• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.196-204
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• 2001

Background : Bronchial asthma is characterized by a reversible airway obstruction, airway hyperresponsiveness, and eosinophilic airway inflammation. The bronchodilator response(BDR) after short acting beta agonist inhalation and PC20 with methacholine inhalation are frequently used for diagnosing bronchial asthma. However, the relationship between the presence of a bronchodilator response and the degree of airway hyperresponsiveness is uncertain. Therefore, the availability of a eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and a correlation ECP with a bronchodilator response and airway hyperresponsiveness was investigated. Method : A total 71 patients with a moderate to severe degree of bronchial asthma were enrolled and divided into two groups. 31 patients with a positive bronchodilator response and 38 patients with a negative bronchodilator response were evaluated. In both groups, the serum ECP, peripheral blood eosinophil counts, and total IgE level were measured and the methacholine bronchial provocation test was examined. Results : There were no differences observed in age, sex, atopy, and baseline spirometry in both groups. The peripheral eosinophil counts showed no difference in both groups, but the ECP level in group 1 (bronchodilator responder group) was higher than in group 2(non-bronchodilator responder group) ($22.4{\pm}20.7$ vs $14.2{\pm}10.4$, mean$\pm$SD). The PC20 in group 1 was significantly lower than in group 2 ($1.14{\pm}1.68$ vs $66{\pm}2.98$). There was a significant positive correlation between the BDR and ECP, and a negative correlation between the bronchial hyperresponsiveness and ECP. Conclusion : The bronchodilator response significantly correlated with the bronchial hyperresponsiveness and serum ECP in the moderate to severe asthma patients. Hence, the positive bronchodilator response is probably related with active bronchial inflammation and may be used as a valuable index in treatment, course and prognosis of bronchial asthma.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.273-283
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• 1983

In order to investigate the effect of the combined dietary animal and vegetable proteins on growing female and male rats and mice. 25 female and 25 male rats of 4 weeks old weighing approximately 43-65g and 47-60g, respectively, were subjected to feeding trials for 4 weeks and then subsequently to metabolic trials for 10 days. In case of mice, 25 female and 25 male mice of 4 weeks old weighing approximately 12-17g and 12-16g, respectively, were equally treated. The dietary energy level was set as 3600 kcal ME/kg, and protein and fat provided respectively 12 and 5% of the dietary energy. The rest 83% of the energy level was supplied with appropriate amounts of starch and glucose. The following results were obtained. The body weight gain of female and male rats were increased as the combined dietary animal protein level increased. Whereas that of male mice was the highest for the diet E(Ap 10+Vp 90). Food efficiencies both of female and male rats were improved as combined dietary of animal protein increased. Male rats were superior to that of female. In the mice, the food efficiency value of male mice was superior to that of female. And the values of the male showed the same fashion as that in the growth rate, although it was not for the female. Protein efficiencies, both of female and male rats, were improved as combined dietary of animal protein level increased. That of male mice was in accord with the body weight gain and food efficiencies. But that of female mice was not accordant. Nitrogen retention of the experimental diets in the same protein level was in proportion to nitrogen intake. That of male mice was improved as animal protein level increased, but, that of female mice was not. Body protein utilizability was found to be superior in mice to rats. Blood serum protein level was not found to be affected by the experimental diets in the same protein level. The best combination ratio of animal and vegetable protein seems to be variable depending on the sex and species of animals, and the best diets for female and male rats and female and male mice were found to be experimental diet A(Ap 10+Vp 90) or diet B(Ap 75+Vp 25), diet C(Ap 50+Vp 50), and diet E(Ap 10+Vp 90), respectively. From the above-mentioned results that there was no difference in growth rate of body weight gain from the weanling period to puberty, and that the protein requirements of rats and mice were different from each other.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.40-46
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• 2005

