• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.69 no.5
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• pp.361-367
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• 2010

Background: Difficult-to-treat asthma afflicts a small percentage of the asthma population. However, these patients remain refractory to treat, and account for 40% to 50% of the health costs of asthma treatment, incurring significant morbidity. We conducted a multi-center cross-sectional study to characterize difficult-to-treat asthma in Korea. Methods: Subjects with difficult-to-treat asthma and subjects with controlled asthma were recruited from 5 outpatient clinics of referral hospitals. We reviewed medical records of previous 6 months and obtained patient-reported questionnaires composed of treatment compliance, asthma control, and instruments for stress, anxiety, and depression. Results: We recruited 21 subjects with difficult-to-treat asthma and 110 subjects with controlled asthma into the study. The subjects with difficult-to-treat asthma were associated with longer treatment periods, more increased health care utilization, more medication (oral corticosteroids, number of medication), and more anxiety disorder compared to those of well-controlled asthmatics. There was no difference in age, gender, history of allergy, serum IgE, blood eosinophil count, or body mass index between the 2 groups. Conclusion: Difficult-to-treat asthma is characterized by increased health care utilization and more co-morbidity of anxiety.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.155-158
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• 2015

Lymphangioma is a congenital abnormality of the lymphatic system detected primarily in early childhood. There are rare reports of mediastinal lymphangioma in older adults. We hereby report on a 66-year-old female patient who underwent kidney transplantation 20 years previously and who developed pathologically confirmed solitary mediastinal lymphangioma 1 year ago. Chest radiography showed a mediastinal nodule, which was not observed 2 year previously, therefore she was referred to the pulmonary division. She had no symptoms, and chest computed tomography demonstrated a 25-mm, well-defined, low-density nodule located at the anterior mediastinum. The size of the nodule had increased from 25 mm to 34 mm 1 year later, and it was completely resected via video-assisted thoracic surgery. The histological diagnosis was cystic lymphangioma. Therefore, we recommend that clinicians consider cystic lymphangioma as a possible diagnosis even in older patients with a mediastinal cystic mass that shows progressive enlargement.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.301-309
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• 2015

Objectives: While recent studies showed that coffee consumption reduced the risk of all-cause mortality, no study has examined the effect of coffee consumption on all-cause mortality related to sleep disorders. We aimed to examine whether sleep-related disorders would differently affect the association between coffee consumption and the risk of all-cause mortality among 8,075 adults aged 40 to 69 years. Methods: In a prospective cohort study, the study participants were biennially followed up for 12 years from 2001 to 2012. On each follow-up visit, the participants underwent comprehensive tests including anthropometric examinations, interviewer-administered questionnaires, and biochemical tests. Coffee consumption frequency and the amount were measured using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Using death certificate data from Korean National Statistical Office, the vital status of each study participant was identified. Sleep-related disorders were examined with interviewer-administered questionnaires. We estimated Hazard ratios and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals from Cox Proportional Hazard models. Multivariable models were established after adjusting for center, total caloric intake, age, gender, body mass index, physical activity, education, smoking, drinking, hypertension, diabetes, total cholesterol, c-reactive protein, energy-adjusted food groups of refined grains, vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, and dairy. Results: Compared with those who had no coffee consumption, participants who had about three cups of coffee per day showed a reduced risk of all-cause mortality, after adjusting for covariates. Those who had a sleep-related disorder showed no significant effect of coffee consumption on the risk of all-cause mortality, whereas those who had no sleep-related disorders showed significantly reduced risk of all-cause mortality. Conclusions: Our findings suggested that approximately three cups of coffee per day would be beneficial to reduce the risk of all-cause mortality only among adults with no sleep-related disorders. Coffee consumption should be prudent for those with sleep-related symptoms.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 2017

Background: To assess the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) following shoulder surgery and to evaluate the role of postoperative duplex ultrasonography. Methods: The study comprised a total of 224 patients who underwent shoulder surgery, including 180 shoulder arthroscopic surgeries, 28 shoulder arthroplasties, and 16 plate fixations for proximal humerus fracture between January 2014 and December 2014. The mean age of patients was 59.0 years, and there were 81 men and 143 women. Clinical data, including body mass index, blood tests, metabolic work-up for liver and renal function, previous, and present medical history, were evaluated. Duplex ultrasonography in the operative arm was performed on 2 to 4 days after surgery. Results: The overall incidence of VTE following shoulder surgery was 0.45% (1/224). One patient with open reduction and plate fixation for proximal humerus fracture had asymptomatic deep vein thrombosis that showed complete remission after anticoagulant medication during a 2-month period. Four patients had asymptomatic superficial cephalic vein thrombosis and complete remission without any treatment. There was no case of pulmonary embolism. Conclusions: The incidence of VTE following shoulder surgery was extremely low in Asians. Duplex ultrasonography may be not considered a routine follow-up of shoulder surgery and can be selectively performed in high-risk or symptomatic patients for VTE.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.75-80
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• 2014

