• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.567-575
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• 2009

Purpose : Epilepsy affects more than 0.5% of the world's population. It has a large genetic component and is caused by electrical hyperexcitability in the central nervous system. Despite its prevalence, the disease lacks definitive diagnostic serological biomarkers. To identify potential biomarkers for epilepsy by a convenient method, we analyzed the expression of serum proteins, reflecting alterations in the patient's proteomes. Methods : We compared two-dimensional electrophoretic band patterns of human sera from eight patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with those of eight control subjects. The differentially expressed bands were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. esults : Twelve proteins were differentially expressed in the TLE group, of which 6 were identified. Expression of haptoglobin Hp2, PRO2675, immunoglobulin heavy chain constant region gamma 2, an unnamed protein, and three unidentified proteins were upregulated in serum from the patients with TLE, whereas those of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I antigen, plasma retinol-binding protein precursor, and three unidentified proteins were downregulated in these patients. After resection of the epileptogenic zone, the expressions of MHC class I antigen, immunoglobulin heavy chain constant region gamma 2, two of the downregulated unidentified proteins, and one of the upregulated unidentified proteins returned to the normal range. Conclusion : The 12 serum proteins in this study are potentially useful biomarkers for the diagnosis and monitoring of TLE.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.194-208
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• 2003

Objective : Recently, many studies have showed the evidences of the effect of acupuncture treatment through scientific methods. We performed electro-acupuncture on Taixi(K3) and observed the change of brain activity using fMRI. Methods : To see the effect of electro-acupuncture stimulation on Taixi(K3), the experiment was carried out on twelve healthy volunteers, using the gradient echo sequence with the 3.0T whole-body fMRI system(ISOL). After the needle insertion on K3, 2 Hz of electric stimulation was given for 30 seconds, repeated five times, with 30 seconds' intervals. Result & Conclusions : Unilateral electro-acupuncture stimulation on K3 increased the brain activity in Brodman Area 8, 6, 9, 13, 21, 22, 38, 40, 43, 2, 5, 10, 20, 24, 32, 34, 37, 39, 41, 42. and decreased the brain activity in Brodman Area 9, 13, 38, 22, 31, 3, 6, 10, 21, 25, 29, 30. Group Averaged Brain activity induced by Unilateral Electro-acupuncture Stimulation on K3 was increased in Brodman Area 10, 22, 42, 43, 44 and was decreased inn Brodman Area 6 and pyrogen test of Bee venom. Bilateral electro-acupuncture stimulation on k3 increased the brain activity in Brodman Area 22, 3, 19, 4, 13, 17, 21, 41, 42, 2, 5, 6, 7, 18, 23, 29, 30, 31, 40 and decreased the brain activity in Brodman Area 18, 6, 39, 4, 13, 2, 10, 19, 36, 40, 45, 46, 47. Group Averaged Brain activity induced by Bilateral Electro-acupuncture Stimulation on K3 was increased in Brodman Area 22, 13, 4, 3, 29, 38, 43 and was decreased in Brodman Area 18, 3, 19, 22, 39. Motor Stimulation activated Brodmann Area 6, 43, 18.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2008

Although the pulse diagnosis position, Guan is apart from Cun or Chi by only $10{\sim}20$ mm at most, traditional medical doctors applies different indent pressures and even they states different pulse images are felt at Cun, Guan and Chi, To support their clinical behaviors, in this study, we tested statistically whether there are differences in pulse waveform measured at these three positions with SphygmoCor system used world widely, A 30 years old female subject without any evidence of cardiovascular diseases was involved in this experiment. Radial pulse waves were recorded at three different positions on left lower arm 10 times at three positions-Cun, Guan and Chi. With ANOVA, we tested whether, among three different positions. there are any differences in 12 parameters of radial pulse waveform and in estimated AIx(Augmentation Index) as an arterial stiffness index extracted from radial pulse waveform. As results, differences in optimal indent pressure h0 were observed at different measuring positions(P<0.001) but not significantly different. And pulse pressure his were found to be different(Chi$22.60{\pm}3.06%,\;18.60{\pm}3.37%\;and\;26.4{\pm}5.02%$ respectively. Consequently. AIx at Gwan seems to be lowest and that at Chi seems to be highest. So. we assert the AIx at Chi is likely to be overestimated. In further studies. we want to examine what make differences in these parameters between measuring positions. And it also seems to be worthy to investigate the relationship between the depth of radial artery and AIx. And, ultimately, we need to determine the best measuring process including measuring position, hold-down pressure, signal quality validation and so on. so to achieve the optimal waveform which represents subject's health condition for both western medicine and traditional medicine.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.501-517
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• 2011