Purpose: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are mesenchymal neoplasms of the gastrointestinal tract. GISTs are positive for the expression of c-Kit protein at immunohistochemistry, and their clinical presentations vary. This retrospective study was performed to evaluate the clincopathologic characteristics of GISTs and to define the prognostic factors. Materials and Methods: 40 patients who underwent a complete resection of a GIST during the period $1996\~2003$ at the Department of Surgery, Korea University College of Medicine, were studied. We divided them into low- and high-risk. groups by using tumor size and mitotic count: 23 cases were low risk, and 17 were high risk. Clinicopathologic features, immunohistochemical findings, and prognoses were compared between the low- and the high-risk groups. Results: The mean age of the 40 patients was $61.3\pm11.1$years, and the male-to-female ratio was 1：1.1. There was no significant difference in age and sex between the groups. A comparative analysis revealed tumor size, mitotic count, clinical symptoms, preoperative pathologic diagnosis, ulceration, and necrosis to be variables that had statistically significant differences between the high- and the low-risk groups. In the univariate analysis, tumor size, mitotic count, ulceration, necrosis, and abnormal endoscopic ultrasound findings were associated with disease-free survival, but in the multivariate analysis, mitotic activity was the only independent factor associated with disease-free survival. 8 patients had recurrences during the follow-up period, and four of them were treated with STI-571 (imatinib mesylate, $Gleevec^{(R)}$). The treated patients have survived until now; however, two of non-treated patients died from disease progression. Conclusion: Based on this study, tumor size, ulceration, and necrosis are significant factors affecting survival, and mitotic activity may be a useful prognostic marker. STI-571 may be used in an adjuvant setting because the drug has shown anticancer activity in patients with recurrence or metastasis.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2006

Purpose: The five-year survival rate is over 95% for radically resected early gastric cancer. The development of diagnostic techniques enables early detection of gastric cancer, so the life expectancy of patients with early gastric cancer is prolonged. Therefore, a limited number of surgeries are performed these days for the purpose of increasing the quality of life. The purpose of this study is to assess the postoperative quality of life after a pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (PPG) compared with that after a subtotal gastrectomy with gastroduodenal anastomosis (B-I). Materials and Methods: One hundred seven (107) patients who underwent gastric surgery for early gastric cancer from January 1999 to December 2003 at the Department of Surgery of Chonnam National University Hospital were selected. We compared patients who underwent a PPG with those who underwent a B-I. The clinical results were compared by using the chi-square test and the Student's T-test. The data were considered to be significant when the P value was less than 0.05. Results: Twenty-nine patients (29) underwent a PPG, and the other seventy-eight (78) patients underwent a B-I. There was no significant difference between the two groups on sex, age, and postoperative abdominal symptoms. The patients who underwent a PPG showed shorter operation times and less reflux gastritis and esophagitis on endoscopic evaluation than the patients who underwent a B-I. Conclusion: The pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (PPG) is a more physiologic operation than the subtotal gastrectomy with gastroduodenal anastomosis (B-I) and improves the postoperative quality of life.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.705-713
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• 1998

Background: An association between diabetes and tuberculosis has long been implied. The severity of diabetes appears to correlate with the degree of tuberculous activity. Methods: A retrospective chart review of 82 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis in diabetics (DMTB) and 83 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis in nondiabetics (Non-DMTB) admitted to the Kyung Hee Medical Center between January 1995 and December 1996 was underiaken. Results: The sex ratio of DMTB was 58 : 24, and that of Non-DMTB was 62 : 21. Male patients predominated in both groups. The highest incidence of DMTB was 6th and 7th decades and that of Non-DMTB was 3rd and 4th decades. In case which the tuberculosis developed after diagnosis of diabetes, the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis was the highest in diabetes for 5-10 years. On chest X-ray findings, the moderate advanced tuberculosis cases were the most common (60.9% in DMTTB and 50.6% in Non-DMTB). There was no relation between the degree of tuberculosis activity on chest x-ray(minimal, moderate, and far advanced tuberculosis) and presence of diabetes. The incidence of lower lung field tuberculosis in DMTB was significantly higher than Non-DMTB(p<0.05). The multiple lobe involvement was the predominant chest roentgenographic finding in both groups. There was no significant difference of treatment response between DMTB and Non-DMTB. There was no relationship between initial HbA1c and the severity of pulmonary tuberculosis on chest X-ray. During treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in excellently and well controlled diabetes, the cure rate of pulmonary tuberculosis was significantly higher than the poorly controlled diabetes and the rate of treatment failure was significantly lower than poorly controlled diabetes. (p<0.05). Conclusion: Poor control of blood glucose is related with increased rate of treatment failure in pulmonary tuberculosis with diabetes mellitus. Further investigation will be needed to study the mechanisms of treatment failure in poorly controlled diabetics with pulmonary tuberculosis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.262-269
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• 1994

