• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.131-145
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• 2009

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has become an assisted reproductive technique for couples who are at risk that enables them to have unaffected baby without facing the risk of pregnancy termination after invasive prenatal diagnosis. The molecular biology and technology for single-cell genetics has reached an extremely high level of accuracy, and has enabled the possibility of performing multiple diagnoses on one cell using whole genome amplification. These technological advances have contributed to the avoidance of misdiagnosis in PGD for single gene disorders. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based PGD will lead to a significant increase in the number of disorders diagnosed and will find more widespread use, benefiting many more couples who are at risk of transmitting an inherited disease to their baby. In this review, we will focus on the molecular biological techniques that are currently in use in the most advanced centers for PGD for single gene disorders, including biopsy procedure, multiplex PCR and post-PCR diagnostic methods, and multiple displacement amplification (MDA) and the problems in the single cell genetic analysis.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.100-120
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• 1998

Tertiary been increasing rapidly. There has been shortage of beds in hospitals and effective management of beds had to b considered. For the efficient utilization of the exsisting hospital beds, bed turnover rate ha to be high and their length of stay in hospital has to be shortened. The sample of this study was in-patients admitted in 13 clinical departments of a tertiar hospital in Wonju. Daily medical fees through length of stay in hospital were observed an we analyzed the increase of hospital revenues per bed for the shortening of length of stay. The results of the analysis were as follows: 1. The average length of stay by dept. was 11.0 in dept. of internal medicine. 12.4 in dept. of general surgery, 7.1 in dept. of gynecoloty, 6.8 in dept. of pediatrics, 26.1 in dept. of nervous surgery, 21.6 in dept. of orthopedic surgery, 25.5 in dept. of plastic sersury, 7.6 in dept. of ophthalmology, 7.1 in dept. of E.N.T, 8.1 in dept. dermatoloty, 9.0 in dept. urology. 2. The trend of daily medical fees of in-patients was the highest from the first day to the third day. Because most necessary examination and various treatment or operation took place in these period. 3. The estimative model for medical fees by the length of stay at each clinical department was inferred. 4. The increased revenue per bed by shortening the length of stay was calculated by the estimative model. Shortening one day would increase 305,999 thousand won in dept. of internal medicine 232,138 thousand won in dept. of general surgery., 177,795 thousand won in dept. of gynecology medicine, 69,031 thousand won in dept. of pediatrics 360,381 thousand won in dept. of nervous surgery 211.339 thousand won in dept. of orthopedic surgery, 100,249 thousand won in dept of plastic surgery, 10,569 thousand won in dept. of ophthalmology -814,122 thousand won in dept. of E.N.T, 1,582 thousand won in dept. of dermatology, -5,821 thousand won in dept. of urology. It is expected that they can improve their profitability by shortening the length of stay of the in-patients.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2000

This experiment was undertaken to investigate the effect of administration of Agyoju or Mokhyang on the maintenance of pregnancy, delivery and sex ratio in the mice in different gestation periods. Adult female mice were administered orally at three different periods, from ovulation to implantation (Exp.1), from post-implantation to organogenesis (Exp.2), and from fetal growth to parturition (Exp.3). In Experiment 1, number of fetus implanted and mean body weight were not significantly different. However, the delivery of male offspring was significantly increased in Agyoju and Mokhyang administrated groups than control group. In Experiment 2, the number of fetuses implanted, live offsprins and their body weight at delivery were significantly increased in the Agyoju administered group than Mokhyang and control groups. In Experiment 3, the number of live offspring and sex ratio were not different in both treatments and control group. However, mean body weight at delivery was significantly increased in both treatment groups than that of control group. These results suggest that 1) Agyoju and Mokhyang have beneficial effects in maintenance of pregnacy, and that 2) The action of unknown component(s) in Agyoju may be related to selection of male spermatozoa for fertilization in vivo, and that 3) the administration of Agyju of Mojhyang during mid-and late-pregnance periods were shown the increment of body weight of live offspring without decrease of litter size.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.201-210
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• 2005

Purpose: Quality of life in patients with cancer may be influenced by various kinds of variables, such as personal, environmental, and medical factors. The purpose of this study was to identity the influencing factors on the quality of life in patients with cancer. Materials and Methods: One hundred and forty seven patients, who were taking medical therapy or following up after surgery for cervix cancer, participated in the present study. Quality of life, medical variables (cancer stage, types of treatment, follow-up status, and symptom distress), and psychosocial variables (mood disturbance, orientation to life, and social support) were measured. The obtained data were computed using multiple regression analyses. Results: The medical-and-psychosocial variables explained 63.3% of the total variance in the quality of life ($R^2=0.633$ F:16.959, p=.000). Cancer stage, symptom distress, mood disturbance, social support(family), and optimistic orientation to life were significant factors influencing on the quality of life in patients with cervix cancer. Conclusion: An integrative care program which includes medical - and - psychosocial characteristics of patients is essential to improve quality of life in patients with cervix cancer.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.115-122
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• 1998

