• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제17권6호
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• pp.2805-2810
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• 2016

Background: Differentiated thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy with a generally good prognosis. Knowing long-term outcomes of each patient helps management planning. The study was conducted to develop and validate a clinical prognostic score for predicting disease remission in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer based on patient, tumor and treatment factors. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 1,217 differentiated thyroid cancer patients from two tertiary-care hospitals in the Northeast of Thailand was performed. Associations between potential clinical prognostic factors and remission were tested by Cox proportional-hazards analysis in 852 patients (development cohort). The prediction score was created by summation of score points weighted from regression coefficients of independent prognostic factors. Risks of disease remission were estimated and the derived score was then validated in the remaining 365 patients (validation cohort). Results: During the median follow-up time of 58 months, 648 (76.1%) patients in the development cohort had disease remission. Five independent prognostic factors were identified with corresponding score points: duration from thyroid surgery to $^{131}I$ treatment (0.721), distant metastasis at initial diagnosis (0.801), postoperative serum thyroglobulin level (0.535), anti-thyroglobulin antibodies positivity (0.546), and adequacy of serum TSH suppression (0.293). The total risk score for each patient was calculated and three categories of remission probability were proposed: ${\leq}1.628$ points (low risk, 83% remission), 1.629-1.816 points (intermediate risk, 87% remission), and ${\geq}1.817$ points (high risk, 93% remission). The concordance (C-index) was 0.761 (95% CI 0.754-0.767). Conclusions: The clinical prognostic scoring model developed to quantify the probability of disease remission can serve as a useful tool in personalized decision making regarding treatment in differentiated thyroid cancer patients.

• 한국동물위생학회지
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• 제44권3호
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• pp.163-168
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• 2021

The rapid and reliable detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) plays a key role in isolating infected patients and preventing further viral transmission. In this study, we evaluated the clinical diagnostic performances of a commercial real-time reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RRT-LAMP) assay (Isopollo^® COVID-2 assay, M-monitor, Daegu, Korea) using eighty COVID-19 suspected clinical samples and compared these with the results of a commercial real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay (Allplex^TM 2019-nCoV rRT-QPCR Assay, SeeGene, Seoul, Korea). The results of the RRT-LAMP assay targeting the N or RdRp gene of SARS-CoV-2 showed perfect agreement with the RT-qPCR assay results in terms of detection. Furthermore, the RRT-LAMP assay was completed in just within a 20-min reaction time, which is significantly faster than about the 2 h currently required for the RT-qPCR assay, thus enabling prompt decision making regarding the isolation of infected patients. The RRT-LAMP assay will be a valuable tool for rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of SARS-CoV-2 in human or unexpected animal clinical cases.

• Korean Circulation Journal
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• 제52권12호
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• pp.890-900
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• 2022

Background and Objectives: Some individuals exhibit discrepancies between risk classifications assessed using clinical factors and those obtained by vascular imaging. We aimed to evaluate whether statins provide clinical outcome benefits in patients classified as having low to moderate cardiovascular risk but with carotid plaque. Methods: This was a retrospective propensity score matching study. A total of 12,158 consecutive patients undergoing carotid ultrasound between January 2012 to February 2020 were screened. Individuals with low to moderate cardiovascular risk who were not currently recommended for statin therapy but had carotid plaques were included. Among 1,611 enrolled individuals, 806 (statin group: 403, control group: 403) were analyzed. The primary outcomes were major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCEs: cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, coronary revascularization, and ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack) and all-cause mortality. Results: During the median follow-up of 6.0 years, the incidence of MACCEs did not differ between the groups (6.1 and 5.7/1,000 person-years in the control and statin groups, respectively; adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.95; p=0.90). The incidence of all-cause mortality did not differ (3.9 and 3.9/1,000 person-years, respectively; adjusted HR, 1.02; p=0.97). Kaplan-Meier curves revealed similar rates of MACCEs (log-rank p=0.72) and all-cause mortality (log-rank p=0.99) in the 2 groups. Age and smoking were independent predictors of MACCEs. Subgroups exhibited no differences in clinical outcomes with statin use. Conclusions: Benefit of statin therapy was likely to be limited in low to moderate risk patients with carotid plaques. These results could guide physicians in clinical decision-making regarding cardiovascular prevention.

