• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.77-84
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• 2014

Periodic analysis of local epidemiologic data of prevalent pathogens of blood culture can provide clinicians with relevant information to guide empirical antibiotic therapy. In this study, we analyzed a pattern of change of causative microorganisms and antimicrobial resistance at a tertiary medical center in Chungcheong province from 2003 to 2012, retrospectively. Of 70,258 blood specimens cultured, 6,063 (8.6%) were positive. Among the positive isolates, 95.9% were aerobic or facultative anaerobic bacteria, 0.1% were anaerobes, and 3.9% were fungi. Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CoNS) (32.9%), Escherichia coli (16.7%), Staphylococcus aureus (9.1%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (6.4%), and ${\alpha}$-hemolytic Streptococcus (5.9%) were commonly isolated bacteria, and Candida albicans (1.4%) was the most commonly isolated fungi. Enterococcus faecium progressively increased but Streptococcus pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Proteus species gradually decreased over a period of 10 years. The multidrug-resistant microorganisms such as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), cefotaxime-resistant E. coli, imipenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (IRPA) and imipenem-resistant A. baumannii (IRAB), were significantly increased. Therefore, there is a need for a more strict control of antibiotics and a more updated guideline for the treatment of bloodstream infection.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.442-449
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• 2019

This study sought to evaluate the effects of Asiatic acid in LPS-induced BV2 microglia cells and 1-methyl-4-phenyl-pyridine ($MPP^+$)-induced SH-SY5Y cells, to investigate the potential anti-inflammatory mechanisms of Asiatic acid in Parkinson's disease (PD). SH-SY5Y cells were induced using $MPP^+$ to establish as an in vitro model of PD, so that the effects of Asiatic acid on dopaminergic neurons could be examined. The NLRP3 inflammasome was activated in BV2 microglia cells to explore potential mechanisms for the neuroprotective effects of Asiatic acid. We showed that Asiatic acid reduced intracellular production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species and altered the mitochondrial membrane potential to regulate mitochondrial dysfunction, and suppressed the NLRP3 inflammasome in microglia cells. We additionally found that treatment with Asiatic acid directly improved SH-SY5Y cell viability and mitochondrial dysfunction induced by $MPP^+$. These data demonstrate that Asiatic acid both inhibits the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome by downregulating mitochondrial reactive oxygen species directly to protect dopaminergic neurons from, and improves mitochondrial dysfunction in SH-SY5Y cells, which were established as a model of Parkinson's disease. Our finding reveals that Asiatic acid protects dopaminergic neurons from neuroinflammation by suppressing NLRP3 inflammasome activation in microglia cells as well as protecting dopaminergic neurons directly. This suggests a promising clinical use of Asiatic acid for PD therapy.

• Clinical and Experimental Emergency Medicine
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.264-271
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• 2018

Objective For patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), symptoms assessed by emergency medical services (EMS) providers have a critical role in prehospital treatment decisions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of EMS provider-assessed cardiac symptoms of AMI. Methods Patients transported by EMS to 4 study hospitals from 2008 to 2012 were included. Using EMS and administrative emergency department databases, patients were stratified according to the presence of EMS-assessed cardiac symptoms and emergency department diagnosis of AMI. Cardiac symptoms were defined as chest pain, dyspnea, palpitations, and syncope. Disproportionate stratified sampling was used, and medical records of sampled patients were reviewed to identify an actual diagnosis of AMI. Using inverse probability weighting, verification bias-corrected diagnostic performance was estimated. Results Overall, 92,353 patients were enrolled in the study. Of these, 13,971 (15.1%) complained of cardiac symptoms to EMS providers. A total of 775 patients were sampled for hospital record review. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of EMS provider-assessed cardiac symptoms for the final diagnosis of AMI was 73.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 70.8 to 75.7), 85.3% (95% CI, 85.3 to 85.4), 3.9% (95% CI, 3.6 to 4.2), and 99.7% (95% CI, 99.7 to 99.8), respectively. Conclusion We found that EMS provider-assessed cardiac symptoms had moderate sensitivity and high specificity for diagnosis of AMI. EMS policymakers can use these data to evaluate the pertinence of specific prehospital treatment of AMI.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.131-144
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• 2015

Purpose: This study set out to propose plans for more efficient and effective clinical practice by investigating the current state of clinical practice in the field of dental technology and thus provide basic data to develop pre- and post-education programs for clinical practice. Methods: The subjects include dental technicians at dental technical laboratories that were appointed as the place of clinical practice by the Department of Dental Technology of G University. The survey period spanned from December 22, 2014 to January 20, 2015. Total 250 questionnaires were distributed to them, and 190(76.0%) were returned. After excluding 23 whose answers were uncertain or seemed to lack reliability, total 167(66.8%) were used in final analysis. Results: 1. The most frequent practice the student did during clinical practice was articulator attachment, which was followed by pin operation or model making, one's own task and practice, sand and crow sculpturing, burying, casting, and grinding. 2. In case of going through the entire process, porcelain had the most students at 39(23.4%), being followed by crown & bridge at 28(16.8%), clinical model at 23(13.8%), full denture at 17(10.2%), and partial denture at 17(10.2%) in the order. 3. Of the students, 59.8%(30.5% for reinforced basic practice; 29.3% for intensive practice education) said that intensive practice education should be reinforced in school; and 22.3% said that intensive theory and practice education was needed, which indicates that 82.6% voiced their opinion of reinforcing education around practice. 4. The students felt that they lacked diligence, passion, and theoretical knowledge somewhat and were relatively good at clinical adaptation and operational skills. Conclusion: The findings show that the students felt an absolute lack of practice education as the school education was focused on theory and national exams in the field of dental technology, thus raising a need to reinforce practice education. Of all the respondents, 62.9% said there was a need to improve the current education with a focus on jobs. In future, education of dental technology should work to bring up able dental technicians that can perform in clinical dental technology right after graduation by reinforcing job-based practice education.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.397-405
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• 2019

Quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) has been widely used in research and clinical fields. QEEG has been widely used to objectively document cerebral changes for the purpose of identifying the electrophysiological biomarkers across various clinical symptoms and for the stimulation of specific cortical regions associated with cognitive function. In electroencephalography (EEG), the difference in quantitative and qualitative analyses is discriminated not by its measurement methods and relevant clinical or research environments, but by its analysis methods. When performing a qualitative analysis, it is possible for a medical technologist or experienced researchers to read the EEG waveforms to exclude artifacts. However, the quantitative analysis is still based on mathematical modeling, and all EEG data are included for the analysis, leading the results to be affected by unexpected artifacts. In the hospital setting, the case that the medical technologists in charge of the EEG test perform academic research has been little reported, compared to other clinical physiological measurement-based research. This is because there are few laboratories specialized in clinical physiological research. In this respect, this study is expected to be utilized as a basic reference material for medical technologists, students, and academic researchers, all of whom would like to conduct a quantitative analysis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.19
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• pp.8051-8055
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• 2014

Background: A common genetic variant rs3757318, located in intron of C6orf97, was firstly identified to be associated with breast cancer (BC) risk by a genome-wide association (GWA) study. However, subsequent validation studies with different ethnicities have yielded conflicting results. Materials and Methods: We performed a meta-analysis to synthesize all available data for evaluating the precise effect of this variant on BC susceptibility. Results: A total of 8 articles containing 11 studies with 62,891 cases and 65,635 controls were included in this meta-analysis. When compared to the G allele, the rs3757318-A allele was significantly associated with BC risk with the pooled OR of 1.21 (95% CI=1.15 - 1.29, P<0.001) but with obvious between-study heterogeneity (P=0.040). Stratified analysis suggested that diversity of ethnicity along with control source may explain part of the heterogeneity. Similarly, significant associations were also identified in heterozygote, homozygote, dominant and recessive genetic models. Sensitivity and publication bias analyses indicated robust stability of our results. Conclusions: Our present meta-analysis demonstrated that the variant rs3757318 is associated with increased BC risk. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to clarify the underlying biological mechanisms.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.81-85
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• 2006

Community acquired pneumonia(CAP) is the most prevalent disease among pneumonia patients and progressed to severe pneumonia. A retrospective study was performed to evaluate antibiotic regimens according to guidelines of Infectious Disease Society of America. From January to October 2005, chart review of 50 patients with CAP was peformed in terms of microbiology and laboratory data of each regimen. Temperature, WBC count, ALT, AST and alkaline phosphatase of each patient were examined for liver toxicity. In three patients received levofloxacin appeared to have normalized temperature and improved cough. The patients who received cefmetazole -aminoglycoside appeared to have worsen LFT(Liver function test). Many patients in flomoxef-aminoglycoside group received mechanical ventilation because of the basis diseases like tuberculosis, diabetes mellitus and hypertension. In conclusion, antibiotic therapy for the treatment of CAP should be selected according to tolerance, bacteria and severity of disease.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 1999

Transcranial doppler ultrasonography (TCD) is a new, non-invasive and easily applicable method to evaluate cerebral hemodynamics. Last 10 years, its use in Korea has been dramatically expanded, but the qualification of TCD laboratory has yet to be settled. Since duplex sonography is seldom used in Korea, we have to depend totally on TCD to evaluate cerebral hemodynamic changes. Thus, all of the available data from every detectabler cerebral arteries has to be obtained for accurate interpretation of TCD measurements. Moreover, flow direction and wave form should be concerned in addition to the flow velocity. In this article, I present technique to measure the anterior, meddle and posterior cerebral arteries, the internal carotid artery siphon and at cervical level, and the vertebral and the basilar artery, and normal values for these measurements which is essential for the adequate interpretation.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.323-331
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• 2013

TGF-${\beta}$ pathway is being extensively evaluated as a potential therapeutic target. The transforming growth factor-${\beta}$ (TGF-${\beta}$) signaling pathway has the dual role in both tumor suppression and tumor promotion. To design cancer therapeutics successfully, it is important to understand TGF-${\beta}$ related functional contexts. This review discusses the molecular mechanism of the TGF-${\beta}$ pathway and describes the different ways of tumor suppression and promotion by TGF-${\beta}$. In the last part of the review, the data on targeting TGF-${\beta}$ pathway for cancer treatment is assessed. The TGF-${\beta}$ inhibitors in pre-clinical studies, and Phase I and II clinical trials are updated.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.163-166
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• 2011

Oral viridans streptococci are recognized as one of the etiological agents of a variety of infectious diseases such as dental caries and infective endocarditis. Although antimicrobial susceptibility tests for these fastidious bacterial species are now established and standardized, a comparison between the broth microdilution and broth macrodilution tests has not previously been performed. This comparison was performed in the present study using the tests adopted by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and seven clinical isolates of oral viridans streptococcal strains. A modified broth macrodilution susceptibility test method was also included in this analysis, in which the media was not supplemented with horse blood. The susceptibility interpretation category agreements were measured at 83% (broth microdilution versus broth macrodilution) and 71% (broth microdilution versus modified broth macrodilution). The interpretation category agreement between the broth macrodilution and modified broth macrodilution tests was also 83%. These data indicate that the interpretation of antibiotic susceptibility test results for oral viridans streptococci are influenced by the methods used.