• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.558-570
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• 2009

Background : Since March 2009, when the first patient of novel influenza A (H1N1) was reported, many deaths have occurred in North and Central America. The start of the 2009 influenza pandemic was declared by WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan on 11 June 2009, and the level of influenza pandemic alert raised from phase 5 to phase 6. There was no vaccine yet developed, and many experts worried that the novel H1N1 virus could kill as many or more as did the influenza pandemic in 1918-1919. Objective : To evaluate the possibility of treatment for 2009 novel influenza A (H1N1) using herbal remedies and other non-conventional therapies. Methods : We researched the clinical studies for novel H1N1 influenza virus-related herbal medicine or non-conventional medicine treatment using internet search engines including PubMed and CNKI. In addition, we reviewed many reports and clinical practice guidelines (CPG) for influenza A (H1N1). Results : Two case series were selected after reviewing 701 papers, and two CPG published by the Chinese government and Jilin province identified. They reported that the clinical symptoms were no more significant than seasonal influenza, and the condition of patients more than 45 years old was milder than those less than 45 years old. There are no patients with gastric problems, and oseltamivir has been used at the same time in all patients. Conclusion : The efficacy and effectiveness of herbal medicine and other non-conventional treatments for the novel influenza A (H1N1) is questionable, and more studies are needed to draw a firm conclusion. However, in the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) experience in 2002/2003, it was demonstrated that herbal medicine can relieve all symptoms of SARS patients, promote absorption of lung inflammation, improve the degree of blood oxygen saturation, regulate immunological functions, reduce the required dosage of glucocorticoid and other medicines, and reduce case fatality rate. In light of the current situation that there is no vaccine or conventional treatment yet available, the study of herbal medicine and other non-conventional therapies are also necessary for appropriate evaluation.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.662-675
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• 2018

Objective: The aim of this study was to establish the developmental history of hospice palliative care (HPC) with Korean medicine (KM). Methods: We compared the developmental history of HPC in Korea with that of Britain, the United States, Taiwan, Japan, and China. The articles in English or Korean published until Feb. 2017 were searched using 'Hospice' or 'Palliative care' with the name of each nation in the PubMed, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, and CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) databases for foreign articles and OASIS (Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System) for domestic articles. Books and gray literature were searched on the same databases and websites of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and related organizations in each country. Results: Modern palliative care began with the hospice movement led by Dr. Cicely Saunders. HPC in Korea started earlier than in other countries but it took considerable time for social consensus, so Korean policies have only been published recently. In this process, KM was excluded from HPC. For this reason, western medicine in Korea does not fully accept the spirit of HPC, the government does not take an aggressive stance with KM, and the institutes of KM do not have any interest in HPC. The World Health Organization recommends the establishment of policies and programs connected with a country's own health care system. In 2015, the Korean government made the third comprehensive plan for the development of KM. It included critical pathway guidelines about cancer-related fatigue and anorexia. More effort is required to set up HPC than other care types because Korea has two medical systems. Conclusions: Each nation has been trying to improve systems of HPC. We need to overcome the problems and bring out the best by making our own model of HPC with KM.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.219-228
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• 2016

The aim of this study was to collect and analyze the clinical studies of traditional herbal medicine and acupuncture treatments for colorectal cancer patients searched in Pubmed and Cochrane library in English. We collected the clinical studies, including randomized controlled trial, case control study and cohort study, in the PubMed and Cochrane library using keywords 'Colorectal Cancer', 'Korean Medicine', 'Traditional Chinese Medicine', 'Kampo' and 'Acupuncture'. Then we analyzed them according to the objective of the therapy, i.e. improving therapy prognosis, reducing chemotherapy's adverse event and reducing operational adverse event. In case RCT, we evaluate the quality of the study with jadad scale. Total 18 studies were selected. There were 3 studies about improving therapy prognosis, 6 studies about reducing chemotherapy's adverse event and 9 studies about reducing operational adverse event. Traditional medicine might improve therapy prognosis in terms of the survival rate, relapse/metastasis rate, quality of life and immune function. The specific herbal formula, 'Goshajinkigan' might not be successful about reducing chemotherapy's adverse event, peripheral neurotoxicity. 'Hangeshanshinto' might reduce the duration of oral mucositis but it is not clear to reduce the incidence of that. 'PHY906' might reduce the incidence of diarrhea. Acupuncture might reduce operational adverse event such as gastrointestinal dysfunction and pain. And 'Daikenchuto' might not be successful in reducing operational adverse event, gastrointestinal dysfunction. Further studies are needed to clarify the efficacy of traditional herbal medicine and acupuncture for colorectal cancer patients.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2020

