• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.130-134
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• 2021

In the era of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), social distancing and strict visitation policies at hospitals have made it difficult for medical staff to provide high-quality end-of-life (EOL) care to dying patients and their families. There are various issues related to EOL care, including psychological problems of patients and their families, difficulties in EOL decision-making, the complicated grief of the bereaved family, moral distress, and exhaustion of medical staff. In relation to these issues, we aimed to discuss practical considerations in providing high-quality EOL care in the COVID-19 pandemic. First, medical staff should discuss advance care planning as early as possible and use the parallel planning strategy. Second, medical staff should play a role in facilitating patient-family communication. Third, medical staff should actively and proactively evaluate and alleviate dying patients' symptoms using non-verbal communication. Lastly, medical staff should provide care for family members of the dying patient, who may be particularly vulnerable to post-bereavement problems in the COVID-19 era. Establishing a system of screening high-risk individuals for complicated grief and connecting them to bereavement support services might be considered. Despite the challenging and limited environment, providing EOL care is essential for patients to die with dignity in peace and for the remaining family to return to life after the loved one's death. Efforts considering the practical issues faced by all medical staff and healthcare institutions caring for dying patients should be made.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.68-71
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• 2016

Tumoral calcinosis (TC) is a condition resulting from extensive calcium phosphate precipitation, primarily in the periarticular tissues around major joints. Calciphylaxis is a fatal ischemic vasculopathy mainly affecting dermal blood vessels and subcutaneous fat. This syndrome is rare and predominantly occurs in patients with end-stage renal disease. Here, we report on a rare case involving a patient with TC complicated with calciphylaxis. Our patient was a 31-year-old man undergoing hemodialysis who presented with masses on both shoulders and necrotic cutaneous ulcers, which were associated with secondary hyperparathyroidism, on his lower legs. He underwent subtotal parathyroidectomy, and sodium thiosulfate (STS) was administered for 27 weeks. Twenty months after beginning the STS treatment course, he experienced dramatic relief of his TC and calciphylaxis.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.178-186
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• 2013

Objective: Human enteroviruses (HEVs) are a common causative agent of gastrointestinal or respiratory infections. In this study, to examine the genotypic diversity and characteristics of HEVs associated with patients in Seoul, we collected and analyzed stool and throat swab samples taken from patients with acute gastroenteritis or a common cold from 2011 to 2012. We researched the difference in genetic characteristics of HEVs from gastroenteritis and respiratory patients. Methods: For genetic analysis, we amplified the 5'-noncoding region and partial VP1 region of HEVs by RT-PCR. The genotypes of HEVs were further identified based on nucleotide sequences of the VP1 region. Results: The majority of the HEV infections in Seoul occurred from June to August. The molecular characteristic assay showed that although the majority of HEVs can be propagated by a fecal-oral route, Coxsackievirus A2 (n=13, 19.4%), A4 (n=8, 11.9%), and A5 (n=4, 6.0%) can be preferentially transmitted by a respiratory route. Conclusions: This Enterovirus surveillance system plays an important role in preparing for a severe outbreak. The genotypic characteristics of HEV may provide potentially useful data needed for epidemiological studies.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.73-78
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• 2020

Purpose: Congenital myasthenic syndrome (CMS) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by impaired neuromuscular transmission. This study aims to provide the clue for early diagnosis and improved therapeutic strategies in CMS. Materials and Methods: Through the targeted panel sequencing including twenty CMS causative genes, eleven patients were genetically confirmed and enrolled in this study. A retrospective medical record review was carried out for the clinical and laboratory data analysis. Results: The age of patients ranged from 5 to 23 years, with the median age of 16 years. The peak age at onset of symptoms was the neonatal period. Seven out of the eleven patients were symptomatic at birth. The most commonly reported initial finding was generalized hypotonia with poor sucking and crying. Mean time to accurate diagnosis was 9.3±5.0 years. Total fifteen different variants in seven genes associated with CMS (DOK7, AGRN, RAPSN, CHRNE, COLQ, SLC5A7, and GFPT1) were identified. Conclusion: We describe the clinical and genetic characteristics of CMS patients and treatment outcome in a single tertiary center. High clinical suspicion and timely molecular diagnosis is particularly important for the tailored therapy to maximize clinical improvement in CMS.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.105-110
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• 1996

Antineoplastic activity against human gastric and colon carcinoma cell lines was tested in eighty-three species of Korean plants including Korean medicinal plants which have been frequently used in oriental herb prescriptions. The plant materials were extracted with methanol and the cytotoxic activity was tested using a calorimetric tetrazolium assay (MTT assay). Twenty-six plant extracts against gastric carcinoma cell line, eighteen extracts against colon carcinoma cell line and fourteen plant extracts against both carcinoma cell lines showed antineoplastic activity at the concentration of less than $100{\mu}g/ml$. The effective components from four species have been isolated and reported.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.77-92
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• 2011

