• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.421-429
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• 2005

Purpose: It has been postulated that dopamine release in the striatum underlies the reinforcing properties of nicotine. Substantial evidence in the animal studies demonstrates that nicotine interacts with dopaminergic neuron and regulates the activation of the dopaminergic system. The aim of this study was to visualize the dopamine release by smoking in human brain using PET scan with $[^{11}C]raclopride$. Materials and Methods: Five male non-smokers or ex-smokers with an abstinence period longer than 1 year (mean age of $24.4{\pm}1.7$ years) were enrolled in this study $[^{11}C]raclopride$, a dopamine D2 receptor radioligand, was administrated with bolus-plus-constant infusion. Dynamic PET was performed during 120 minutes ($3{\times}20s,\;2{\times}60s,\;2{\times}120s,\;1{\times}180s\;and\;22{\times}300s$). following the 50 minute-scanning, subjects smoked a cigarette containing 1 mg of nicotine while in the scanner. Blood samples for the measurement of plasma nicotine level were collected at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45, 60, and 90 minute after smoking. Regions for striatal structures were drawn on the coronal summed PET images guided with co-registered MRI. Binding potential, calculated as (striatal-cerebellar)/cerebellar activity, was measured under equilibrium condition at baseline and smoking session. Results: The mean decrease in binding potential of $[^{11}C]raclopride$ between the baseline and smoking in caudate head, anterior putamen and ventral striatum was 4.7%, 4.0% and 7.8%, respectively. This indicated the striatal dopamine release by smoking. Of these, the reduction in binding potential in the ventral striatum was significantly correlated with the cumulated plasma level of the nicotine (Spearman's rho=0.9, p=0.04). Conclusion: These data demonstrate that in vivo imaging with $[^{11}C]raclopride$ PET could measure nicotine-induced dopamine release in the human brain, which has a significant positive correlation with the amount or nicotine administered bt smoking.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.38-47
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• 2023

Objectives: This study examined the association between the experience of disease management education and the use of nutrition labels according to the sociodemographic characteristics and health behaviors of people diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes living in the community. Methods: Among the participants from the Community Health Survey (2018), 74,283 individuals diagnosed with hypertension or diabetes were included in the study population. According to gender, this study evaluated nutrition label use by the experience of disease management education, individual sociodemographic characteristics, and health behavior. Finally, using multiple logistic regression analysis, the association between disease management education and nutrition labels was calculated using the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Males (24.5%) experienced more disease management education than females (22.6%). In addition, younger age, higher education level, and higher equalized personal income experienced more disease management education (P < 0.001). The educational experience rate was higher in the male subjects who did not smoke or were involved in high-risk alcohol consumption (P < 0.001). In addition, the rate of disease management education experience was significantly higher for both men and women who exercised by walking (P < 0.001). The use of nutrition labels was higher in females (9.9%) than males (5.8%), and both males and females were significantly higher in young age, high education, high income, and professional and office positions (P < 0.001). The utilization rate of nutrition labels was high in non-smoking male subjects and high-risk-drinking female subjects. In addition, the utilization rate of nutrition labels was significantly higher in males and females who exercised by walking and those who experienced disease management education (P < 0.001). After adjusting for individual sociodemographic characteristics, health behavior, and disease management education, the use of nutrition labels was high among females (OR 3.19, 95% CI 2.85-3.58), high income (Q4; OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.41-1.87, Q5; OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.37-1.84) and highly educated (high school; OR 2.87, 95% CI 2.62-3.14, above college; OR 5.60, 95% CI 5.02-6.23) while it was low in the elderly (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.40-0.47), and economically inactive (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.76-0.96). The use of nutrition labels was high in non-smokers (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.13-1.48), nonhigh-risk drinkers (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.08-1.38), and subjects who exercised walking (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.34-1.54). There was no difference in the utilization rate of nutrition labels according to obesity, and the utilization rate of nutrition labels was significantly higher in subjects who had experienced disease education (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.24-1.44). Conclusions: Education on the use of nutrition labels, which contributes to food selection for healthy eating, might be a tool for dietary management. Moreover, the utilization rate can be a good indicator for predicting the proportion of the population practicing the guide for disease management. Improving the utilization rate of nutrition labels through disease management education can be a useful intervention for people with chronic diseases who need healthy eating habits for disease management and preventing complications, particularly those diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.67-73
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• 2002