Objectives : The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate the efficacy and safety of Sanjoin-tang (Suanzaoren decoction, SZRD) for insomnia in menopausal syndromes. Method : We searched the following databases: PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Science and Technique Journals Database (VIP), Wanfang, Research Information Service System (RISS), OASIS, Korean studies Information Service System (KISS), and National Digital Science Library (NDSL) databases. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs that used SZRD for women in menopause were included. The methodological quality of each RCT was assessed using the risk of bias tool. Results : In total, nine RCTs were finally included. The included RCTs had a high risk of bias across their domains. Three RCTs examined the effects of SZRD compared with western medicine (WM) in insomnia. Three RCTs showed favorable effects of SZRD with insomnia. Infrastructure also showed that SZRD resulted in better clinical WM (RR 1.19, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.32, P=0.001, I²=0%). Four RCTs showed favorable effects of Modified SZRD with insomnia. Infrastructure also showed that Modified SZRD resulted in better clinical WM (RR 1.13, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.23, P=0.004, I²=0%). Among the 4 RCTs, three RCTs showed an equivalent effect on the total Pittsburh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The meta-analysis also showed that Modified SZRD had a superior effect on the total of PSQI (total of PSQI : MD -2.55, 95% CI -3.72 to -1.37, P<0.0001, I²=85%). Only 2 trials reported adverse events and none reported severe adverse events. Conclusion : SZRD appears to be safe, but there is insufficient evidence to make a definitive conclusion because only a few studies reported adverse events. Due to the poor methodological quality of the included studies and the small number of trials included, the evidence cannot be reproduced and assessed. Well-designed RCTs with a larger sample size are needed in the future.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.13 no.2 s.20
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• pp.83-90
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• 2007

The aim of the study was to analyze recent trends of experimental studies regarding to acupuncture and moxibustion (AM) through reviewing the 492 papers in the PubMed database in order to help researchers from overlapping study on the same theme and to spur them to investigate experimental studies on AM with understanding the current flow of that. For the analysis, we include papers in which abstract was written in English. First, we performed quantitative analysis of the experimental studies using whole of the first filtrated 492 papers. From this analysis, we could obtain the followings: 'Trends of study in the most frequently appeared journals and leading authors in experimental study of AM'. 'The number of papers and name of journals by leading authors in experimental study of AM'. 'Trends of Korean papers in the most frequently appeared journals and Korean leading authors in experimental study of AM", 'Classification of experimental studies related to acupuncture and moxibustion according to intervention methods or individual country' and 'Assortment of experimental studies related to acupuncture and moxibustion in terms of intervention methods on leading countries'. Second, we collected 72 papers considering impact factor of the journal and influential effect of the papers' result for qualitative analysis, and we divided the papers into pain related one or not, because the effect of AM on pain is major subject of AM study. The results showed that experimental studies regarding to AM still has several weakness such as limited usage of acupuncture points and inclined application of electroacupucture even though there are 361 acupuncture points in the human body and various kinds of stimulation methods using traditional needles and moxibustion. Therefore, we suggest that researchers should pay more attention to the study on basic AM research creatively and systematically through strengthening and enhancing the cooperation among colleges, research institutes and hospitals. Moreover, in order to promote the basic research of the AM, it is required that we need cross-disciplinary research as well as international collaboration research.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.72-79
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• 2002

