• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.59 no.4
• /
• pp.190-195
• /
• 2016

Purpose: Severe aplastic anemia (SAA), a fatal disease, requires multiple transfusion, immunosuppressive therapy, and finally, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) as the definitive treatment. We hypothesized that iron overloading associated with multiple transfusions and HSCT-related complications may adversely affect cardiac function. Left ventricular (LV) function was assessed in children after HSCT for SAA. Methods: Forty-six consecutive patients with a median age of 9.8 years (range, 1.5-18 years), who received HSCT for SAA and who underwent comprehensive echocardiography before and after HSCT, were included in this study. The data of LV functional parameters obtained using conventional echocardiography, tissue Doppler imaging (TDI), and speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) were collected from pre- and post-HSCT echocardiography. These data were compared to those of 40 age-matched normal controls. Results: In patients, the LV ejection fraction, shortening fraction, end-diastolic dimension, mitral early diastolic E velocity, TDI mitral septal E' velocity, and STE LV longitudinal systolic strain rate (SSR) decreased significantly after HSCT. Compared to normal controls, patients had significantly lower post-HSCT early diastolic E velocity and E/A ratio. On STE, patients had significantly decreased LV deformational parameters including LV longitudinal systolic strain (SS), SSR, and diastolic SR (DSR), and circumferential SS and DSR. Serum ferritin levels showed weak but significant correlations (P<0.05) with LV longitudinal SS and SSR and circumferential SS and DSR. Conclusion: Subclinical LV dysfunction is evident in patients after HSCT for SAA, and was associated with increased iron load. Serial monitoring of cardiac function is mandatory in this population.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.83-88
• /
• 2009

Purpose: It is said that persons with low vision (LV) require larger object and longer exposure time to make a visual judgment. The spatial summation stands for the increasing of contrast sensitivity (CS), as the target size is enlarged. Likewise, the term temporal summation is used when the CS increases as the exposure duration is extended. The present study investigates whether or not greater target and longer exposure duration is required for LV subjects than for control subjects. Methods: Twenty subjects with LV and twenty age-matched controls took part in the study. The CS was measured with a 2 alternative forced choice stair case for 0.7 and 3.0 cycle per degree (c/d) static sinusoidal gratings within a circular aperture. The results were analyzed by mixed ANOVA (2${\times}$2). Results: As expected, the CS in the LV group were overall depressed. For spatial summation, mixed ANOVA (2 groups${\times}$2 spatial frequencies) gave p values of 0.13 for the effect of group, 0.14 for spatial frequency and there was no interaction (p=0.59). Similarly, for temporal summation the results were p=0.19 for group, 0.31 for spatial frequency and p=0.95 for interaction. Conclusions: Despite the depression of CS in the LV group, a significant difference for spatial and temporal summation between two subject groups was not reached.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.10 no.9
• /
• pp.2530-2534
• /
• 2009

This study was performed to evaluate relationship between health behaviors of local residents and stomach cancer incidence. Case-control study was carried out on 91 cases matched for age and sex with 91 controls in a general hospital in Seoul. It was surveyed using questionnaires and interview from December 20, 2008 to January 30, 2009. Major findings are as follows. First, significant negative association was observed in recreational activity ; OR for active group was 0.23, 0.41 relative to the inactive group. Secondly alcohol consumption was a significant risk factor; relative to non-drinker for drinker of more than 30 years(OR=5.17 95% Cl=1.78-19.95). Thirdly, Eating broiled food showed a positive significant association with risk for stomach cancer(OR=3.79 95% Cl=1.61-9.84) for consumption of three times more per week. As a result of multiple logistic regression analysis, income, BMI 10 years ago, recreational activity, alcohol consumption, eating broiled and salt food were associated with stomach cancer. In conclusion, the correlation of stomach cancer incidence can be found in recreational activity, alcohol consumption, eating broiled and salt food, income, and BMI 10 years ago.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.38 no.7
• /
• pp.521-532
• /
• 2005

The prevalence of atopic dermatitis (AD) continues to rise in industrialized countries related to Western lifestyle, including dietary habits, especially imbalance of intake of dietary fatty acids. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the dietary fatty acids and the assess the blood fatty acid composition and immune parameters in AD patients. AD (n = 50) patients and gender ${\cdot}$ age matched healthy controls (HC) were studied in case-control clinical trail. Current fatty acids intake status was determined by 3-day food record method. Blood sample were collected from 30 subjects in each group and blood fatty acid composition and immune parameters were analysed. AD patients consumed less PUFA and their n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio was higher than that of HC. Both the ratios of PUFA and MUFA were positively correlated with SCORAD in AD patients (p < 0.05). In the AD patients, there were abnormalities in the fatty acid composition of the RBC and WBC, SFA being significantly high and most n-3 PUFA being significantly low. Moreover, both the ratios of EPA and DHA in WBC were negatively correlated with dietary n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio in AD patients (p < 0.05). Serum total IgE and IL-4 levels of AD patients increased significantly compared with the levels of HC (p < 0.01). Ratios of monocyte and eosinophil in WBC of AD patients increased significantly compared with the levels of HC including total WBC count (p < 0.01), and ratios of Iymphocyte and basophil in WBC of AD patients decreased significantly compared with the levels of HC (p < 0.05). Moreover, the ratios of eosinophil in WBC were positively correlated with dietary P/M ratio (p < 0.05), and the ratios of monocyte in WBC were positively correlated with n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio (p < 0.05) in AD patients. This results indicated that AD patients had significantly high intake of dietary n-6/n-3 PUFA compared with HC. Imbalance of intake of dietary fatty acids affected fatty acid compositions in the RBC and WBC, and these lead to immune imbalance and grow worse of AD.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.87-93
• /
• 2024

