• Journal of Oriental Medical Thermology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.13-17
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• 2010

Purpose : This study is to the recent trends of clinical trial using infrared thermography and to review its application in medicine. Methods : We searched for papers which had used infrared thermography in Medicine within 5 years, using English. Results : A total of 23 papers were but 8 were found, but 8 were not related to non-invasive infrared thermography. The other 15 papers were clinical trials about the effect of acupuncture and therapeutic massage, evaluation of post-hepatic neuralgia, sleep disorder, and regional circulation. Conclusion : These results suggest that infrared thermography can be used as a reliable and helpful method in many clinical trials.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.12-22
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• 2020

Objectives : The aim of this study is to review the trend of clinical trials conducted with the intradermal acupuncture treatment on dry eye syndrome. Methods : Through 4 foreign online databases(PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and CNKI) and 3 domestic online databases(NDSL, RISS, and OASIS), we searched for clinical studies performed acupuncture treatment for dry eye syndrome from 2000 to 2020. Only randomized controlled trials(RCT) were selected and analyzed with the research method. Results : A total of 4 studies were reviewed. Cuanzu(攢竹, BL2), Taiyang(太陽, EX-HN5), and Sibai(四白, ST2) were the most frequently used acupoints in the studies. Among the evaluation indexes, Schirmer I test(SIT), tear film break-up time(BUT) were the most frequently used outcomes. In the most of the 4 studies, intradermal acupuncture treatment showed significant therapeutic effects for dry eye syndrome. Conclusions : These results suggest that it is necessary to develop more detailed standards for intradermal acupuncture treatment method as the method of intradermal acupuncture is getting more diverse, and objective tools are needed to evaluating dry eye syndrome.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.16-20
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• 2013

Objectives : The objective of this study is to report the efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion for the treatment of fetal breech presentation. Methods : We searched papers in PubMed, using the keywords "breech and moxibustion" and "breech and acupuncture". Search range includes randomized clinical trials(RCTs), controlled clinical trials(CCTs), case reports, and case series. Each original article must have an abstract in English. Finally, 7 RCTs from 102 were included in this review. Results : As a result of analyzing the 7 RCTs, five trials hold that moxibustion or acupuncture at BL67 has been shown to produce a positive effect for the correction of breech presentation and the other two trials indicated no beneficial effect. However, one of the latter could not come to a conclusion owing to the unsatisfactory compliance record of the participants. Conclusions : Acupuncture and moxibustion may be effective to correct fetal breech presentation. In this regard, the related clinical researches are worth to be conducted.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2020

A total of 1,235 studies were retrieved on June 23, 2019, from 3 databases. Selected 59 studies were evaluated by year of publication, study type, subject condition/disease, acupoint, standards for reporting interventions in clinical trials of moxibustion (STRICTOM), Cochrane risk of bias (RoB), and risk of bias assessment tool for non-randomized study (RoBANS). Most studies were conducted in 2011, after which the number of studies decreased. The most common study type was 25 case reports (CR), 16 uncontrolled clinical trials (UCT), 11 randomized controlled trials (RCT), and 7 controlled clinical trials (CCT). Moxibustion treatment was mainly used for musculoskeletal and circulatory diseases/conditions. A total of 83 acupoints were used, A-shi points being the most used. As for STRICTOM, an average of 7.4 items were satisfactory for UCT and CR without a control group, and an average of 9.4 items were satisfactory for RCT and CCT. RCT was assessed using the RoB, and many items were rated as uncertain. In this study, the need for RCT of moxibustion treatment in Korea was identified. The detailed description of study methods and results will provide evidence for the efficacy of moxibustion treatment in preventive and therapeutic aspects of Korean traditional medicine.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.1149-1161
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• 2022

Purpose: This systematic review was conducted to evaluate the clinical effects of Injinho-tang on hyperbilirubinemia in hepatobiliary disorders. Methods: We searched for randomized controlled clinical trials that had administered Injinho-tang as an intervention in the following medical databases: Public/Publisher MEDLINE (PubMed), Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE), Cochrane library, Research Information Sharing Service (RISS), ScienceON, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System (OASIS), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). Among the retrieved studies, only trials that met the inclusion criteria were selected, and serum total bilirubin values were extracted and analyzed from the finally selected trials. Results: The serum total bilirubin values of 1,302 patients with various hepatobiliary diseases were synthesized through a meta-analysis, which confirmed a decrease in serum total bilirubin of 21.03 𝜇mol/L (95% CI -29.58~-12.49, p<0.01) in the group administered with Injinho-tang compared with the control group. Conclusions: Injinho-tang is effective in alleviating hyperbilirubinemia in hepatobiliary diseases when administered with conventional treatment. However, the potential risk of bias, high heterogeneity among the included trials, and differences in herbal composition are limitations of the results of this meta-analysis.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.33-46
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• 2009

