• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.486-495
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to analyze the performance evaluation index for a salt reduction project. Questionnaires were developed in order to investigate salt reduction programs nationwide. The evaluation index and programs were analyzed through the case study of a salt reduction program in public health centers. The validity of the salt reduction program's evaluation index was determined based on study of the Delphi survey and on discussion with nutrition and health care professionals. The Delphi survey showed that daily salt intake was the most valid nutritional evaluation index. Stroke mortality and stomach cancer mortality were good health care evaluation indexes. The method for measuring salt intake that had the greatest validity was a 24-hour urine collection. However, 24-hour urine collection had the lowest score for ease of performance. The combined scores of validity and ease of performance showed that the survey method for dietary attitude and dietary behavior, dietary frequency analysis (DFQ 15), and a salty taste assessment, in that order, were proper methods. The high reliability of the salty taste assessment indicated that the percentage of the population that exhibits proper salt intake (2,000 mg sodium or less daily) and the percentage of the population that consumes low-salt diets as nutritional evaluation indexes also will be helpful to evaluate performance of salt reduction programs.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.564-573
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• 1999

Background: With variable symptoms and nonspecific radiographic appearances, pulmonary embolism (PE) is a frequent and often undiagnosed cause of mortality and morbidity. The Prospective Investigation of Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis (PIOPED) study suggested that the majority of patients undergoing ventilation-perfusion (V-Q) scan would require additional studies to establish or to exclude the diagnosis of PE. Pulmonary angiography has been regarded as gold standard for diagnosis of PE. However, it is an invasive procedure that may be associated with significant notable morbidity and mortality. Thus, availability of an accurate, noninvasive screening examination is highly desirable. Method: From October 1994 to February 1997, twenty patients (male 13, female 7, range 23-91 years, median 58 years) who were suspected as pulmonary embolism on the basis of clinical evidence and underwent the spiral volumetric computed tomography (spiral CT), were studied retrospectively to evaluate the effectiveness of spiral CT as a diagnostic tool in PE. Results: PE could be excluded with spiral CT in 4 patients ; diagnoses of these patients were lung cancer, pneumonia with lung abscess, bilateral pleural effusion due to congestive heart failure, nonspecific pulmonary abnormality retrospectively. One patient who disclosed high probability in V/Q scan, could be diagnosed as pneumonia with lung abscess and underlying emphysema with spiral CT. Among 4 patients who showed intermediate and low probability in V/Q scan, 3 patients could be confirmed as PE with spiral CT. Spiral CT was helpful in 3 patients, in whom V/Q scan could not be performed due to other reasons (e.g. night time, mechanical ventilation) to confirm the diagnosis of PE. Spiral CT could demonstrate embolus above lobar artery level in 11 patients, and up to segmental artery level in 5 patients. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that spiral CT could allow accurate demonstration of thrombotic clots in centrally localized embolism. Spiral CT could be effective, specific, noninvasive and useful diagnostic screening modality for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.732-737
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• 2009

Background: Many video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lobectomies are performed as a potential alternative to thoracotomy despite the controversy about the safety and the associated morbidity/mortality rates. Material and Method: Between November 2006 and August 2008, we performed 87 lobectomies (VATS 36, Thoracotomy 51) and we retrospectively reviewed the surgical treatment results. A VATS lobectomy was performed by a 4~5 cm thoracotomy without rib spreading and this included anatomic hilar dissection, individual vessel and bronchus stapling and lymph node dissection. Result: We studied 52 male and 35 female patients whose age ranged from 6 to 79 (average age: $59.8{\pm}15.0$ years). The cases were diagnosed with lung cancer (66) (SQC 24, ADC 38, others 4), pulmonary metastasis (2), carcinoid (2) and benign diseases (17). There was no intraoperative death. Postoperative complications were seen in 5 (15.6%) VATS and 33 (64.7%) thoracotomies, and perioperative death caused by adult respiratory distress syndrome occurred in 1 (2.8%) VATS and 3 (5.9%) thoracotomies. Three patients Underwent conversion to thoracotomy (8.3%). The mean time to chest tube removal was 6 days for VATS and 9.4 days for thoracotomy (p<0.001), and the mean length of the hospital stay was 8 days for VATS and 12.8 days for thoracotomy (p<0.001). Conclusion: VATS lobectomy can be performed safely with low morbidity/mortality rates. Furthermore, all the patients benefited from earlier postoperative rehabilitation and less pain and they were candidates for an earlier return to normal activities.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.867-870
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• 2001