Background: In recent years, studies have shown conflicting results regarding the benefits of dietary supplements in reducing healthcare expenditures. This study aimed to address this inconsistency by examining the association between supplement consumption and health expenditures using nationally representative data from the Korea Health Panel Survey (2019-2020). Methods: A 1:1 matched case-control dataset was established using propensity score matching technique based on supplement consumption. Then, total annual healthcare expenditures were compared between the two groups. In addition, a multivariate regression analysis (Proc Surveyreg) was performed to determine the association between the supplement consumption and medical costs. Results: The supplement user group spent about 1.72 million Korean won, while the non-user group spent about 1.43 million Korean won on medical services (p=0.0186). The results of multivariate regression showed that the costs were approximately 26.15% higher in the user group than in the non-user group (p=0.0004). Conclusion: Contrary to the previous studies that have shown the benefits of supplement use in reducing healthcare costs, this study showed that those who consistently consumed supplements spent more on medical services. This can be interpreted in the same context as previous studies suggesting that dietary supplement intake is a healthy behavior for managing one's health. However, we caution against drawing firm conclusions due to data limitations. Further analysis using patient-level epidemiologic data is needed.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.49-56
• /
• 2010

Objective: To investigate assisted reproductive technology (ART) outcomes in women with WHO class I anovulation compared with control group. Design: Retrospective case-control study. Methods: Twenty-three infertile women with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (H-H) who undertook ART procedure from August 2003 to January 2009 were enrolled in this study. A total of 59 cycles (H-H group) were included; Intra-uterine insemination with super-ovulation (SO-IUI, 32 cycles), in vitro fertilization with fresh embryo transfer (IVF-ET, 18 cycles) and subsequent frozenthawed embryo transfer (FET, 9 cycles). Age and BMI matched 146 cycles of infertile women were collected as control group; 64 cycles of unexplained infertile women for SO-IUI and 54 cycles of IVF-ET and 28 cycles of FET with tubal factor. We compared ART and pregnancy outcomes such as clinical pregnancy rate (CPR), clinical abortion rate (CAR), and live birth rate (LBR) between the two groups. Results: There was no difference in the mean age ($32.7{\pm}3.3$ vs. $32.6{\pm}2.7$ yrs) and BMI ($21.0{\pm}3.1$ vs. $20.8{\pm}3.1kg/m^2$) between two groups. Mean levels of basal LH, FSH, and $E_2$ in H-H group were $0.62{\pm}0.35$ mIU/ml, $2.60{\pm}2.30$ mIU/ml and $10.1{\pm}8.2$ pg/ml, respectively. For ovarian stimulation, H-H group needed higher total amount of gonadotropin injected and longer duration for ovarian stimulation (p<0.001). In SO-IUI cycles, there was no significant difference of CPR, CAR, and LBR between the two groups. In IVF-ET treatment, H-H group presented higher mean $E_2$ level on hCG day ($3104.8{\pm}1020.2$ pg/ml vs. $1878.3{\pm}1197.7$ pg/ml, p<0.001) with lower CPR (16.7 vs. 37.0%, p=0.11) and LBR (5.6 vs. 33.3%, p=0.02) and higher CAR (66.7 vs. 10.0%, p=0.02) compared with the control group. However, subsequent FET cycles showed no significant difference of CPR, CAR, and LBR between the two groups. Conclusion: H-H patients need higher dosage of gonadotropin and longer duration for ovarian stimulation compared with the control groups. Significantly poor pregnancy outcomes in IVF-ET cycles of H-H group may be due to detrimental endometrial factors caused by higher $E_2$ level and the absence of previous hormonal exposure on endometrium.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.143-151
• /
• 2010