This study was conducted to compare the physiological and biochemical responses of four Betula species in response to ozone, and to find out the relationship between ozone uptake rate and photosynthesis or antioxidant activity. One-year-old seedlings of four Betula sp, B. costata, B. davurica, B. platyphylla var, japonica, and B. ermani, exposed to 100 pub ozone concentration for 8h day$^{-1}$ for 5 weeks in fumigation chamber. Ozone uptake rate, photosynthesis, SOD and GR activity were measured in the leaves of four species once a week. Cumulative ozone uptake rate was largest in the loaves of B. costata(53.8 mmol m$^{-2}$ ), smallest in the leaves of B. davurica(35.5 mmol m$^{-2}$ ). Photosynthesis of four Betula sp. exposed to ozone reduced relative to control, but the photosynthetic responses with changing stomatal conductance were different among species. Ozone exposure increased SOD activities of four species at the early exposing period, but after a critical point SOD activity decreased gradually. GR activity of B. costata was similar to the change of SOD activity, but the others showed the different patterns from B. costata. In conclusion, decreasing both SOD and GR activity at the critical point, B. costata may be sensitive species in response to ozone. In contrast, the others may be resistant species, which gradually increase GR activity following ozone exposure. GR activity was not always in accord with the change of SOD activity against ozone uptake, and the different responses between species were supposed to be affected by the cumulative ozone uptake.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.12-23
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• 2014

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to report possibility of acupuncture or moxibustion for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) by reviewing literature about its effectiveness. Methods : In this review, PubMed, SCOPUS, Science Direct and CINAHL of EBSCOhost were used to search medical journals, using keywords "Parkinson's disease and acupuncture" and "Parkinson's disease and moxibustion". The search range included randomized controlled trials (RCT) about Parkinson's disease combined with another disease and other treatments with acupuncture or moxibustion. Non-randomized controlled trial (nRCT), case study, animal experiment, human experiment, review, survey, essay, letter, and protocol for review were excluded. Results : From 311 studies, 111 were selected during the title and the screening. Finally, 16 RCTs (15 for acupuncture research and one for moxibustion) were included in this review, after scanning and matching the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The number of patients varied between 5 and 88. A total of 12 studies using electroacupuncture (EA) were classified into acupuncture studies. The body acupuncture studies numbered 4, scalp acupuncture 4, body and scarp acupuncture mixed studies 4, and bee venom, ear and abdomen acupuncture were each one study. In evaluation methods, total effective rate method was used in 9 studies, the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) was used in 8, and the Webster score in 2. In addition, the Berg balance scale (BBS), 30 m walking time, steps to walk 30 m, PD motor function score, and Motor Performance Series by Schoppe (MLS) method were used for evaluation. In 15 of the 16 studies, the verum acupuncture group showed significant improvement compared with the control. In 9 studies using total effective rate method, the effective rate was reported as 80.0-97.3% in verum acupuncture groups and 52.6-86.4% in controls. Conclusions : Acupuncture may be a plausible alternative method to care for the long term symptoms and treat movement impairment of Parkinson's disease. However, to confirm this result, high quality studies including randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind trials are warranted.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.372-388
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• 2018

Objective: This study evaluates the effectiveness and safety of moxibustion for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Methods: Using the keywords "benign prostatic hyperplasia", "benign prostatic hypertrophy", "benign prostatic enlargement", "prostatic hyperplasia", and "moxibustion", we searched papers in numerous databases, including National Discovery for Science Leaders (NDSL), Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal (KTKP), Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System (OASIS), Research Information Sharing Service (RISS), PubMed, Embase, and CENTRAL. The search range included randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Papers not matched with inclusion criteria were excluded. The methodological quality of each RCT was assessed using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool. Where appropriate, meta-analyses were performed. Results: Initially, 77 studies were found. Of these, 11 duplicate studies were removed and 27 were excluded following title and abstract screening. After the remaining 39 papers were scanned, 13 RCTs were selected and analyzed. Among these 13 RCTs, five compared moxibustion therapy and oral medication, seven compared moxibustion plus acupuncture therapy and oral medication, and one compared moxibustion plus acupuncture therapy and sham-moxibustion. The meta-analysis showed positive results for the use of moxibustion therapy in terms of International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), Quality Of Life (QOL), Maximum Flow Rate (Qmax), Prostate Volume (PV), and the efficacy rate. The meta-analysis showed positive results for the use of moxibustion plus acupuncture therapy in terms of IPSS, QOL, and the efficacy rate. Conclusions: This meta-analysis of clinical trials suggests that moxibustion is effective intreating BPH patients. The results of this study could be applied to clinical treatment of BPH. However, additional large-scale clinical researches should be conducted.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.58 no.12
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• pp.491-500
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• 2015