The maintenance of a viable pregnancy has long been viewed as an immunological paradox. The deveolping embryo and trophoblast are immunologically foreign to the maternal immune system due to their maternally inherited genes products and tissue-specific differentiation antigens (Hill & Anderson, 1988). Therefore, speculation has arisen that spontaneous abortion may be caused by impaired maternal immune tolerance to the semiallogenic conceptus (Hill, 1990). Loss of recall antigen has been reported in immunosuppressed transplant recipients and is associated with graft survival (Muluk et al., 1991; Schulik et al., 1994). Progesterone $(10^{-5}M)$ has immunosuppressive capabilities (Szekeres-Bartho et al., 1985). Previous study showed that fertile women, but not women with unexplained recurrent abortion (URA), lose their immune response to recall antigens when pregnant (Bermas & Hill, 1997). Therefore, we hypothesized that immunosuppressive doses of progesterone may affect proliferative response of lymphocytes to trophoblast antigen and alloantigen. Proliferative responses using $^3H$-thymidine ($^3H$-TdR) incorporation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to the irradiated allogeneic periperal blood mononuclear cells as alloantigen, trophoblast extract and Flu as recall antigen, and PHA as mitogen were serially checked in 9 women who had experienced unexplained recurrent miscarriage. Progesterone vaginal suppositories (100mg b.i.d; Utrogestan, Organon) beginning 3 days after ovulation were given to 9 women with unexplained RSA who had prior evidence of Th1 immunity to trophoblast. We checked proliferation responses to conception cycle before and after progesterone supplementation once a week through the first 7 weeks of pregnancy. All patients of alloantigen and PHA had a positive proliferation response that occmed in the baseline phase. But 4 out of 9 patients (44.4%) of trophoblast antigen and Flu antigen had a positive proliferative response. The suppression of proliferation response to each antigen were started after proliferative phase and during pregnancy cycles. Our data demonstrated that since in vivo progesterone treated PBMCs suppressed more T-lymphocyte activation and $^3H$-TdR incorporation compare to PBMCs, which are not influenced by progesterone. This data suggested that it might be influenced by immunosuppressive effect of progesterone. In conclusion, progesterone may play an important immunological role in regulating local immune response in the fetal-placental unit. Furthermore, in the 9 women given progesterone during a conception cycle, Only two (22%) repeat pregnancy losses occured in these 9 women despite loss of antigen responsiveness (one chemical pregnancy loss and one loss at 8 weeks of growth which was karyotyped as a Trisomy 4). These finding suggested that pregnancy loss due to fetal aneuploidy is not associated with immunological phenomena.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.122-125
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• 2013

Objective: The majority of embryo transfers (ETs) to date have been performed on day 3 to reduce the potential risk of developmental arrest of in vitro cultured embryos before ET. Development of sequential media has significantly improved culture conditions and allowed blastocyst transfer on day 5. While day 5 ET provides higher clinical pregnancy outcomes with reduced risks of multiple pregnancies, it still has potential risks of developmental arrest of IVF embryos. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of day 4 ETs and compare the efficacy of day 4 ET with day 5 ET. Methods: From 2006 to 2009, a total of 747 fresh IVF-ET cycles were retrospectively analyzed (day 4, n=440 or and day 5, n=307). The cycles with any genetic factors were excluded. The rates of matured oocytes, fertilization, good embryos, and clinical pregnancy of the two groups were compared. The chi-square test and t-test were used for statistical analysis. Results: There were no significant differences between the two groups with respect to the mean age of the females and rates of matured oocytes. The pregnancy outcomes of day 4 ET (40.7%) were similar to those of day 5 ET (44.6%). The implantation rate of day 5 ET (24.2%) was significantly higher than that of day 4 ET (18.4%) (p=0.003). Conclusion: Day 4 ET can be chosen to avoid ET cancellation in day 5 ET resulting from suboptimal circumstances in the IVF laboratory, but the decremented quality of embryos for transfer and the decreased pregnancy rate must be taken into consideration.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.393-401
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• 2014

A bacterium producing antimicrobial substance was isolated from cheonggukjang. The bacterium was identified as a strain of Bacillus subtilis by 16S rDNA sequencing and designated as Bacillus subtilis HH28. The antimicrobial substance produced from Bacillus subtilis HH28 was purified by 0-80% ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE-sepharose FF column chromatography, and Sephacryl S-200 HR gel chromatography. The molecular weight of the purified antimicrobial substance was estimated to be approximately 3,500 Da using Tricine sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and direct detection analysis. Antimicrobial substance from B. subtilis HH28 not only inhibited B. cereus, but also Listeria monocytogenes and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. The purified antimicrobial substance was stable at $40-80^{\circ}C$, and between pH 2 and 8. Antimicrobial activity of the purified substance was completely destroyed by treatment of protease, proteinase K, and pronase E, indicating that it is proteinaceous.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.401-410
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• 2017