All-trans-retinoic acid (RA) plays essential roles in the regulation of differentiation and proliferation. It has been proved that RA is effective in the treatments of epithelial and hematologic malignancies. However, in spite of its pronounced effects, the clinical applications of RA are limited due to the retinoid acute resistance. Although RA induces complete remission in a high proportion of the patients of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), the cancer was relapsed in many patients after a brief remission in spite of a continued RA treatment. Patients who relapsed from remission that was initially induced by RA had clinically resistant to further RA treatment. That is, specific cytochrome P450 enzymes in the liver were induced by the continuous oral administration of RA, thereby accelerating the metabolism of RA. To overcome this problem, biodegradable microspheres were proposed by us, previously. And, several microsphere formulations for RA delivery have been prepared and studied on their effectiveness. Recently, poly(D,L-lactide) (PDLLA) microsphere formulation was optimized, And, from the animal studies by using a mouse and a rat, it have appeared to be effective on both the inhibition of tumor growth and chemoprevention of a carcinogenesis. In this study, subacute toxicities of the PDLLA microsphere formulation have been investigated as a preclinical test. For the test, the microspheres was injected subcutaneously into the back site of rats, and body weight change, clinical signs, hematological changes, blood biochemistry were evaluated. As a result, severe toxicities such as mortality were observed at the dose of 100mg RA/kg, and toxicities were not observed at the dose of 50mg RA/kg, which is the effective dose against carcinogenesis. Bone fracture, observed at several rats, might be inhibited by treating them with anti-inflammatory drugs.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.337-344
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• 2018

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a major type of hepatoma, is associated with high recurrence and mortality because of its uncontrolled metastatic feature. Silymarin is a polyphenolic flavonoid from Silybum marianun (milk thistle) and exhibits anti-carcinogenic activity through modulation of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in several cancer cells. In this study, the inhibitory mechanism of silymarin against migration and invasion was investigated in the Huh7 HCC cell line. Wound healing and in vitro invasion assays were conducted to examine the effects of silymarin on migration and invasion. Western blot analysis was also applied to evaluate the inhibitory effects of silymarin on the EMT-related genes and their upstream signaling molecules. Silymarin inhibited the migratory and invasive activities of Huh7 cells. In addition, silymarin attenuated the protein expression levels of vimentin and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 as well as their transcription factors, Snail, and nuclear factor $(NF)-{\kappa}B$, while the expression of E-cadherin was increased by the silymarin treatment. Among the upstream signaling molecules, the phosphorylation of Akt was inhibited by the silymarin treatment, which was confirmed by the selective inhibitor, LY294002. Consequently, silymarin inhibited the invasive and migratory activities in Huh7 cells through the modulation of EMT-related gene expression by the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, which may have potential as a chemopreventive agent against HCC metastasis.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.187-194
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• 2012

Prostate cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in men and is a major cause of mortality in the most of countries. In many diagnostic and treatment procedures for prostate disease, transrectal ultrasound(TRUS) images are being used because the cost is low. But, accurate detection of prostate boundaries is a challenging and difficult task due to weak prostate boundaries, speckle noises and the short range of gray levels. This paper proposes a method for automatic prostate segmentation in TRUS images using its average shape model and invariant features. This approach consists of 4 steps. First, it detects the probe position and the two straight lines connected to the probe using edge distribution. Next, it acquires 3 prostate patches which are in the middle of average model. The patches will be used to compare the features of prostate and nonprostate. Next, it compares and classifies which blocks are similar to 3 representative patches. Last, the boundaries from prior classification and the rough boundaries from first step are used to determine the segmentation. A number of experiments are conducted to validate this method and results showed that this new approach extracted the prostate boundary with less than 7.78% relative to boundary provided manually by experts.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.543-548
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• 1999