Background : A clinical study was carried out on 153 new cases with small cell lung cancer registered at Presbyterian Medical Center, Chonju during the 7 years from 1986 to 1992. They were analyzed by sex and age distribution, symptoms and signs, classification of stage and site and its treatments. Especially, an effort was made to compare the overall survival time between limited stage and extensive stage. Methods : Among 806 lung cancer patients diagnosed by biopsy or cytologic evaluation for the 7 years, 153 patients was shown small cell lung cancer. These 153 cases was analyzed retrospectivery through patient's records, letters or telephones. Results : The results of evaluation of small cell lung cancer are as follows. Over 85 percent of the small cell lung cancer patients were over 50 years of age and prominent clinical features were cough(86.3%), sputum(75.8%) and dyspnea(54.9%). One hundred and five patients(68.7%) was staged to have limited stage. Mean survival time of the chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy in limited stage has significant difference and its survivals are 5.3 months and 15.0 months. Patients whose disease was staged as limited, regardless of whether or not chemotherapy was administered, had a median survival time of 10.9 months, compared with 4.8 months for those with extensive stage. Conclusion : Lung cancer is one of the malignant diseases tend to increase gradually in Korea and proven to be the most common cancer next to the gastric cancer among various cancers in males found at the Presbyterian Medical Center in the past seven years. This report is a retrospective view of the clinical therapeutic results of the small cell lung cancer patients. Especially at the limited stage, the combined therapy revealed higher survival rate than the chemotherapy alone. For a more accurate evaluation. a prospective view, without any bias, of patients selected at random is needed.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.41-51
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• 2000

Clinical observation was made on 44 cases of stable thoracolumbar compression fracture that were confirmed through simple x-ray and neurological examination. They were hospitalized and treated by acupuncture and moxibustion, bed rest, herb medicine and physical therapy. If necessary, patient was given an enema. The results obtained are as follows. 1. The patient distribution ratio, in regard to sex, was shown to be 1: 13.7 for males to females. In regard to age, it was shown that people in their 60's was the most predominant case, followed by people in their 70's, 80's, 50's and 40's, respectively. 2. In regard to contributing factors, it was observed that accidental falls were most frequent, followed by reasons unknown, repetitive lifting of heavy objects, overlaboring and bruise in that order. 3. In regard to duration of illness before treatment, it was found that treatment within 1 week was most predominant, followed by over 4 weeks, and 1-2 weeks, respectively. 4. With regard to the duration of hospitalization, hospitalization within 2 weeks was found to be most predominant, followed by 2-4 weeks. 5. In regard to the level of the affected vertebral body; The affected vertebral bodies distributed between T3 to L5 except for T7; T12 was found to be most predominant, followed in turn by L1 and L5. 6. In regard to the number of affected vertebral bodies, 2 was the most frequent followed by 1 and 3, in that order. The average of the number of affected vertebral bodies was observed to be 2.8 and single vertebral body compression fracture was shown to have no clinical and statistical difference as compared with multiple vertebral body compression fractures. 7. In regard to the grade of the seriousness of symptoms, it was found that Grade IV was most predominant, followed by Grade III. 8. With regard to signs at the first medical examination, low back pain was seen in the highest number, and followed in order by gait disturbance, flank pain, flexion-extension disturbance, disturbance of rotation to right or left, and bowel dysfunction. 9. Concerning the effect of treatment, good results were most predominantly seen, and 95.5% of total patients showed fair results. 10. The duration of admission treatment due to the grade of clinical symptoms was as follows; In the case of the Grade IV, it was observed that within 2 weeks was most predominant and for Grade III was 2-4 weeks. It was also found that the grade of clinical symptoms was not in proportion to the duration of admission treatment. 11. In regard to the result of treatment due to the grade of clinical symptoms; It was found that in the case of Grade IV, within 2 weeks was most predominant, and for Grade III, it was found to be 2-4 weeks. 12. Intestinal obstruction was shown in 50% of total patients; In the case of duration of constipation, more than 1 week was found to be most predominant, followed by 2 and 4 days respectively. 13. With regard to the treatment of intestinal obstruction, using acupuncture and moxibustion, herb - medicine and enema together were found to be most effective. 14. Intestinal obstruction was mostly seen in the case of Grade IV.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 2005

