• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.69-76
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• 2015

Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in women worldwide and there is a significant association between human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer. Certain HPV groups, labeled high-risk (HR) HPV groups, are strongly associated with malignancies of the human cervix. HPV prevalence and genotype distribution were analyzed using the REBA $HPV-ID^{(R)}$ (YD Diagnostics, Yongin, Korea) assay based on the reverse blot hybridization assay (REBA) with a total of 324 liquid-based cytology samples from women in Western Shandong Province, East China and results were compared with cytological diagnosis. Most of the HPV genotypes that were detected in high-grade cervical lesions were HR-HPV genotypes such as HPV 16, 18, 33, 53, and 58. The prevalence of these HR-HPV genotypes increased in high-grade cervical lesions. However, from low- to high-grade cervical lesions, the ability to detect LR-HPV genotypes decreased. Additionally, in general, the single HPV genotype infection rate increases in proportion to the severity of the lesion. The study findings suggest that a currently available preventive vaccine against HPV 16 and 18 may have limited effectiveness for prevention of all HPV infection in this province. Finally, based on these findings, these data could guide national or regional vaccination programs in the Western Shandong Province of East China to substantially reduce the burden of cervical lesions.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.203-212
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• 2023

Since the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, it has been generally believed that a medical technologists (MTs) are supposed to perform polymerase chain reaction tests and next-generation sequencing (NGS) in the hospitals. However, many do not recognize that the duty of MT for clinical genetic testing has not been stated in the Medical Laws (72.5% for MT, N=200; 62.8% for students, N=123). In this regard, to evaluate the feasibility of MT's role for NGS genetic testing, we requested our subjects to fill out an online survey and analyzed the data. Among them, it shows that the scope of MT's role, including NGS performance should include clinical genetic testing (99.5% for MT, N=200; 86.8% for students, N=123). Also, questions on clinical genetics, which is associated with both cellular genetics and molecular genetic questions should be included in the National MT License Problem Bank (97.5% for MT; 71.4% for students). Based on these results, the Korean Association of Medical Technologists needs to cooperate synergically with the Academic Association of Biomedical Laboratory Science with respect to genetic education and legislation for the future benefit of both MTs and students.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.93-104
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• 2019

This study examined the relationship between the number of medical technologists and the medical test count. Data was obtained from 441 medical technologists in a hospital through a self-reported questionnaire. The Pearson correlation test, student's t-test, ANOVA or descriptive statistics were performed for data analysis. The distribution of medical technologist according to the size of hospitals was small 5.8, medium 14.9, large 25.8, and super 45.4. The analysis demonstrated a relationship between the number of medical technologists and the number of medical tests in the field, number of clinical tests per MT, and number of optimal medical test per MT according to the hospital size (P<0.001). The average time for quality control by the department at a higher hospital was less than two hours. In terms of the satisfaction of salary, work environment, test accomplishment, and welfare service, the dissatisfaction of medical technologists in small and medium hospitals was higher than those in large and super hospitals. Overall, a focus on intensifying systemic supplementation and improving the condition of medical technologists is needed to provide reliable data for medical examinations in medical areas.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.132-141
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• 2013

Mycobacterium isolates were retrospectively identified, antibiotics susceptibility test results and basic clinical data were analyzed for the 715, excepted 308 in 1,023 specimens, from a mycobacterial laboratory at a tertiary care hospital from September 2002 to December 2008. Their male to female ratio was 1.12 to 1 (379 male, 336 female). The median age of study population was 47 years (range from 10 to 93 years). Distribution of Mycobacterium species was 90.1% of total were isolates Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and 9.9% of the total non-tuberculosis Mycobacterium isolated, and Among nontuberculosis Mycobacterium isolates, 60.6% were Mycobacterium avium complex, 14.1% were isolates Mycobacterium abscessus, and 12.7% were isolates Mycobacterium intracellulare. Among 526 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates, 81.7% isolates were susceptible to first line antibiotics, 18.3% were resistant to one or more antibiotics. Non-tuberculosis Mycobacterium isolates, all were resistant to two or more antibiotics. Multi-antibiotic resistant tuberculosis rate was show 10.2% of total specimens. Isolated Mycobacterium species, 19.2% were multi-antibiotic resistant tuberculosis, and the rate of nontuberculosis Mycobacterium resistant to isoniazid and rifampin was very highly 84.5%. Thus among acid fast bacilli culture positive cases, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and non-tuberculosis Mycobacterium were must exactly identification and antibiotic sensitivity test. It was considered to help to select of the antibiotic in preventive medicine.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2017

C-reactive protein (CRP) levels are not generally associated with viral infections. This study investigated the changes in the CRP level caused by an infection from respiratory virus (RV). Nasopharyngeal samples from hospitalized patients with suspected RV infection were used to measure the CRP levels, virus load, virus-virus co-infection, age, sex, and length of hospital stay (LOS). Abnormal CRP levels were detected in 62.3% (3,608 out of 5,788) of all RV-positive samples. The percentage of patients with abnormal CRP levels tended to increase with age. Furthermore, LOS in patients with abnormal CRP levels was significantly longer than that in patients with normal CRP levels. The frequency of elevated CRP levels differed according to the causative virus and the frequency of abnormal levels increased with age. Moreover, LOS was longer in those with abnormal CRP levels. These data provide important insights into the role of CRP levels in RV infection.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.3823-3827
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• 2016

