• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.149-159
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• 2005

Purpose: To determine the extent and rate of prescription drug therapy, especially polypharmacy and the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medication use in Korean elderly ambulatory patients based on an explicit criterion. Methods: Performed a retrospective study of 65 years or older ambulatory patients visiting a university hospital based clinic from January 2002 to April 2004. Study determined the patterns of drug prescription per Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification and the potentially inappropriate medication usage based on explicit Beers criteria. Results: Of the 4,042 elderly patients the mean number of prescription was $2.2{\pm}2.0$, which was similar between genders and all age groups within the elderly. 10.7% of patients were prescribed with more than 5 medications concurrently. The most frequently prescribed medication was the drugs used for treating nervous system diseases (44.3%), followed by alimentary tract/metabolism disorders (27.6%), cardiovascular disease (10.7%), blood/blood forming disorders (4.3%), respiratory disorders (6.5%), and musculoskeletal diseases (3.2%). A total of 511 elderly (13%) was prescribed with medication that met the criteria for=1 potentially inappropriate drugs for the elderly. This proportion was similar between genders and all age groups within the elderly. Among these 511 elderly patients the mean number of potentially inappropriate drugs prescribed was $5.1{\pm}3.3$ drugs. Potentially inappropriately prescribed drugs included amitriptyline (76 cases), diazepam (69 cases), ketorolac (57 cases), short acting nifedipine (44 cases), triazolam (38 cases), and hydroxyzine (38 cases). Conclusion: Potentially inappropriate drug prescribing in Korean ambulatory elderly patients are common. Education programs and interventions aimed at optimizing the prescribing and dispensing of the most appropriate drugs are needed.

• The Journal of Korea Assosiation for Disability and Oral Health
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2018

General anesthesia is an effective behavior management method for disabled patients or uncooperative children who have difficulty in cooperation. The objective of this study was to assess and analyze dental treatment under general anesthesia in department of pediatric dentistry at Pusan National University Dental Hospital for 5 years. One hundred and nine cases of general anesthesia from June 2013 to May 2018 were surveyed for this study. Patients' distribution, reasons for general anesthesia, treatment pattern, agents for general anesthesia, duration of treatment, and visiting route were assessed. The proportion of male was higher than female and age group of 5 to 9 was highest. Reasons for general anesthesia were handicapped situations with or without systemic disease(52%), operative treatment needs(13.2%), uncooperative(15%) and others(29.8%). Most used agents for general anesthesia were thiopental sodium and sevoflurane. Dental treatment under general anesthesia for handicapped and uncooperative children has been increasing. Therefore, it is important to improve the system and efficiency of general anesthesia to provide satisfactory treatment.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.298-302
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• 2017

With an increasing aging population and improved standards of living, more attention has been paid to health. Although walking exercise is known as an aerobic exercise, it imposes repeated and continuous impacts on the joints of the lower extremities. Therefore, when overweight gives a burden to the lower extremity or there is a joint disease, exercise limit occurs. The articular cartilage, weakened with age, also makes it difficult for the elderly to perform walking exercises. Accordingly, this study conducted a comparative analysis between regular walking using only the lower extremity and Nordic walking, which has been known as stable. For analysis, electromyography (EMG) was performed and the ground reaction force of the upper and lower extremities were measured in the same exercise. Integrated EMG (iEMG) revealed that the upper extremity muscles were more active in Nordic walking than in regular walking, where lower extremity muscles were relatively more inactive. In addition, when EMG measurements were performed at each measurement point during walking exercise, the pattern was different. Nevertheless, the result was the same as in iEMG. The load that occurs in each exercise was measured using the ground reaction force system. As a result, Nordic walking had a lower load than regular walking. Therefore, it was found that Nordic walking minimized the load on the lower extremities owing to the effect of whole-body exercise and was a safer and more efficient exercise method.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.13
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• pp.5237-5242
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• 2015

