• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.79 no.4
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• pp.207-213
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• 2016

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) encompasses several clinical syndromes, most notably emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Most of the current treatments fail to attenuate severity and progression of the disease, thereby requiring better mechanistic understandings of pathogenesis to develop disease-modifying therapeutics. A number of theories on COPD pathogenesis have been promulgated wherein an increase in protease burden from chronic inflammation, exaggerated production of reactive oxygen species and the resulting oxidant injury, or superfluous cell death responses caused by enhanced cellular injury/damage were proposed as the culprit. These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive and together likely represent the multifaceted biological processes involved in COPD pathogenesis. Recent studies demonstrate that mitochondria are involved in innate immune signaling that plays important roles in cigarette smoke-induced inflammasome activation, pulmonary inflammation and tissue remodeling responses. These responses are reviewed herein and synthesized into a view of COPD pathogenesis whereby mitochondria play a central role.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.53-60
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• 2017

Proteinuria is common in pediatric and adolescent patients. Proteinuria is defined as urinary protein excretion at levels higher than $100-150mg/m^2/day$ in children. It can be indicative of normal or benign conditions as well as numerous types of severe underlying renal or systemic disease. The school urine screening program has been conducted in Korea since 1998. Since then, numerous patients with normal or benign proteinuria as well as early stage renal diseases have been referred to the hospital. Benign proteinuria includes orthostatic proteinuria and transient proteinuria. Most causes of proteinuria can be categorized into 3 types: 1) overflow, 2) tubular, and 3) glomerular. Although treatment should be directed at the underlying cause of the proteinuria, prompt evaluation, diagnosis, and long-term monitoring of these pediatric patients can prevent potential progression of the underlying disease process. This article provides an overview of proteinuria: its causes, methods of assessment, and algorithmic suggestions to differentiate benign from pathologic renal disease.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.76 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2014

Maintenance therapy has emerged as a novel therapeutic paradigm for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Maintenance therapy that aims to sustain a clinically favorable state after first-line chemotherapy has two strategies. Switch maintenance therapy entails switching to a new and non-cross-resistant agent in an alternating or sequential manner, on completion of first-line chemotherapy. Continuous maintenance therapy keeps ongoing administration of a component of the current regimen after four to six cycles of chemotherapy, if there is a stable disease, or better response. Both maintenance therapies can be continued, until disease progression. The potential evidence regarding maintenance therapy includes providing the opportunity to receive additional treatment, through sustaining tumor shrinkage, and delayed emergence of tumor-related symptom. Thus far, debates over the parameters used to predict the effectiveness of maintenance therapy, financial burden, and uncertainty of improving the quality of life exist. Despite many debates, maintenance therapy, which is currently recommended, has been disclosed to be beneficial.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.79 no.3
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• pp.121-126
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• 2016

Lung function reportedly declines with age and that this decline is accelerated during disease progression. However, a recent study showed that the decline might peak in the mild and moderate stage. The prognosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be improved if the disease is diagnosed in its early stages, prior to the peak of decline in lung function. This article reviews recent studies on early COPD and the possibility of applying the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation 2008 and 2015 for early detection of COPD in Korea.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.1090-1105
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• 2012

A multi-modal sensing M2M healthcare monitoring system for the continuous monitoring of patients under their natural physiological states or elderly persons with chronic diseases is summarized. The system is designed for homecare or the monitoring of the elderly who live in country side or small rest home without enough support from caregivers or doctors, instead of patient monitoring in big hospital environment. Further insights into the natural cause and progression of diseases are afforded by context-aware sensing, which includes the use of accelerometers to monitor patient activities, or by location-aware indoor tracking based on ultrasonic and RF sensing. Moreover, indoor location tracking provides information about the location of patients in their physical environment and helps the caregiver in the provision of appropriate support.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.218-230
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• 2018

According to the burst of aged people, researchers have focused on aging-related diseases. Cognitive impairment including Alzheimer's disease (AD), one of the representative diseases related to aging, has no treatment option until now. Recently, it has been revealed that systemic inflammation plays a fundamental role in the pathogenesis of AD. Previous studies have suggested the association between poor oral health and cognitive impairment. Poor oral health can cause dental caries, chronic periodontitis, multiple tooth loss, and poor chewing ability, etc. Especially, periodontitis is a well-known chronic inflammatory disease and affects cognitive impairment directly and indirectly by inflammatory products mediators. Therefore, reduction of pathogenic microbial burden and inflammatory products by treating periodontitis can be a therapeutic modality to prevent cognitive impairment or to slow down the progression of it. Future studies are necessary to elucidate the causal relations and plausible mechanisms between poor oral health and cognitive impairment.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.138-141
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• 2014

Pyoderma gangrenosum is a rare inflammatory reactive dermatosis marked by painful cutaneous ulcers. Diagnosis of pyoderma gangrenosum is usually made based on past medical history and after the exclusion of other possible diseases based on the clinical manifestations of the lesion. Diseases that show rapid progression to necrosis and that should not be misdiagnosed as pyoderma gangrenosum include malignant neoplasms and necrotizing fasciitis. Immunosuppressive agents such as steroids and cyclosporine are considered first-line therapy. Surgical removal of the necrotic tissues is contraindicated, as it may further induce immune reaction and promote ulcer to enlarge. Here, we present a case to encourage plastic surgeons to consider pyodermagangrenosum in the differential diagnosis of idiopathic ulcers. Satisfactory outcomes for patients with pyodermagangrenosum may be expected when using steroids and immunosuppressive agents during the early stage of the disease.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.275-285
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• 2014

Macrophages, found in circulating blood as well as integrated into several tissues and organs throughout the body, represent an important first line of defense against disease and a necessary component of healthy tissue homeostasis. Additionally, macrophages that arise from the differentiation of monocytes recruited from the blood to inflamed tissues play a central role in regulating local inflammation. Studies of macrophage activation in the last decade or so have revealed that these cells adopt a staggering range of phenotypes that are finely tuned responses to a variety of different stimuli, and that the resulting subsets of activated macrophages play critical roles in both progression and resolution of disease. This review summarizes the current understanding of the contributions of differentially polarized macrophages to various infectious and inflammatory diseases and the ongoing effort to develop novel therapies that target this key aspect of macrophage biology.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.35-41
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• 2013

Routine urinalysis is a simple, economical, and useful test that facilitates the detection of urinary system diseases and monitoring of renal disease progression. It consists of 4 parts of specimen evaluation, gross examination, a dipstick urinalysis, and a sediment microscopic urinalysis. Urine specimens should first be evaluated in terms of acceptability, and thereafter, the gross appearance is examined for color, turbidity, and odor. In particular, a dipstick urinalysis is an easy and rapid test that provides information on the multiple physicochemical properties of the urine sample. Moreover, although a sediment microscopic urinalysis is time-consuming, it provides information on the cells, microorganisms, casts, and crystals. In the present report, the clinical significance of the routine urinalysis and the problems concerning interpretation are summarized.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.30.1-30.10
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• 2020

Systemic infections due to Fusobacterium may originate in the tonsillar/internal jugular veins or from the abdomen. We encountered a patient who presented with bacteremia, fulminant septic shock, and extensive soft tissue pyogenic infection due to Fusobacterium necrophorum. In addition, there was widespread metastatic colon cancer with the unique finding of pre-mortem co-localization of F. necrophorum and cancer cells at a site distant from the colon. We reviewed the literature of the association of F. necrophorum and colon cancer, and discuss the evidence of how each of these 2 distinct entities may mutually augment the development or progression of the other.