Objectives : The objective of the study was to summarize randomized clinical trials(RCTs) that have assessed the effectiveness of herbal medicine on treatment of obesity and to propose better process of study. Methods : NLM Medline(pubmed), EMBASE, the Cochrane library, Science Direct, EBSCO, 4 Korean medical databases were systematically searched and 4 Korean medical journals were manually searched for clinical trials investigating the efficacy of herbal medicines on treatment of overweight or obese people from 1998 to 2008. The methodological quality was assessed using a Jadad score and validity was assessed using Oxford Pain Validity Scale(OPVS). Results : 14 RCTs met all the inclusion criteria. The methodological and ethical quality of the trials was generally low. The mean score by Jadad was 2.6 and the mean score of validity was 11.2. Complex herbal medicine was used in 8 RCTs and single herbal medicine was used in 6 RCTs. Except 1 RCT, the other RCTs reported positive effects of herbal medicine on treatment of obesity. Herbal medicines didn't seem to affect toxicity. In general adverse events relevant with the therapy were minor, but more than half of RCTs did not report about the safety or adverse events of herbal medicine, questioning their reliability. Conclusions : Although most RCTs concluded the efficacy and safety of herbal medicines on treatment of obesity, the quality of trials was low in general. Further rigorous clinical trials using complex herbal medicine should be performed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.350-356
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine how much the electronic clinical trial data management system actually enhances its efficiency. While the development of clinical trial markets highlights the significance of data management with increasing rate of adoption of electronic systems, its effects have not been fully supported with rigorous evidences. Particularly, the adoption rate of electronic clinical trial systems is low in domestic clinical trials markets. This study attempts to analyze the effect of the systems for reminding the importance of e-data management in clinical trials. The measurement indicator is experimented with the time related data collected from a multi-center clinical trial case. The result showed that the speed of the electronic clinical trial processes can be improved. The implication of this study lies in its first attempt to empirically analyze the effect of electronic clinical data management systems. Furthermore, application of the indicator in conjunction with electronic clinical trial processes is expected to facilitate strategic data management.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 2009

Objective : To make comprehensive picture of clinical trials using moxibustion and their results by today, then help a strategy for moxibustion-derived clinical studies in the future. Methods : Surveyed literatures containing randomized controled clinical trial (RCT) from PubMed and Korean journals. Analysis was performed according to distribution mainly by study subject, target diseases, study design, and its efficacy. Results : Fifty two literatures were selected according to inclusion criteria of randomized controled clinical study. Moxibustion-derived RCT have been rapidly increased from 2003 since the first was published in China in 1992. The main subjects of RCT are associated with immunity, cancer, arthritis, chronic colitis and urogenital disorders, which are connected to cold-elated pathogenesis. The average number of subjects was 94, and direct-moxibustion was mainly applied. The control groups were set up by giving conventional therapy, herbal medicine, acupuncture or only observation. The most of RCTs showed positive results. Conclusions : This study would be helpful for designing or conducting RCTs to develop the scientific development of moxibustion.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.34-47
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• 2021

Objectives The purpose of this study is to analyze the trend of recent randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which used acupuncture for the treatment of intellectual disability in China, and to evaluate the efficacy of the treatment. Methods The RCTs published from January 2017 to July 2021 were searched using China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). Then, those were analyzed by acupuncture treatment methods used and their results. Results A total of 18 randomized controlled trials were selected and analyzed. Most studies showed significantly higher Intelligence Quotient, Development Quotient, and a total effective rate in an acupuncture treatment group than those of the control group. The most used acupoints were EX-HN1 followed by Niesanzhen, Naosanzhen, Zhisanzhen, Shouzhizhen, GV20. Conclusions Based on the results of the analyzed randomized controlled trials, an acupuncture treatment has shown to be effective in the treatment of intellectual disability. However, additional well designed clinical trials are needed to solidify these findings.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.45-55
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• 2012

Electronic data management is getting important to reduce overall cost and run-time of clinical data management with the enhancement of data quality. It also critically needs to meet regulated guidelines for the overall quality and safety of electronic clinical trials. The purpose of this paper is to develop the performance evaluation framework in electronic clinical data management. Four key metrics in the area of infrastructure, intellectual preparation, study implementation and study completion covering major aspects of clinical trial processes are proposed. The performance measures evaluate the extent of regulation compliance, data quality, cost and efficiency of electronic data management process. They also provide measurement indicators for each evaluation items. Based on the key metrics, the performance evaluation framework is developed in three major areas involved in clinical data management - clinical site, monitoring and data coordinating center. As of the initial attempt how to evaluate the extent of electronic data management in clinical trials by Delphi survey, further empirical studies are planned and recommended.