening of the penetrating wound in a lower-lobe basal segment of the right lung. A stapled tractotomy was performed along the tract. Bleeding control and air-leakage control was done easily and rapidly. The patient was discharged without any complications on the seventh day of admission. Tractotomy can be a good option for treating penetrating lung injuries in patients with limited lung function who need emergent surgery.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2008

Methemoglobinemia can be caused by dapsone toxicity. We report a case dapsone induced methemoglobinemia unresponsive to methylene blue successfully treated by exchange transfusion. A 52-year-old male ingested a handful of dapsone. He presented with severe peripheral cyanosis in lips and fingertips and his methemoglobin level was found to be 21.9%. After admission, methylene blue (1%) at 1 mg/kg was injected each time peripheral cyanosis and rising serum methemoglobin occurred. Despite methylene blue therapy, the patient‘s methemoglobin level continued to fluctuate. Five days after the injections of methylene blue, many Heinz bodies were visualized in the peripheral blood, suggestive of hemolytic anemia occurrence. By hospital day 6, serum methemoglobine levels were elevated and not measurable (> 50%) and the patient was constantly in a semi-comatose mental state. An exchange transfusion carried out by utilizing 6 units of packed red blood cells and 4 units of fresh frozen plasma was performed. The patient's methemoglobin levels were subsequently kept up below 20% and his peripheral cyanosis receded. Physicians should recognize the important role of exchange transfusion in refractory dapsoneinduced methemoglobinemia.