In light of addressing consumer health concern, coping with anti-tobacco movement, and promoting new product, tobacco industry is actively pursuing to make a new generation of cigarettes with low tar and nicotine deliveries, and less harmful substances. Low tar and low nicotine cigarettes increases their market shares dramatically world wide, especially in KT&G, multinational tobacco companies, EU countries, even in China regulated by CNTC to set up yearly target to lower tar and nicotine deliveries. On the other hand, to design a new cigarette with reduced harmful substances begins to gain speed. The "modified Hoffmann list" publishes thirty plus substances in tobacco leaf and main smoke stream, which is the prime suspect causing health problems. Various ways and means are developed to reduce such components including new tobacco breeds, new curing method, tobacco leaf treatment before processing, selected filtration system, innovated casing system to reduce free radicals, as well as some non conventional cigarette products. In TSRC held this year, the main topic is related to reduce tobacco specific nitrosamines in tobacco leaf. The new generation of cigarette is in the horizon. It still needs a lot help to produce commercial products with satisfied taste and aroma characters. The flavor industry is not regulated by many governments demanding which ingredients might or might not be for tobacco use. However, most of the cigarette companies self impose a list of ingredients to guide flavor suppliers to design flavors. Unfortunately, the number of ingredients in those lists is getting shorter every year. It is understandable that the health is not the only reason. Some cigarette companies are playing safe to protect the company from potential lawsuit, while others are just copying from their competitors. Moreover, it is obvious that it needs more assistance from casings and flavors to design new generation of cigarettes with missing certain flavor components in tobacco leaf and main smoke stream. These flavor components are either non-existed or at lower level at new form of cured tobacco leaf or filtered in the main smoke stream along with reduced harmful substances. The use of carbon filters and other selected filtration system poses another tough task for flavor system design. Specific flavor components are missing from the smoke analysis data, which brings a notion of "carbon taste" and "dryness" of mouth feel. It is ever more demanded by cigarette industry to flavor suppliers to produce flavors as body enhancer, tobacco notes, salivating agents, harshness reducer, and various of aromatic notes provided they are safe to use. Another trend is that water based flavor or flavor with reduced ethanol as solvent is gaining popularity. It is preferred by some cigarette companies that the flavor is compounded with all natural ingredients or all ingredients should he GMO free. The new generation of cigarettes demands many ways of new thinking process. It is also vital for tobacco industry. It reflects the real needs for the consumers that the cigarette product should be safe to use as well as bearing the taste and aroma characters smokers always enjoyed. An effective tobacco flavor system is definitely a part of the equation. The global trend of tobacco industry is like trends of any other industries lead by consumer needs, benefited with new technology availability, affected by the global economy, and subjected for various rules and regulations. Anti-tobacco organizations and media exceptionally scrutinize cigarette, as a legal commercial product. Cigarette is probably the most studied commercial product for its composition, structure, deliveries, effects, as well as its new developmental trend. Therefore, any new trend of cigarette development would be within these boundaries. This paper is trying to point out what it would be like for tobacco industry in the next few yews and what concerns the tobacco industry. It focuses mostly on the efforts to produce safer cigarettes. It is such a vital task for the tobacco industry and its affiliate industries such as cigarette papers, filters, flavors, and other materials. The facts and knowledge presented in this paper might be well known for the public. Some of the comments and predictions are very much personal opinion for a further discussion.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.160-165
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• 2008