This research investigates a geographical issue as to which factor discovered in the only Japanese telemedicine with regard to social and medical circumstances performs a role as a determinant in regionalization, especially, local areas in Japan. According to the results, strong human networks based on regionalism are mirrored in regionalization and are associated with not only the development and management of telemedicine operations, but also the choice of telemedicine users concretely. In other words, all processes from the suggestion stage of telemedicine to the practical usage or application stage of telemedicine are involved in the existing human networks within one prefecture (the third diagnostic area); further, personal stakes are transferred to public health care services (telemedicine) and their relationships have been formulated by the telemedicine council including local government, medical association, region-rooted companies, core health centers and universities, etc. Accordingly, the telemedicine council responses to the need of telemedicine users immediately and contributes to develop regional health care. Also, telemedicine users have been connected with each other closely before operating telemedicine; accordingly, the human relationships between doctors and patients or among doctors influence the choice of telemedicine serving sites and their behaviors comes down to regional-based diagnosis via the telemedicine system.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.103-111
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• 2010

A total of 200 hospital employees participated in this study from January 2009 to June 2010. For the survey, each participant was given necessary items for external health exams. Cronbach's alpha was calculated for the survey regarding wireless networks. There was a need for educating data processing workers in the medical field regarding fundamental information prior to wireless network construction. The reason is high scores would be collected, which would reflect knowledge regarding data processing used at hospitals and the differences between paper charts and electronic charts. However, low scores were obtained which reflected knowledge regarding the differences between wired and wireless networks and Mini-PACS. Time for each patient was shortened to a maximum of three minutes and minimum of one minute for treatment and transmitting medical images when comparing pre and post wireless network construction(p < 0.01). Scores from the pre and post construction survey increase 1.98, 1.65, and 1.43 points for activity in the health screening area, usage of space in the health screening vehicle, and patient information storage respectively(p < 0.05). The number of patients receiving external health screenings twelve times was 3,655 prior to construction of a wireless network system. However, the number increased to 4,265 after construction. The increasing percentage was 17% in total. Prior to construction, X-ray images were taken 527 times, but after construction of a wireless network, this number growed to 1,194 and it was 116% increase. The loss of patient's medical treatment charts was reduced from 19.8% to 18.7% after construction. We believe that educating medical workers on Mini-PACS and Mini-OCS Systems will not only increase their efficiency but also make patients receiving better treatment.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 2001

Purpose : This is a retrospective study to evaluate the results of radiation therapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Materials and Methods : From September 1989 to October 1996, 19 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma completed planned radiation therapy course. Stages were 1 in 2 patients, II in 6, III in 2 IV in 9 patients, respectively. Pathology was squamous cell carcinoma in 5 patients, undifferentiated cell carcinoma in 14 patients. Fourteen patients were treated with radiation therapy only. Five patients received chemotherapy. The follow-up period ranged from 5 months to 115 months with a median of 33 months. Follow-up was possible in all patients. Results : Responses to radiation therapy were complete response in 15 patients, partial response in 2, and no response in 2, respectively. Patterns of failure were as follows : locoregional recurrence in 6 patients and distant metastasis in 4 patients. The sites of distant metastasis were bone, liver and lung. Five year survival rate was $47.8\%$ and five year disease free survival rate was $48.1\%$. Stage, T-stage, N-stage, central nervous system involvement, pathology type, performance status, response, radiation dose, chemotherapy were not significant prognostic factors. Conclusion : 5-year survival rate was $47.8\%$ and 5-year disease free survival rate was $48.1\%$. The advances in radiation therapy techniques and chemotherapy are needed.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.356-364
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• 2010

Objectives : This study was done to evaluate the effect of stopping drinking, using alcoholic liver disease questionnaire, Diagnosis System of Oriental Medicine (DSOM) and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL). Methods : 49 men who satisfied the requirement participated in this trial. They stopped drinking for 6 weeks. They were analyzed using DSOM, alcoholic liver disease questionnaire and SF-36. The data were classified by age (<47,$\geq$48) and alcoholic intake per day (<100g,$\geq$100g). For HRQOL, the SF-36v2 Health Survey was used and Quality Metric Health Outcomes Scoring Software 2.0 (QualityMetric, Lincoln, RI, USA) was applied for the analysis. Results : The alcoholic liver disease questionnaire had a partial correlation with DSOM. Generally stopping drinking decreased Heat (熱). Especially in the group drinking over 100g per day, the correlation was high. In the group over 48 years old, spleen (脾) was improved comparatively. In the group with low HRQOL (PCS<31.43, MCS<23.33) deficiency (虛) was improved. Conclusions : We found that stopping drinking can improve pathogenic factors of alcoholic liver disease and the alcoholic liver disease questionnaire be a useful diagnostic method on alcoholic liver disease by comparison with DSOM.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 1987