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare day 3 embryo transfer (D3ET) with day 5 ET (D5ET) in fresh in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle on pregnancy outcomes. Methods: We conducted a retrospective matched case control study that included 90 women with D3ET and 90 women with D5ET from January 2007 to June 2009. Subjects were matched for reproductive profiles and IVF cycle characteristics. Two good quality embryos were transferred in both groups. Pregnancy rates (PR), implantation rate, and multiple PR were compared. Results: Demographics, stimulation parameters and embryological data were comparable in both groups. Main pregnancy outcomes with D3ET and D5ET groups were not statistically different: implantation rate (39.4% vs. 32.8%), positive PR (57.8% vs. 46.7%), clinical PR (53.3% vs. 45.6%), ongoing PR (50.0% vs. 42.2%), respectively. Both groups showed high multiple PR (37.5% vs. 34.1). Conclusion: D5ET may not be beneficial and necessary in comparison with D3ET on pregnancy outcomes, and elective single ET should be considered to decrease multiple pregnancies in women with favorable conditions and good quality embryos undergoing IVF.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.65-72
• /
• 2010

Objective: To compare the respective pregnancy outcomes of cycles undergoing elective two cleavage-stage embryos transfer (2ET) and three cleavage-stage embryos transfer (3ET) in fresh in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) program. Methods: We conducted a retrospective matched case control study that included 100 women with 2ET and 100 women with 3ET from January 2007 to June 2009. Subjects were matched for reproductive profiles and cycle characteristics. All of transferred embryos in both groups had good qualities. Pregnancy rates (PR), implantation rate, and multiple PR were compared. Results: Demographics, stimulation parameters and embryological data were comparable in both groups. Main pregnancy outcomes with 2ET and 3ET groups were not statistically different; implantation rate (41.0% vs. 35.3%), positive pregnancy rate (58.0% vs. 60.0%), clinical PR (55.0% vs. 59.0%), ongoing PR (51.0% vs. 55.0%), respectively. However, the 3ET group showed significantly higher multiple pregnancy and triplet pregnancy rates (30.9% vs. 50.8%, p=0.031; 1.8% vs. 11.9%, p=0.036, respectively). Conclusion: In women with favorable conditions and good quality embryos undergoing IVF, 2ET can get pregnancy outcomes comparable to those of 3ET and reduce multiple pregnancy (especially, triplet pregnancy).

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.53 no.3
• /
• pp.392-396
• /
• 2010

Purpose : The association between iron deficiency anemia and febrile convulsion in infants has been examined in several studies with conflicting results. Therefore, the authors aimed to evaluate the precise relationship involved. Methods : In this case-control study, the authors assessed 100 children with a diagnosis of febrile convulsion, aged between 9 months and 2 years, during January 2007 to July 2009. The control group consisted of 100 febrile children without convulsion; controls were closely matched to the cases by age, gender, and underlying disease. Results : The mean ages of the febrile convulsion and control group were $16.3{\pm}7.4$ and $15.8{\pm}6.1$ months, respectively, and the two groups had no differences in clinical features. Iron deficiency anemia (Hb <10.5 gm/dL) was more frequent in the febrile convulsion group than in the control group, although there was no statistical significance. Unexpectably, the RDW (red blood cell distribution width) was significantly lower and the MCNC (mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration) was significantly higher among seizure cases than among the controls (P <0.05). There is no statistical difference between simple and complex febrile groups in the clinical and laboratory profiles. On multiple logistic regression analysis, iron deficiency anemia was more frequent, but the RDW was lower, among the cases with febrile convulsion, compared with the controls. Conclusions : Our study suggests that the iron deficiency anemia is associated with febrile convulsion, and screening for iron deficiency anemia should be considered in children with febrile convulsions.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.383-394
• /
• 1999

Objectives: This study was conducted to identify the factors influencing the mortality of Koreans over the age of 40 by a nested case-control study. Methods: The cohort consisted of the beneficiaries of Korea Medical Insurance Corporation for Government Employees & Private School Teachers and Staff(KMIC) who received health examinations of KMIC in 1992 and 1993 retrospectively. At that time, they were more than 40 years old. The cases were 19,258 cohort members who had died until December 31, 1997. The controls were 19,258 cohort members who were alive until December 31, 1997. Controls were matched with age and sex distribution of the cases. The data used in this study were the funeral expenses requesting files, and the files of health examinations and health questionnaires gathered in 1992 and 1993. To assess the putative risk factors of death, student t-test, chi-square test, multiple logistic regression analysis were used. Results : In multiple logistic regression analysis, independent risk factors of death were as follows; systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, blood glucose, AST, urine glucose, urine protein, alcohol drinking(frequency), cigarette smoking and perceived health status, intake of restoratives and blood transfusion showed positive associations with death; coffee consumption showed negative associations with death; and body mass index and serum total cholesterol showed J-shaped association with death. Conclusions: Regarding the direction of association, the result of analysis on the data restricted to '96-'97 was same as that of '93-'97. But in some variables such as obesity, serum cholesterol, the odds ratios of death in the data of '96-'97 were higer than those of '93-'94, which suggested that the data of '93-'94 was bearing effect-cause relationship. We concluded that it suggested further researches using long-term follow-up data to be needed in this area.