• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.165-171
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• 2021

As a percutaneous technique for the reduction of mitral regurgitation, the MitraClip system (Abbott Vascular, Abbott Park, IL, USA) for transcatheter edge-to-edge repair of the mitral valve was developed in 1998 and first used in 2003. Its main advantage is being less invasive than surgery, because it can be performed through a transcatheter approach without any hemodynamic compromise. Recent studies have shown that this procedure reduces symptoms and improves functional capacity with low complication rates. Two randomized clinical trials have investigated the use of this technique for functional mitral regurgitation. The Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved its use for degenerative mitral regurgitation in 2019, and this procedure started to be performed in Korea in January 2020. Its use for functional mitral regurgitation was also approved in Korea in 2020. In this article, recent evidence on transcatheter edge-to-edge repair of the mitral valve and our initial experiences in Korea will be reviewed.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.132-141
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate intensive care unit (ICU) nurses' actual and perceived glove uses for preventing healthcare associated infection. Methods: We observed nurses' donning glove by occasions and adherence to guideline for glove uses in four ICU in a single hospital. Total of 378 cases were observed from August 16 through October 6, 2020. Sixty one nurses of 66 nurses observed responded to a self-reported questionnaire about perceived glove use and knowledge of glove use. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics. Results: The number of observed episodes for glove use was 277. Although the highest numbers of occasions of wearing gloves was contact precaution, the compliance rate was 72.1%. The rates of donning gloves were low in the insertion and removal of peripheral venous catheters, blood glucose testing and blood sampling, which were at risk for exposure to blood. We observed misuse of wearing gloves even when they were not required. Results showed that the majority of non-compliance with glove use were a failure of performing hand hygiene before and after glove use and a failure of changing gloves between procedures on the same patient. The participant's knowledge of glove use was high. Conclusion: Based on the results, it is necessary to provide ICU nurses with education and reinforcement of proper glove uses for infection control.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.242-254
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• 2023

Although upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are common diseases, there have been no studies of their relationship with the indices obtained from tongue image analyses. The purpose of this study was to identify a tongue index through an analysis of tongue images (TIs) showing significant changes before and after treatment in patients with URTIs. A computerized tongue image acquisition system was developed to acquire TIs from subjects in the same environment. An image was taken from each of 39 URTI patients and 39 healthy controls. For the patients, images were acquired before and after treatment to identify changes. The tongue area was classified into a tongue body and a tongue coating, and the coating ratio between the two areas, the average value of the colour of each area, and teeth marks were calculated. No significant difference was observed in age or sex between the URTI patients and control participants. Heart rates were slightly different. The analysis of TIs showed that the luminance of the tongue coating and the coating area ratio were decreased, while the reddish value of the tongue body at the centre area increased as the treatment progressed. Tongue coating and body in URTIs had different colour and shape from those in the normal. It is expected that this result will contribute not only to the objectification of traditional Chinese medicine but also to diagnostic methods that do not involve face-to-face physician visit during the pandemic.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.17-31
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships between professionalism, job involvement, organizational commitment and turnover intention among clinical nurses. Methods: The data were collected using a questionnaire from 1,419 nurses who were working in 35 different general hospitals in Korea. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient and $Scheff{\grave{e}}$ test with SAS program were used. Results: The means of professionalism, job involvement, organizational commitment, turnover intention were 80.90 (min25~max125), 22.22 (min7~max35), 48.63 (min15~max75), and 11.47(min4~max20) respectively. There were statistically significant correlations between professionalism, job involvement, organizational commitment and turnover intention. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop a program for nurses to improve the levels of professionalism, job involvement, and organizational commitment, which would result in reducing turnover rates of clinical nurses.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.375-381
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• 2022

Safety accidents are of concern during construction projects, even given the recent innovations in digital technologies. These projects remain focused on overcoming specific and limited applications on construction sites. For this reason, the development of an inclusive safety management system has become crucial. This study aims to build a Big Data platform to inform decisions on how to proactively eliminate worker hazards on construction sites. The platform consists of about 100,000 real records and a real-time monitored database featuring various safety indices, such as workers' altitudes, heart rates, and fatigability during construction, which are determined through various wearable devices. The data types are customized and integrated by a research team in accordance with the characteristics of a specific project using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). The results can be helpful as efficient tools to ensure successful safety management in complex construction situations. This study is expected to provide three significant contributions to the field, including real-time fatigability analysis and tracking of workers on-site; providing early GPS-based warnings to workers who might be accessing dangerous spaces or places; and monitoring the workers' health indices, based on details from 100,000 cases.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.253-257
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• 2023