Background: Socioeconomic factors are associated with screening in terms of reducing the risk of cervical cancer. This study aimed to clearly establish the effect of screening on variation in socio-economic factor-specific survival estimates. Materials and Methods: Survival estimates were calculated using the life table method for 165 women from the routine care control arm and 67 from the visual inspection with acetic acid screening arm diagnosed with cervical cancer during 2000-2006 in rural south India. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were plotted to compare the variation in survival by socioeconomic factors. Results: Whereas there was a significant variation in survival estimates of the different categories of age at diagnosis among the screen-detected cancers with women aged<50 years having an improved survival, no significant variation was noted among women diagnosed with cervical cancer from the control arm. Compared to the variation among the cancer cases detected in the unscreened control group, screening widened the variation in survival estimates by age and type of house, and reduced the variation by education. The direction of the magnitude of the survival estimates was reversed within the different categories of occupation, marital status and household income in the screen-detected cancer cases compared to control group cancer cases. Also, women diagnosed with stage 1 disease had a very good survival. Conclusions: Screening changed the pattern of survival by socio-economic factors. We found improved survival rates in screened women aged <50 years, with no formal education, manual workers and married women.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.3133-3137
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• 2014

Background: To determine the histopathological pattern of colorectal cancer (CRC) among Saudi patients with a view to determine various epidemiological and histopathological features of the disease. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively collected and analyzed the demographic and histopathological data of all the patients with CRC diagnosed at King Fahad Hospital, Madinah, Saudi Arabia over a period of 8 years from January 2006 to December 2013. Results: Of 324 cases of CRC reviewed, 200 cases (61.7%) were males while 124 cases (38.3%) were females giving a male to female ratio of 1.6: 1. Age of the patients ranged from 20 to 100 years with a mean age 57.9 years. The rectosigmoid region was the most frequent anatomical site (13.6%) involved and adenocarcinoma (88.6%) was the most common histopathological type. The majority of adenocarcinomas (87.3%) were moderately differentiated. A total of 47.8% of patients were in stage B and 43.5% of patients were in stage C of the Aster-Coller classification. Most patients (75.7%) presented with large size tumors. Lymphovascular invasion and lymph node metastasis were recorded in 67.9% and 43.6% of cases, respectively. Conclusions: Colorectal cancer is common in our environment and the majority of patients present late with an advanced stage. Screening programs regarding CRC should be enhanced to improve the outcome of the patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5671-5674
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• 2013

Incidence of breast cancer shows geographical variation, even within areas of ethnic homogeneity. Saudi Arabia has witnessed an increase in occurrence of breast cancer in its unexplored ethnic populations over the past few years. We aimed at determining whether any association exists between single nucleotide polymorphisms in breast cancer associated gene 1 (BRCA1) and breast cancer associated gene 2 (BRCA2) and the risk of breast cancer. TaqMan based Real Time Polymerase chain reaction genotyping assays were used to determine the frequency of single nucleotide polymorphisms in BRCA1 (rs799917) and BRCA2 (rs144848) in a group of 100 breast cancer patients and unaffected age matched controls of Saudi Arabian origin. The present data revealed that neither BRCA1 nor the BRCA2 studied variant show any significant association with the disease. This study failed to find any role of the concerned variants in breast cancer either as risk or as prognostic factors. The small number of patients registered was one of the limitations of this study. In summary, comparison of mutation profile with other ethnic populations and regions reflected both differences and similarities indicating co-exposure to a unique set of risk factors. The differences could be due to exposure to particular environmental carcinogens; different lifestyle, reproductive pattern; dietary or cultural practices of Saudi Arabian women that need further investigations.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.sup3
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• pp.197-200
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• 2016

On an international scale, the burden of cancer in absolute numbers continues to increase, mainly due to aging of population in many countries, the overall growth of the world population, changing lifestyle with increasing cancer-causing behavior, like cigarette smoking, changing dietary habits and sedentary life. Cancer is the second-leading cause of death and disability in the world, after only heart disease. Recently, increasing incidence and mortality of cancer have also become evident in the developing world. In Iraq and particularly in Basrah in the southern part of the country, the burden has definitely increased and deserves extensive research. The present paper is part of an extensive household survey carried out in Basrah in 2013. Among the objectives was to validate official cancer registration in the governorate. The cross-sectional survey had a retrospective component to inquire about the incidence of cancer and cancer-related deaths during the three years preceding the date of inquiry (2010-2012). A convenient sample of 6,999 households with 40,688 inhabitants using multistage cluster sampling was surveyed involving all urban and rural areas of Basrah. The official cancer registration activities in Basrah seemed to have attained a high level of registration coverage (70-80%) but the gap, represented by missed cases, is still high enough to criticize the system. Most of the missing cases were either not notified by treating facilities or they were diagnosed and treated outside Basrah. Using a set of parameters, the pattern of cancer was consistent based on data of the household survey and data of the cancer registry but a gap still existed in the coverage of incident cancer and mortality by cancer registration. Integrated serious steps are required to contain the risk of cancer and its burden on the patient through improving the registration process, improving early detection, diagnostic and management capabilities and encouraging scientific research to explore the hidden risk factors and possible causes of low registration coverage. Periodic household surveys seemed feasible and essential to support routine registration.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.731-736
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• 2014

