• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2018

Sonographic findings with little or no pathological significance, known as soft markers, are often found in aneuploidy fetuses. After normal screening for the aneuploidy in first trimester, there are no uniform recommendations regarding when to disregard or put on clinical significance in isolated soft markers. Associations between some soft markers and adverse pregnancy outcomes including intrauterine fetal death, preterm birth, fetal growth restriction, and congenital infection have been reported in euploidy fetuses. The present article aims to review recent literatures about the clinical significance of soft markers after normal first trimester combined screening or noninvasive prenatal testing, and propose a simple clinical summary for management of specific soft markers in pregnancies.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.333-342
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• 1974

In September 1974, a survey was conducted towards 900 women respondents, each representing a household, residing in 18 selected Myuns(townships) of 18 Guns(counties) in Kyunggi-Do. Fifty households were selected randomly in each Myun and the sample Myuns were also randomly selected from the 18 Guns home-visiting interviews were carried out by Myun level maternal and child health workers with questionnair forms designed to measure the maternal and child health status at each household. Major findings obtained from this survey can be summarized as follows: 1. Of the women responents who were investigated in this survey, 13.1% of them were comprised in the illiterates, indicating no difference in literacy rate from that in most urban areas. 2. Most(93.8%) of the respondents were found to have married at ages of 20-24 years old. 3. Most(85.8%) of the respondents were found to have delivered their first babies at ages of 20-24, while only 13.4% had their first babies at 25-29. 4. About 22% of the respondents had 2 children, while 19% and another 19% had 2 and 4 children, respectively. 5. A great majority of the respondents (78%) experienced not a single death of a child within the family, while about 17% experienced death of one child. 0.7% of the women experienced deaths of 4 or more children. 6. 18% and 17% of the women experienced 4 and 3 pregnancies, respectively, and 12% of them experienced 7 or more pregnancies. 7. About 29% of the women experienced an induced abortion at least once. Nearly 2% of them were found to have experience of 4 or more induced abortions. 8. One half (51%) of the women were found to have received prenatal guidances in the latest pregnancies by (Ub(town) and Myun (township) level maternal and child health workers at least once or more times. 9. 52% women received professional prenatal care in the latest pregnancies: 24% at hospitals or clinics and 20% at health centers. 10. Most (89%) of the last-born children were delivered at home, while only 8.7% were delivered at hospital or clinics. 11. Materials used at delivery comprise vinyl (40%), cement bags (32%) ana gauzed or absorbent cottons (19%). 12. The largest preportion of the attendants at delivery comprises mothers in-law (48). Only 24% were found to be attended by either doctors, midwives or maternal and child health workers. 13. In most (90%) of the deliveries scissors were used to cut the umbilicus. But most (7%) of them used unsterilized scissors, 6 while only 20% of them used sterilized ones. 14. About 68% of the last-born babies were breast-fed for 12 months or more. Those who weaned during 6-12 months were 21%. 15. During 12 months after birth, 65% of the last-born babies were breast-fed, while 24% were given a combination of breast milk and cooked rice. 16. About nine out of the 10 births were found to be registered. 17. 71% of babies received BCG vaccination, while 79% and 56% received samllpox and DPT vaccinations, respectively within a year after birth. Those who were vaccinated against poliomyelitis were about 50%. 18. About 87% of the respondents recogninized the existence of government-sponsored maternal and child health guidance program.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.56-62
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• 2014

Purpose: To assess the outcomes of increased fetal nuchal translucency (NT), to aid in prenatal counseling and management in our practice. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who underwent first trimester fetal karyotyping using chorionic villi sampling (CVS) and second trimester level II sonography for a fetal NT thickness ${\geq}3.0mm$ between 11 weeks and 13 weeks 6 days' gestation, at Gyeongsang National University Hospital. Pediatric medical records and a telephone interview were used to follow-up live-born children. Exclusion criteria included incomplete data and CVS for other indications. Results: Seventy cases met the inclusion criteria (median NT thickness, 4.7 mm; range, 3.0-16.1 mm). Twenty-nine cases (41.4%) were aneuploid. The prevalence of chromosomal defects increased with NT thickness: NT 3.0-3.4 mm, 16.7%; NT 3.5-4.4 mm, 27.3%; NT 4.5-5.4 mm, 66.7%; NT 5.5-6.4 mm, 37.5%; NT ${\geq}6.5mm$, 62.5%. The most common karyotype abnormality was trisomy 18 (n=12), followed by trisomy 21 (n=9). In chromosomally normal fetuses (n=41), fetal death occurred in 2 cases (4.9%), and structural malformations were found in 11 cases (26.8%). In chromosomally and anatomically normal fetuses (n=28), one child had neurodevelopmental delay (3.6%). Twenty-eight infants who had a prenatal increased NT were alive and well at follow-up (40%). Conclusion: Outcomes of increased fetal NT might help inform prenatal counseling and management. The high prevalence of chromosomal defects associated with increased fetal NT implies that CVS should be performed in the first trimester, particularly considering the stress associated with an uncertain diagnosis.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.273-284
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• 1996