Purpose: To investigate the caustic ingestion in children among different continents according to demographic characteristics (core purpose), main symptoms, common caustic agents, signs and symptoms, management, treatment and complications. Methods: This systematic review was performed by searching the databases Science Direct, ProQuest, Google Scholar, and PubMed, electronically and manually. We included studies that were published from 1980 to 2013, at University of Medical Sciences of Tabriz, Iran. A strategic search was performed with keywords including caustic, corrosive, ingestion and children, and was limited to articles in English and Persian. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS ver. 18. Results: Of 63 selected articles of caustic ingestion with 9,888 samples, the proportion of Africa was 3 articles (4.8%) and 95 samples (1%), America 9 articles (14.3%) and 305 sample (3%), Asia 29 articles (46%) and 2,780 samples (28.1%), Europe 17 articles (27%) and 3,002 samples (30.4%), and Oceania 5 articles (7.9%) and 3,706 samples (37.5%). The average age was in the Africa $3.07{\pm}2.02years$, America $3.17{\pm}1.83years$, Asia $3.34{\pm}1.58years$, Europe $3.58{\pm}2.09years$ and Oceania $3.52{\pm}2.02years$. Sex distribution was in Africa 76 males (0.91%) and 19 females (0.23%), America 49 males (0.58%) and 41 females (0.49%), Asia 1,575 males (18.76%) and 1,087 females (12.95%), Europe 1,018 males (12.13%) and 823 females (9.8%), and Oceania 1,918 males (22.85%) and 1,788 females (21.3%). Statistical analysis of the data indicated higher consumption in Europe and Oceania in the boys with higher average age of years. Conclusion: The comparison of caustic ingestion indicated that the cause substances of caustic ingestion in children are different among continents, therefore prevention strategy and different treatment guidelines among continents will be needed.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.30
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• pp.11.1-11.19
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• 2015

Objectives The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review to provide summarized evidence on the association between maternal exposure to particulate air pollution and birth weight (BW) and preterm birth (PTB) after taking into consideration the potential confounding effect of maternal smoking. Methods We systematically searched all published cohort and case-control studies examining BW and PTB association with particulate matter (PM, less than or equal to $2.5{\mu}m$ and $10.0{\mu}m$ in diameter, $PM_{2.5}$ and $PM_{10}$, respectively) from PubMed and Web of Science, from January 1980 to April 2015. We extracted coefficients for continuous BW and odds ratio (OR) for PTB from each individual study, and meta-analysis was used to combine the coefficient and OR of individual studies. The methodological quality of individual study was assessed using a standard protocol proposed by Downs and Black. Forty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. Results In random effects meta-analyses, BW as a continuous outcome was negatively associated with $10{\mu}g/m^3$ increase in $PM_{10}$ (-10.31 g; 95% confidence interval [CI], -13.57 to -3.13 g; I-squared=0%, p=0.947) and $PM_{2.5}$ (-22.17 g; 95% CI, -37.93 to -6.41 g; Isquared=92.3%, p<0.001) exposure during entire pregnancy, adjusted for maternal smoking. A significantly increased risk of PTB per $10{\mu}g/m^3$ increase in $PM_{10}$ (OR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.41; I-squared=0%, p=0.977) and $PM_{2.5}$ (OR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.22; I-squared=92.5%, p<0.001) exposure during entire pregnancy was observed. Effect size of change in BW per $10{\mu}g/m^3$ increase in PM tended to report stronger associations after adjustment for maternal smoking. Conclusions While this systematic review supports an adverse impact of maternal exposure to particulate air pollution on birth outcomes, variation in effects by exposure period and sources of heterogeneity between studies should be further explored.