Purpose: With the introduction of H. pylori eradication and proton pump inhibitor, the operative treatments for the acute or chronic complications of peptic ulcer, such as perforation, bleeding and stricture, have decreased. Also owing to the development of non-operative treatment such as interventional endoscopic treatment, the surgical approach to the acute complications, like perforation and bleeding, has diminished. The non-operative treatments for the stricture and obstruction of chronic peptic ulcer in part related to discontinuation of medication have not been satisfactory. We analyzed the clinical outcomes of the patients who underwent operative treatment for outlet obstruction with peptic ulcer. Materials of Methods: From January 1994 to December 2007, we reviewed 31 patients who had been operated on at the National Medical Center for peptic ulcer obstruction. We excluded the cases of adhesive obstructions that were caused by a former ulcer operation and also the cases of obstructions found during emergency operations for treating perforation and bleeding. We classified the surgical treatment group into the bypass operation group and the surgical resection group. We evaluated the effects of the operations by the Visick score. The recurrences were confirmed only by the endoscopic observation of peptic ulcer. Results: The number of patients in the bypass operation group was 6 (19.4%) and that of resection group was 25 (80.6%). The mean age was 57.5 (25~81) years. The number of male patients was 29 (93.5%) and the number of females was 2 (6.5%). The mean symptom duration was 29.6 months. There were 19 smokers (61.3%), 6 NSAID users (19.4%) and 7 H. pylori positive patients (22.6%). Two patients underwent endoscopic balloon dilatation with no success. The locations of lesion were the stomach, the duodenum and both in 9, 20 and 2 cases, respectively. There were operative complications in 13 cases (41.9%), recurrent ulcers in 2 cases (6.5%), and reoperations in 4 cases. The mean Visick score was 1.8 (1~4). There were no statistically significant clinicopathologic differences between the bypass operation group and the resection group. The two groups had 1 case each of recurrence. Although the bypass group had a greater complication rate (83.3%) than the resection group (32%), this was not statistically meaningful (P=0.175). The mean Visick score was 3.0 in the bypass group and 1.6 in the resection group, so the resection group was better (P=0.001). Conclusion: For a case of chronic peptic ulcer with outlet obstruction, even though it has been reported that endoscopic balloon dilatation worked well, surgery is still regarded as an important treatment. If you consider the patients' satisfaction and the difficulty of diagnosing malignant ulcers, surgical resection should be recommended more often than a bypass operation.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.703-721
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• 1998

In order to observe the effects of Nicotine and NNK on cultured human gingival fibroblast, several factors were examined including mutagenicity, the number of cells attached culture plate surface through MTT test, the abundance of collagen & collagenase in mRNA level and collagenolytic activity in extracellular matrix. The results were as follows; 1. Regardless of the co-existence of S9, Nicotine did not show the mutagenicity by itself and NNK by itself showd the same result; However, dose related mutagenicity was shown in NNK with S9. 2. The number of fibroblasts attached cultured plate surface was measured by MTT procedure. The number of cells in Non-smokers increased at all time periods as compared to those of smoker. 3. Non-smoker's fibroblast treated by NNK or Nicotine was dosedependently dosedependently decreased in the number of cells when compared to untreated control. In higher dose, Nicotine showed the cellular toxicity, but NNK did not. 4. No change in the abundance of mRNA for pro${\alpha}1$ and pro${\alpha}2$ was shown in Nicotine treated group but in gingival fibroblasts following treatment with NNK, the abundance of mRNA for pro${\alpha}1$, but not pro${\alpha}2$ collagen was decreased. 5. The abundance of mRNA for collagenase was decreased when NNK was treated but no change occurred in Nicotine treated group. 6. The effect of NNK and Nicotine in collagenolytic activity showed that, collagenase activity exclusively react to type I collagen, was increased in both group, but gelatinase exclusively react to type IV collagen was not influenced at all. Collagenase activity of smoker's fibroblast was also increased as much as Nicotine and NNK group. The findings suggest that both of Nicotine and NNK lead gingival fibroblast to decrease in the abundance of collagen. And it seems to be that Nicotine and NNK have independent pathway toward the gingival fibroblast.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.418-434
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• 2024

