• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.701-704
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• 2010

Purpose: Dengue fever occurs in many popular tourist destinations and is increasingly imported by returning travelers in Korea. Since Korea is not an endemic country for dengue fever, pediatricians do not usually suspect dengue fever in febrile children even with typical presentation and exposure history. This study was performed to describe the international travel experiences and dengue fever in Korean children. Methods: Travel histories were collected based on questionnaires completed by all patients' guardians who visited the pediatric infectious diseases clinic at Samsung Medical Center from January 2008 to December 2008. For patients who were suspected of dengue fever, a serological test was performed. Results: Five hundred and seventeen children visited the pediatric infectious diseases clinic for the first time during this period. About 30% of patients who responded to the questionnaire (101/339) had experienced international travel within the last 2 years. Four patients were diagnosed with dengue fever by serological test. Conclusion: Increasing numbers of Korean children visit dengue endemic areas and they may return home with dengue fever. Dengue fever should be suspected in patients who have a travel history to endemic areas.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.5009-5018
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• 2014

Introduction: Numerous countries have launched campaigns regarding sun protection in the last decades. Aim: The aim of the present study was to assess an intervention program aimed at higher knowledge and healthier attitudes regarding sun protection. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 4,133 students aged 8-12 years from a single Greek province. Results: In most items, knowledge levels after the intervention were found to be higher than those before ($2.8{\pm}0.9$ vs $3.3{\pm}0.9$), while knowledge about sun protection factors seems to have had the highest improvement (27.1% vs 56.6%). However, student attitudes did not appear to improve, with the exception of applying sunscreen with a higher SPF (29.7% vs 54.8%). Girls seemed to have healthier attitudes compared to boys, but gender played no role with regard to knowledge levels. Also, place of residence did not play any role regarding knowledge levels, although those living in semi-urban areas seemed to have more unhealthy attitudes. Logistic regression by correlating knowledge and attitudes established that higher knowledge levels are usually accompanied by healthier attitudes, albeit marginally. Conclusions: The intervention had a positive contribution to the student knowledge level regarding sun protection and also led to small improvements regarding some attitudes. Continuous similar interventions could lead to better results and the adoption of healthier attitudes.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.34-39
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• 2016

Background: Although opioids are the most commonly used medications to control postoperative pain in children, the analgesic effects could have a large inter-individual variability according to genotypes. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms and the analgesic effect of morphine for postoperative pain in children. Methods: A prospective study was conducted in 88 healthy children undergoing tonsillectomy, who received morphine during the operation. The postoperative pain score, frequency of rescue analgesics, and side effects of morphine were assessed in the post-anesthesia care unit. The children were genotyped for OPRM1 A118G, ABCB1 C3435T, and COMT Val158Met. Results: Children with at least one G allele for OPRM1 (AG/GG) had higher postoperative pain scores compared with those with the AA genotype at the time of discharge from the post-anesthesia care unit (P = 0.025). Other recovery profiles were not significantly different between the two groups. There was no significant relationship between genotypes and postoperative pain scores in analysis of ABCB1 and COMT polymorphisms. Conclusions: Genetic polymorphism at OPRM1 A118G, but not at ABCB1 C3435T and COMT Val158Met, influences the analgesic effect of morphine for immediate acute postoperative pain in children.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.35-39
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• 2016

