• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.228-237
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• 2002

Acute hepatitis is caused by virus, alcohol. toxins and drugs. Clinical symptoms of acute hepatitis are severe fatigue, jaundice, nausea, hepatomely, lymphadenopathy. We encountered two cases of acute hepatitis, one C type viral hepatitis and the other hepatitis by overuse of medicine. The symptoms of the latter are severe fatigue, petechia and heartburning. The symptoms of the latter are severe fatigue, nausea, dyspepsia, yellow urine and skin. We recognized that total bilirubin. direct bilirubin, serum transaminase, alkaline phosphatase and gamma glutamyl transferase were elevated. We treated both patients with herb medicine(Gagamsaenggan-tang). Gagamsaenggan-tang has been used to hepatic diseases and have been known to have beneficial effects. The patients' symptoms began to improve after about two weeks of treatment. After 3 weeks on medication, the clinical symptoms and liver function of two patients were improved.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.125-132
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• 1983

It was attempted in the present study to determind the effect of Korean ginseng on acute viral(B type) hepatitis by double blind test clinically and the results were as follows. 1. The double blind test of 4 week period showed no statistical significance of the effect of ginseng on the disease. 2. The double blind test of 2 week period, however, showed a significant effect in such clinical symptoms as appetite, stomach ache, headache, chillness dizziness, nausea and vomitting, stool habit change and jaundice. Improvement of the blood serum level of transaminases, bilirubin. alkaline phosphatase and cholesterol Chillness feeding period was observed.

• The Journal of the Korean life insurance medical association
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.34-36
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• 1985

Korea is an endemic area of chronic hepatitis in the world. Liver cirrhosis and liver cell carcinoma, presumed to be related to such chronic hepatitis, are the major causes of death in this country. The purpose of this study is disclosing the sources of chronic hepatitis in Korea establishing its histologic characteristics, disclosing the patterns of progression in chronic hepatitis, delineating its prognosis and finally speculating its etiology. The study group was composed of 183 patients with biopsy-proven acute icteric viral hepaticis, 32 patients with biopsy- proven anicteric hepatitis and 260 patients with biopsy- proven chronic hepatitis. These patients submitted to long-term follow-up by means of liver needle biopsy and/or clinicolaboratory evaluation. The period of follow-up ranged from two months to 18 years. The histological features of the initial biopsy specimens of chronic hepatitis permitted a division of the cases cases into the following five types: Type I. Persisting portal hepatitis : so called persisting hepatitis 43 Type II. Chronic inactive hepatitis with incomplete strand septal fibrosis. This type has thin fibrotic septation in addition to Type I with portal sclerosis 38 Type III. Chronic active periportal hepatitis(CAPH) : so called aggressive hepatitis, characterized by marked piecemeal necrosis. This type has been subdivided further into three groups: AB and C on the basis of histologic features. A CAPH without cirrhosis 15 B CAPH with cirrhosis 99 C CAPH with diffuse acinus type parenchymal nodules; characterized by rosette-forming micronodules 21 Type IV. Subacute hepatic necrosis; characterized by multilobular and/or bridging necrosis. 14 Type V. Persisting lobular hepatitis; characterized by spotty necrosis, which looks very similar to acute viral hepatitis. Such histologic changes should be persisted for more than six months 30 In Korea the main source of chronic hepatitis is the anicteric type. Of the chronic hepatitis observed in the hospital, Type IIIb was the most frequent in its incidence and occasionally exhibited development of hepatocellular carcinoma, but the mortality was highest in Type IIIc during the period of follow-up. Histologic characteristics of these five types suggest a spectrum of chronic hepatitis in Korea from an early and mild stage to advanced and fatal cirrhosis, which is occasionally associated with primary hepatic cell carcinoma. It seems that Type IV can be followed by flare-up of various stages of acute and chronic hepatitis with HBsAg and that many cases of liver cirrhosis prevalent in Korea occur through such an active process of Type IV. The etiology is not established, but in Korea it is mainly related to HBsAg.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.115-124
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• 1983

The effect of ginseng administration on the patients of acute viral (B type) hepatitis has been oberved and the results were as follows. The albumin/globulin ratio of the ginseng administered group has significantly improved 4 weeks after admission while that of control group has not been improved suggesting that the ginseng might be effective in improving the protein metabolism. The thymol turbidity test again gave a similar result. Recovery of the disorder of bilirubin metabolism was also accelerated in the ginseng administered group compared with control group. The raised bilirubin value of the former returnedto the normal value 2 week after admission while that of the latter reached to normal 4-5 weeks after admission. However no significant difference of the bilirubin level between ginseng treated and non-treated groups could be observed. Cholesterol metabolism is also stimulated in ginseng administered group. The lowered cholesterol level of the ginseng group returned to normal 3-4 weeks after admission while that of latter reached to normal 5-6 weeks after admission. The raised S-GOT and S-GPT levels of the ginseng treated group returned to the normal value 3-4 weeks after admission while those of control group rehimed to normal in 5 weeks after admission suggesting that the ginseng improved impaired liver function. The improvement of the raised transaminase level seemed to be accelerate6 by the ginseng administration, however, no significant difference of the transaminase level between the ginseng treated and non-treated group could be observed. A significant effect of ginseng on the raised alkaline phosphatase level was observed. From the above results, it seemed that ginseng might stimulate the improvement of the disturbance of liver function, particularly at the early phase of its development of acute liver disease suggesting that panax ginseng might play a significant role in preventing the disease developing to be chronic.