• 한국지능시스템학회논문지
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.386-390
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• 2003

데이터마이닝은 많은 양의 데이터로부터 의사결정에 유용한 패턴을 발견하는 과정으로서 최근 경영 및 공학 분야의 폭넓은 영역에서 많은 관심을 모으고 있다. 어떤 그룹을 여러 하위그룹으로 분류해내는 일은 데이터마이닝의 주요 내용 중 하나이다. 의사결정나무로 알려진 트리기반 기법은 그러한 분류모형을 수립하는 데 효율적인 방안을 제공한다 트리학습에 있어서 우선적인 관건은 목표변수에 의해 측정되는 노드불순도를 최소화하는 것이다. 하지만 공정관측, 마케팅과학, 임상분석 등과 같은 문제에서는 여러 목표변수를 동시에 고려해야 하는 상황이 쉽게 등장하는 데, 본 논문의 목적은 이처럼 다변량 목표변수를 갖는 데이터셋에서 활용할 수 있는 노드불순도 측정방안을 제시하는 데 있다. 아울러 수치 예를 이용하여 적용결과에 대해 논의한다.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제55권5호
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• pp.415-423
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• 2022

Economic evaluations in the healthcare are used to assess economic efficiency of pharmaceuticals and medical interventions such as diagnoses and medical procedures. This study introduces the main concepts of economic evaluation across its key steps: planning, outcome and cost calculation, modeling, cost-effectiveness results, uncertainty analysis, and decision-making. When planning an economic evaluation, we determine the study population, intervention, comparators, perspectives, time horizon, discount rates, and type of economic evaluation. In healthcare economic evaluations, outcomes include changes in mortality, the survival rate, life years, and quality-adjusted life years, while costs include medical, non-medical, and productivity costs. Model-based economic evaluations, including decision tree and Markov models, are mainly used to calculate the total costs and total effects. In cost-effectiveness or costutility analyses, cost-effectiveness is evaluated using the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, which is the additional cost per one additional unit of effectiveness gained by an intervention compared with a comparator. All outcomes have uncertainties owing to limited evidence, diverse methodologies, and unexplained variation. Thus, researchers should review these uncertainties and confirm their robustness. We hope to contribute to the establishment and dissemination of economic evaluation methodologies that reflect Korean clinical and research environment and ultimately improve the rationality of healthcare policies.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제56권6호
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• pp.242-246
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• 2013

Purpose: The cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) is an important clinical tool for evaluating exercise capacity and is frequently used to evaluate chronic conditions including congenital heart disease. However, data on the normal CPET values for Korean children and adolescents are lacking. The aim of this study was to provide reference data for CPET variables in children and adolescents. Methods: From August 2006 to April 2009, 76 healthy children and adolescents underwent the CPET performed using the modified Bruce protocol. Here, we performed a medical record review to obtain data regarding patient' demographics, medical history, and clinical status. Results: The peak oxygen uptake ($VO_{2Peak}$) and metabolic equivalent ($MET_{Max}$) were higher in boys than girls. The respiratory minute volume $(V_E)/CO_2$ production ($VCO_2$) slope did not significantly differ between boys and girls. The cardiopulmonary exercise test data did not significantly differ between the boys and girls in younger age group (age, 10 to 14 years). However, in older age group (age, 15 to 19 years), the boys had higher $VO_{2Peak}$ and $MET_{Max}$ values and lower $V_E/VCO_2$ values than the girls. Conclusion: This study provides reference data for CPET variables in case of children and adolescents and will make it easier to use the CPET for clinical decision-making.

