• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.89-93
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• 2018

Idiopathic non-cirrhotic portal hypertension (INCPH) is a disease with an uncertain etiology consisting of non-cirrhotic portal hypertension and portal pressure increase in the absence of liver cirrhosis. In INCPH, patients exhibit normal liver functions and structures. The factors associated with INCPH include the following: Umbilical/portal pyremia, bacterial diseases, prothrombic states, chronic exposure to arsenic, vinyl chloride monomers, genetic disorders, and autoimmune diseases. Approximately 70% of patients present a history of major variceal bleeding, and treatment relies on the prevention of complications related to portal hypertension. Autoimmune disorders associated with INCPH are mainly systemic sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. To the best of our knowledge, a case of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) associated with INCPH has not been reported thus far. Therfore, we report our experience of a patient with AS accompanied by INCPH, who showed perisplenic varices with patent spleno-portal axis and hepatic veins along with no evidence of cirrhosis on liver biopsy, and provide a brief literature review.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.63-79
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• 2020

Background: A physical therapy is required to restore motor function of stroke patients, especially gait function improvement is very important to them. Design: Systemic review. Methods: The purpose of this study is to provide objective evidence for the effectiveness of the treadmill training method applied to stroke patients. The literature search for a systematic review was performed on domestic data published from 2010 to 2020 at KISS, RISS, and DBpia. Results: 40 papers meeting the inclusion/exclusion criteria were finally selected. Data analysis was performed according to the research type, intervention method and process, measurement variables, and the risk of bias assessment was conducted as quality evaluation. Conclusion: Various training methods have been suggested and proved that treadmill intervention is an effective method for improving gait and balance. As the goal of rehabilitation for stroke patients is to improve walking and balance, we expect continuous clinical research to continue to establish a more systematic training program and present a new paradigm.

• CELLMED
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.5.1-5.8
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• 2022

Ābzan(sitz bath or hydration therapy) is one of the important and widely practised methods of regimenal therapy used for local evacuation or diversion of morbid humours described for various diseases in Unani system of medicine. Itis a type of bath in which hips and buttocks are immersed in water, either plain or medicated for therapeutic effects. Thus, it serves as an important and effective external mode of treatment. It has been successfully practised by Greeko-Arab physicians in the management of almost all types of gynaecological disorders like genital prolapse, leucorrhoea, pruritus vulvae, menstrual disorders, infertility, pelvic inflammatory diseases etc, but its efficacy has been proved in very few gynaecological diseases only. Hence, there is a need for systemic review to investigate the effectiveness of sitz bath in gynaecological disorders to generate scientific based evidence for the clinician as well as for common public. Based on the available literature, this review article suggests that the sitz bath has a scientific evidence-based effect in treating gynaecological diseases.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the evidence regarding injury and poisoning associated with the clinical mercury thermometer. Methods: Electronic literature searches were conducted for identification of relevant studies and case reports of injury and poisoning associated with the clinical mercury thermometer. The search outcomes were limited to literature with English and Korean languages published from 1966. Studies related to occupational mercury exposure, or mercury exposure from sphygmomanometer, barometer, and fluorescent light were excluded. Results: A total of 60 reports, including 59 case reports, were finally included. Of those, nine cases pertained to an intact thermometer as a foreign body, 25 injuries were related to a thermometer, and 26 cases involved exposures to mercury from a broken thermometer. Case reports were classified according to severity into 16 mild, 41 moderate, and two severe cases. Two cases of mortality were reported, one was deliberate intravenous injection of mercury and the other was acute vapor inhalation of mercury from broken thermometers. Conclusion: Findings of this systematic review suggested that the mercury thermometer could cause various forms of poisoning and injury. In particular, inhalation of mercury vapor from a broken thermometer can lead to systemic toxicity requiring chelating therapy.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.520-549
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• 2018