It is well-known that hepatic scintigraphv have been found to be less sensitive and specific in the detection of the diffuse hepatocellular diseases than that of the space-occupying lesions. To obtain the higher diagnostic specificity and sensitivity, we, using the computer quantitation, have attempted to analyze hepatic and extrahepatic $^{99m}Tc-tin$ colloid uptake patterns in various diffuse hepatocellular diseases retrospectively. The studied groups consisted of 116 cases of normal, 67 cases of acute hepatitis, 112 cases of chronic hepatitis, 61 cases of liver cirrhosis, 47 cases of fatty liver, 12 cases of hepatoma and 9 cases of metastasis, making total 424 cases. Scintigraphic imagings were obtained in the anterior, right lateral and posterior projections using high-resolution collimation, and simultaneously these gamma data were acquisited into the computer system. Both large region of interest (ROI) using light pen and ROI computer program were placed over right lobe, left lobe of liver, spleen and cardiac blood pool. Total counts in ROI were divided by the number of pixels in the ROI, and mean count rate per pixels calculated. Mean right-lobe counts were divded by mean-left lobe counts to determine right-to-left hepatic lobe ratio and mean spleen counts were divided by mean liver counts to determine spleen to liver ratio. The results were as follows. 1) Of 424 cases, 292 were male and 132 were female. The majority of age distribution was in $30\sim49$ (54.5%). 2) Inter-observer between two independant operators and inter-method between drawing by light-pen and ROI computer program variations were not significant. 3) The uptake count values (per pixel) determined at each area in normal group were $106.53{\pm}18.35$ in right lobe, $79.00{\pm}13.82$ in left lobe, $17.52{\pm}8.31$ in spleen and $8.09{\pm}3.43$ in cardiac blood pool. 4) In liver cirrhosis, right lobe uptake was decreased but spleen and cardiac blood pool uptakes were increased (p<0.01). 5) Right-to-left hepatic lobe uptake ratio was $1.37{\pm}0.24$ in normal group and significantly low in chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and fatty liver, and more or less low in acute hepatitis. 6) Spleen-to-right hepatic lobe uptake ratio was $0.17{\pm}0.09$ in normal group and high in chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis. 7) The computer-quantitation of hepatic and extrahepatic uptake patterns thought to be sensitive and useful method in the interpretation of liver scintigram.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.50-56
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• 1997

Gated SPECT can evaluate the regional wall motion of the heart. We evaluated the regional wall motion of the perfusion abnormality in conventional perfusion SPECT with gated SPECT. In case of suspicious perfusion abnormalities, we tried to differentiate the artifact from true abnormality in coronary vascular disease using gated SPECT. We thought that artifacts would have normal wall motion, whereas fixed defects with decreased wall motion would probably represent coronary artery disease. A total of 275 patients who were performed coronary angiography and T1-201 rest/Tc-99m MIBI dipyridamole stress gated SPECT within 2 months were enrolled. In coronary angiography, stenosis more than 50% was considered as coronary artery disease. After injection of 111MBq T1-201 rest image was obtained on triple head SPECT system. 370MBg Tc-99m MIBI was used for the stress image. Eight-frame per-cardiac-cycle gated Tc-99m SPECT studies were done. All the images were analyzed visually. Using perfusion SPECT, the overall sensitivity and specificity were 87% and 55% respectively. Regarding artery territory, sensitivity and specificity were 68% and 73% for left anterior descending artery(LAD), 62% and 78% for right coronary artery(RCA), 42% and 90% for left ciramflex artery(LCX). Using gated SPECT, the overall sensitivity and specificity were 87% and 66% respectively. Sensitivity and specificity were 68% and 78% for LAD, 62% and 79% for RCA, 42% and 90% for LCX. Among 21 false positive cases in perfusion SPECT, 5 cases were interpreted as true negative with gated SPECT. We conclude that gated SPECT provides a valuable adjunct to perfusion SPECT in characterizing perfusion abnormalities and to improve specificity.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.35-46
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• 2008

Soil moisture is one of the important components in hydrological processes and also controls the subsurface flow mechanism at a hillslope scale. In this study, time series of soil moisture were measured at a hillslope located in Gwangneung National Arboretum, Korea using a multiplex Time Domain Reflectometry(TDR) system measuring soil moisture with bi-hour interval. The Box-Jenkins transfer function and noise model was used to estimate spatial distributions of soil moisture histories between May and September, 2007. Rainfall was used as an input parameter and soil moisture at 10 cm depth was used as an output parameter in the model. The modeling process consisted of a series of procedures(e.g., data pretreatment, model identification, parameter estimation, and diagnostic checking of selected models), and the relationship between soil moisture and rainfall was assessed. The results indicated that the patterns of soil moisture at different locations and slopes along the hillslope were similar with those of rainfall during the measurment period. However, the spatial distribution of soil moisture was not associated with the slope of the monitored location. This implies that the variability of the soil moisture was determined more by rainfall than by the slope of the site. Due to the influence of vegetation activity on soil moisture flow in spring, the soil moisture prediction in spring showed higher variability and complexity than that in early autumn did. This indicates that vegetation activity is an important factor explaining the patterns of soil moisture for an upland forested hillslope.