This study aimed to identify appropriateness and efficiency in the DRG payment system by analysing the hospital length of stay and changes in fees before and after the application of DRG payment system. The subjects of the study were a total of 398 patients consisting of 204 for the fee for service system and 194 for the DRG payment system. They received surgery in the Obstetrics and Gynecology (OBGY) department of a general hospital in G metropolitan city between January and December 2013. The mean hospital length of stay was significantly decreased after application of the DRG payment system(p=0.013). Total fees, insurance charges, and deductions increased significantly(p<0.001), and non-payment charges and total deductions decreased significantly(p<0.001). Application of the DRG payment system reduced length of stay, non-payment charges and total patient's cost sharing and increased out-of-pocket, insurance charges, and total fees.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.135-147
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• 1988

To compare the stimulation effect of the ratio in follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone in induction of multiple follicular growth, the serum $E_2$ level, the diameter of follicle, number of aspirated follicles and cleavage rate of in vitro fertilized preovulatory oocytes as well as the pregnancy rate were evaluated. Forty one patients with irreparable tubal disease were stimulated by hMG(n=24) or FSH/hMG(n=17) for the purpose of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. The following results were obtained. 1. Serum estradiol($E_2$) levels on the day of hCG administration were $921.0{\pm}353.3\;pg/ml$ in hMG group and $1272.9{\pm}1060.6\;pg/ml$ in FSH/hMG group. The serum $E_2$ value of hMG group was significantly lower than that of FSH/hMG group. 2. The diameter of leading follicle by ultrasonogram on the day of hCG administration were $16.2{\pm}2.0\;mm$ in hMG group and $16.2{\pm}2.6\;mm$ in FSH/hMG group. No significant difference of follicle diameter between two groups was demonstrated. 3. The number of follicles with diameter above 10 mm by sonogram on the day of hCG injection were $3.91{\pm}2.32$ in hMG group and $6.52{\pm}3.86$ in FSH/hMG group. There was significant difference of number of follicles between two groups, (p< 0.01). 4. The number of oocytes found per patient at aspiration were $2.59{\pm}1.00$ in hMG group and 3. $76{\pm}2.31$ in FSH/hMG group. There was significant difference of number of aspirated oocytes between two groups. (p< 0.05). 5. The detection rate of preovulatory oocyte at aspiration were 68.4%(39/57) in hMG group (n=22) and 77.6%(38/49) in FSH/hMG group (n=13). 6. The cleavage rate of preovulatory oocyte at 44 hours after insemination were 74.4%(29/39) in hMG group(n=22) and 81.6%(31/38) in FSH/hMG group (n=13). When only hMG was used, one pregnancy was established in 15 patients to whom 29 zygotes were transferred. And a full term normal female baby was delivered by elective cesarean section. In the FSH/hMG group, five pregnancies out of 9 transferred patients were confirmed by serum ${\beta}-hCG$. Two pregnancies were spontaneously aborted before the 6th week of pregnancy. One patient aborted her baby at the 18th week of pregnancy because of incompetent internal os of the cervix. Two patients delivered two full term babies by elective cesarean section. From the above findings, paralell with the increase in the ratio of exogenous follicle stimulating hormone to luteinizing hormone, an increase in oocyte recovery was observed as well as an improvements in pregnancy rate. It was concluded that FSH enrichment early in the follicular phase had a beneficial effect in the controlled ovarian hyperstimulation.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2009

This study aimed to examine nutritional status and similarities of diets between Vietnamese female immigrants and Korean spouses and dietary changes of Vietnamese females after immigration. Subjects were 608 couples visiting 13 medical centers for the Cohort of Intermarried Women in Korea from November 2006 to November 2007. Anthropometric and biochemical measurements were obtained and dietary intakes were assessed using one-day 24-hour recall. Sixty-eight percent of wives answered there have been changes in their diets and consumptions of meats, fish, dairy products, vegetables, and fruits increased after immigration. Energy intakes of wives and spouses were 1491.7 kcal and 1788.8 kcal, respectively, showing most couples (80.1%) consumed less than the Korean estimated energy requirements. More than half of the couples were below the Korean estimated average requirements of zinc, vitamin $B_2$, and folate. The correlation coefficients between couples ranged 0.15-0.38 for unadjusted, 0.22-0.35 for per 1000 kcal, and 0.21-0.40 for energy-adjusted, respectively. The proportions of couples in the same quartiles of each nutrient intake and in the same answers of each question of Mini Dietary Assessment were about 30% across nutrients and around 50% across questions. The length of residence is related to similarities of nutrient intakes between couples: similarities decreased after 3 years of residence in Korea. In conclusion, nutritional intakes of inter-married couples were inadequate although wives reported that their dietary intakes increased after immigration. Inadequate nutrient intakes of wives were partly explained by similar diets between couples because these wives without enough adjustment to Korean culture were more likely to follow what their spouses ate. Findings from this study may be helpful to improve the nutritional status of inter-married couples and make policies and programs for them. A follow-up study should identify factors affecting inadequate nutritional status of intermarried couples and similarities of their diets.