Background: To investigate the association circumcision with prostate cancer. Materials and Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and Chinese biomedicine literature database up to August 2015. All case-control studies were identified in which investigated the association circumcision with prostate cancer. Three authors independently assessed study quality and extracted data. All data were analyzed using RevMan 5.3 and STATA version 11.0. Results: Six case-control studies met the inclusion criteria. The pooled meta-analysis showed that there was a lower incidence of circumcision in prostate cancer patients compared with control (OR=0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.82-0.98, P=0.01). The results of meta-analysis also showed that no significant difference was found between circumcision and less aggressive prostate cancer (OR=0.93, 95% CI 0.83-1.04, P=0.19); however, there was a lower incidence of circumcision in more aggressive prostate cancer compared with control (OR =0.84, 95% CI 0.72-0.97, P=0.02). The Egger's results did not show any evidence of publication bias(P=0.798). Conclusions: In summary, within the limits of available data, male with circumcision appears to have a lower incidence of prostate cancer. In the future, high-quality multicenter studies are needed to thoroughly verify the outcome.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.140-146
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• 2014

Purpose: The etiology of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) has changed since the introduction of the rotavirus vaccination. The aim of this study was to clarify which common pathogens, both bacterial and viral, are currently causing AGE in infants. Methods: Infants with acute diarrhea were enrolled. We tested for 10 bacterial pathogens and five viral pathogens in stool specimens collected from infants with AGE. The clinical symptoms such as vomiting, mucoid or bloody diarrhea, dehydration, irritability, and poor oral intake were recorded, and laboratory data such as white blood cell count and C-reactive protein were collected. The clinical and laboratory data for the cases with bacterial pathogens and the cases with viral pathogens were compared. Results: Of 41 total infants, 21 (51.2%) were positive for at least one pathogen. Seventeen cases (41.5%) were positive for bacterial pathogens and seven cases (17.1%) were positive for viral pathogens. Staphylococcus aureus (13 cases, 31.7%) and Clostridium perfringens (four cases, 9.8%) were common bacterial pathogens. Norovirus (five cases, 12.2%) was the most common viral pathogen. Fever and respiratory symptoms were common in the isolated viral infection group (p=0.023 and 0.044, respectively), whereas other clinical and laboratory data were indistinguishable between the groups. Conclusion: In our study, S. aureus (41.5%) and norovirus (12.2%) were the most common bacterial and viral pathogens, respectively, among infants with AGE.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.92-96
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• 2010

The National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC) was performed population health checkup survey program with especially two target ages, 40 years and 66 years old that were called as "life transition period" for national collective prophylaxis of cardiovascular diseases in Korea. We were investigated and compared between two age groups with the serum levels of cholesterol and triglyceride from data of the survey in Daegu province, Korea at April, 2007. Data of one hundred persons per each age (40 years and 66 years old) were collected and investigated for risk factors for chronic degenerative diseases including serum lipid concentration, health habits of drinking, smoking, exercise etc. In spite of the definite difference of life transition of the each age, the transition from adolescence to adulthood at 40 years old, and from adulthood to senescence at 66 years old, there were no significant difference of total cholesterol and triglyceride between two age groups.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2429-2435
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• 2012

Methyl isocyanate may have a role in cancer etiology, although the link is unclear. There is evidence in the literature that it can induce cancer in animals but the carcinogenic potency is weak. Pheochromocytoma of adrenal medulla and acinar cell tumors of pancreas have been observed in methyl isocyanate exposed animals. Conversely, emerging data from population-based epidemiological studies are contradictory since there is no evidence of such cancers in methyl isocyanate exposed humans. Recently, we reported a high prevalence of breast and lung cancers in such a population in Bhopal. In vitro findings appearing in the latest scientific literature suggest that genomic instability is caused by methyl isocyanate analogs in lung, colon, kidney, ovary epithelial cells, and that hepatocytes may undergo oncogenic transformation, have obvious implications. The conflicting information prompted us to present this update over the last three decades on methyl isocyanate-induced cancers after an extensive literature search using PubMed. While the pertinent literature remains limited, with a scarcity of strong laboratory analyses and field-epidemiological investigations, our succinct review of animal and human epidemiological data including in vitro evidences, should hopefully provide more insight to researchers, toxicologists, and public health professionals concerned with validation of the carcinogenicity of methyl isocyanate in humans.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.154-158
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• 2013

The unnatural dead body refers to a corpse which is suspicious of unusual death and the dead case has been occurred more than 20 thousands times every year during the recent five years and most of them are found decayed. Police Scientific Investigators investigate unnatural dead bodies and its surroundings in all-around way and determine whether the death is involved with a crime, and most of the Scientific Investigators are exposed to a danger to get infected with pathogenic bacteria which are generated during the decaying process of dead body and are mostly to cause serious injuries on human beings. In line with the fact, the present study conducted a bacterial analysis by collecting excretions from 60 dead bodies and culturing the bacteria to evaluate infection risk of the police agents. The study cultured bacteria from 60 bodies and classified pathogenic bacteria of 108 strains, and its main bacteria are found to be them (; Acinetobacter baumannii 20 strains (19%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa 19 strains (18%), E. coli 18 strains (17%), Klebsiella pneumoniae 11 strains (10%), Proteus mirabillis 10 strains (9%), Enterococcus faecium 10 strains (9%), Staphylococcus aureus 9 strains (8%), Bacillus spp. 5 strains (5%), Streptococcus pneumoniae 3 strains (3%), Candida albicans 2 strains (2%), Mycobacterium tuberculosis 1 strains (1%)). The study results are expected to be used as educational data for preventing the Police Scientific Investigator from infections with bacteria or as a minimum data for improving work environment of the agents.