• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.157-163
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• 2005

Purpose: Dietary protein induced proctocolitis (DPIPC) can be considered as a cause of rectal bleeding or blood streaked stool in otherwise healthy-looking infants in the first several months of life. Failure to appreciate this entity may lead to inappropriate diagnostic or therapeutic intervention. This study aimed to ascertain the clinical features, treatment and prognosis of DPIPC. Methods: We reviewed 13 infants retrospectively, presented with bloody stool in early infancy. They were diagnosed as DPIPC clinically in Pusan National University Hospital from May 2002 to June 2004. Results: Seven males and six females were included. The mean age at onset of bleeding was $96.8{\pm}58.8days$. The mean frequency of hematochezia was $2.6{\pm}2.5$ times a day. Duration from onset of symptom to diagnosis was $35.5{\pm}55.0days$ and duration from onset of symptom to resolution of bleeding was $58.7{\pm}67.0days$. Nine (69.2%) were exclusively breast-fed infants and two (15.4%) were formula-fed infants. All but one infant did not have family history of other allergic diseases. A dietary history of ingestion of cow's milk, nut or shellfish was present in three mothers. Peripheral eosinophil count was normal to slightly elevated (total WBC count $10,555{\pm}3,145/mm^3$, relative eosinophil count $6.3{\pm}3.0%$, absolute eosinophil count $659.0{\pm}532.2/mm^3$). Sigmoidoscopy revealed lymphonodular hyperplasia with surrounding hemorrhagic spots in the rectosigmoid colon in 6 infants. Histopathologic finding of colonic biopsies in 5 infants showed chronic inflammation with lymphoid follicular hyperplasia (5 infants), crypt abscess (3 infants), or mild infiltration of eosinophils (less than 20/high power field) in the lamina propria. Spontaneous resolution of rectal bleeding occurred in all infants without dietary change or medicine. Conclusion: Most infants with DPIPC experience a very benign course and have spontaneous resolution of rectal bleeding without changes in the mother's diet. In the case of strong evidence for DPIPC we suggest deferring further invasive investigation and continuing breast feeding.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.11-28
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• 2017

Objectives : The contents of aconitine in aconiti radix lateralis preparata, purified hot water extract of Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata, and purified hot water extract of Sambutang-P that contains Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata was analyzed to compare toxicity. Toxicity of Sambutang-P that contains Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata was assessed with a single oral toxicity test on 6-week-old male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. Methods : 1. The contents of aconitine in Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata, purified hot water extract of Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata, and purified hot water extract of Sambutang-P that contains Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata was analyzed using the purity test according to the "Korean Herbal Pharmacopoeia". 2. 2,000mg/kg was injected for the single oral toxicity test of purified hot water extract of Sambutang-P that contains Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata, and the test was done for a test group (injection) and a control group, each with 5 male and 5 female rats. For 14 days after injection, rats were observed for general symptoms and changes in weight. Afterwards, blood biochemical test, autopsy, and histophathological exam of the liver was conducted. Results : 1. The contents of aconitine was 0.0785% for Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata, 0.1510% for purified hot water extract of Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata, and 0.1248% for purified hot water extract of Sambutang-P that contains Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata. 2. There was no death of either male or female rats in both the control group and the test group (injection of 2,000mg/kg). 3. No unusual symptom was observed in both the control group and the test group (injection of 2,000mg/kg). 4. No significant change in weight was observed for both male and female rats in the test group (2,000mg/kg). 5. The histopathological exam of ALT, AST, ALP, GGT and LDH showed no significant changes for both male and female rats in the test group (2,000mg/kg). 6. According to the autopsy results, no visible abnormality of organs or tissues was found in both the control group and the test group (2,000mg/kg). 7. According to the histopathological exam of the liver, the effect of the injected material was not observed for either male or female rats in the test group (2,000mg/kg). Conclusions : The contents of aconitine in Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata was lower for decoction of Sambutang-P with ginseng radix alba than for decoction of only Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata. This suggests that ginseng radix alba can dilute toxicity of Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata. As for a single oral toxicity test of Sambutang-P that contains Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata, no abnormal reaction was observed even when the injection amount far exceeded a toxic dose or a lethal dose. Thus, it is deemed that using Sambutang-P at a clinically prescribed dose would not lead to hepatoxicity.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.402-408
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• 2010