Embryos and fetuses are more sensitive to various environmental agents than are adults or children. The biological effects such as intrauterine death and malformation are closely connected with prenatal exposure very various agents. The sensitivity of these embryonic/fetal effects depends on the stage of pregnancy. From the viewpoint of fetal development, embryonic and fetal stages can be divided into three stages : Preimplantation, organogenetic and fetal. Each stage corresponds to 0 to 4.5days, 4.5 to 13.5days, and 13.5days of gestation in mice, respectively. Many studies on the biologcal effects of mice irradiated by ${\gamma}-rays$ at various stages during organogenesis and fetal period have been performed. Based on these results, the dose-effect and dose-response relationships in malformations, intrauterine death, or retardation of the physical growth have been practically modeled by the ICRP(International Commission on Radiological Protection) and other international bodies for radiation protection. Many experimental studies on mice have made it clear that mice embryos in the preimplantation period have a higher sensitivity to radiation for lethal effects than the embryos/fetuses on other prenatal periods. However, no eratogenic effects of radiation at preimplantation stages of mice have been described in many textbooks. It has been believed that 'all or none action results' for radiation of mice during the preimplantation period were applied. The teratogenic and lethal effects during the preimplantation stage are one of the most important problems from the viewpoint of radiological protection, since the preimplantation stage is the period when the pregnancy itself is not noticed by a pregnant woman. There are many physical or chemical agents which affect embryos/fetuses in the environment. It is assumed that each agents indirectly effects a human. Then, a safety criterion on each agent is determined independently. The pregnant ICR mice on 2, 48, 72 or 96 hours post-conception (hpc), at which are preimplantation stage of embryos, were irradiated whole body Cesium-gamma radiation at doses of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1.5, and 2.5 Gy with dose rate of 0.2 Gy/min. In the embryos from the fetuses from the mice irradiated at various period in preimplantation, embryonic/fetal mortalities, incidence of external gross malformation, fetal body weight and sex ratio were observed at day 18 of gestation. The sensitivity of embryonic mortalities in the mice irradiated at the stage of preimplantation were higher than those in the mice irradiated at the stage of organogenesis. And the more sensitive periods of preimplantation stage for embryonic death were 2 and 48 hpc, at which embryos were one cell and 4 to 7 cell stage, respectively. Many types of the external gross malformations such as exencephaly, cleft palate and anophthalmia were observed in the fetuses from the mice irradiated at 2, 72 and 96 hpc. However, no malformations were observed in the mice irradiated at 48 hpc, at which stage the embryos were about 6 cell stage precompacted embryos. So far, it is believed that the embryos on preimplantation stage are not susceptible to teratogens such as radiation and chemical agents. In this study, the sensitivity for external malformations in the fetuses from the mice irradiated at preimplantation were higher than those in the fetuses on stage of organogenesis.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 1976

