• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제54권1호
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

Laboratory workers, in resource-poor countries, still consider PCR detection of Giardia lamblia more costly and more time-consuming than the classical parasitological techniques. Based on 2 published primers, an in-house one-round touchdown PCR-RFLP assay was developed. The assay was validated with an internal amplification control included in reactions. Performance of the assay was assessed with DNA samples of various purities, 91 control fecal samples with various parasite load, and 472 samples of unknown results. Two cysts per reaction were enough for PCR detection by the assay with exhibited specificity (Sp) and sensitivity (Se) of 100% and 93%, respectively. Taking a published small subunit rRNA reference PCR test results (6%; 29/472) as a nominated gold standard, G. lamblia was identified in 5.9% (28/472), 5.2%, (25/472), and 3.6% (17/472) by PCR assay, $RIDA^{(R)}$ Quick Giardia antigen detection test (R-Biopharm, Darmstadt, Germany), and iodine-stained smear microscopy, respectively. The percent agreements (kappa values) of 99.7% (0.745), 98.9% (0.900), and 97.7% (0.981) were exhibited between the assay results and that of the reference PCR, immunoassay, and microscopy, respectively. Restriction digestion of the 28 Giardia-positive samples revealed genotype A pattern in 12 and genotype B profile in 16 samples. The PCR assay with the described format and exhibited performance has a great potential to be adopted in basic clinical laboratories as a detection tool for G. lamblia especially in asymptomatic infections. This potential is increased more in particular situations where identification of the parasite genotype represents a major requirement as in epidemiological studies and infection outbreaks.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.437-441
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• 2012

Objective: Health risk appraisal is often utilized to modify individual's health behavior, especially concerning disease prevention, and web-based health risk appraisal services are being provided to the general public in Korea. However, little is known about the psychological effect of the health risk appraisal even though poorly communicated information by the web-based service may result in unintended adverse health outcomes. This study was conducted to explore the psychological effect of health risk appraisal using epidemiological risk factor profile. Methods: We conducted a randomized trial comparing risk factor list type health risk appraisal and risk score type health risk appraisal. We studied 60 women aged 30 years and older who had no cancer. Anxiety level was assessed using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory YZ. Results: The results of multivariate analysis showed that risk status was the independent predictors of increase of state anxiety after health risk appraisal intervention when age, education, health risk appraisal type, numeracy, state anxiety, trait anxiety, and health risk appraisal type by risk status interaction was adjusted. Women who had higher risk status had an odd of having increased anxiety that was about 5 times greater than women who had lower risk status. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that communicating the risk status by individual health risk appraisal service can induce psychological sequelae, especially in women having higher risk status. Hospitals, institutes, or medical schools that are operating or planning to operate the online health risk appraisal service should take side effects such as psychological sequelae into consideration.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제21권12호
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• pp.1336-1344
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• 2011

This study details and examines a novel ligation-mediated polymerase chain reaction (LM-PCR) method. Named the LM-PCR/Shifter, it relies on the use of a Class IIS restriction enzyme giving restriction fragments with different 4-base, 5' overhangs, this being the Shifter, and the ligation of appropriate oligonucleotide adapters. A sequence of 4-base, 5' overhangs of the adapter and a 4-base sequence of the 3' end of the primer(s) determine a subset of the genomic restriction fragments, which are amplified by PCR. The method permits the differentiation of bacterial species strains on the basis of the different DNA band patterns obtained after electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gels stained with ethidium bromide and visualized in UV light. The usefulness of the LM-PCR/Shifter method for genotyping is analyzed by a comparison with the restriction endonuclease analysis of chromosomal DNA by the pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (REA-PFGE) and PCR melting profile (PCR MP) methods for isolates of clinical origin. The clustering of the LM-PCR/Shifter fingerprinting data matched those of the REA-PFGE and PCR MP methods. We found that the LM-PCR/Shifter is rapid, and offers good discriminatory power and excellent reproducibility, making it a method that may be effectively applied in epidemiological studies.