In the twenty first century, people experience a lot of stresses by psychological, social and environmental impetus. If the stress is excessive, it can become a problem and finally lead to diseases. Foot bath makes the body warm starting with the feet, controls the blood circulations and autonomic nervous systems. This study aims at examining the effects of stress and fatigue of senior students preparing for college entrance examination by foot bath with the aroma essential oil and the fermentation extracts. The experimental period was from March 30 to April 18, 2009. The study objects were 21 senior students of C Girls' High School in Cheonan. They were divided into 3 groups and treated 20 times. The first group was a foot bath group with Artemisia Herbal fermentation extracts. The second group was a foot bath group with the blending aroma essential oil of grapefruit, cypress and cedarwood. The third group was not treated. In the case of difference of physical and psychological stress, there was a reduction of 18.43 and 16.71 for the fermented extract group and 10.71 and 9.43 for the aroma group, while a reduction of 0.43 and 0.29 for the control group, respectively. This shows that foot baths using fermented extracts and aroma had lower physical stress compared to the control group (p<.01). For the difference of fatigue, there was a reduction of 19.14 for the fermented extract group, 11.57 for the aroma group and 0.07 for the control group, showing that foot baths accompanied by fermented extracts and aroma used in this study having lower fatigue compared to the control group (p<.01). The fermented extract group (M=55.71) had the highest level of satisfaction after foot baths, followed by the aroma group (M=49.14) and the control group (M=33.29). Duncan's post hoc test showed that there was a statistically considerable difference between the tests groups and control groups (p<.01). Through the results of this study, it was found that foot baths using bathing supplements were very effective for reducing stress and fatigue.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.36-41
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• 2014

Purpose: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common source of bacterial infections in infants and young children. Accurate diagnosis and treatment is important because of their association with renal scarring, which can lead to complications. Urine endothelin-1 (ET-1) is the major renal isoform produced and released by renal mesangial cells in response to glomerular injury. This study aimed to investigate whether urinary levels of ET-1 can be used as a biomarker for UTI diagnosis. Method: We conducted a prospective study using medical records of 70 patients below the age of 18 years, who visited Chung-Ang University Hospital from July 2012 to July 2013. We classified the patients into the UTI and control groups based on urine culture studies. The UTI group was further divided into upper and lower UTI groups using 99m-Technetium dimercaptosuccinic acid scintigraphy. Urine ET-1 was measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay with 0.3 mL urine. Results: The UTI and control groups were comprised of 45 and 25 patients, respectively. Mean urine ET-1 levels were significantly higher in the UTI group than in the control group ($1.41{\pm}0.35$ pg/mL vs. $0.33{\pm}0.07$ pg/mL, P =0.04). There was no significance difference in the quantitative value between the upper and lower UTI groups (P =0.552). There was no correlation between urine ET-1 and serum C-reactive protein (Pearson correlation [R]=0.24), urine ET-1 and serum white blood cell count (R=0.19). Conclusion: Our study suggests that urine ET-1 can be used for early diagnosis of UTI in children.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 1995