Objectives : This study examined the health policy researchers' needs and their accessibility towards health insurance claim datasets according to their academic capacity. Methods : An online questionnaire to capture relevant proxy variables for academic needs, accessibility, and research capacity was constructed based on previous studies. The survey was delivered to active health policy researchers through three major scholarly associations in South Korea. Seven-hundred and one scholars responded while the survey as open for 12 days (starting on December 20th, 2010). Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were carried out. Results : Regardless of the definition for operational needs, the prevalent needs of survey respondents were not met with the current provision of claim data. Greater research capacity was shown to be correlated with increased demand for claim data along with a positive correlation between attempts to obtain claim datasets and research capacity. A greater research capacity, however, was not necessarily correlated with better accessibility to the claim data. Conclusions : The substantial unmet need for claim data among the healthcare policy research community calls for establishing proactive institutions which could systematically prepare and make available public datasets and provide call-in services to facilitate proper handling of data.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.22-40
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• 2022

The goal of this study was to estimate the possible scattering distance of deicer from the highway and the impact range of deicer on soil quality in terms of plant growth. Among the major elements (Ca²⁺, Cl^- and Na⁺) of deicer, Ca²⁺and Cl^- are usually applied as fertilizer to soil. Therefore both elements (Ca²⁺and Cl^-) were not appropriate for a tracer of deicer at the agricultural area. In this study, SAR (sodium adsorption ratio) of soil was proposed as an alternative tracer to confirm the distribution of the deicer around the highway areas. Because deicer is the main anthropogenic source of Na⁺ around the highway areas and does harm to the physical properties of soil and plant growth through the destruction of soil aggregate, SAR would be an recommendable tracer to access the distribution of deicer as well as adverse effect on soil quality at highway areas. The influence range of deicer based on SAR of soil was estimated to be less than 20 m distance from the highway even though the possible flying distance of deicer was found to be more than 100 m from the highway. However the deicer seriously deposited within 10 m from the highway.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.89-92
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• 2012

Campomelic dysplasia (CMD) is a rare, often lethal, genetic disorder characterized by multiple congenital anomalies and abnormal development of the reproductive organs in males. Mutations in the SOX9 gene are known to cause CMD. We present a Korean CMD girl with a normal 46,XX karyotype and a female reproductive organ phenotype. She was born at 2.35 kg at 38 weeks of gestation and showed characteristic phenotypes, including cleft palate, micrognathia, hypertelorism, flat nasal bridge, congenital bowing of limbs, hypoplastic scapulae, deformed pelvis, and 11 pairs of ribs. She also had an atrioseptal defect of the heart and marked laryngotracheomalacia requiring tracheostomy and tracheopexy. SOX9 mutation analysis revealed the presence of a novel nonsense mutation, $p.Gln369^*$, and the patient was genetically confirmed to have CMD. Although she showed marked failure to thrive and neurodevelopmental delay, she is now 40 months of age and is the only surviving patient with CMD in Korea.

• BMB Reports
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.205-210
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• 1997

p53 tumor suppressor plays an important role in the regulation of cellular proliferation. To identify proteins regulating the expression of p53 in rat liver, we analyzed p53 promoter by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and DNase I footprinting assay. We found that a protein binds the sequence CACGTG, bHLH consensus sequence in rat p53 promoter. Southwestern blotting analysis with oligonucleotides containing this sequence shows that the molecular weight of the protein is 100 kDa. This size is not compatible with the bHLH family such as USF or c-Myc/Max which is known to regulate the expression of the human and mouse p53 gene. Therefore this 100 kDa protein may be a new protein regulating basal transcription of rat p53. We purified this 100 kDa protein through sequence-specific DNA affinity chromatogaphy.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.31.2-31.2
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• 2016

We present our study of the correlation between the UV luminosity and the merging activities of nearby galaxies (d < 300 Mpc). Our study uses ~600 UV-selected galaxies with deep optical imaging data, where the UV selection is made using the GALEX Atlas of Galaxies (Gil de Paz et al. 2007) and the updated UV catalog of nearby galaxies (Yu Bai et al. 2015). Deep optical images allow us to classify merger features using visual inspection, and we also estimate unobscured SFR using UV continuum luminosity. The fraction of galaxies with merger features in each UV luminosity bins are obtained to see if how the fraction of galaxies with merging features changes as a function of UV luminosity, Finally, we will show, above what UV luminosity (or SFR), the merging mechanism becomes an important process in enhancing star formation of galaxies.