• 대한치과의사협회지
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• 제43권1호통권428호
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• pp.41-52
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• 2005

Information Technology has extended its scope to the medical field as well as dental field. Like medical field, network ststem for dental field requires acquisition, storage, and display of images. However, unlike the medical field, the system to integrate several information including medical images has not been developed according to industrial standard for management of digital image for medical use, so called DICOM conformance. which makes the digital environment in dental field more and more difficult and expensive for this standardization and comfortable communication in LAN and WAN. To solve this problem, the DICOM encoder and server has to be developed because the DICOM file can be easily retrieved with patient's information from the DICOM server in the system as DICOM file has the standard specification to integrate the patient's information. The information including image and other discrete data can be easily integrated in DICOM file and can be used without any difficulty for precise diagnosis and for contribution to the decision making for each treatment protocol. Therefore, the system composed of DICOM encoder and server in dental practive for DICOM file must be developed with prudent consideration of the several strategic factors: I) Enhanced diagnostic capability through the integrated information of image and clinical data. ii) Clinician-friendly interface to simulate the systemic treatment procedure in clinical practice iii) Implementation of multidisciplinary treatment protocol The development of DICOM encoder and server based on these strategic considerations will provide paperless and filmless hospital environments by the seamless integration and management of patient's history, several clinical data and clinical images through image processing for quantitative analysis. The system also allows clinicians to provide more predictable dental care for the patients.

• 한방재활의학과학회지
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.67-75
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• 2017

Objectives The study of the clinical effects of traditional east asian medicine (TEAM) using Taiwan national health insurance claim dataset (NHIRD) is useful in Korean Medicine research. We reviewed the clinical studies of TEAM using NHIRD as a whole through this study. Methods We comprehensively searched PUBMED and NHIRD DB for clinical effects of TEAM study using NHIRD from inception to 17, January 2017. As a result, 40 studies investigating the contribution of TEAM intervention to health benefit have been confirmed. We analyzed publication time, target disease, sample size, outcome measurement and main result of 40 searched studies. Results The number of TEAM studies using NHIRD grdually increasing. The topics of the team study using NHIRD covered a wide range of subjects including cardiovascular disease, tumor, gynecological disease, diabetes and kidney disease. The studies have shown large samples and reported significant effects on severe diseases. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that the study of Korean Medicine using Big data will be useful for decision making related to health care in Korea. However, considering the limited domestic Korean health insurance data, it will be necessary to activate the big data research of Korean Medicine through the establishment of a separate cohort in Korea.

• 한국간호교육학회지
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.32-40
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate an integrated clinical evaluation program to increase the competency of senior nursing students. Method: A cross-sectional one group test design was utilized. Based on a framework derived from the prior studies, an integrated clinical evaluation program was developed. In order to assess the effect of the developed program, the senior students' experience with the program was measured. The participants were senior nursing students and the program was performed on November, 2005 after their semester was all finished. Result: The evaluation score for ability in application of nursing process was 83.87 and nursing skill was 85.69 by evaluators. The students reported that the program provided a chance to relearn and practice basic nursing skills and it was helpful in increasing decision making competency and their ability to apply the nursing process. Conclusion: This study suggests that the integrated clinical evaluation program contributes to cultivating a nurse with comprehensive nursing competencies and to improve the nursing students' knowledge, attitude, and skill.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.27-30
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• 2000

Reflex epilepsies are distinct but not clearly understood clinical entity. Various cerebral activities induced by simple stimulation including visual, auditory, somatosensory stimulation, as well as diverse functional tasks such as reading, calculation, complex thinking are believed to be seizure-inducing factors. We experienced two patients whose seizures were readily precipitated by complex, strenuous thinking. Both patients was teen-aged boy at the onset of seizure(13, and 15 years of age each) with normal physical and mental growth. Although first seizure was precipitated by watching TV and playing puzzles in each patient, initial diagnosis was idiopathic generalized epilepsy, possibly juvenile myoclonic epilepsy( JME). For the first few years, seizures were infrequent but mostly precipitated by the tasks needs concentration such as playing computer games, decision-making, mathematics, reading, or during the examination. EEG revealed various thinking process including reading hard books, drawing complex figure, complex calculation induced epileptic discharges even if it usually needs certain period of concentration. Phenytoin, valproic acid, clonazepam, vigabatrin, and lamotrigine sometimes abated their seizures but none of these made them seizure-free. Complex reflex epilepsy induced by thinking was proposed to be a separate type of epilepsy or a variant of JME. Age, sex, stereotypic seizure-inducing factors, clinical course, and refractory epilepsies in these patients highly suggested this type of epilepsy as a variant of JME but its refractoriness and unique provocation still needs more speculation.