• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.27 no.3 s.47
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• pp.581-595
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• 1994

To investigate the effect of carbon disulfide on blood pressure, the BP measurements in the periodic health examination results and the medical records of factory clinic were reviewed. The study subjects were composed of 1336 male and 544 female workers, who were categorized into three groups by the exposure status-highly exposed, moderately exposed and non-exposed group. The results of the study were as follows; 1. The age-adjusted mean systolic and diastolic BP of male workers were 122.35 mmHg/79.11 mmHg in highly exposed, 121.57mmHg/79.05mmHg in moderately exposed and 122.67mmHg/82.27mmHg in non-exposed group. For female workers, BPs were 115.13mmHg/74.49mmHg in moderately exposed and 113.48mmHg/74.30mmHg in non-exposed group. 2. In multiple regression analysis of maximum BP against Age and tenure, the slope coefficients of age and tenure on the systolic BP were 0.379, 0.667 respectively and those on the diastolic BP were 0.331, 0.405 respectively in highly exposed male workers. Tenure was a significant variable in this study. For female workers, however the slope coefficients of tenure on BP were significant only for systolic BP of moderately-exposed group. 3. In multiple regression analysis of Bp against age, cumulative exposure index (CEI), cholesterol, all the variables showed significant slope coefficients in male, but age and CEI on systolic BP were significant for female workers (p<0.05). 4. In the multiple analysis of the amount of Bp change and the velocity of Bp change among male workers, the slope coefficients of tenure tended to increase as exposure level increased. Among female workers, the slope coefficients of tenure were significant on the amount of Bp change and the velocity of Bp change in moderately exposed group.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.165-175
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• 2016

Objectives: The present study was undertaken to study the maternal risk factors for preterm birth (PTB) and low birth weight (LBW) with a special emphasis on assessing the proportions of maternal genitourinary and periodontal infections among Indian women and their association with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Methods: A hospital-based prospective study comprising 790 pregnant women visiting the obstetrics clinic for a routine antenatal check-up was undertaken. Once recruited, all study participants underwent clinical and microbiological investigations for genitourinary infections followed by a dental check-up for the presence of periodontitis. The study participants were followed up until their delivery to record the pregnancy outcomes. Infectious and non-infectious risk factors for PTB and LBW were assessed using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Independent risk factors for PTB and LBW were reported in terms of adjusted relative risk (ARR) with the 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Rates of PTB and LBW in the study population were 7.6% and 11.4%, respectively. Previous preterm delivery (ARR, 5.37; 95% CI, 1.5 to 19.1), periodontitis (ARR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.1 to 4.9), Oligohydramnios (ARR, 5.23; 95% CI, 2.4 to 11.5), presence of Nugent's intermediate vaginal flora (ARR, 2.75; 95% CI, 1.4 to 5.1), gestational diabetes mellitus (ARR, 2.91; 95% CI, 1.0 to 8.3), and maternal height <1.50 m (ARR, 2.21; 95% CI, 1.1 to 4.1) were risk factors for PTB, while periodontitis (ARR, 3.38; 95% CI, 1.6 to 6.9), gestational hypertension (ARR, 3.70; 95% CI, 1.3 to 10.8), maternal height <1.50 m (ARR, 2.66; 95% CI, 1.3 to 5.1) and genital infection during later stages of pregnancy (ARR, 2.79; 95% CI, 1.2 to 6.1) were independent risk factors for LBW. Conclusions: Our study findings underscore the need to consider screening for potential genitourinary and periodontal infections during routine antenatal care in developing countries.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.94-99
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• 2007

The spontaneous regression (SR) of cancer is defined as the complete disappearance of a malignant disease without adequate treatment. SR is a very rare biological event, particularly in a pulmonary sarcoma. We report the first documented case of an endobronchial sarcoma that regressed spontaneously in Korea. We encountered a rare case of a 72-year-old woman with an undiagnosed intrapelvic cystic mass, who presented with a smooth surfaced endobronchial tumor obstructing the orifice of the right lower lobe bronchus on a bronchoscopic examination. She had a prior history cervical cancer and adenocarcinoma in the right middle lobe lateral segment of her lung for which she had undergone radiation therapy. The tumor was diagnosed as an endobronchial sarcoma by the histopathology findings and immunohistochemistry. It was unclear if the tumor was a primary sarcoma of the lung or a metastatic lesion of an intrapelvic cystic mass because she refused a diagnostic exploratory laparotomy. Two months later, obstructive pneumonia of the right lower lobe with parapneumonic effusion developed with fever above 38.5degrees C for 10 days. After recovering from pneumonia, she was followed up regularly in the outpatient clinic without any specific treatment. One year later after treating the obstructive pneumonia, the follow-up bronchoscopy revealed complete SR of endobronchial sarcoma. It is believed that the obstructive pneumonia accompanied by fever above 38.5degrees C for 10 days might have played a role in this SR.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 1999