Purpose: This study compared the efficacy and tolerability of intravenous (i.v.) phenobarbital (PHB) and i.v. levetiracetam (LEV) in children with status epilepticus (SE) or acute repetitive seizure (ARS). Methods: The medical records of children (age range, 1 month to 15 years) treated with i.v. PHB or LEV for SE or ARS at our single tertiary center were retrospectively reviewed. Seizure termination was defined as seizure cessation within 30 minutes of infusion completion and no recurrence within 24 hours. Information on the demographic variables, electroencephalography and magnetic resonance imaging findings, previous antiepileptic medications, and adverse events after drug infusion was obtained. Results: The records of 88 patients with SE or ARS (median age, 18 months; 50 treated with PHB and 38 with LEV) were reviewed. The median initial dose of i.v. PHB was 20 mg/kg (range, 10-20 mg/kg) and that of i.v. LEV was 30 mg/kg (range, 20-30 mg/kg). Seizure termination occurred in 57.9% of patients treated with i.v. LEV (22 of 38) and 74.0% treated with i.v. PHB (37 of 50) (P=0.111). The factor associated with seizure termination was the type of event (SE vs. ARS) in each group. Adverse effects were reported in 13.2% of patients treated with i.v. LEV (5 of 38; n=4, aggressive behavior and n=1, vomiting), and 28.0% of patients treated with i.v. PHB (14 of 50). Conclusion: Intravenous LEV was efficacious and safe in children with ARS or SE. Further evaluation is needed to determine the most effective and best-tolerated loading dose of i.v. LEV.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.43-61
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to verify the usefulness of kinetic House- Tree- Person drawing as a diagnostic measure for the degree of self-differentiation, which is an essential part of college students' development. Participants for the study were four hundred thirty five(272 male and 163 female) university freshmen enrolled in 4-year colleges located in Pusan. The Participants completed a scale of self-differentiation and a Kinetic House- Tree-Person drawings test. The evaluation system for kinetic House-Tree-Person drawings was established based on the indexes of Buck(1948) and Bums(1972) and used exiting literatures as reference. The data were analyzed using means, standard deviations, t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Scheffe's test. The results obtained from the study are as follows: First, the mean level of college students' self-differentiation was 2.81, which is about average. Some significant gender differences were found in the areas of self-intergration, family projection, and emotional separation. Male students scored higher on self-intergration, whereas female students score higher on family projection and emotional separation. Second. self-differentiation was higher when the student drew a house with smoke coming out of the chimney, a single-story house with flat roof, or with detailed description of curtains, roof and roof tiles. Third, self-differentiation seemed to be higher when branches and fruits were included, when there was no expression of roots, when large crowns and branch openings were presented, and when no slant lines or base lines appeared. Forth, self-differentiation showed ㅁ higher level when the portrait shows eyes, mouth and neck without omission, when it included the whole body instead of face only, and when there was no person with just a profile, a back, or with a stiff posture, and when there was no weak and thin lines. Individuality also marked higher if a person was in motion and than one person was added. Finally, self-differentiation showed significant difference according to the overall harmony of the drawing, ordering of contents, hand pressure, the kind and shape of tree, and presence of other persons. The more harmonious the picture was, and the more family members are added, the higher the level of self-differentiation was.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.77-85
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• 2017

Purpose: Fever is one of the most common symptoms in children. In previous studies, infectious disease was the most common cause of pediatric fever of unknown origin (FUO). The aim of this study is to investigate the etiology, clinical characteristics and prognosis of pediatric FUO in 21 century with more diagnostics available and to analyze the factors for certain disease categories. Methods: Among the children under 18 years old who were hospitalized at Samsung Medical Center from January 2000 to December 2014, the patients who met the criteria including fever of ${\geq}38.0^{\circ}C$ for longer than ${\geq}14days$ and failure to reach a diagnosis after one week of investigations were included. Results: Total 100 patients were identified. Confirmed diagnosis was achieved in 57 patients (57%). Among them, infectious diseases (n=19, 19%) were most common, followed by connective tissue diseases (n=15, 15%), necrotizing lymphadenitis (n=8, 8%), and malignancies (n=7, 7%). Children with fever duration over 28 days had a trend for higher frequency of connective tissue diseases (28.3%) except undiagnosed etiology. The symptoms such as arthritis, lymph node enlargement and only fever without other symptoms were significantly related with connective tissue diseases, necrotizing lymphadenitis and undiagnosed respectively (P<0.001). Ninety-two patients have become afebrile at discharge and 1 patient died (1%). Conclusion: Almost half of our patients were left without diagnosis. Although it has been known that infectious disease was most common cause of pediatric FUO in the past, undiagnosed portion of FUO have now increased due to development of diagnostic techniques for infectious diseases.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.278-288
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• 2018