Introduction Recently, changes in the patterns and concepts of maternity care, in both developing and developed countries have been accelerating. An outstanding development in this field is the number of deliveries taking place in hospitals or maternity centers. In Korea, however, more than 90% of deliveries are carried out at home with the help of untrained relatives or even without helpers. It is estimated that less than 10% of deliveries are assisted by professional persons such as a physician or a midwife. Taking into account the shortage of professional person i11 rural Korea, it is difficult to expect widespread prenatal, postnatal, and delivery care by professional persons in the near future, It is unrealistic, therefore, to expect rapid development of MCH care by professional persons in rural Korea due to economic and sociological reasons. Given these conditions. it is reasonable that an educated village women could used as a "maternity aid", serving simple and technically easy roles in the MCH field, if we could give such a women incentive to do so. The midwife and physician are assigned difficult problems in the MCH field which could not be solved by the village worker. However, with the application of the village worker system, we could expect to improve maternal and child hoalth through the replacement of untrained relatives as birth attendants with educated and trained maternity aides. We hope that this system will be a way of improving MCH care, which is only one part of the general health services offered at the local health centre level. Problems of MCH in rural Korea The field of MCH is not only the weakest point in the medical field in our country hut it has also dropped behind other developing countries. Regarding the knowledge about pregnancy and delivery, a large proportion of our respondents reported having only a little knowledge, while 29% reported that they had "sufficient" knowledge. The average number of pregnancies among women residing in rural areas was 4.3 while the rate of women with 5 or more pregnancies among general women and women who terminated childbearing were 43 and 80% respectively. The rate of unwanted pregnancy among general women was 19.7%. The total rate for complications during pregnancy was 15.4%, toxemia being the major complication. The rate of pregnant women with chronic disease was 7%. Regarding the interval of pregnancy, the rates of pregnancy within 12 months and within 36 months after last delivery were 9 and 49% respectively. Induced abortion has been increasing in rural areas, being as high as 30-50% in some locations. The maternal death rate was shown 10 times higher than in developed countries (35/10,000 live births). Prenatal care Most women had no consultation with a physician during the prenatal period. Of those women who did have prenatal care, the majority (63%) received such care only 1 or 2 times throughout the entire period of pregnancy. Also, in 80% of these women the first visit Game after 4 months of gestation. Delivery conditions This field is lagging behind other public health problems in our country. Namely, more than 95% of the women deliveried their baby at home, and delivery attendance by a professional person occurred only 11% of the time. Attendance rate by laymen was 78% while those receiving no care at all was 16%. For instruments used to cut the umbilical corn, sterilized scissors were used by 19%, non-sterilized scissors by 63% and 16% used sickles. Regarding delivery sheets, the rate of use of clean sheets was only 10%, unclean sheets, vinyl and papers 72%, and without sheets, 18%. The main reason for not using a hospital as a place of delivery was that the women felt they did not need it as they had previously experience easy deliveries outside hospitals. Difficult delivery composed about 5% of the total. Child health The main food for infants (95%) was breast milk. Regarding weaning time, the rates within one year, up to one and half, two, three and more than three years were 28,43,60,81 and 91% respectively, and even after the next pregnancy still continued lactation. The vaccination of children is the only service for child health in rural Korea. As shown in the Table, the rates of all kinds of vaccination were very low and insufficient. Infant death rate was 42 per 1,000 live births. Most of the deaths were caused by preventable diseases. Death of infants within the neonatal period was 83% meaning that deaths from communicable diseases decreased remarkably after that time. Infant deaths which occurred without medical care was 52%. Methods of improvement in the MCH field 1. Through the activities of village health workers (VHW) to detect pregnant women by home visiting and. after registration. visiting once a month to observe any abnormalities in pregnant women. If they find warning signs of abnormalities. they refer them to the public health nurse or midwife. Sterilized delivery kits were distributed to the expected mother 2 weeks prior to expected date of delivery by the VHW. If a delivery was expected to be difficult, then the VHW took the mother to a physician or call a physician to help after birth, the VHW visits the mother and baby to confirm health and to recommend the baby be given proper vaccination. 2. Through the midwife or public health nurse (aid nurse) Examination of pregnant women who are referred by the VHW to confirm abnormalities and to treat them. If the midwife or aid nurse could not solve the problems, they refer the pregnant women to the OB-GY specialist. The midwife and PHN will attend in the cases of normal deliveries and they help in the birth. The PHN will conduct vaccination for all infants and children under 5, years old. 3. The Physician will help only in those cases referred to him by the PHN or VHW. However, the physician should examine all pregnant women at least three times during their pregnancy. First, the physician will identify the pregnancy and conduct general physical examination to confirm any chronic disease that might disturb the continuity of the pregnancy. Second, if the pregnant woman shows any abnormalities the physician must examine and treat. Third, at 9 or 10 months of gestation (after sitting of the baby) the physician should examine the position of the fetus and measure the pelvis to recommend institutional delivery of those who are expected to have a difficult delivery. And of course. the medical care of both the mother and the infants are responsible of the physician. Overall, large areas of the field of MCH would be served by the VHW, PHN, or midwife so the physician is needed only as a parttime worker.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.25-36
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• 1968