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of various factors in keratotomy for astigmatism correction on surgical outcomes by finite element method as well as animal experiments. Three kinds of surgical techniques were mechanically investigated : arcuate, straight, and inverse arcuate keratotomy. Among the three techniques the arcuate keratotomy is the most popular one while the other two techniques are being investigated in this area. The arcuate keratotomy was found to be more controllable and effective in reducing the refractive power than the others. In arcuate keratotomy it was found most effective when the incision was located in the middle position between the apex and the edge of the cornea from the results of experiment as well as finite element study. Regarding to the range of the corneal incision in arcuate keratotomy, the incision angle of 90$^{\circ}$ was found th be most effective in reducing refractive power than other angles even it was incised up to 150$^{\circ}$. Therefore, it was concluded that 90$^{\circ}$ of incision angle results in the largest decrease in refractive power in arcuate keratotomy. However, other important findings were that the effect of the surgery decreased with time so the visco-effect of the cornea and auto-healing process. Therefore, these factors should be considered in future studies.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.133-137
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• 2017

Background: To determine the natural progression of conservatively treated rotator cuff tears, we evaluated changes in radiologic and clinical parameters in patients whose recalcitrant tears were neglected after conservative treatment. Methods: A total of 73 patients with recalcitrant rotator cuff tears in spite of conservative treatment were included in this study. We measured changes in tear size and in the extent of fatty infiltration of the rotator cuff by comparing the initial and final follow-up magnetic resonance imagings (MRIs). To determine factors influencing the change in tear size, we collected the medical history of patients taken at the time of initial admission. Results: The average follow-up period was 20.1 months, and the average increase in tear size across this period was 6.2 mm. In terms of steroid injection, we found that the increases in tear size of the steroid injection group (p=0.049) and of the sub-group that had received more than three steroid injections (p=0.010) were significantly greater than that of the non-steroid injection group. Conclusions: We found that the increase in cuff tear size was on average 6.2 mm across the follow-up period, indicating that neglecting cuff tears may cause them to progress into more severe tears. We also observed that a history of steroid injection might be a possible risk factor for a worse prognosis of cuff tears. Therefore, we suggest that patients with rotator cuff tears and a history of steroid injection are recommended aggressive modes of treatment such as surgery.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.28-40
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• 1998

Background : Many patients have been frequently complaining that they have to spend couples of hours in hospital on visiting outpatient clinic. Among several steps, two major time consuming steps were waiting to see a doctor and/or waiting at pharmacy to get medicine. Therefore not only to provide the proper guidance for medication or counseling on health affairs but also to make waiting time short is very important for the better hospital services. The aim of this study is to validate several time-saving processes to reduce waiting time at outpatient pharmacy and its efficacy. Methods : We surveyed the time interval actually taken to receive medicine after issuing prescription by doctors, and analyzed the data on the bases of relevant or possible causative factors. Then following processes were given to reduce waiting time and resurveyed and compared both data to validate efficacy of those processes : 1. No work-off on Monday and Tuesday 2. Work hour shift to start 30 minutes earlier 3. Changeable work shift between outpatient pharmacy and ward pharmacy according to work load 4. Use of pre-made medicines prescribed more frequently by certain doctors at certain time 5. Cooperation with doctors to use set prescriptions. Results : Before the process, mean waiting time at pharmacy was 29.2 minutes and most time consuming period was from noon to 1 PM, 3 to 4 PM, 1 to 2 PM in order of frequency. Only 37.7 % of patients could get the medicine within 20 minutes. Three times of surveys after process showed mean waiting time at pharmacy were 18.1 minutes, 19.0 minutes, and 17.6 minutes, respectively. And 72.7 %, 81.3%, and 82.2% of patients could get the medicine within 20 minutes. Conclusion : The mean waiting time was markedly reduced with above mentioned processes which applied intradepartmently event hough with little cooperation from other department. Consequently, the complaints of patients were decreased with increasing the satisfaction degree. In conclusion, those suggestions were recommanded to improve the degree of satisfaction of patients.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.84-87
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• 2008