Purpose: The nutritional status of folate in Korean adults was evaluated using the newly established folate database (DB) and data from the 7th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Methods: This study analyzed the folate intake of 15,054 people (6,278 men and 8,776 women) and the relationship with serum folate concentration of 5,260 people (2,272 men and 2,988 women). Results: The average daily folate intake among Korean adults was lowest in the 19 to 29-year age group and highest in those in their 50s. Folate intake was higher in groups with higher education and household income, non-smokers, participants in aerobic physical activity, and dietary supplement users regardless of sex. Among men, office workers consumed more folate than physical workers. Vegetables and grains were the first and second most contributing food groups to folate intake. The serum folate levels were higher in women than men and lowest in the 19-29 year age group for both sexes. After adjusting for energy intake, age, income, smoking, physical activity, and dietary supplement intake, serum folate concentration increased significantly as intake increased (p < 0.001). The explanatory power (R²) of folate intake on the blood folate concentration was 0.183 and 0.141 in men and women, respectively. Conclusion: The proportion of participants consuming less than the estimated average requirement was 48.1% and 65.3% in men and women, respectively. In particular, the folate intake and serum levels of young men aged 19-29 years were the lowest. Therefore, it is necessary to improve their folate nutritional status through a balanced diet. In addition, the newly established folate DB may be useful for evaluating the folate nutritional status of Koreans.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6521-6526
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• 2015

Background: This study aimed toanalyze the risk behavior for cervical cancer (CC) and the human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence and resolution among women who received care through the private healthcare network of a municipality in southern Brazil. Materials and Methods: This descriptive and retrospective study was conducted with 25 women aged 20 to 59 years who received care through the private healthcare network and were treated at a specialty clinic in the period from January to December 2012 in a municipality in Northwest Parana, Southern Brazil. Data from medical records with cytological and HPV results were used. Following treatment, these women were followed-up and reassessed after 6 months. Data were statistically analyzed using the t-test and chi-squared test at a 5% significance level. Results: The mean age of the studied women was $27.8{\pm}7.75$ years old, and the majority were married, with paid employment and were non-smokers. The mean age at menarche was $13.0{\pm}0.50$ years old, and the mean age at first intercourse was $17.5{\pm}1.78$ years, with only 8.0% (2) initiating sexual activity at an age ${\leq}15$ years old. The majority had 1 to 2 children (60.0%), while 88.0% reported having had one sexual partner in their lifetime, and all the women were sexually active. A total of 68.0% used a hormonal contraceptive method. All the women had leukorrhea and pain and were infected by a single HPV type. Regarding the lesion grade, 80.0% showed high risk and 20.0% low risk. The most prevalent high-risk HPV strain was 16. Conclusions: These findings provide relevant information on HPV risk factors and infection, as well as the treatment and 6-month follow-up results, in economically and socially advantaged women with no traditional risk factors, corroborating previous reports that different risk factors may be described in different populations. Thus, this study reinforces the fact that even women without the traditional risk factors should undergo HPVmonitoring and assessment to determine the persistence of infection, promoting early diagnosis of the lesions presented and appropriate treatment to thus prevent the occurrence of CC.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.742-755
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of the dietary guidelines for Koreans (DGK) among Korean adults based on sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. Methods: A total of 514 Korean adults aged 19-64 years completed a self-administered online questionnaire assessing their perceptions of DGK, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, and subjective assessments regarding the importance of 11 nutrients and 16 food groups. The differences in the perceptions of DGK according to the characteristics of the participants were analyzed using t-tests or ANOVA. Additionally, the differences in the subjective assessments of nutrients and food groups according to the perceptions of DGK were examined using t-tests. Results: The awareness of DGK was significantly higher among participants aged 50-64 years, living in single-person households, who were physically active, with a lower frequency of eating out, and with a higher interest in dietary information (p < 0.05 for all). The understanding of DGK was significantly higher among participants aged 19-29 years, females, individuals who were under or normal weight, non-smokers, those who self-evaluated their diet as healthy, and those with a high interest in dietary information (p < 0.05 for all). Additionally, the applicability of DGK was significantly higher among participants aged 50-64 years, who were physically active, who self-evaluated their diet as healthy, and who had a high interest in dietary information (p < 0.05 for all). Participants with a higher perception of DGK tended to attribute greater importance to most nutrients and food groups compared to those with a lower perception level. However, processed meat and foods, beverages, and alcoholic drinks consistently received lower importance ratings compared to other nutrients and food groups, regardless of the perception level. Conclusion: This research suggests that the perceptions of DGK among Korean adults may vary depending on sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. Consequently, there is a need to customize and diversify the methods for providing dietary guidelines.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.127-153
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• 2009