Introduction In order to improve medical education through the introduction of a concept of comprehensive health care of a community, an area surrounding the University Campus was chosen for the Community Health Service Project. It has been on operation for last 4 years with its major emphasis on family planning services, and maternal and child health care. The major objectives of this survey at the area are to obtain: 1) The demographic data, 2) The health need and trend of medical care, 3) The attitude and practice in maternity care to be used for further improvement of the planning and the services of the project. Population and Survey Method Out of three Dongs of the Community Health Service Area, only two Dongs namely Changchun and Yonhee were selected for the survey. Total number of households and population in the area studied was 3,683 and 21,857 respectively. An interview was performed with questionnaire schedule which was recorded by interviewers. This includes the degree of utilization of health services provided by the Community Health Service Program such as family planning, prenatal care during their last pregnancy, delivery history and complications of the delivery as well as the incidence of illnesses in general. Prior to the interview, all interviewers were trained for interviewing technique for two days. The survey was carried out during the period from October December 1967. Results 1) Demographic Data : 41.3% of the population studied were children under age 15 and only 3.5% were over 60 years of age. Crude birth rate and crude death rate of this area studied during the period of November 1966-October 1967 were 20.5 and 7.7 respectively. Infant mortality rate during the same period was 35.9. 50.4% of the 2,832 households fell into the category of middle class, 39.8% to the lower class and 9.5% to the upper class in economic condition. 19.8% of 2,832 householders had no formal education, 22.7% primary school, and 57.5% middle or higher school education. 2) Health Status and Utilization of the Community Health Service: Those who suffered from many illnesses during the month of October, 1967 were 690(4.6% of 14,891 persons). Classification of these patients into the type of disease shown respiratory diseases 27.4%, gastrointestinal diseases 18.1%, tuberculosis 10.9%, skin and genitourethral diseases 4.5% and gynecologic patients 4.5%. Only 55.9% of the patients received medical care at hospital or doctor's clinic. But among TB and gynecologic patients, 70.7% and 72.4% were treated at medical facilities. 10.6% of 2,832 householders interviewed has ever utilized the Community Health Service Program provided by the Yonsei Medical School, Classifying these clients into the type of service, 35.9% utilized the wellbaby clinic, 31.0% the family planning clinic, 14.7% the home delivery care, and the rest utilized other services such as the premarital guidance cinlic and the sanitary inspection service. 3) Maternity Care: 23.6% of 2,151 deliveries were done at medical facilities such as hospital, private clinic, while 76.4% were done at home. Acceptance rate of prenatal care was 32.6% as whole, but 49.6 of 774 women who had the prenatal care service had their deliveries at medical facility. 45.1% of total deliveries were attended by medical and or paramedical personnel. 75.8% of the deliveries of those received prenatal care were attended by medical and or paramedical personnel while only 27.8% of the deliveries of those who did not have prenatal care attended by medical and or paramedical personnel. 49.8% of deliveries of the upper class, 29.8% of the middle class and 9.9% of the lower class were attended by medical and or paramedical personnel. 6.2, 3.3% and 24.8% of mothers reported about their xeperience of edema, coma and fever during the period of trimester of pregnancy and puerperium. 4) Family Planning: The rate of practice of family planning was 27.9%. 31.7% of them were by IUD, 2.9% by oral pill, 15.2% by sterilization and the rest by traditional methods. Those women who had 3 to 4 children had highest(30.2%). Practice rate among the various methods of family planning, oral pill was the most popular method to whom had 2 or less children. In relation between the practicing rate of family planning and living standard, the upper, middle and lower class practiced 37.5, 29.4 and 19.9% respectively.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.286-296
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• 2021