Purpose: Dehydration is a paediatric medical emergency but there is no single standard parameter to evaluate it at the emergency department. Our aim was to evaluate the reliability and validity of capillary refilling time as a triage parameter to assess dehydration in children. Methods: This was a prospective pilot cohort study of children who presented to two paediatric emergency departments in Italy, with symptoms of dehydration. Reliability was assessed by comparing the triage nurse's measurements with those obtained by the physician. Validity was demonstrated by using 6 parameters suggestive of dehydration. Comparison between refilling time (RT) and a validated Clinical Dehydration Score (CDS) was also considered. The scale's discriminative ability was evaluated for the outcome of starting intravenous rehydration therapy by using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: Participants were 242 children. All nurses found easy to elicit the RT after being trained. Interobserver reliability was fair, with a Cohen's kappa of 0.56 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.41 to 0.70). There was a significant correlation between RT and weight loss percentage (r-squared=-0.27; 95% CI, -0.47 to -0.04). The scale's discriminative ability yielded an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.65 (95% CI, 0.57 to 0.73). We found a similarity between RT AUC and CDS-scale AUC matching the two ROC curves. Conclusion: The study showed that RT represents a fast and handy tool to recognize dehydrated children who need a prompt rehydration and may be introduced in the triage line-up.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.266-271
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• 1994

Between 1985 and 1993, 29 children from 1 to 15 years of age have undergone cardiac valve replacements at Buchon Sejong Hospital. The patients were composed of 20 males and 9 females and 17 patient had congenital heart disease and 12 patients had acquired heart disease. Two of these patients have had second valve replacements due to paravalvular leakage and valve thrombosis. Single valve replacements were 29 and double valve replacements were 2. All the patients had received prosthetic valves except one. Among the 25 patients who had definite post-operative records, the overall mortality was 12%[4% was early mortality and 8% was late mortality].25 patients were followed up with coumadin anticoagulation for total 633 patient-months[minimum 2 months to maximum 93 months, mean 25.3 months] and actuarial survival rate was 88.5 $\pm$ 6.3% at 7 years and event free rate was 70.3 $\pm$ 11.7% at 7 years. These results suggest that pediatric valve replacements can now be performed at a low operative risk although various problems are still remained and the choice of valve is prosthetic valve mainly due to its durability at the present time.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.125-141
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• 2011

This study investigates the mediation effects of trait anxiety in the relationships between reports by middle school adolescents in regards to self-differentiation and parents' marital conflicts. The participants were 252 middle school adolescents attended middle schools in Daegu or Gyeongbuk Province. The collected data were analyzed by Pearson's correlation, single and hierarchical multiple regressions, using SPSS 19.0. The results are as follows. (1) Parents' marital conflicts and trait anxiety were negatively associated with self-differentiation of middle school adolescents. (2) Trait anxiety was positively associated with parents' marital conflicts. (3) Trait anxiety exerted indirect effects on self-differentiation mediated by parents' marital conflicts.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.131-151
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• 2011

This study attempted to estimate the level of perceived lack of time in Korean society, to link it to time management and to identify the possible association that accounts for time shortage. I employed the gender perspective in order to reveal the dynamics and complexity of the perception of a lack of time in the population. The sample for the study was drawn from the 1999 and 2009 Korean time diary data collected by the Korean National Statistical Office. From the original data, I selected a sample of second shift families(men and women who are presently working and raising children) living in metropolitan areas(including Seoul and six major urban areas in Korea). The dependent variable was time pressure measured by a single-item question on a four-point likert scale. The results of the study showed that working mothers perceived a greater time shortage as compared to working fathers. The time use pattern showed change during the periods, indicating that people worked fewer hours in paid labor and enjoyed more leisure hours and personal care hours. However, on average, people seemed to have experienced a greater time lack in 2009 as compared to 1999. The results from the ordered logistic regression model revealed that even though there were similarities in the impact of relevant factors, men's perception of a lack of time was more closely linked with their work role and social status, while for women, this perception was influenced by work and family duties. This indicates that Korean working mothers and fathers are facing a double jeopardy of time shortage in terms of combining their work and family roles. As a result, the level of time pressure by gender is converging toward a "never enough" phase. These findings generated policy implications and detailed suggestions.