• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.64-72
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• 2004

Purpose: This research aims to assess the effect of a single session of group education of hospice program at Seoul National University Hospital for the advanced and terminal cancer patients and their family members. Methods: Response to questionnaires from 89 participants were evaluated using SAS and CHISQ analysis. The questionnaires included the following items: 1) the characteristics of participants; 2) the characteristics of patients; 3) the difficulties of patient care; 4) the satisfaction with the program Results: The participants consist of 33 patients (37.5%) and 56 family members (56.2%). Diagnosis included mainly stomach, lung, breast, and colon cancer. Participants of family members consisted of spouse, parent, children, daughter-in-law, and siblings (in decreasing order). The participants were interested in the medical information, nutrition, pain and symptom management, and psychosocial adaptation. They had difficulties in emotional problem, nutrition and symptom management. Even though it was a single session of group education, the level of satisfaction was high (95%). Conclusion: This research shows that even the single session of the group education for the advanced and terminal cancer patients and their family members is very helpful by giving them the necessary information. In order to develop comprehensive care-giving services, more specific informations, more opportunities to participate in such sessions and longer question-answer time is required.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.151-158
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• 2012

Diseased eel (Anguilla bicolor) displayed severe hemorrhages in the gills, and congestion and swelling in the liver. During the epizootic, the water temperature was $28^{\circ}C$ and the morality rates were about 5%. No parasites were found on the gills and skin. Bacteria were not cultured from any internal organs using TSA or SS agar at $28^{\circ}C$ for 48 hrs. Histopathologically, the gills showed epithelial hyperplasia in the base of secondary gill lamellae and hemorrhages in the capillaries. Some cells in the proliferated interlamellar epithelia exhibited marginal hyperchromatosis. And severe vacuolated changes in the parenchymal cells and congestion in the central veins were observed in the liver. The specific amplicon (396 bp) was detected from gills and opercula of affected eel PCR using Anguillid herpesvirus-1 (AngHV-1) -specific primer sets HVAPOLVPSD (5-'GTG TCG GGC TTT GTG GTG C-3') and HVAPOLOOSN (5'-CAT GCC GGG AGT CTT TTT GAT-3'). Sequencing analysis of the amplicon demonstrated that this gene was 99% homologous to the AngHV-1 sequence deposited in GenBank. This is the first report of AngHV-1 outbreak in the farmed shortfin eels (A. bicolor) in Korea. When diseased fish were maintained for 10 days at water temperatures of $32^{\circ}C$ and $35^{\circ}C$, the cumulative mortalities were 100% and 10%, respectively. Even though the AngHV-1 genome in the gills from the eel kept at $35^{\circ}C$ was detected using PCR, the structure of gill filaments was similar with that of normal fish. Increasing the water temperature to $35^{\circ}C$ was an effective way to diminish the mortality of AngHV-1 affected eel.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.432-444
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of medical nutrition therapy (MNT) on anthropometric measurements, quality of diets, and blood parameters through the weight loss program in over weight or obese women. The subjects (n=76, $age\;31.1{\pm}8.4y,\;weight\;70.3{\pm}7.9kg,\;BMI\;27.2{\pm}2.4kg/m^2$) without medical disease were treated with MNT 5 times for 12 weeks by dietitian. Anthropometric measurements included height, weight, fat mass, lean body mass, triceps and thigh skin-fold thickness, mid-arm, waist, hip and thigh circumference. Dietary assessments were accomplished using 3-days food records, diet quality index (DQI), and dietary pattern. The dietary pattern was assessed by daily energy intakes from breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks of calorie density, and numbers of eating. Blood levels of leptin, lipid profiles (total lipids, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol), and insulin were analyzed. Anthropometric measurements decreased significantly after MNT (p<0.001). Waist circumference was reduced most rapidly and tricep skin-fold thickness was reduced most effectively after 12 weeks of MNT. Daily energy intake, calorie density and numbers of eating incidence decreased significantly $0796.4{\pm}395.5\;vs\;1402.9{\pm}217.8\;kcal/day,\;162.3{\pm}56.5\;vs\;113.4{\pm}30.1,\;5.0{\pm}1.4\;vs\;3.8{\pm}0.4$, respectively, p<0.05). The daily energy intake from breakfast and snacks significantly decreased (p<0.001). Calories from snack, calorie density of snack and numbers of snacking also decreased (p<0.05). The mean scores of DQI significantly increased ($7.6{\pm}2.1\;vs\;6.5{\pm}1.6$, p<0.05). The plasma levels of total lipid, triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and leptin decreased significantly after MNT ($489.8{\pm}100.4\;vs\;447.0{\pm}87.3mg/dL,\;187.7{\pm}34.0\;vs\;175.9{\pm}31.5mg/dL,\;115.2{\pm}29.2\;vs\;109.2{\pm}26.7mg/dL,\;15.7{\pm}7.6\;vs\;12.4{\pm}5.9ng/mL$, respectively, p<0.05). These results indicate that MNT efficiently reduced the body weight through the changes in dietary intake, dietary patterns and dietary quality. MNT also changed body composition and reduced the levels of plasma lipid, cholesterol and leptin.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.410-417
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• 2013

