• Journal of mucopolysaccharidosis and rare diseases
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.37-40
• /
• 2017

Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) is caused by accumulation of the glycosaminoglycans in all tissues due to decreased activity of the lysosomal enzyme. Patients exhibit multisystemic signs and symptoms in a chronic and progressive manner, especially with changes in the skeleton, cardiopulmonary system, central nervous system, cornea, skin, liver, and spleen. In the past, treatment of MPS was limited to enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). The outcome for affected patients improved with the introduction of new technologies as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, relegated to specific situations after ERT became available. Intrathecal ERT may be considered in situations of high neurosurgical risk but still it is experimental in humans. New insights on the pathophysiology of MPS disorders are leading to alternative therapeutic approaches, as gene therapy, inflammatory response modulators and substrate reduction therapy. In this paper, we will highlight the recent novel treatment and clinical trials for MPS and discuss with the goal of fostering an understanding of this field.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.699-704
• /
• 2020

Introduction: This case report addressed the effect of Korean medicine treatments on a patient with hemorrhagic anemia due to lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Case report: An 83-year-old male with lower gastrointestinal bleeding was treated with Korean medicine, including the herbal medication Subi-jeon. We evaluated the improvements of symptoms by hemoglobin levels and numbers of transfusions. From the 6^th day of taking the herbal medicine to discharge, a hemoglobin level of 7 g/dL or higher was maintained and the patient did not require blood transfusion. Conclusions: This clinical case study suggests that Subi-jeon might be effective in cases of hematosis of lower gastrointestinal bleeding.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.31-42
• /
• 2024

Introduction This case series report an attempt to treat Sasang constitutional medicine on Soyangin patients with unspecified hot flush. Methods The patients in this case were diagnosed as Soyangin cold pattern and treated with herb medicine Dojeokgangi-tang. Treatment outcome was monitored retrospectively. Results Persistent hot flush significantly improved to normal levels in all 3 Soyangin patients, and 2 out of 3 showed the effect within 4 weeks, those with more chronic symptoms required more time. Discussion This study suggests the significance of Sasang constitutional medicine treatment in Soyangin patients with Hot flush. Additionally, the characteristics of patients with hot flush presented in this study were verified as meaningful diagnostics indicator of Soyangin lesser yang wind damage. Furthermore, it emphasizes the value of original symptoms as a standard for evaluating treatment effectiveness.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.74-94
• /
• 2018

Introduction The case report provides pivotal basis for clinical research and education, however systematically organized guideline for reporting case report was not properly applied and it tackled the development of traditional medicine in Korea. The purpose of this study was to implement guideline for reporting CAse REport(CARE guideline) incorporating unique characteristics of Sasang medicine with the help of examples and explanations. Methods and Results The guideline for reporting CAse REport for Sasang medicine(CARES guideline) including diagnosis of traditional medicine and treatment with acupuncture and medical herbs was suggested, and practical examples explaining details of each CARES items were provided. Discussion and Conclusion This study would provide foundation for consensus-based and common CARE guideline for traditional Korean medicine. And, the CARES guideline would provide clinical platform for developing refined Sasang type differentiation technique using reported biopsychosocial and clinical type-specific features and realistic cases for Problem Based Learning courses as evidence-based education.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.42-58
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate the awareness of long-term care hospitals on pay for performance(P4P) program in Korea. We conducted a cross-sectional, self-administered, the internet based survey from September to October in 2010. The questionnaire was consisted of the levels of awareness and agreement about the program, their preferred design and its possible effects and unintended consequences etc. Among 837 eligible long-term care hospitals in Korea, 114 hospitals(13.6%) were participated in the survey. About one-thirds of long-term care hospitals were not aware of P4P, namely it is important to heighten an awareness of P4P. There were pros and cons on introduction of P4P in Korea. The two major reasons of objections of P4P were the concerns of unintended consequences and the possibility of strengthening government control by implementing P4P. In conclusion, to successfully implement P4P to long-term care hospitals, the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service(HIRA) in Korea should obtain the long-term care hospitals'opinion as to implementation of P4P.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.51-61
• /
• 2018

Introduction: This study evaluated whether body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) cut-offs for predicting metabolic syndrome (MetS) were different according to Sasang constitutional type. Methods: Data were obtained from 3,117 South Koreans (20-90 years old), and MetS was defined according to the revised NCEP-ATPIII criteria. Age-adjusted BMI and WC cut-offs were calculated according to Sasang constitutional type (Soyangin [SY], Taeeumin [TE], and Soeumin [SE]), sex, and age (men: ${\geq}40$ vs. <40 years, women: ${\geq}50$ vs. <50 years). Results: The prevalences of MetS were 29.9% (<40-year-old men), 35.1% (${\geq}40$-year-old men), 14.8% (<50-year-old women), and 47.7% (${\geq}50$-year-old women). The BMI ($kg/m^2$) and WC (cm) cut-offs for <40-year-old men were 25.9 and 89.9 (SY), 25.5 and 90.5 (TE), and 21.8 and 86.2 (SE). The cut-offs for ${\geq}40$-year-old men were 23.1 and 88.9 (SY), 25.0 and 89.9 (TE), and 22.2 and 87.5 (SE). The BMI and WC cut-offs for <50-year-old women were 22.5 and 81.2 (SY), 25.1 and 83.0 (TE), and 21.5 and 79.8 (SE). The cut-offs for ${\geq}50$-year-old women were 22.2 and 80.5 (SY), and 25.2 and 89.1 (TE), and 21.9 and 80.3 (SE). Conclusions: The BMI and WC cut-offs for identifying MetS varied according to Sasang constitution type.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.11-23
• /
• 1990

