• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.109-118
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• 2024

Objectives : This study aimed to investigate the relationship between cold feet and sleep quality using polysomnography (PSG) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Methods : We divided 11 adults (6 females, 5 males) with Insomnia Severity Index score below 21 into cold feet (CF) and a non-cold feet (NCF) group based on the median feet temperature (Taichong, LR3). PSG and PSQI were administered to assess sleep characteristics and subjective sleep quality. Results : CF group exhibited significantly lower time in bed, sleep period time, and total sleep time compared to NCF group. While there were no significant group differences in sleep latency, wakefulness after sleep onset, or total arousal index, NCF group had significantly lower minimum oxygen saturation and apnea-hypopnea index in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep compared to CF group. Although the PSQI score and the proportion of poor sleepers were both higher in the CF group (7.40 and 80%) compared to the NCF group (5.50 and 50%), these differences did not reach statistical significance. Conclusions : This study showed that foot temperature affects sleep characteristics and suggests the need to utilize PSG in sleep research in Korean medicine.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.276-282
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• 2012

High-intensive endurance exercises induce cell changes in body, changes in structures and functions of the heart, the muscles, the cartilages, and the liver, as well as increase of inflammatory cytokine. The purpose of this study was to estimate the biochemical changes in the liver and muscles during ultra-marathon race (100 km) by sections. The blood of the subjects was collected before the marathon as a control in order to analyze serum creatine kinase (CK), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), asprtate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), total(T)-bilirubin, direct(D)-bilirubin, total protein, albumin, uric acid, gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (${\gamma}$-GTP), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) concentrations. The CK, LDH, D-bilirubin, AST and ALT concentrations at 50 km and 100 km were significantly increased compared to the control (P<0.05). The markers at 100 km were higher than those at 50 km (P<0.05). The T-bilirubin and hs-CRP concentrations showed no difference among the groups, whereas the markers at 100 km were higher than those of the control and at 50 km (P<0.05). In conclusion, this study shows that the ultra-marathon race (100 km) may induce the damage of the skeletal muscle, liver and kidney, intravascular hemolysis and inflammatory responses.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2023

Objectives: Discussions regarding "medical blind spots" in Korea's "aging society" are continuously rising. In addition, the demand for medical attention and care for the elderly and vulnerable populations continues to increase. Given this, the government is promoting the "home healthcare service" project. This study aims to lay the foundation for promoting this project by investigating the perception of clinical Korean Medicine (KM) doctors in the "community health care" project. Methods: With the cooperation of the Association of Korean Medicine, we sent a questionnaire to all KM doctors through e-mail. The survey included personal information, awareness, appropriate disease and intervention, proper visit location, and pros and cons. Results: A total of 602 responses were collected and analyzed. Approximately 20% of the doctors answered that they were well aware of the service, while 55% responded that they did not know about it. For a visit, a KM doctor selected the appropriate diseases in the order of stroke, dementia and Parkinson's disease, osteoarthritis, and chronic diseases. Among treatments, acupuncture, moxibustion, and herbal medicine exhibited similar results. The most common opinion was that KM doctors should schedule their visits once a week for 6-12 months, which was the most prolonged period among the given options. More than 80% (84.1%) of the doctors replied that care projects were highly essential, and about 63.8% expressed their willingness to participate in these projects. Conclusion: To provide appropriate home health care, we must raise awareness among Korean medicine doctors. In addition, the healthcare budget must be increased to provide the required support.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.17-27
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• 2021