Objectives: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the recent clinical research trends regarding the effects of traditional herbal medicine (THM) on chemotherapy-induced leukopenia. Methods: Randomized controlled trials that verified effects of herbal medicine treating chemotherapy induced leukopenia were included in the study. A literature search was performed in the English, Chinese, and Korean databases for papers published from January 1, 2007, to September 1, 2017. The selected literature was assessed by Cochrane's Risk of Bias (RoB). Results: Forty-two of 232 randomized controlled trials met the inclusion criteria. The most commonly used herbal prescriptions called '升白湯 (shengbai decoction)' which means elevating the numbers of White blood cells (WBCs). And the mostly included herbs such as Astragali Radix, Angelicae Gigantis Radix, Atractylodis Rhizoma Alba, Codonopsis Pilosulae, Glycyrrhizae Radix, Ligustri Lucidi Fructus are commonly used to elevate qi, blood and yin. The count of WBC in peripheral blood, the level of leukopenia presented in WHO (World Health Organization), and clinical symptoms were used to evaluate the treatments. The effective rate was 68.6-98.18% and the effectiveness was significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group in 38 articles (p<0.05). No serious adverse events were reported. Only five articles (5/42, 11.9%) were rated as having adequate methodological quality with a low level of bias. Conclusion: Some traditional herbal medicines may be effective as therapeutic treatments for chemotherapy-induced leukopenia, but the majority of reviewed studies were of poor quality. The present findings need to be confirmed by rigorously conducted high-quality trials, including pharmacokinetic studies, to confirm the absence of interactions between traditional herbal medicine agents and chemotherapy.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.175-202
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was conducted towards developing a screening tool for syndrome differentiation in the diagnosis of menopause in menopausal and perimenopausal women. Methods: We conducted a literature review of studies on menopausal diagnosis based on syndrome differentiation, and examined well-founded differentiated syndromes and their respective clinical symptoms. Based on the findings, we created a questionnaire through consultations with Oriental medicine experts in physiology, pathology, and diagnostics. Finally, the research team conducted an expert Delphi study on differentiated syndromes and the associated clinical symptoms. Results: Seven differentiated syndromes were selected, including Liver Depression (肝鬱), Kidney Yin Deficiency (腎陰虛), Kidney Yang Deficiency (腎陽虛), Liver and Kidney Yin Deficiency (肝腎陰虛), Kidney Yin and Yang Deficiency (腎陰陽兩虛), Heart-Kidney Noninteraction (心腎不交), and Dual Deficiency of Heart and Spleen (心脾兩虛); 4 disease locations, including liver (肝), heart (心), spleen (脾), and kidney (腎); and 3 disease natures, including Yin Deficiency (陰虛), Qi Stagnation (氣滯), and Blood Deficiency (血虛). In addition, we added 3 supplemental disease natures, including Yang Deficiency (陽虛), Qi Deficiency (氣虛), and Heat (火熱), in consideration of syndrome differentiation categories that may possibly be added in a follow-up clinical questionnaire. Conclusions: This resulted in a total of 7 differentiated syndromes, 4 disease locations, and 6 disease natures. We translated the clinical symptoms of these 17 categories into Korean Hangeul. After consulting with 5 Oriental medicine experts and a psychology expert, we produced a questionnaire for use in diagnosing menopause based on syndrome differentiation. The calculation of scores for the syndrome differentiation screening tool will be confirmed through clinical research based on the results of a review of existing literature.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.183-194
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of aromatherapy on agitation in patients with dementia using a meta-analysis and systemic literature review. Methods: The EMBASE, CINAHL, MEDLINE, and other databases were searched up to November 2017. Results: Of 419 publications identified, 12 met inclusion criteria, and 9 studies were used to estimate the effect size of aromatherapy. A total of 837 participants across all studies were included. The commonly applied methods were massage (50%), type of oil lavender (75%), and instrument Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (75%). A medium effect size of aromatherapy on agitation was identified (d=-0.56, $I^2=65.0%$, p=.001). The massage group has lower effect size than the other group (d=-0.98, $I^2=0.0%$, p=.001). Conclusion: Aromatherapy appears to be effective in improving agitation in patients with dementia. However, further studies for home-dwelling patients with dementia and with different types of aroma oil should be conducted in the future. In addition, research with well-designed are needed to assess the effects or aromatherapy on agitation.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.293-307
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• 2021