Purpose: This study compared infant mortality and its associated factors between Korean and immigrant women using vital statistics gathered by Statistics Korea. Methods: Birth and death statistics from the period between 2009 and 2019 were extracted from the census of population dynamics data of the Microdata Integrated Service, Korea. Statistical data were derived from a complete survey and infant mortality was analyzed from mortality statistics data. Descriptive statistics were used for comparison. Results: The average infant mortality rate (IMR) of Korean women was 2.7 in Korea, which did not change significantly between 2009 and 2019; however, the IMR of immigrant women increased significantly in 2018 to 4.2 and subsequently decreased to 2.6 in 2019. Moreover, the age of Korean and immigrant women at the time of infant death gradually increased from 31.1 years and 25.9 years in 2009 to 32.8 years and 30.9 years in 2019, respectively. The gestational age was lower for deceased infants born to immigrant women (mean, 31.04 weeks; standard deviation [SD], 6.42; median, 30.00) compared to infants born to Korean women (mean, 31.71 weeks; SD, 6.48; median, 32.00). Immigrant women (91.7%) received slightly fewer antenatal care visits compared to Korean women (93.1%). Conclusion: It is vital to devise a plan to lower the IMR of immigrant women in Korea. Moreover, it is necessary to explore the factors related to infant mortality among immigrant women within the context of Korean societal situation, culture, and home environment.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.75-86
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• 1995

Embryos and fetuses are more sensitive to various environmental agents than adults of children biological effects following the exposure, such as intrauterin, malformation, have intimate conception with the prenatal exposure. There have been many studies on radiation and other agent. However, imformation about the ultrasound effects is limited. It is very important to study the effect of ultrasound with these kinds of fatera in consideration of ultrasound protection and safty. In this study, embryonic and fefal effects of ICR mouse embryos irradiated on 24, 48, 12 and 192 hpc of preimplantation and organogenesis period at the intensity of $0.5{\sim}3\;W/cm^2$ were investigated. Many type of external malformation observed in mouse irradiated on 72 hpc and 192 hpc. However, the embryos irradiated on 24 hpc and 48 hpc, at witch embryos had less then 6 cells and were pre-compaction stage, had no sensitivity for external malformation. The threshold doses of external malformation in mouse irradiated on 72 hpc and 192 hpc, at which embryos were consisted of $16{\sim}32$ cells and neural formation stage, were $1\;W/cm^2$ and $0.5\;W/cm^2$.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.167-180
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• 2015

Arsenic is a toxic metalloid that exists ubiquitously in the environment, and affects global health problems due to its carcinogenicity. In most populations, the main source of arsenic exposure is the drinking water. In drinking water, chronic exposure to arsenic is associated with increased risks of various cancers including those of skin, lung, bladder, and liver, as well as numerous other non-cancer diseases including gastrointestinal and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and neurologic and cognitive problems. Recent emerging evidences suggest that arsenic exposure affects the reproductive and developmental toxicity. Prenatal exposure to inorganic arsenic causes adverse pregnancy outcomes and children's health problems. Some epidemiological studies have reported that arsenic exposure induces premature delivery, spontaneous abortion, and stillbirth. In animal studies, inorganic arsenic also causes fetal malformation, growth retardation, and fetal death. These toxic effects depend on dose, route and gestation periods of arsenic exposure. In males, inorganic arsenic causes reproductive dysfunctions including reductions of the testis weights, accessory sex organs weights, and epididymal sperm counts. In addition, inorganic arsenic exposure also induces alterations of spermatogenesis, reductions of testosterone and gonadotrophins, and disruptions of steroidogenesis. However, the reproductive and developmental problems following arsenic exposure are poorly understood, and the molecular mechanism of arsenic-induced reproductive toxicity remains unclear. Thus, we further investigated several possible mechanisms underlying arsenic-induced reproductive toxicity.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.401-410
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide basic data necessary for educating nursing students by establishing a desirable sense of ethics values. Method: In this descriptive research, 101 nursing students and 191 non-nursing students (in other health related fields) from Daejeon City were selected. Tools used for data analysis were descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Scheffe test and step wise multiple regression with SPSS/WIN 12.0 version. Results: Average scores for consciousness of biomedical ethics in nursing students was 2.94, and in non-nursing students, 2.77. When differences in the consciousness of biomedical ethics of nursing and non-nursing students were compared, nursing students had significantly higher scores for artificial abortion, artificial insemination, prenatal diagnosis of fetus, right to life of newborn, euthanasia, organ transplantation and human biotechnology, but significantly lower for brain death. Variables which influenced consciousness of biomedical ethics were religion and economic status in the nursing students and intent to attend a class in biomedical ethics, quantity and quality of biomedical ethics in the current curriculum and religion in the non-nursing students. Conclusion: Continuing educational programs need to be considered and attention given to the significant variables that can promote consciousness of biomedical ethics in nursing students.