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate which information of cancer patients should be collected for the Korean medicine cancer registry in order to assess the efficacy and safety of Korean medicine (KM) treatment and to identify Korean medical prognostic predictors. Methods: A total of fifteen Korean medical specialists completed an online survey questionnaire including items about general characteristics of cancer patients and clinical practice patterns. Results: The four main types of cancer at Korean medical hospitals were breast, lung, stomach, and colorectal cancer. The majority of patients with cancer at Korean medical hospitals were in the advanced or metastatic stage (50.0%). The prominent purposes of KM treatment were to alleviate cancer-related symptoms, reduce the side effects of conventional therapy, and improve quality of life. The major options for treatment were traditional herbal medicine (THM), acupuncture, moxibustion, thermotherapy, pharmacoacupuncture, and meditation, with THM being the most frequently used (35.7%). Almost all Korean medical specialists (93.9%) used syndrome differentiation in clinical practice and identified over half the cancer patients as deficiency syndrome (57.2%). Conclusion: Physicians considered the primary goal of KM treatment for cancer patients to be symptom management since advanced or metastatic stage patients were the majority at Korean medical hospitals. THM were the most common treatment option and syndrome differentiation was used by almost all physicians. Further research is needed to monitor and ensure optimal KM treatment for patients with cancer.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2021

Objectives: This pilot study aimed to evaluate the agreement between traditional face-to-face Korean medicine (KM) pattern identification and non-face-to-face KM pattern identification using the data from related questionnaires, tongue image, and pulse features in patients with cancer. Methods: From January to June 2020, 16 participants with a cancer diagnosis were recruited at the one Korean medicine hospital. Three experienced Korean medicine doctors independently diagnosed the participants whether they belong to the cold pattern or not, heat pattern or not, deficiency pattern or not, and excess pattern or not. Another researcher collected KM pattern related data using questionnaires including Cold-Heat Pattern Identification (CHPI), tongue image analysis system, and pulse analyzer. Collected KM pattern related data without participants' identifier was provided for the three Korean medicine doctors in random order, and non-face-to-face KM pattern identification was carried out. The kappa value between face-to-face and non-face-to-face pattern identification was calculated. Results: From the face-to-face pattern identification, there were 13/3 cold/non-cold pattern, 4/12 heat/non-heat pattern, 14/2 deficiency/non-deficiency pattern, and 0/16 excess/non-excess pattern participants. In cold/non-cold pattern, kappa value was 0.455 (sensitivity: 0.85, specificity: 0.67, accuracy: 0.81). In heat/non-heat pattern, the kappa value was 0.429 (sensitivity: 0.75, specificity: 0.72, accuracy: 0.75). The kappa value of deficiency/non-deficiency and excess/non-excess pattern was not calculated because of the few participants of non-deficiency, and excess pattern. Conclusions: The agreement between traditional face-to-face pattern identification and non-face-to-face pattern identification seems to be moderate. The non-face-to-face pattern identification using questionnaires, tongue, and pulse features may feasible for the large clinical study.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2024

Objectives: This study aims to develop an educational program based on a manual for disaster medical support using Korean medicine (KM) for disaster survivors. Methods: We conducted a literature review on another educational program, a focus group interviews with experts, a survey of the academic needs of Korean medicine (KM) doctors, educational competency development, and an expert Delphi survey. Results: This program was designed using a hybrid method combining online (4 h) and offline (8 h) elements; the total time of the program is 12 h. The offline course consists of theory (4 h) and practice (4 h) lectures. The theory lecture covers herbal medicine, acupuncture, stabilizing technique, emotional freedom technique, and self-management, and the practice lecture covers stabilizing technique, emotional freedom technique, and clinical performance evaluation. Meanwhile, the online course covers a manual for disaster medical support using KM and an introductory course from the National Center for Disaster and Trauma. Conclusions: The results of this study are expected to be useful for enhancing training for KM doctors in trauma care for disaster survivors as well as evaluating and validating the program's effectiveness.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.87-98
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• 2022

