• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.30-39
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• 1999

Objectives. This study was carried out to evaluate hearing impairment judgement and to investigate the differences in various diagnostic criteria for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) among workers who required for close observation (C). Methods. Out of 731,029 workers who had taken the specific periodic health examination in 1994, we used the audiometric data on 37,999 workers (C) eliminating the employees who had previous otologic problems. Many investigators have being using different criteria for the evaluation of hearing impairment. In this study, we used the criteria of early (1989-1994), current, compensation for NIHL in Korea, 2-, 3-, 4-divided classification and hearing loss at 4,000 Hz and compared the evaluation results. Results. The prevalences of C and workers who had occupational disease $(D_1)$ diagnosed for NIHL were 11.1 % and 0.44 %. There were significant difference in the prevalences of C and $D_1$, depending on different province of Korea. Pure tone averages (PTAs) were not appropriately applied in their evaluation 97% of workers whom we studied on were below the level of mild hearing loss judged by ISO standard. However, there were wide variations in the prevalence rate of mild hearing loss by diagnostic criteria. Thus, there were different judgements in determining the degree of NIHL depending on which diagnostic criteria were utilized. PTAs were found 20.54 (Rt) and 20.74 (Lt) when the method of 3-divided classification was applied for audiometric data. The degree of hearing impairment of the left ear was more severe than that of right ear. The prevalence of normal hearing threshold below 20 dB was 75.4% and the range of difference in both ear was below 10 dB. Right sided hearing threshold levels were 21.08 dB (500 Hz), 18.44 dB (1,000 Hz), 22.09 (2,000 Hz) and 52.36 dB (4,000 Hz). There was typical high frequency loss (C5-dip at 4,000 Hz) above 30 - 40 dB in normal hearing level. The increasing trend in hearing threshold level was gradually decreased by the increase of PTAs. The difference between PTAs and threshold at 4,000 Hz was about 10 dB. Conclusions. We could found that PTAs in the previous examination were not appropriately evaluated. This study revealed that they did not use unique criteria for managing the workers of NIHL. For the prevention of NIHL, it was found that the quality control on diagnosis and comprehensive management program were required, especially for those of hearing loss (C).

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• autumn
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• pp.337-340
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• 1999

The most salient and discussed features of speech production in agrammatic aphasia are the omission and substitution of grammatical morphemes. Cross-linguistic studies have shown that the pattern of omission/substitution is not random but occurs in a systematic and highly constrained way. Although these descriptions are important, they do not explain why all grammatical morphemes are not equally impaired. Friedmann and Grodzinsky (1997) proposed the Tree-Pruning Hypothesis (TPH) to account for these patterns of sparing and loss. The TPH claims that in an agrammatic representation, an impaired functional node is underspecified, thus allowing inappropriate affixation to occur. Additionally, whenever a node is impaired, all nodes above it will also be impaired. Using four types of narratives collected from two Korean agrammatic patients, We test the claim that the impairment in agrammatism is based on such hierarchical representation. It was found that these patients consistently produced appropriate grammatical morphemes that are higher in a syntactic tree than the impaired morphemes. The finding that an intact node exists higher than an impaired node refutes the TPH.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.161-164
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• 2016

Few preoperative extrapontine myelinolysis (EPM) cases with pituitary adenoma have been reported. No such case had long follow-up to see the outcome of EPM. We reported a 38-year-old man complaining of nausea, malaise and transient loss of consciousness who was found to have severe hyponatremia. Neurologic deficits including altered mental status, behavioral disturbances, dysarthria and dysphagia developed despite slow correction of hyponatremia. Endocrine and imaging studies revealed hypopituitarism, nonfunctional pituitary macroadenoma and extrapontine myelinolysis. Transsphenoidal surgery was performed after three weeks of supportive therapy, when neurological symptoms improved significantly. The patient recovered function completely 3 months after surgery. Our case indicates that outcome of EPM can be good even with prolonged periods of severe neurologic impairment.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.175-180
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• 2004

In case of the hearing impairment with tinnitus and increased sound sensitivity, it is known that the patients tend to appeal the psychologically oriented social handicap rather than communication disability. The audiologist who is responsible for such patients in aural rehabilitation should pay special attention to the counseling techniques including tinnitus retain therapy (TRT), ear protector, noise generator, or specific acoustic training based on close cooperation and rapport. And then the audiologist should try to lessen their reaction to the tinnitus by using a hearing aid. This therapies tries to focus not a. total approach but a treatment to lessen the severity of tinnitus. This paper as a case report that a unilateral sharply slopped sensorineural hearing impaired person with tinnitus and increased sound sensitivity by using four channel digital signal processing (DSP) hearing aid with programming increment at low level (PILL).