In this research, we screened for glucosyltransferase (GTase) inhibitors that effectively prevent the dental caries from 420 kinds of boiled water extracts of herbs and wild plants and searched for GTase inhibitory activities. Among them, 13 kinds of hot water extracts had high GTase inhibitory activities and especially, we focused on Foeniculum vulgare which showed the highest inhibitory activity on GTase. The boiled water extract of F. vulgare was stable at high temperature and showed as a mixed type of competitive and uncompetitive inhibition kinetic behavior. It did not have antibacterial effect on Streptococcus mutans and had inhibitory activity on GTase. Specially, in the clinical trial, the group treated by boiled water extract of F. vulgare showed more decrease of plague index at 4.8 point than untreated group. These results suggested that boiled water extract of F. vulgare can effectively suppress the plague formation as it inhibits the GTase activity.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.103-111
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• 2014

A1E is an extract from traditional Asian medicinal plants that has therapeutic activities against cancers, metabolic disease, and other intractable conditions. However, its mechanism of action on cervical cancer has not been studied. In order to ascertain if A1E would have pronounced anti-cervical cancer effect, cervical cancer cells were incubated with A1E and apoptosis was detected by nuclear morphological changes, annexin V-FITC/PI staining, cell cycle analysis, western blotting, Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, and measurement of mitochondrial membrane potential. Expression of human papiloma virus E6 and E7 oncogenes was down-regulated in A1E-treated cervical cancer cells, while p53 and retinoblastoma protein levels were enhanced. A1E also perturbed cell cycle progression at sub-G1 and altered cell cycle regulatory factors in SiHa cervical cancer cells. A1E activated apoptotic intrinsic pathway markers such as caspase-9, caspase-3 and poly ADP-ribose polymerase, and down-regulated expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl. A1E induced mitochondrial membrane potential collapse and cytochrome c release, and inhibited phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt, key factors involved in cell survival signaling. Taken all these results, A1E induced apoptosis via activation of the intrinsic pathway and inhibition of the PI3K/Akt survival-signaling pathway in SiHa cervical cancer cells. In conclusion, A1E exerts anti-proliferative action growth inhibition on cervical cancer cells through apoptosis which demonstrates its anti-cervical cancer properties.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.98-107
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• 2011

Caries remains prevalent throughout modern society and is the main disease in the field of dentistry. Although studies of this disease have used diverse methodology, recently, X-ray microtomography has gained popularity as a non-destructive, 3-dimensional (3D) analytical technique, and has several advantages over the conventional methods. According to X-ray source, it is classified as monochromatic or polychromatic with the latter being more widely used due to the high cost of the monochromatic source despite some advantages. The determination of mineral density profiles based on changes in X-ray attenuation is the principle of this method and calibration and image processing procedures are needed for the better image and reproducible measurements. Using this tool, 3D reconstruction is also possible and it enables to visualize the internal structures of dental caries. With the advances in the computer technology, more diverse applications are being studied, such automated caries assessment algorithms.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.206-215
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• 2017

Objectives: To determine the combined effect of fatigue cyclic loading and thermocycling (CLTC) on the shear bond strength (SBS) of a resin cement to zirconia surfaces that were previously air-abraded with aluminum oxide ($Al_2O_3$) particles at different pressures. Materials and Methods: Seventy-two cuboid zirconia specimens were prepared and randomly assigned to 3 groups according to the air-abrasion pressures (1, 2, and 2.8 bar), and each group was further divided into 2 groups depending on aging parameters (n = 12). Panavia F 2.0 was placed on pre-conditioned zirconia surfaces, and SBS testing was performed either after 24 hours or 10,000 fatigue cycles (cyclic loading) and 5,000 thermocycles. Non-contact profilometry was used to measure surface roughness. Failure modes were evaluated under optical and scanning electron microscopy. The data were analyzed using 2-way analysis of variance and ${\chi}^2$ tests (${\alpha}=0.05$). Results: The 2.8 bar group showed significantly higher surface roughness compared to the 1 bar group (p < 0.05). The interaction between pressure and time/cycling was not significant on SBS, and pressure did not have a significant effect either. SBS was significantly higher (p = 0.006) for 24 hours storage compared to CLTC. The 2 bar-CLTC group presented significantly higher percentage of pre-test failure during fatigue compared to the other groups. Mixed-failure mode was more frequent than adhesive failure. Conclusions: CLTC significantly decreased the SBS values regardless of the air-abrasion pressure used.