This paper proposed a method that can automatically classify sleep apnea by using features extracted from pulse rate variability(PRV) signals induced from piezo snoring sensor for patients with obstructive sleep apnea(OSA). We have extracted eight features(NN, SDNN, RMSSD, NN10, NN50, LF, HF and LF/HF ratio) based on time and frequency analyses of PRV. Sleep apnea was classified by a linear discriminant analysis(LDA). A performance was evaluated using snore recordings from 13 patients with OSA (ages: $54.5{\pm}10.5$ years, body mass index: $26.3{\pm}2.5kg/m^2$, apnea-hypopnea index: $19.2{\pm}6.0/h$). The sensitivity and specificity were $78.9{\pm}0.9%$ and $78.9{\pm}0.9%$ for training set and $77.7{\pm}10.9%$ and $79.0{\pm}2.8%$ for test set, respectively. Our study demonstrated the feasibility of implementing a piezo snoring sensor based on a portable device as a simple and cost-effective solution for contributing to the OSA screening.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.446-457
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyse researches on nursing intervention for elderly health promotion. Method: A literature review of 38 researches was carried out using guidelines developed by the present researchers. Result: The research papers studied in this research were theses written for doctoral or master's degree and published between 1994 to 2004. These researches applied nursing intervention for health promotion of elders and used experimental study design. The average period of nursing intervention was about 9 weeks and the average frequency was three times per week. As for major characteristics of subject groups, most of them were over 65 years old (76.3%) and resided in community (65.8%), and each group consisted of 10 to 29 elders. The dependent variables used in these studies included physiological variables (blood pressure, blood cholesterol level, pulmonary function, fasting blood sugar, blood cortisol level, body mass etc.), psychologic variables (depression, quality of life, life satisfaction, loneliness, anxiety etc.), cognitive variables (perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, self-concept, subjective health status etc.), activities of daily livings, health promotion behavior, pain, risks of fall, and variables related to Trans Theoretical Model. The majority of these studies (78.9%) applied exercise programs for health promotion including exercise motivating programs (15.8%). Conclusion: We suggest that more various nursing interventions must be applied to promote elders' health and to take care of their chronic diseases.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.658-662
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• 1994

The leiomyosarcoma is uncommon tumor that consists of 10% of all sarcoma incidence and commonly arise from retroperitoneum or mesentery. But leiomyosarcoma arose from mediastinum is very rare and only incidental case report is present. Mediastinal leiomyosarcoma may originate from superior vena cava, pulmonary artery, small vessels of alveoli, esophagus and cardiac muscle. Common symptoms that are related with leiomyosarcoma of mediastinum are cough and dyspnea but dysphagia, chest pain and hemoptysis can be produced. Although long term survival after complete resection of tumor was reported in localized disease, there was no effective therapy that prolong the survival in patients who had disseminated disease or huge tumor mass. We report the case of posterior mediastinal leiomyosarcoma confirmed by aspiration cytology and immunohistochemical staining, along with a review of literature.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.200-203
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• 2007

Adenocarcinoma presenting as a solitary mass with a cavity in chest computed tomogram is rare. A few reports have suggested an association between lung cancer and emphysema. We report a case of adenocarcinoma surrounding pulmonary emphysema that mimicked fungal pneumonia. This case highlights the need for cliniclians to be aware of the potential development of lung cancer in patients with emphysema.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 1998

The pulmonary metastasis and bony metastasis finally resulted from the malignant tumors as one of the inevitable problems. Among them, the bony metastasis, which frequently involved the vertebrae, pelvis, ribs, sternum, and skull, have had the frequencies over 30%. Metastasis to the distal part of the knee is rare. However, acrometastasis which occured in bones of the foot is even rarer(0.4%) and a late manifetation of a disseminated disease from the literature review. Acrometastasis should be considered in elderly patients with a history of the previous malignancy, complaint of foot pain and mass lesion. We are reporting one rectal carcinoma with acrometastasis to the second metatarsal bone.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.39 no.3 s.260
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• pp.244-247
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• 2006

Granular cell tumors (GCT) are uncommon benign neoplasms. Their location is mostly in the the skin, tongue, and breast; appearance in other parts of the body is rare, but it has been reported. They have also been reported to occur synchronously in multiple organs and metachronously in a single organ. The incidence of GCTs in the tracheobronchial tree is unknown and pulmonary GCTs are uncommon, with approximately 100 reported cases in the literature. We present the case of a 33-year-old man with a granular cell tumor of the left main bronchus. The tumor was found at bronchoscopy performed to exclude suspected endobronchial mass with symptoms of pneumonia. Biopsies revealed the histological pattern of a benign granular cell tumor. He underwent resection of the left main bronchus followed by end to end anastomosis of left main bronchus. He has not had any recurrence of the tumor during the 1 year follow-up.