• Journal of the Korean Child Neurology Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.221-226
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• 2018

Purpose: Febrile seizures (FSs) are the most common type of seizure in the first 5 years of life and are frequently associated with viral infections. Influenza infection is associated with a variety of neurological conditions, including FSs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical implications of influenza infection in FSs. Methods: In total, 388 children with FS were divided into two groups: FS with influenza infection (n=75) and FSs without influenza infection (n=313). Their medical records, including seizure type, frequency, duration, and familial history of FSs or epilepsy, were retrospectively reviewed and the clinical characteristics of the two groups were compared. Results: In total, 75 of the 388 children (19.3%) had FSs associated with influenza infection; such children were significantly older than those with FSs without influenza infection ($34.9{\pm}22.3$ months vs. $24.4{\pm}14.2$ months; P<0.001). The children who had more than two febrile seizures episodes were more prevalent in children with FS with influenza infection [40/75 (53.3%) vs. 92/313 (29.4%); P<0.01]. Children older than 60 months were more likely to have influenza infection compared to those aged less than 60 months [11/22 (50%) vs. 64/366 (17.5%); P=0.001]. Conclusion: Influenza infection may be associated with FSs in older children, and with recurrence of FSs. Its role in the development of afebrile seizures or subsequent epilepsy requires further investigation with long-term follow-up.

• Proceedings of the KOR-BRONCHOESO Conference
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• 1976.06a
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• pp.85.3-86
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• 1976

Sudden deafness requires immediate investigation and treat if there is to be any prospect of salvaging the hearing. It present an otological emergency and a diagnostic challenge. Sn Sudden sensorineural deafness can be caused by a wide variety of pathologies. A battery of tests and investigations must be performed forthwith if treatment is to be started without further delay. The concept that nothing can be done for the patient with sensori-neural deafness must be abandoned. Some pathologies causing sudden deafness are not amenable to therapy or can show only partial reversibility. But there are several causes, showing little or no spontaneous recovery, which do responed to appropriate treatment. It is important to identify them and concentrate on their management. The age and sex ratios and the unilaterral or bilateral nature of the lesion are related to the etiology and depend upon which type of case is included in the series. Though individually rare, collecting for about 2.5 per cent of new otoloical patients. Some 70 per cent of cases are unilateral. Viral, bacterial and treponemal infections accounted for about 30 per cent of the cases. Some 16 per cent were due to vascular lesions of the cochlea. In almost 22 per cent there was no obvious cause (idiopathic), they occurred in young adult and were either sensory or neural. About 12 per cent were traumatic and 9 per cent were ototoxic in origin. The remaining 11 per cent were due to a group of rarities. The two vital factors are the site of the lesion and the duration of the hearing loss. The earlier these are diagnosed and treated the better the response. The etiology, pathology and treatment are reviewed.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.141-153
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• 2003

Introduction : The causes of sudden sensorineural hearing loss have not been detemined with precision until recently, but viral infections and vascular insufficiencies, such as vascular spasm, occlusion of sludging of erythrocytes were considered as major factors. The treatment has not been determined with precision until recently. It is similar to dizziness(眩暈). sudden dcafncss(暴聾) and congestion-fire deafness(痰火聾) in Oriental Medicine. It is very rare that someone has sudden hearing loss and visit Oriental Medicine Clinic right that time. But we expect if they take a Oriental treatment on thc right time. more effective for their symptom. Subjects : Following conclusions were reached by measuring results of oricntal medical treatments for 40 patients who visited the clinic between January of 2000 and December of 2002, and received treatments continuously for more than 1 months of time. Methods : Among the selected 40 patients. 30 patients belong to Group Ⅰ, which consisted of patients who had already visited a general hospital prior to visiting this clinic, achieved no recovery at all from sudden deafness despite going through more than 5 days of hospitalized treatments of steroidal medications. Group Ⅱ was consisted of 10 patients of sudden deafness who did not experience any steroidal treatments from other hospital prior to the oriental medical treatment. Results and conclusion : According to differentiation of syndrome. among 30 patients of the Group Ⅰ. 21 were categorized as excess syndrome patients and remaining 9 as deficiency syndrome paticnts. Among 10 patients of For Group Ⅱ, 5 were excess syndrome patients and remaining 5 were deficiency syndrome patients. Among Group Ⅰ, recovery ratio of excess syndrome patients was 47.7$\%$ and deficiency syndrome patients was 44.4$\%$ adding up recovery ratio of the group to be 46.1$\%$. Among Group Ⅱ, recovery ratio of excess syndrome patients was 80$\%$ and deficiency syndrome patients was 100$\%$ adding up recovery ratio of the group to be 90$\%$. Oriental medical treatments are generally more effective(90$\%$ recovery ratio) for Sudden Deafness than steroidal treatments. Oriental medical treatments are almost equally effective for both excess syndrome patients and deficiency syndrome patients. However, steroidal treatments for excess syndrom patients(45$\%$ recovery ratio) is much less effective than deficiency syndrome patients(73$\%$ recovery ratio). This indicates that steroidal treatments should be applied selectively to deficiency syndrome patients if applied at all. Even for patients with sudden deafness which hospitalized steroidal treatments did not result in any recovery at all, oriental medical treatments were able to achieve 46.1$\%$ recovery ratio.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.64 no.10
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• pp.504-510
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• 2021