Tc-99m-MIBI(Sestamibi) myocardial SPECT along with T1-201 tomographic imaging has demonstrated wide application and high image qualify sufficient for the diagnosis of myocardial perfusion defect, which consequently reflects regional myocardial blood flow, The qualitative values of myocardial SPECT with Tc-99m-MIBI as well as the quantitative cases depend in some degree on the reconstruction techniques of multiple projections. Filtered backprojection(FBP) is the common standard for reconstruction rather than the complicated and time-consuming arithmetic methods. In FBP it Is known that the distribution of radioactivity in reconstructed transverse slices varies with the selected filter parameters such as cutoff frequencies and order(Butterworth case). The cutoff frequencies basically remove and decrease the true radioactive distribution and alter the pixel counts, which lead to underestimation of true counts in specific myocardial regions. In this study, we have investigated the effect of cutoff frequencies of reconstruction filter on the artifactually induced perfusion defects, which are often demonstrated near inferior and/or inferoseptal cardiac walls due to the intense hepatic uptake of Tc-99m-MIBI. A computerized method for identifying the relative degree of artifactual perfusion defect and for comparing those degrees along with the relative amount of hepatic uptake to myocardium was developed and patient images were studied to observe the quantitative degree of underestimation of myocardial perfusion, and to propose some reasonable thresh-old of cutoff frequency in the diagnosis of perfusion defect quantitatively. We concluded that from the quantitative viewpoint cutoff frequencies may be used as high as possible with the sacrifice of homogeneity of image quality, and those frequencies lower than the common 0.3 Nyquist frequency would reveal severe degradation of radio-active distribution near inferior and/or Inferoseptal myocardium when applying Butterworth or low pass filter.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.82-87
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• 2007

This research was performed to investigate chemical and microbiological hazards of Ready-to-eat(RTE) compound foods which uses the by-product of meat. For this experiment, 51 samples of RTE compound foods in by-product of meat distributed in Incheon from January to December 2006 were tested. The contents of heavy metals in the main ingredient of RTE compound foods were in the range of $0.073{\sim}0.112ppm$ for lead (Pb), $0.006{\sim}0.013ppm$ for cadmium (Cd) and $0.746{\sim}0.978ppb$ for mercury (Hg). The concentrations of residual ABS(alkyl benzene sulfate) in the small intestine which is a main ingredient of Gopchang-casserole were $$0.8ppm{\sim}57.6ppm$ (Ave. 10.3ppm). Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from 11 samples (21.6%) among 51 main ingredients of RTE compound foods. The isolation rates of Salmonella spp. and Clostridium perfringens were 2.0% (1/51) and 5.9% (2/51), respectively. By types of main ingredient, the small intestine was showed the highest isolation rate as 35.3% (12/34), ham and the sausage which are main ingredients of the Budae-pot stew were 25% (2/8) and other meat products were 20% (1/5). Food poisoning bacteria was not found in the blood of pig which is a main ingredient of the Sunji-pot stew. 28.4% (27/95) of sauce included in each RTE compound foods were coliform bacteria positive. Pesticide residues were found in four of 45 vegetables which are the additional ingredient of RTE compound foods. The concentrations of pesticide were chlorothalonil 2.8 ppm, EPN 10.3 ppm, chlorpyrifos 0.4ppm and indoxacarb 0.7ppm. In 33 bean sprout samples, captan and carbendazim were not detected.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.307-316
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• 2015

Beetle larvae have been used as a traditional medicine to treat various human liver diseases. To prove the liver protective function of Allomyrina dichotoma larvae (ADL), we induced liver damage by the intraperitoneal injection of a hepatotoxic reagent, diethylnitrosamine (DEN), to C3H/HeN male mice and orally administered freeze-dried ADL powder. ADL powder lessened DEN-induced hepatotoxicity considering the reduced signs of acute and chronic hepatotoxicities, such as the ALP level in the blood serum, TUNEL-positive hepatocytes, ductural reactions, steatotic hepatocytes, and collagen deposition of the Masson’s trichrome staining. In addition to hepatoprotection, the anti-cancer activity of ADL has been examined. The ADL powder was extracted with ethanol and then fractionated with hexane, ethyl acetate, and water by a solvent partition technique. The ethyl acetate fraction showed cytotoxicity to various cancer cells through induction of apoptosis and necrosis, as well as the perturbed metabolism of the cancer cell to trigger autophagy. Collectively, ADL contains bioactive substances that can protect hepatocytes from toxic chemicals and trigger cell death in cancer cells. Thus, further purification and analyses of ADL fractions could lead to the identification of novel bioactive compounds.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.693-702
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• 2015