Objective: To observe the short-term efficacy, long-term survival time and adverse responses with nedaplatin (NDP) or cisplatin (DDP) concomitant with other chemotherapy in treating non-small cell lung cancer. Materials and Methods: A retrospective, randomized, control study was conducted, in which 619 NSCLC patients in phases III and IV who were initially treated and re-treated were randomly divided into an NDP group (n=294) and a DDP group (n=325), the latter being regarded as controls. Chemotherapeutic protocols (CP/DP/GP/NP/TP) containing NDP or DDP were given to both groups. Patients in both groups were further divided to evaluate the clinical efficacies according to initial and re-treatment stage, pathological pattern, type of combined chemotherapeutic protocols, tumor stage and surgery. Results: The overall response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) in the NDP group were 48.6% and 95.2%, significantly higher than in the DDP group at 35.1% and 89.2%, respectively (P<0.01). In NSCLC patients with initial treatment, squamous carcinoma and phase III, there were significant differences in ORR and DCR between the groups (P<0.05), while ORR was significant in patients with adenocarcinoma, GP/TP and in phase IIIa (P<0.05). There was also a significant difference in DCR in patients in phase IIIb (P<0.05). According to the statistical analysis of survival time of all patients and of those in clinical phase III, the NDP group survived significantly longer than the DDP group (P<0.01). The rates of decreased hemoglobin and increased creatinine, nausea and vomiting in the NDP group were evidently lower than in DDP group (P<0.05). Conclusion: NDP concomitant with other chemotherapy is effective for treating NSCLC, with higher clinical efficacy than DDP concomitant with chemotherapy, with advantages in prolonging survival time and reducing toxic and adverse responses.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.23-32
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• 2011

U-health services have been progressed as treatment and management for specific diseases and prevention services for providing the behavior management to customers according to the increase in chronic patients. The conventional U-health services provide required services and bio-information monitoring only through remote diagnoses and counsels and that represent limitations in preventing and managing metabolic syndrome patients like chronic patients. Thus, in this study a multi platform based U-health service model for managing the health of chronic patients is proposed. The multi-platform based U-health service model can provide continuous health information, diet, and exercise services regardless of the location of customers through PCs and smart phones. In addition, it is able to provide prescription services to doctors and nurses using a CDS (Clinical Decision Support) module based on clinical information. Doctors can identify the life pattern of patients through a behavior modification program and provide customized services to patients. The U-health service model provides effective services in multi-platform environments to customers and that will improve the health of chronic patients.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.59 no.sup1
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• pp.64-67
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• 2016

Congenital tuberculosis (TB) is a rare disease that is associated with high mortality. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent, may be transmitted from the infected mother to the fetus by the transplacental route or by aspiration of infected amniotic fluid. Clinical symptoms and signs are not specific. Miliary patterns are the most common findings in the chest X-rays of many infants with congenital TB. In this case, an 18-day-old boy had jaundice on the fifth day of birth, and fever and respiratory distress appeared on the 18th day. Chest X-ray showed diffuse fine bilateral infiltration. Clinically, pneumonia or sepsis was suspected. Respiratory symptoms and chest X-ray findings worsened despite empirical antibiotic therapy. The lungs showed miliary infiltration suggestive of TB. Gastric aspirates were positive for M. tuberculosis. Respiratory distress and fever were gradually improved after anti-TB medication. Congenital TB is difficult to detect because of minimal or no symptoms during pregnancy and nonspecific symptoms in neonates. Hence, clinicians should suspect the possibility of TB infection even if neonates have non-specific symptoms. Early diagnosis and meticulous treatment are required for the survival of neonates with TB.