Population screening of newborns is an extremely important and informative diagnostic approach that allows early identification of babies who are predisposed to the development of a number of serious diseases. Some of these diseases are known and have effective treatment methods. Neonatal screening enables the early diagnosis and subsequent timely initiation of therapy. This helps to prevent serious complications and reduce the percentage of disability and deaths among newborns and young children. Primary immunodeficiency diseases and primary immunodeficiency syndrome (PIDS) are a heterogeneous group of diseases and conditions based on impaired immune system function associated with developmental defects and characterized by various combinations of recurrent infections, development of autoimmune and lymphoproliferative syndromes (genetic defects in apoptosis, gene mutation Fas receptor or ligand), granulomatous process, and malignant neoplasms. Most of these diseases manifest in infancy and lead to serious illness, disability, and high mortality rates. Until recently, it was impossible to identify children with PIDS before the onset of the first clinical symptoms, which are usually accompanied by complications in the form of severe coinfections of a viral-bacterial-fungal etiology. Modern advances in medical laboratory technology have allowed the identification of children with severe PIDS, manifested by T- and/or B-cell lymphopenia and other disorders of the immune system. This review discusses the main existing strategies and directions used in PIDS screening programs for newborns, including approaches to screening based on excision of T-cell receptors and kappa-recombination excision circles, as well as the potential role and place of next-generation sequencing technology to increase the diagnostic accuracy of these diseases.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.297-309
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• 2020

Coronaviruses were originally discovered as enzootic infections that limited to their natural animal hosts, but some strains have since crossed the animal-human species barrier and progressed to establish zoonotic diseases. Accordingly, cross-species barrier jumps resulted in the appearance of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 that manifest as virulent human viruses. Coronaviruses contain four main structural proteins: spike, membrane, envelope, and nucleocapsid protein. The replication cycle is as follows: cell entry, genome translation, replication, assembly, and release. They were not considered highly pathogenic to humans until the outbreaks of SARS-CoV in 2002 in Guangdong province, China. The consequent outbreak of SARS in 2002 led to an epidemic with 8,422 cases, and a reported worldwide mortality rate of 11%. MERS-CoVs is highly related to camel CoVs. In 2019, a cluster of patients infected with 2019-nCoV was identified in an outbreak in Wuhan, China, and soon spread worldwide. 2019-nCoV is transmitted through the respiratory tract and then induced pneumonia. Molecular diagnosis based on upper respiratory region swabs is used for confirmation of this virus. This review examines the structure and genomic makeup of the viruses as well as the life cycle, diagnosis, and potential therapy.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.425-434
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• 2020

Background: Viral infection outbreaks are emerging public health concerns. They often exhibit seasonal patterns that could be predicted by the application of big data and bioinformatic analyses. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify trends in diarrhea-causing viruses such as rotavirus (Gr.A), norovirus G-I, and norovirus G-II in Cheonan, Korea. The identified related factors of diarrhea-causing viruses may be used to predict their trend and prevent their infections. Method: A retrospective analysis of 4,009 fecal samples from June 2010 to December 2019 was carried out at Dankook University Hospital in Cheonan. Reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) was employed to identify virus strains. Information about seasonal patterns of infection was extracted and compared with local weather data. Results: Out of the 4,009 fecal samples tested using multiplex RT-PCR (mRT-PCR), 985 were positive for infection with Gr.A, G-I, and G-II. Out of these 985 cases, 95.3% (n = 939) were under 10 years of age. Gr.A, G-I, and G-II showed high infection rates in patients under 10 years of age. Student's t-test showed a significant correlation between the detection rate of Gr.A and the relative humidity. The detection rate of G-II significantly correlated with wind-chill temperature. Conclusion: Climate factors differentially modulate rotavirus and norovirus infection patterns. These observations provide novel insights into the seasonal impact on the pathogenesis of Gr.A, G-I, and G-II.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.99-108
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• 2022

Avian leukosis virus (ALV) is a highly contagious retrovirus that causes tumors and has resulted in great economic loss worldwide owing to its high transmission rate. Various ALV viral subgroups exist, with infections occurring via specific host receptors. The susceptibility or resistance of avian species to the ALV-A and K subgroups is determined by the host receptor, the tumor virus locus A (tva) gene, while that to ALV-B depends on another host receptor, the tumor virus locus B (tvb) gene. The resistance alleles of tva and tvb have primarily been identified in China, but none have beendetected in Korea. We analyzed the frequencies of tva and tvb genotypes in White Leghorn (WL), Korean Ogye (KO), and Korean native chicken (KNC) breeds, and assessed the resistance to ALV subgroups. In WL, both tva and tvb had various genotypes, including susceptibility and resistance alleles, whereas in KO, tva and tvb resistance alleles were dominant. In KNC, tva susceptibility and resistance alleles were mixed, whereas tvb resistance alleles were dominant. In addition, we showed that there were differences in the splicing pattern of tva transcripts and the expression level of tvb transcripts within breeds. Finally, we confirmed that ALV resistance depended on KO and KNC genotypes by in vitro infection of chicken embryonic fibroblasts with ALV. These results highlight that some KO and KNC individuals are naturally resistant to ALV subgroups A, B, and K, and will facilitate the preservation of economically superior traits through selective breeding.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2022