Caloric restriction is recognized as one of the best treatment options for obesity, and is associated with changes in body composition. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of age in caloric restriction in overweight and obese women. In this caloric restriction study, nutrient intake of 61 women was evaluated using food records written by subjects for three days. Body composition and metabolic risk factors were assessed before and after caloric restriction. Blood levels of lipids, glucose, leptin, and adiponectin were measured. Visceral fat and subcutaneous fat were evaluated using bioimpedance analysis. General linear models (GLM) identified the independent effects of age after co-varying baseline weight and difference of energy intake. Weight, fat mass, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, and blood pressure showed a significant decrease by caloric restriction of 452 kcal/day. The percent changes in weight, visceral fat, and subcutaneous fat were -4.5%, -12.0%, and -8.2%, respectively, after caloric restriction. The percent changes of weight, visceral fat, and subcutaneous fat showed an independent association with age co-varying baseline weight and difference of energy intake. Decreased change in percent of leptin by caloric restriction also showed an association with age. Changes in body composition and leptin by caloric restriction showed an independent association with age. This may indicate greater difficulty in achievement of change of body composition as well as greater obesity-related metabolic risk with aging. Therefore, caloric restriction considering age should be recommended for effective dietary treatment in overweight or obese women.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.239-262
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• 2021

The Korean Medical Journal (1930-1937) is the first Korean medical journal published by The Korean Medical Association, which Korean doctors established to resist Japanese medical organizations during the Japanese colonial period. Using the bibliometric research method for The Korean Medical Journal, this study aimed to analyze the journal as follows. First, the study analyzed the subject trends of medical research by extracting the MeSH terms from the title of the articles. Next, the study identified characteristics of authors, type of language used in the papers, publication year and countries of references included in the papers. Also, this study identified the researchers' interests by analyzing the frequency of keywords appearing in the roundtable titles. As a result of the research, infections, pathological symptoms and diseases of the digestive system were studied most often. Most authors belonged to Severance Union Medical College, and internal medicine and general surgery departments had the most authors. Most of the titles and texts of the papers were written in Korean and Chinese characters in combination. Of the 131 papers, only 40 contained abstracts, 22 of which were English abstracts, the most number. The study analyzed 1,103 references in the papers and found that the authors mainly cited the latest journals published in Japan, Germany, and the United States. The topics discussed the most in the roundtable talks were tuberculosis, neurasthenia, and gonorrhea in order. This research examined the history of the publication of The Korean medical journal. Also, it showed that Korean doctors accumulated their academic medical research results and contributed to improving medical conditions.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.358-367
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• 2021

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as an international health emergency. Current diagnostic tests are based on the reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) method, which is the gold standard test that involves the amplification of viral RNA. However, the RT-qPCR assay has limitations in terms of sensitivity and quantification. In this study, we tested both qPCR and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) to detect low amounts of viral RNA. The cycle threshold (CT) of the viral RNA by RT-PCR significantly varied according to the sequences of the primer and probe sets with in vitro transcript (IVT) RNA or viral RNA as templates, whereas the copy number of the viral RNA by ddPCR was effectively quantified with IVT RNA, cultured viral RNA, and RNA from clinical samples. Furthermore, the clinical samples were assayed via both methods, and the sensitivity of the ddPCR was determined to be equal to or more than that of the RT-qPCR. However, the ddPCR assay is more suitable for determining the copy number of reference materials. These findings suggest that the qPCR assay with the ddPCR defined reference materials could be used as a highly sensitive and compatible diagnostic method for viral RNA detection.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.11-15
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• 2018

Background/Objectives: The efficacy of radiotherapy alone versus chemoradiotherapy has been studied in patients with T2N0M0 laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Materials & Methods: Thirty nine patients with newly diagnosed T2N0M0 laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma were treated with either radiotherapy(RT group, 66-70Gy) or chemoradiotherapy(CRT group, cisplatin based concurrent chemoradiation with or without 2 cycles induction chemotherapy including cisplatin, $5-FU{\pm}$ docetaxel / radiation therapy same with above mentioned). The mean follow-up was 73.5 months. Results: The overall survival (OS), disease specific survival (DSS), disease free survival (DFS), and larynx preservation survival (LPS) at 5 years were 70%, 79%, 67%, and 71%. The complete response rate was 82.4% in RT group, and was 95.5% in CRT group. OS (57% vs 80%), DSS (69% vs 86%), DFS (52% vs 77%), and LPS (63% vs 77%) at 5 years were higher in CRT group than RT group, but it was not statistically significant. In subsite analysis, CRT group tends to improve DFS, compared to RT group, in glottic cancer (p=0.06). The toxicities were tolerable and no fatal case was observed in both groups. Conclusion: Chemoradiotherapy is effective as primary therapy for T2 laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and showed manageable treatment induced toxicity.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.325-332
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• 2018