A century ago, cardiac injuries usually resulted in death. However, despite all the advances in medicine, these injuries still have high mortality and morbidity rates. In the present case, we describe a patient with a bullet injury to the right ventricle who survived at our hospital despite the limitations of our center with regard to modalities and equipment. A 30-year-old man was brought to our emergency department with a bullet wound to his left flank. He was hemodynamically unstable. After only 8 minutes in the hospital and without further investigations he was rushed to the operating room. During laparotomy, a clot was visible in the left diaphragm, which dislodged and caused extensive bleeding. The decision was made to perform a sternotomy in the absence of a sternal saw. An oblique 8-cm injury to the right ventricle was discovered following rapid exploration. It was repaired without the need for cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. After a few days in the hospital, the patient was discharged home. In the event of a penetrating cardiac injury, rapid decision-making is crucial for survival. Whenever possible, the patient should be transferred to the operating room, as emergency department thoracotomies are associated with a high mortality rate.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.811-816
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• 2007

Background: We analyzed our experience of arrhythmia surgery in patients with congenital heart disease. Material and Method: A retrospective review was performed on 43 consecutive patients with congenital heart disease, who underwent arrhythmia surgery between June 1998 and June 2006. Result: The median age at surgery was 52 years ($4{\sim}75$ years). The most frequent cardiac anomaly was an atrial septal defect (23/43, 53.5%). The types of arrhythmias were atrial flutter-fibrillation, intermittent non-sustainable ventricular tachycardia and others in 37, 2 and 4, respectively. Arrhythmia surgery consisted of a bi-atrial maze operation in 18 patients (modified cox maze III procedure in 5 patients, and a right side maze plus pulmonary vein cryo-isolation in 13), right side maze operation in 18 patients, cavo-tricuspid isthmus cryoablation for benign atrial flutter in 4 patients, right ventricular endocardial cryoablation in 2 patients and extranodal cryoablation for atrioventricular node re-entry tachycardia in 1 patient. The median follow-up was 23.8 months ($1{\sim}95.2$ months). There was no early mortality, and one late non-cardiac related death. The overall rates of restored sinus rhythm before discharge and $3{\sim}6$ months after surgery were 79% and 81%, respectively (bi-atrial maze group: 72% and 83%, right-side maze group: 77%, 77%). Conclusion: Arrhythmias associated with congenital heart disease can be safely treated surgically with an excellent intermediate-term outcome.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.38 no.3 s.248
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• pp.204-213
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• 2005

In spite of the improvement in the quality of artificial heart valves and surgical techniques, the incidence of the complications following valve replacement is still high. We reviewed the clinical results of the valve replacements peformed in Korean University Anam Hospital during the last 26 years. Material and Method: The data of 571 patients who received valve replacement between December 1976 and December 2003 were reviewed. Result: There were 304 cases of MVR which was the most common procedure performed. There were 122 cases of AVR, and 111 cases of AVR with MVR. Among the 47 patients who received redo operation 38 cases were redo cases including 31 cases of MVR. $32.5\%$ of the patients who had tissue valve replacement had second valve replacement with 10.2 $\pm$ 3.9 years interval. $24.3\%$ (139/571) of the patients developed valve related complications and cerebral infarction was the highest in frequency. Atrial fibrillation was related with increased complication rates and the mechanical valve replaced group had higher hemorrhagic complication rate than tissue valve replaced group. The operative mortality was $3.68\%$ and the most common cause of the failure was low output syndrome. The operative mortality was higher in the patient group who had valve replacement before the year 1990. The patient group who had mechanical valve replacement had higher operative mortality rate th;3n the tissue valve group. The 5-year survival rate was $92.2\%$ and 10 year survival rate was $85.7\%$. Conclusion: The operative mortality of valve replacement has been improved. The mechnical valve replaced patients had higher hemorrhagic complication rate than the tissue valve replaced patients and more tissue valve replaced patients received redo valve replacement.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.891-898
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• 1997