Blocking new blood-vessel formation (angiogenesis) is now recognized as a useful approach to the therapeutic treatment of many solid tumors. The best validated approach to date is to target the vascular endothelial growth-factor (VEGF) pathway, a key regulator of angiogenesis. Many natural products and extracts that contain a variety of chemopreventive compounds have been shown to suppress the development of malignancies through their anti-angiogenic properties. Phellodendron amurense, which is widely used in Korean traditional medicine, has been shown to possess antitumor, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties, among others. The present study investigated the effects of P. amurense hot-water extract (PAHWE) on angiogenesis, a key process in tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. To investigate PAHWE’s anti-angiogenic properties, this study’s authors performed an analysis of angiogenesis and endothelial-cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and tube formation, as well as zymogram assays and the rat aortic ring-sprouting assay. PAHWE inhibited cell growth, mobility, and vessel formation in response to VEGF in vitro and ex vivo. Furthermore, it reduced VEGF-induced intracellular signaling events, such as the activation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) -2 and -9. These results indicate that PAHWE’s anti-angiogenic properties might lead to the development of potential drugs for treating angiogenesis-associated diseases such as cancer.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.6 s.275
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• pp.407-413
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• 2007

Background: The brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) level has been reported in some studies to be associated with the occurrence of atrial fbrillation (AF). The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential usefulness of the BNP level as a predictor of the occurrence of postoperative (postop) AF and to assess the relationship of the BNP level with the onset of AF and the restoration of sinus rhythm. Material and Method: From January 1, 2005 to February 28, 2006, 82 patients without a history of atrial arrhythmia that had undergone cardiac surgery were enrolled in the study. Blood samples for plasma BNP were drawn daily for all these patients from the preoperative (preop) day to the 7th postop day. The patient records were reviewed and postop EKGs were checked daily for AF until the time of discharge. Result: Patients were divided into two groups based on development of postop AF. Postoperative AF developed in 26 patients (31.7%). There was no significant statistical difference in age, sex distribution, preop left ventricle ejection fraction, hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, or the use of beta blockers between the non-postop AF and postop AF group. More patients in the AF group had undergone valve surgery (39.3% versus 76.9%, p=0.002). The preop left atrium size was significantly larger in the AF patients ($43.8{\pm}10.3 mm$ versus $49.8{\pm}11.5 mm$, p=0.029). The preop plasma BNP levels were higher in the postop AF patients ($144.1{\pm}20.8 pg/mL$ versus $267.5{\pm}68 pg/mL$, p=0.034). In the postop AF group, the plasma BNP level was the highest on the 3rd postop day. Postop AF developed in most patients by the 3rd postop day; restored sinus rhythm developed by the 7th postop day. Conclusion: Elevated plasma BNP levels may lead to the occurrence of postop AF in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Patients who have a high risk of postop AF should be considered for aggressive prophylactic antiarrhythmic therapy.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.667-682
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the changes in health behavior, mental health, and nutritional status of Korean adolescents before and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak. Methods: A total of 800 adolescents (12~18 years old) who participated in the 2019-2020 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) were included as study subjects and divided into four groups (204 middle school boys, 172 middle school girls, 219 high school boys, and 205 high school girls). The 2019 and 2020 KNHANES data were classified into data collected before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, respectively. Results: After the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, middle school boys showed an increased tendency toward becoming overweight and obese, with significantly increased levels of diastolic blood pressure and insulin. While there was no major change in the subjective health status among adolescents, the high school boys showed a significantly decreased physical activity after COVID-19 outbreak. Moreover, the proportion of middle school students feeling a little stressed significantly increased after the COVID-19 outbreak. The rate of skipping breakfast significantly increased in middle school girls, but the rate of having lunch with companions significantly increased among all adolescents after the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the intake of milk, vegetables, fruits, seaweeds, and pulses significantly decreased, although the intake of sugars, beverages, and seasonings significantly decreased as well, during this period. These changes may lead to an increased proportion of adolescents with insufficient intake of nutrients, including potassium, vitamin C, and riboflavin. Conclusion: These results highlight the impact of COVID-19 on comprehensive changes in physical and mental health status, lifestyle behavior, and nutritional status in adolescents, suggesting the need for targeted prevention and intervention for physical and mental well-being during the pandemic.