Patterns of occurrence of tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) and tomato chlorosis virus (ToCV) with whitefly on summer-cultivated tomato in Gwangju-si, Gyeonggi Province were surveyed using multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in 2020. In addition, distribution of the whiteflies species and their viral transmission rates were investigated throughout the tomato growing season. The infection rates of TYLCV and ToCV increased sharply during harvest, and the single infection rates were 30.9% and 5.0%, respectively, with a mixed infection rate of the two viruses being the highest at 52.2%. Single infection with TYLCV and double infections with TYLCV and ToCV accounted for the majority with 83.1%. Bemisia tabaci were dominant over Trialeurodes vaporariorum in greenhouse grown plants, and all of the investigated B. tabaci biotypes were identified as Mediterranean (MED, formerly known as Q biotype). The transmission rate of TYLCV, detected in every sampled B. tabaci MED population, was 21.4%, and the mixed transmission rate with ToCV was 35.5%. Viruliferous MED whiteflies with ToCV showed a higher rate than that of T. vaporariorum. In the transplant stage, viruliferous rate of both TYLCV and ToCV of B. tabaci was 42.7%; this rate was highest in the harvest stage. In examination of tomato yield, the increase in the mixed infection rate of TYLCV and ToCV led to complete yield loss. When the mixed infection rate increased by 10%, the yield decreased by 405.4 kg/10a.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2023

Objective: This study aimed to examine the influence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection on pregnancy in cytokeratin-18 (K18)-hACE2 transgenic mice. Methods: To determine the expression of hACE2 mRNA in the female reproductive tract of K18-hACE2 mice, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed using the ovary, oviduct, uterus, umbilical cord, and placenta. SARS-CoV-2 was inoculated intranasally (30 μL/mouse, 1×10⁴ TCID₅₀/mL) to plug-checked K18-hACE2 homozygous female mice at the pre-and post-implantation stages at 2.5 days post-coitum (dpc) and 15.5 dpc, respectively. The number of implantation sites was checked at 7.5 dpc, and the number of normally born pups was investigated at 20.5 dpc. Pregnancy outcomes, including implantation and childbirth, were confirmed by comparison with the non-infected group. Tissues of infected mice were collected at 7.5 dpc and 19.5 dpc to confirm the SARS-CoV-2 infection. The infection was identified by performing RT-PCR on the infected tissues and comparing them to the non-infected tissues. Results: hACE2 mRNA expression was confirmed in the female reproductive tract of the K18-hACE2 mice. Compared to the non-infected group, no significant difference in the number of implantation sites or normally born pups was found in the infected group. SARS-CoV-2 infection was detected in the lungs but not in the female reproductive system of infected K18-hACE2 mice. Conclusion: In K18-hACE2 mice, intranasal infection with SARS-CoV-2 did not induce implantation failure, preterm labor, or miscarriage. Although the viral infection was not detected in the uterus, placenta, or fetus, the infection of the lungs could induce problems in the reproductive system. However, lung infections were not related to pregnancy outcomes.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.94-100
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• 2022

Chronic infection by hepatitis B virus (HBV) greatly increases the risk for liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The outcome of HBV infection is shaped by the complex interplay of the mode of transmission, host genetic factors, viral genotype, adaptive mutations, and environmental factors. The pregenomic RNA transcription of HBV for their replication is regulated by the core promoter activation. Core promoter mutations have been the reason for acute liver failure and are associated with HCC development. We obtained HBV genes from a patient in Myanmar who was infected with HBV and identified gene variations in the core promoter region. For measuring the relative transactivation activity of the core promoter, we prepared the core-promoter reporter construct. Among the gene variations of the core promoter, the mutations of C1731T and G1806A were associated with increase in the transactivation of the HBV core promoter. Through computer analysis for searching for a tentative transcription factor binding site, we showed that the mutations of C1713T and G1806A newly created C/EBPβ and XBP1-responsive elements of the core promoter, respectively. The ectopic expression of C/EBPβ largely increased the HBV core promoter containing the C1713T mutation and that of XBP1 activated the M95 promoter containing the G1806A mutation. Our efforts to treat and prevent HBV infections are hampered by the emergence of drug-resistant mutations and vaccine-escape mutations. Our results provide the biological properties and clinical significance of specific HBV core promoter mutations.