Objectives: This study investigates the effects and safety of Bojungikgi-tang for stress urinary incontinence by systemic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Methods: RCTs were selected from articles published until December 2019 in seven domestic and foreign databases. The quality of the literature was evaluated using Cochrane's risk of bias (RoB) tool, and RevMan 5.3 was used to synthesize the results. Results: A total of 694 patients with stress urinary incontinence participated in eight RCTs. Meta-analysis showed that the total effective rate of treatment that combines pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) and Bojungikgi-tang was significantly higher than that of PFMT alone. The volume of urine leakage per hour after the combined treatment was significantly lower than that of PFMT alone. The International Consultation on Insurance Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ-SF) scores from combining PFMT and Bojungikgi-tang were significantly lower than those for PFMT alone. Conclusion: This study suggests that Western medical treatment combined with Bojungikgi-tang for urinary incontinence from stress might be more effective in improving symptoms than conventional Western medical treatment alone. However, the number of studies included in the meta-analysis was insufficient, and the quality of the selected literature was generally low. Therefore, high-quality clinical studies on herbal medicine treatment for urinary incontinence would be required in the future.

• Strategy21
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• s.45
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• pp.91-115
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• 2019

When compared to land territorial claims, maritime claims have not attracted as much attention from the public as well as the academia. However, after the ICOW (Issue Correlates of War) data was published and was expanded to include maritime and river claims, there have been many quantitative studies that analyze maritime claims or separate different types of territorial claims to explain various mechanisms over different types of territorial claims. These quantitative studies have provided valuable explanations about the onset and the management of maritime claims. This research tries to review these quantitative research. Most studies about maritime claims, especially regarding the management of claims, analyze maritime claims based on two different levels of factors. First, from the perspective of systemic level, several studies focus on the role of international institutions and systemic level of democracy to explain the management of maritime claims. Second, at the dyadic level, many studies explain how the issue salience, past experience, the presence of resources, joint democracy, and relative power influence the occurrence of peaceful settlement attempts or conflictual behaviors over maritime claims. Based on the review of these literature, this research tries to identify several factors to explain the Dokdo issue and to encourage peaceful settlement attempts over the Dokdo issue.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.159-166
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• 2021

Purpose : This study systematically assessed programs self-esteem programs for schizophrenic individuals that have been implemented over the past 10 years in South Korea, with the objective of providing clinical grounds and data for further programs that can be implemented in the Korean environment. Methods : For this study, a data search was conducted from 2012 to 2021, using search terms 'schizophrenia' AND 'self-esteem' among the studies registered in the RISS, KISS, Google Scholar, and National Library of Korea databases. A total of 988 studies were searched, and among them, 40 studies meeting the selection criteria had been taken by reviewing the titles and abstracts. After, 33 studies were excluded according to the exclusion criteria, and finally, the 7 studies were selected. Results : As a result, research into self-esteem programs for schizophrenic individuals has progressed steady, and most studies tend to be non-randomized controlled studies. All studies used the Self-Esteem Scale to evaluate self-esteem. All studies used the Self-Esteem Scale to evaluate self-esteem. The interventions of the selected studies were classified as were social skill programs, cognitive behavioral therapy programs, art therapy programs, and emotional management programs. And among them, the cognitive behavioral therapy programs were the most frequently used (42.8 %). Typically, the majority of the intervention sessions consisted of 11~15 sessions, the frequency of intervention was twice a week, and each session lasted 40~80 minutes were the most (each 57.1 %). In the programs for self-esteem, significant effects were reported for cognitive behavioral and art therapy programs, and there is no significant effect on social skill programs and emotional management programs. Conclusion : Future studies should expand the research scope, both domestically and internationally, and suggest more comprehensive conditions for a literature search by widening the research subject coverage.