There is a growing concern about potential harmful effect of second-hand or environmental tobacco smoking. As a result, smoking bans in workplace become more prevalent worldwide. In Korea, workplace smoking ban policy become more restrictive in 2003 when National health enhancing law was amended. The new law requires all office buildings larger than 3,000 square meters (multi-purpose buildings larger than 2,000 square meters) should be smoke free. Therefore, a lot of indoor office became non smoking area. Previous studies in other counties often found contradicting answers for the effects of workplace smoking ban on smoking behavior. In addition, there was no study in Korea yet that examines the causal impacts of smoking ban on smoking behavior. The situation in Korea might be different from other countries. Using 2001 and 2005 Korea National Health and Nutrition surveys which are representative for population in Korea we try to examine the impacts of law change on current smoker and cigarettes smoked per day. The amended law impacted the whole country at the same time and there was a declining trend in smoking rate even before the legislation update. So, the challenge here is to tease out the true impact only. We compare indoor working occupations which are constrained by the law change with outdoor working occupations which are less impacted. Since the data has been collected before (2001) and after (2005) the law change for treated (indoor working occupations) and control (outdoor working occupations) groups we will use difference in difference method. We restrict our sample to working age (between 20 and 65) since these are the relevant population by the workplace smoking ban policy. We also restrict the sample to indoor occupations (executive or administrative and administrative support) and outdoor occupations (sales and low skilled worker) after dropping unemployed and someone working for military since it is not clear whether these occupations are treated group or control group. This classification was supported when we examined the answers for workplace smoking ban policy existing only in 2005 survey. Sixty eight percent of indoor occupations reported having an office smoking ban policy compared to forty percent of outdoor occupation answering workplace smoking ban policy. The estimated impacts on current smoker are 4.1 percentage point decline and cigarettes per day show statistically significant decline of 2.5 cigarettes per day. Taking into account consumption of average sixteen cigarettes per day among smokers it is sixteen percent decline in smoking rate which is substantial. We tested robustness using the same sample across two surveys and also using tobit model. Our results are robust against both concerns. It is possible that our measure of treated and control group have measurement error which will lead to attenuation bias. However, we are finding statistically significant impacts which might be a lower bound of the true estimates. The magnitude of our finding is not much different from previous finding of significant impacts. For cigarettes per day previous estimates varied from 1.37 to 3.9 and for current smoker it showed between 1%p and 7.8%p.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.66 no.6
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• pp.444-450
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• 2009

Background: Biomarkers for cancer have several potential clinical uses, including the following: early cancer detection, monitoring for recurrence prognostication, and risk stratification. However, no biomarker has been shown to have adequate sensitivity and specificity. Many investigators have tried to validate biomarkers for the early detection and recurrence of lung cancer. To evaluate plasma G-CSF as such a biomarker, protein levels were measured and were found to correlate with the clinicopathological features of primary lung tumors. Methods: Between December 2006 and May 2008, 100 patients with histologically-validated primary lung cancer were enrolled into this study. To serve as controls, 127 healthy volunteers were enrolled into this study. Plasma G-CSF levels were measured in lung cancer patients using the sandwich ELISA system (R & D inc.) prior to treatment. Results: The mean plasma G-CSF levels were 12.2$\pm$0.3 pg/mL and 46.0$\pm$3.8 pg/mL (mean$\pm$SE) in the normal and in the cancer groups, respectively. In addition, plasma G-CSF levels were higher in patients with early lung cancer than in healthy volunteers (p<.001). Plasma G-CSF levels were higher in patients who were under 65 years old or smokers. Within the cancer group, plasma G-CSF levels were higher in patients with non small cell lung cancer than in patients with small cell lung cancer (p<.05). Overall, plasma G-CSF levels were shown to increase dependent upon the type of lung cancer diagnsosed. In the order from highest to lowest, the levels of plasma G-CSF tended to decrease in the following order: large cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and bronchioloalveolar carcinoma. Plasma G-CSF levels tended to be higher in patients with advanced TNM stage than in localized TNM stage (I, II