Between May 1984 and January 1996, 130 patients were replaced cardiac valve using 150 St. Jude Medical prosthetic valves(42 aortic, 68 mitral, 20 aortic and mitral valve replycements). Follow-up was 97.6% complete. The early mortality rate was 5.4%, and late mortality rate was 4.9%. The valve-related late mortality rate was 3.3%. Of late complications, there were 6 anticoagulant related hemorrhages, 4 thromboembolisms and 1 paravalvular leakage. Linearized rates of late complication and valve-related late mortality were as follows: total late complications, .1.68o per patient-year: anticoagulant related hemorrhages, 0.92% per patient-year: thromboembolism, 0.61% per patient-year: paravalvular leakage, 0.15% per patient-year: reoperation, 0.15% per patient-year: and valve-related late mortalities, 0.61% per patient-year. Actuar al event free rate at 10 years was 87.4 $\pm$ 3.2%. The overall actuarial survival rate was 90.4$\pm$2.7% at 5 years, 87.5$\pm$3.3% at 10 years. Ninety eight percent of the survivors were in the New York Heart Association functional class I or II at the end of follow-up. There was significant improvement of cardiothoracic ratio. In conclusion, this study suggests the excellent durability of the St. Jude Medical Heart valve and remarkable functional benefit for the majority of the patients. However, prosthesisrelated complications are still common. Outcome is strongly related to the patient's preoperative cardiac condition and to the adequacy of anticoagulation control.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1992 no.05
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• pp.27-47
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• 1992

Engineers have developed new instruments that aid in diagnosis and therapy Ultrasonic imaging has provided a nondamaging method of imaging internal organs. A complex transducer emits ultrasonic waves at many angles and reconstructs a map of internal anatomy and also velocities of blood in vessels. Fast computed tomography permits reconstruction of the 3-dimensional anatomy and perfusion of the heart at 20-Hz rates. Positron emission tomography uses certain isotopes that produce positrons that react with electrons to simultaneously emit two gamma rays in opposite directions. It locates the region of origin by using a ring of discrete scintillation detectors, each in electronic coincidence with an opposing detector. In magnetic resonance imaging, the patient is placed in a very strong magnetic field. The precessing of the hydrogen atoms is perturbed by an interrogating field to yield two-dimensional images of soft tissue having exceptional clarity. As an alternative to radiology image processing, film archiving, and retrieval, picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) are being implemented. Images from computed radiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine, and ultrasound are digitized, transmitted, and stored in computers for retrieval at distributed work stations. In electrical impedance tomography, electrodes are placed around the thorax. 50-kHz current is injected between two electrodes and voltages are measured on all other electrodes. A computer processes the data to yield an image of the resistivity of a 2-dimensional slice of the thorax. During fetal monitoring, a corkscrew electrode is screwed into the fetal scalp to measure the fetal electrocardiogram. Correlations with uterine contractions yield information on the status of the fetus during delivery To measure cardiac output by thermodilution, cold saline is injected into the right atrium. A thermistor in the right pulmonary artery yields temperature measurements, from which we can calculate cardiac output. In impedance cardiography, we measure the changes in electrical impedance as the heart ejects blood into the arteries. Motion artifacts are large, so signal averaging is useful during monitoring. An intraarterial blood gas monitoring system permits monitoring in real time. Light is sent down optical fibers inserted into the radial artery, where it is absorbed by dyes, which reemit the light at a different wavelength. The emitted light travels up optical fibers where an external instrument determines O2, CO2, and pH. Therapeutic devices include the electrosurgical unit. A high-frequency electric arc is drawn between the knife and the tissue. The arc cuts and the heat coagulates, thus preventing blood loss. Hyperthermia has demonstrated antitumor effects in patients in whom all conventional modes of therapy have failed. Methods of raising tumor temperature include focused ultrasound, radio-frequency power through needles, or microwaves. When the heart stops pumping, we use the defibrillator to restore normal pumping. A brief, high-current pulse through the heart synchronizes all cardiac fibers to restore normal rhythm. When the cardiac rhythm is too slow, we implant the cardiac pacemaker. An electrode within the heart stimulates the cardiac muscle to contract at the normal rate. When the cardiac valves are narrowed or leak, we implant an artificial valve. Silicone rubber and Teflon are used for biocompatibility. Artificial hearts powered by pneumatic hoses have been implanted in humans. However, the quality of life gradually degrades, and death ensues. When kidney stones develop, lithotripsy is used. A spark creates a pressure wave, which is focused on the stone and fragments it. The pieces pass out normally. When kidneys fail, the blood is cleansed during hemodialysis. Urea passes through a porous membrane to a dialysate bath to lower its concentration in the blood. The blind are able to read by scanning the Optacon with their fingertips. A camera scans letters and converts them to an array of vibrating pins. The deaf are able to hear using a cochlear implant. A microphone detects sound and divides it into frequency bands. 22 electrodes within the cochlea stimulate the acoustic the acoustic nerve to provide sound patterns. For those who have lost muscle function in the limbs, researchers are implanting electrodes to stimulate the muscle. Sensors in the legs and arms feed back signals to a computer that coordinates the stimulators to provide limb motion. For those with high spinal cord injury, a puff and sip switch can control a computer and permit the disabled person operate the computer and communicate with the outside world.