Objectives: The purpose of this cross-sectional study was aimed to investigate the status of bowel health behaviors, prevalence of constipation and risk factors related to self-reported constipation in high school students. Methods: The study subjects were 1,882 students of six high schools located in a metropolitan city, who were selected by the accidental sampling from June to August, 2002. We analyzed the data by frequency analysis, chi-square test, and multivariate logistic regression using SPSS ver. 10.0. Results: The result of this study were summarized as follows: 1. A prevalence rate of self-reported constipation was 25.2%. A rate in male students was 13.4% and in female students 36.5%. 2. In regard to therapeutic behavior, 52.1% of study student with change in bowel habit had not find particular counsellor, 38.9% of the student had counselling with parents. 16.3% of students in constipation group had taken laxative medicine for treating the constipation. 73.5% of the student in constipation group had suffered from anal pain during defecation, but 48.0% in normal group. 41.6% of the student in constipation group had a experience of rectal bleeding after defecation, but 23.7% in normal group. So constipation related symptoms distribution had showed statistically significant difference between two group. 3. From the multivariate analysis by self-reported method, the risk factors related to the constipation were sex(female), experience of diet for weight reduction, absence of the breakfast and intake of vegetable more than 3 times per weeks. Conclusions: we had reconfirmed that we should improve eating habits to prevent and treat the constipation in a result of this study. Intervention that is target to girl students, abstain from weight reduction diet, regularity of taking meals, intake more vegetables, stress management should be provided to prevent the constipation especially in Korean high school students. Further prospective designed study are needed to establish the causal-effect relationship between so many risk factors with constipation.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.65-79
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• 2001

Cerebrovascular disease(CVD) is one of the major causes of death in Korea as well as most countries in the world and the disease gives great burden to humans socio-economically due to its high fatality and common occurrence of disability as the sequelae. This study was performed to investigate the utilization of western hospital(WH) or oriental hospital(OH) due to CVD and compare the type and the clinical characteristics of patients with CVD between WH and OH located in Kwangju City, Chonnam Province and Chonbuk Province. We reviewed the medical records of 1,070 patients who were discharged from 12 WIT and 6 OH from January to March, 2000 and confirmed for the diagnosis of CVD. Fifty-one percent of the subjects were treated at WH and forty-nine percent at OH. Females were more prevalent than males. As well, the most common age group among these subjects was found to be 70 years and older. About 92% in W~H and 80% in OH received brain imaging diagnostic procedures such as CT or MRI. The cerebral infarction was the most common type of CVD when compared by the kind of utilized hospitals, sex, age group except patient Group who was treated at WH and whose age was lower than 50 years old. The cerebral hemorrhage was more frequent than cerebral infarction among this group. The proportion of cerebral hemorrhage was decreasing and that of cerebral infarction was increasing with age. The most common clinical manifestations of undetermined type of CVD was paralysis of lower extremity in WIT and paralysis of upper extremity in OH. In cerebral hemorrhage loss of consciousness in WIT and dysarthria in OH were most frequently manifested, while in the case of cerebral infarction hemiplegia in WIT and dysarthria in OH were the most common complaints. The interval from the onset of disease to admission to the hospital was 5.5 days in WH arid 31.4 days in OH and the difference was statistically significant. Average admission duration of patients at OH was longer than WH, but it was not statistically significant. In conclusion these results suggest that the effort for systematic and efficient management of CVD patients was necessary for close co-operation and role arrangement between WH and OH considering the positive and negative points of western and oriental medicines.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.265-285
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• 2004

Objectives: The acute toxic effects of pesticide are well known. Concern has also been expressed that long-term exposure may result in damage to the central nervous system. This study was conducted to test the hypothesis that central nervous system symptoms might occur due to pesticide exposure. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, first, cumulative exposure index (CEI) was estimated. Neurologic symptoms (Q-16 questionnaire) for 541 farmers (exposed to pesticides) were compared with 119 non-exposed persons in spraying season nine rural areas in Korea. Results: The pesticides poisoning rates for last 3 months were 67.2% for orchard farmers, 55.3%for dry field farmers, and 20.5% for husbandry farmers, respectively, showing significant difference (p<0.001). Compared with non-exposure group, exposure groups (especially, orchard farmers) reported significantly more neurologic symptoms and had a higher overall neurological symptoms score (p<0.001). Factors related to the positive neurological symptoms (answers "yes" to six or more of Q-16 questionnaire) adjusted for age, sex, education level, smoking and alcohol drinking were type of farming (OR 3.08, 95% CI 1.50-6.30 in orchard farmers vs non-exposure group), CEI (OR 2.75, 95% CI 1.12-6.78 in Q3 vs Q1), past poisoning (OR 1.97, 95% CI 1.21-3.20 vs normal), current mild poisoning (OR 3.03, 9500 CI 1.47-6.22 vs normal) and current moderate poisoning (OR 6.34, 95% CI 3.03-13.25 vs normal), respectively. Conclusions: These results suggest that long-term exposure to pesticides appears to be associated with subtle changes in the central nervous system.