Background: These days, lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) is used as an alternative or a bridge operation to lung transplantation in treating patients with severe emphysema. The procedure can be used in patients with pulmonary nodules combined with severe emphysema. We report the results of 21 months follow up after lung volume reduction surgery in 7 cases including 2 cases of concurrent resection of pulmonary nodules. Material and Method: Seven patients with emphysema, including 2 cases of preoperatively suspected lung cancer were operated with LVRS technique between July 1996 and June 1997. Result: Postoperative mortality was observed in a case of squamous cell carcinoma in LUL with brain metastasis, detected at postoperative 13months. Average of 21months(19-25months) follow up was done for other cases without specific events. Conclusion: LVRS is a useful operation in the treatment of patients with severe emphysema, but further evaluation should be done about the long term results and precise criteria for patient selection. Simultaneous LVRS and tumor resection could be done in patients with emphysema with marginal reserve in the hope of maximizing postoperative lung functions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.205-212
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• 2017

Chronic diffuse hepatopathy is one of the important clinical tasks to reduce mortality and morbidity due to liver cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the criteria for predicting liver and chronic liver disease using Fibroscan based on ultrasound diagnosis. Serum and liver stiffness measurement(kPa) were analyzed in 280 patients and cut-off values of liver stiffness measurement for predicting fatty liver and chronic diffuse hepatopathy were determined using ROC curve analysis. Bilirubin and PT(prothrombin time) were not related to disease prediction(p=0.243, p=0.115). Serum glucose and triglyceride levels were significantly higher in the liver (p<0.05). The cut-off value for predicting chronic diffuse hepatopathy was determined as 10.3 kPa(AUC 0.98, sensitivity 94.94%, specificity 94.93%) in the order of control group, fatty liver and chronic diffuse hepatopathy. Therefore, it will be used as a primary tool for the diagnosis of chronic liver disease patients with quantitative evaluation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.513-521
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• 2020

B-cell-specific Moloney murine leukemia virus integration site 1 (Bmi1) is a polycomb group protein and a core component of polycomb repressive complex 1. Initial research into Bmi1 has focused on its role in tumorigenesis, and it is generally accepted that it is important for the proliferation and survival of cancer cells. However, more recent studies have revealed that Bmi1 is downregulated in brains with neurodegenerative disease and that it regulates the function of mitochondria and reactive oxygen species levels. In this study, we tested the therapeutic potential of Bmi1 in pilocarpine-induced seizures in Bmi1-knockout mice. Bmi1 expression transiently increased in the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 and the dentate gyrus following pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus (SE). In terms of seizure behavior, SE induction was 43.14% and 53.57% for Bmi1^+/+ and Bmi1^+/- mice, respectively. However, there was no significant difference in mortality or hippocampal damage between the two groups. Two months after SE induction, the frequency of epileptic seizures in the Bmi1^+/- mice was 50% lower than in the control group, although the difference was not statistically significant. In addition, mossy fiber outgrowth in the Bmi1^+/- mice was significantly higher than in their wild-type littermates. Taken together, these data indicate that reduced Bmi1 activity increases pilocarpine-induced seizure probability and mossy fiber outgrowth.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.315-322
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• 2009

Objectives : Knowledge about the management status of diabetic melitus (DM) is essential to improve diabetic management. Moreover, low income is associated with poor adherence to treatment and increased mortality. This study was performed to evaluate the management status of DM in low-income patients in a rural area. Methods : We enrolled 370 patients with type 2 DM living in Gokseong county, JeollaNamdo. A well-trained examiner measured the height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels. Carotid ultrasonography was used to measure carotid artery carotid artery intima media thickness (IMT) and plaque. anklebrachial index (ABI) was used to evaluate peripheral artery disease. A fundoscopic examination was performed to evaluate diabetic retinopathy. A history of diabetes complications and health-related questionnaires were also completed. Results : The age of diabetic subjects was 68.7$\pm$8.7 years and the duration of diabetes was 8.9$\pm$8.2 years. Most (63.5%) had hypertension, and 45.7% had triglycerides below 150 mg/dl, 38.1% had low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) cholesterol below 100 mg/dl, 48.7% had urine albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR) below 30 mg/g. Less than half (45.9%) achieved the goal of HbA1c less than 7% suggested by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). 10.6% had peripheral vascular disease, 11.9% had retinopathy, and 60.8% had chronic kidney disease. Conclusions : DM management in low income patients is very poor and requires further work to improve.