• Toxicological Research
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.157-164
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• 2013

Although stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, preventive or therapeutic options are still limited. Therefore, a better understanding of the pathophysiological characteristics of this life-threatening disease is urgently needed. The incidence and prevalence of ischemic stroke are increased by exposure to certain types of xenobiotics, including heavy metals, suggesting the possible toxicological contribution of these compounds to the onset or aggravation of stroke. Among the potential targets, we have focused on alterations to cerebral endothelial cells (CECs), which play important roles in maintaining the functional integrity of brain tissue.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.115-121
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• 2009

Trichotillomania (TTM) is a disorder characterized by repetitive hair pulling, frequently from the scalp and/or eyebrows, leading to noticeable hair loss and functional impairment. TTM remains a poorly understood and inadequately treated disorder despite increased recognition of its prevalence. We review available neuroimaging studies conducted in patients with TTM, covering structural and functional neuroimaging in turn. Data from patients' structural and functional neuroimaging results enabled us to identify the neural circuitry involved in the manifestation of hair pulling. Finally, we highlighted the future importance of neuroimaging studies in children and adolescents with TTM.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 2016

This paper deals with a design method and capacity loss of an efficient multi-level modulation scheme for dimmable visible light communications (VLC) systems that use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with efficiency droop. To this end, the impact of such an impairment on dimmable VLC is addressed with respect to multi-level modulations based on pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) via data-rate optimization formulation.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.720-730
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• 1990

The complicated pulmonary emphysema including “Giant bullae” and spontaneous pneumothorax often involve both lungs, and controversy exists concerning which is the more rational means of surgical treatment-bilateral simultaneous operation or two staged operation. We report three cases of the complicated bilateral bullous emphysema and two cases of bilateral spontaneous pneumothorax treated through median sternotomy. We performed the ligation of bullae, bullectomy, cystectomy, wedge resection, and left lower lobectomy through median sternotomy. No technical problems were encountered through this approach, which provided maximum benefit with one operation In conclusions, median sternotomy may be appropriate for resection of emphysematous bullae, specially in a severe COPD patient who may be poorly tolerated the superimposed loss of respiratory function due to incisional pain, because median sternotomy permit bilateral exploration, minimal impairment of pulmonary function, simultaneous restoration of pulmonary function, less incisional pain than routine lateral thoracotomy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.16-20
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• 2015

Post-thyroidectomy dysphonia occurs very frequently. Causes of dysphonia include recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) or external branch of superior laryngeal nerve (EBSL) injury, intubation, laryngotracheal fixation and other causes. Patients commonly characterized hoarseness or their voice impairment inability to short or sing and loss of loudness. Although complete recovery can be expected mostly in 3 months without obvious nerve injury, dysphonia lowers patients quality of life. The present review discuss the very kinds of causes of post-thyroidectomy dysphonia.

• Journal of Lipid and Atherosclerosis
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2019

Vascular dementia is the most common neuropsychiatric syndrome and is characterized by synaptic dysfunction, neuroinflammation, and cognitive dysfunction. Vascular dementia is associated with various environmental, genetic, and lifestyle risk factors. Recent research has focused on the association between vascular dementia and dietary patterns, suggesting that dietary regulation leads to better control of energy metabolism, improvements in brain insulin resistance, and the suppression of neuroinflammation. Intermittent fasting is a calorie-restriction method known to be more effective in promoting fat loss and regulating the impairment of glucose metabolism as compared with other dietary restriction regimens. Herein, the authors review the effects of intermittent fasting with regard to vascular dementia based on recent evidence and propose that intermittent fasting could be a therapeutic approach for ameliorating vascular dementia pathology and preventing its onset.