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of weight loss in Korean Medicine (KM) obesity treatment combined with self-monitoring and to identify the relevant factors which are related to successful weight loss. In addition to this, adverse events reported by the patients were analyzed to assess the safety of KM treatments for obesity Methods: This was a retrospective observational study that analyzed the medical records of the patients that participated in the 10-week of KM treatment. All patients took herbal medicine for weight loss and were instructed to reduce calorie intake and adhere to self-monitoring. Clinical data including body weight were collected for evaluating the effect of the treatments. Behavior factors affecting weight loss were collected. The correlation between each factor and weight loss was analyzed. Adverse events (AEs) were collected at each time to evaluate the safety of the intervention. Results: One hundred eighteen patients' records were included in this study. The average weight loss was 7.64kg(74.59kg to 66.95kg). 94.9% of patients lost 5% or more of their initial weight. The degree of weight loss was identified to be related to self-assessment of diet control and self-assessment of appetite control. The average self-weighing frequency significantly increased(2.45 times/week before treatment and 4.70 times/weeks during treatment). Constipation, insomnia, and dizziness were found to be the most frequent AEs, and except for one case, most AEs were mild cases. Conclusion: From this study, we found that KM obesity treatment combined with self-monitoring showed significant weight loss without serious AE.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.31-40
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• 2022

Objectives Sasang constitutional medicine is a traditional Korean medicine that classifies humans into four constitutions in consideration of individual differences in physical, psychological, and physiological characteristics. In this paper, we proposed a method to classify Taeeum person (TE) and Non-Taeeum person (NTE), Soeum person (SE) and Non-Soeum person (NSE), and Soyang person (ST) and Non-Soyang person (NSY) using a convolutional neural network with only facial images. Methods Based on the convolutional neural network VGG16 architecture, transfer learning is carried out on the facial images of 3738 subjects to classify TE and NTE, SE and NSE, and SY and NSY. Data augmentation techniques are used to increase classification performance. Results The classification performance of TE and NTE, SE and NSE, and SY and NSY was 77.24%, 85.17%, and 80.18% by F1 score and 80.02%, 85.96%, and 72.76% by Precision-Recall AUC (Area Under the receiver operating characteristic Curve) respectively. Conclusions It was found that Soeum person had the most heterogeneous facial features as it had the best classification performance compared to the rest of the constitution, followed by Taeeum person and Soyang person. The experimental results showed that there is a possibility to classify constitutions only with facial images. The performance is expected to increase with additional data such as BMI or personality questionnaire.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.267-274
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• 2021

Objectives : Acupoints education is important in that it can determine the clinical competency of Korean Medicine Doctors (KMDs). Accordingly, we aimed to develop a practical simulator for acupoints education, acupoints training, acupoints practice, and acupoints evaluation. Methods : Korean Medicine (KM) SMART Table can be divided into hardware, server and components, and is organically linked. We develop KM SMART Table that combines the hardware of a human-sized table with a UHD display capable of multi-touch in two cases and software that can teach acupoints. We make Augmented Reality (AR) contents linked with KM SMART Table contents and develop applications that can use contents using mobile devices. By developing an AR image tracking module to react with KM SMART Table, it enables acupoint learning according to the mobile device platform and human anatomy. Results : The current system is a prototype where some 3D technology has been implemented, but the AR function will be produced later. New learning using 3D and AR will be required during acupoints education and acupoints practice. It will be used a lot in OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) practices for strengthening the competency of KMDs, and it will be of great help not only in KM education as a unique simulator of KM, but also in the practice of acupuncture and chuna for musculoskeletal diseases. Conclusions : The KM SMART Table is a technology that combines 3D and AR to learn acupoints, and to conduct acupoints OSCE practice, and we suggest that it can be usefully used for educational evaluation.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.179-184
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• 2017

Objectives : Despite the applicability of Korean Medicine(KM) treatments for facial asymmetry, no relevant study has been reported. In this case report, we report the effect and safety of KM treatments on facial asymmetry by mandibular lateral displacement. Methods : Three patients suffering from facial asymmetry received twelve KM treatment sessions composed of Motion Style Treatment(MST), Yinyang Balance Appliance(YBA) of Functional Cerebrospinal Therapy(FCST), and Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization(IASTM). The photos of each patient were taken before and after the treatment. And four primary reference lines were assessed before and after the treatment. Results : All subjects were improved after KM treatments on photos. However, no statistical significance was observed. Conclusions : This case report is the first to introduce the effect of KM treatments on facial asymmetry. Further well-designed, randomized, placebo-controlled trials are needed to verify these results.