Systemic chemotherapy is usually regarded as the standard treatment for palliation in patients with recurrent or metastatic cancer who have failed the definite local treatment with surgery and/or radiotherapy. Recently, with the introduction of more active chemotherapeutic agents and combinations, systemic chemotherapy is being increasingly used before or after local therapy in patients with previously untreated locally advanced head and neck cancer. The most active agents for the head and neck caner are methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), cisplatin and bleomycin. The overall response rates to each of these four drugs are 15-30% expecially when used as first line therapy. But most of these responses are partial with a mean duration of 3-5 months. Various combinations with methotrexate, 5-FU, cisplatin, and bleomycin have been tried with overall response rates of 50-90%, and 10-20% of complete responses. The introduction of chemotherapy prior to local therapy, induction chemotherapy, has been investigated with improved survivals in patients with complete response, especially pathologic, though improvement in overall survival has not been proved yet after the induction chemotherapy. Other therapeutic modalities, such as 'Sandwich' chemotherapy between surgery and radiotherapy, concomittent chemo-radiotherapy and post local treatment adjuvant chemotherapy have been pursued with some hopeful results but these trials should be compared with prospective randomized Phase III trials. To increase the response rates and enhance the survival, important work still remains; 1. Identification of better prognostic factors, 2. Improvement in staging, 3. Development of more active and safter chemotherapeutic agents, 4. Identification of the proper sequence for the addition of chemotherapy to multimodality treatment, and 5. Testing the value of such chemotherapy in locally advanced cancer patients.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.328-335
• /
• 2011

Objectives: Depressive disorder (DD) is a complex disease, and the assessment of work ability in patients with DD is also complicated. The checklist depression (CDp) has recently been developed to support such work ability assessments and has been recommended for implementation in insurance medicine, starting with an analysis of the organisational and social contexts. The aim of this study was to identify the potential facilitators and barriers in the use of the CDp by insurance physicians (IPs) during work ability assessments of employees on sick leave due to DD. Methods: A qualitative research was conducted based on semi-structured interviews. The participants were IPs with at least one year of work experience in performing work ability assessments. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed qualitatively. Results: Ten IPs (7 males, 3 females; mean 53 years) were interviewed. Important facilitators, which emerged for use of the CDp, were an oral introduction for colleagues and staff, support from management, valuing the increased transparency in work ability assessments with using the CDp, having adequate time for assessments as well as modification of the appearance (colour, plasticised form) and content (clarifying aspects of the examples) of the assessment tool. The fear of the loss of autonomy, lack of added value of the CDp, high workload, inadequate instructions and lack of time were mentioned as barriers. Conclusion: Adequate introduction to the use of CDp and the fear of the loss of autonomy of IPs need special attention in planning its implementation.

• The Journal of Churna Manual Medicine for Spine and Nerves
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.71-81
• /
• 2017

Objectives : It is important to develop a new Chuna manual therapy as a representative of Chuna manual therapy technique at the time of KSCMM's (Korean Society of Chuna manual medicine) joining a $F{\acute{e}}d{\acute{e}}ration$ Internationale de $M{\acute{e}}decine$ Manuelle (FIMM). Therefore, Sunu manual therapy (SMT) will be introduced as a purely new Chuna manual therapy. Main subject : Sunu manual therapy (SMT) was discovered about two decade ago by a Korean Medicine doctor who wanted to develop a new manual therapy to treat a internal disease. It is very important to make the best use of four powers such as a compression force, a torsion force, a bending force, a tension force using a resonance principle and to experience a feeling of spine axis. SMT is different from Chiropractic technique and Osteopathy technique, in that SMT could treat so many disease using only one technique, but other manual therapy could utilize so many technique to treat only one disease. Discussion : Because SMT utilize a power of a moving in silience, it will take several years to totally master a SMT which will make a patient and a doctor experience a feeling of spine axis. As a feeling of spine axis is deeper, a nerve could be excited and treated by a SMT. Also as a feeling of spine axis is shallower, a muscle could be excied and treated by a SMT. Conclusions : SMT could be classed as a craniosacral chuna therapy or visceral chuna therapy to treat a internal disease considering SMT's action and purpose.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2019

Backgrounds : The market of Complementary Alternative Medicine(CAM) in the United State(U.S.) accounts for a large proportion of the global CAM market and has a high growth rate. The recent introduction of Obama Care has brought the change in the health insurance system for CAM, and we need to analyze it for its implication to Korean system. Objectives : The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of acupuncture and chiropractic health insurance in the U.S., and to draw implications for expanding the health insurance coverage for Korean traditional medicine through the comparison between the U.S. and Korean health insurance systems. Methods : We examined the data through the literature search and from the websites of both U.S. government departments and related organizations for the health insurance policy. Based on the collected data, we analyzed its CAM health insurance system in Korea. Results : The acupuncture covered by public health insurance in the U.S. has a limit in the number of treatments and a range of applied diseases compared with Korea. In addition, the practice of acupuncture is not subdivided. However, the chiropractic in the U.S. which also has a limited number of coverage and only three categories of practices are similar to that of Korea. Conclusions : Although the use of CAM by public health insurance is not active in the U.S., but the organizations such as Veterans Health Administration in Vermont is already discussing the use of acupuncture to solve the problem of opioid overuse. Thus Korea also needs to discuss to promote the expansion of the insurance system for CAM.