Carotid angiography covering the aortic arch includes contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CEA), which is applied to a large region and usually employs contrast media. However, the use of contrast media can be dangerous in infants, pregnant women, and patients with chronic renal failure (CRF). Follow-up patients informed of a lesion may also want to avoid constant exposure to contrast media. We aimed to apply time-of-flight (TOF) angiography to a large region and compare its usefulness with that of CEA. Ten patients (mean age, 58 years; range, 45~75 years) who visited our hospital for magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) participated in this study. A 3.0 Tesla Achieva magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system (Philips, Netherland) and the SENSE NeuroVascular 16-channel coil were employed for both methods. Both methods were applied simultaneously to the same patient. Three TOF stacks were connected to cover the aortic arch through the circle of Willis, and CEA was applied in the same manner. For the quantitative assessment, the acquired images were used to set the regions of interest (ROIs) in the common carotid artery (CCA) bifurcation, internal carotid artery, external carotid artery, middle cerebral artery, and vertebral artery, and to obtain the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) for the soft tissues. Three radiologists and one radiological resident performed the qualitative assessment on a 5-point scale - 1 point, "very bad"; 2 points, "bad"; 3 points, "average"; 4 points, "good"; and 5 points, "very good" - with regard to 4 items: (1) sharpness, (2) distortion, (3) vein contamination, and (4) expression of peripheral vessels. For the quantitative assessment, we estimated the mean SNR and CNR in each of the 5 ROIs. In general, the mean SNR was higher in TOF angiography (166.1, 205.2, 154.39, 172.23, and 161.95) than in CEA(92.05, 95.43, 84.76, 73.69, and 88.3). Both methods had a similar mean CNR: 67.62, 106.71, 55.9, 73.74, and 63.46 for TOF angiography, and 67.82, 71.19, 60.52, 49.45, and 64.07 for CEA. In all ROIs, the mean SNR was statistically significant (p<0.05), whereas the mean CNR was insignificant (p>0.05). The mean values of TOF angiography and CEA for each item in the qualitative assessment were 4.2 and 4.28, respectively for item 1; 2.93 and 4.55, respectively, for item 2; 4.6 and 3.13, respectively, for item 3; and 2.88 and 4.65, respectively, for item 4. Therefore, TOF angiography had a higher mean for item 3, and CEA had a higher mean for items 2 and 4; there was no significant difference between the two methods for item 1. The results for item 1 were statistically insignificant (p>0.05), whereas the results for items 2~4 were statistically significant (p<0.05). Both methods have advantages and disadvantages and they complement each other. However, CEA is usually applied to a large region covering the aortic arch. Time-of-flight angiography may be useful for people such as infants, pregnant women, CRF patients, and followup patients for whom the use of contrast media can be dangerous or unnecessary, depending on the circumstance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.325-332
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• 2019

This study analyzed the movement of tumors using 4DCT. Appropriate uniform IM were identified using TC, II and CI depending on ITV margins. DVH and NTCP were also compared in each case. Dose analysis on tumors with uniform IM showed that the optimal treatment plan for satisfying all TC, CI, II was evaluated as 2 mm in phase 20 and 3 mm in 40%. That was compared to the dose from the normal tissues of $PTV_{20}$, $PTV_{40}$. In the 20% radiation field, V5, V10, and V20 for the lungs increased 1.49, 1.26, and 0.65%, while 40% increased by 1.9, 2.41 and 1.23%. NTCP had a dose increase of 0.57 to 0.029% from 20% and 40%. There was a dose increase in the spinal cord and heart at uniform IM, but there was no significant difference. These data suggest that the ITV setting of 20%, phase for Respiratory Gated Radiotherapy using Novalis ExacTrac system can be applied with a uniform IM 2 mm and 40% with 3 mm for optimal treatment plan.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.524-529
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• 2019

Medicinal plants resources are becoming important assets since their usages have been expanded to the development of functional foods for human health, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. However, their phylogenetic origins and names are different from each country and quite often they are mixed each other resulting in the confusion for consumers. Particularly when they are very similar based on their morphological characteristics and distributed, it is extremely difficult to differentiate their origins even by specialists. Therefore, identification of each plant species is important for standardizing herbal medicine. Thistle is a medicinal and perennial plant. Obtaining information about the genetic diversity of plant populations is highly important for conservation and germplasm utilization. Although thistle is an important medicinal plant species registered in South Korea, no molecular markers are currently available to distinguish from other similar species from different countries. In this study, we developed single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers derived from chloroplast genomic sequences to identify distinct Korean-specific thistle species via high resolution melting (HRM) curve analyses. We performed molecular authentication of four different kinds of thistle species from different regions using DNA sequences in the trnL-F and matK chloroplast intergenic region. The SNP markers developed in this study are useful for rapidly identifying specific thistle species from different country.