• 대한영양사협회학술지
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.124-139
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• 2013

Unlike studies of Europeans and Americans, many epidemiological studies of the Korean population have indicated that their risk for cardiovascular disease does not decrease with a vegetable-rich diet. The different dietary practices of Koreans, who consume salted vegetables instead of fresh vegetables (common in the Western diet), has been suggested as a reason for this observation. Korea is in a period of rapid epidemiologic transition, which includes dietary and disease patterns; therefore, this study investigated differences in the food consumption pattern and blood lipid profiles of Koreans compared to Europeans and Americans. The identification of dietary patterns related to blood lipid abnormalities was carried out using the 2007~2009 Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey data from 14,056 subjects. Dietary patterns were analyzed according to food group and nutrient intake. Blood lipid abnormalities were classified into three groups: hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and low HDL cholesterolemia (hypo-HDL-cholesterolemia). The prevalence of hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and hypo-HDL-cholesterolemia was 12.4%, 16.2%, and 27.7% respectively. In our analysis, the low consumption of all food groups was related to hypercholesterolemia. The high consumption of vegetable-containing foods, alcoholic beverages, and the low consumption of milk products were associated with hypertriglyceridemia and hypo-HDL-cholesterolemia. Thus, unlike Europeans and Americans, the low consumption of all food groups is related to hypercholesterolemia and a low consumption of milk products is related to hypertriglyceridemia and hypo-HDL-cholesterolemia. Dietary pattern might play a role in epidemiologic transition of Korean. Also, this study implies necessity of further research using longitudinal data.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제13권7호
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• pp.3159-3163
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• 2012

Background: For cervical cancer the epidemiological profile is poorly known in Morocco and no data is available concerning the direct medical costs. The purpose of this work is to estimate the direct cost of medical management of invasive cervical cancer during the first year after diagnosis in Morocco. Methods: The estimation of direct costs of medical management of invasive cervical cancer during the first year after diagnosis in Morocco is based on the estimation of individual cost in each stage which covers diagnosis, treatment and follow-up during first year. The cost was estimated per patient and whole cycle-set using the costs for each drug and procedure as indicated by the Moroccan National Agency for Health Insurance. Extrapolation of the results to the whole country was used to calculate the total annual cost of cervical cancer treatments in Morocco. Results: Overall approximately 1,978 new cases of cervical cancer occur each year in Morocco. The majority (82.96%) of these cases were diagnosed at a late stage (stageII or more). The cost of one case of cervical cancer depends on stage of diagnosis, the lowest cost is $382 for stageCis followed by the cost of stageIA1 for young women (< 40 years) which is $2,952. The highest cost is for stageIV, which is $7,827. The total cost of cervical cancer care for one year after diagnosis is estimated at $13,589,360. The share allocated to treatment is the most important part of the global care budget with an annual sum of $13,027,609 whereas other cost components are represented as follows: $435,694 for annual follow-up activity and $126,057 for diagnosis and preclinical staging. Conclusion: This study provides health decision-makers with a first estimate of costs and the opportunity to achieve the optimal use of available data to estimate the needs of health facilities in Morocco.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권24호
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• pp.10981-10984
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• 2015

Background: Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) is the standard technique for diagnosis of patients presenting with upper gastrointestinal symptoms. Some reports have shown high prevalence of esophageal cancer in the northern part of Afghanistan. The aim of this study was to investigate epidemiological profile of esophageal cancer among patients in this region. Materials and Methods: We identified 364 consecutive patients that received EGD examinations to examine upper gastrointestinal tract at the endoscopy unit of Balkh regional Hospital from March 2012 to March 2013. The case subjects included both in-patients and out-patients aged 16 years or more. We evaluated the results retrospectively. Results: The cases consisted of 184 (51%) males and 180 (49%) females. The mean age was $47.3{\pm}17.8$ and the age range 17-88 years. Ninety two cases had esophageal cancer, out of which 58 (63.0%) were male. The mean age at time of diagnosis was $57.8{\pm}13.2years$. Uzbek-Turkmen peoples were more common among patients with esophageal cancer (52.2%). Dysphagia was the most frequent symptom among patients with esophageal cancer at the time of presentation, seen in 77 (84.8%) of cases. Conclusions: Our results showed high incidence of esophageal cancer in the northern part of Afghanistan, especially in the Uzbek-Turkmen ethnic group.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권9호
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• pp.5061-5065
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• 2013

Background: Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) is the most common cancer diagnosed within the oral cavity worldwide. Many studies in India report OTSCC ranking among the top two most common subsites within the oral cavity. India is often labeled the oral cancer capital of the world. The incidence of tongue cancers in the population-based cancer registry (PBCR) of Chennai is showing an increasing trend. A majority of the oral cavity cancers (85%) in our cancer center present in advanced stages (III and IV). In contrast, early tongue cancers (stages I and II) constitute nearly 45% of all OTSCCs. Aim: The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical profile and epidemiological trends in our early stage tongue cancer patients with an emphasis on tobacco and alcohol habits. Materials and Methods: This retrospective analysis was based on a prospectively collected database of 458 consecutive early stage OTSCC in-patients at a tertiary care oncology centre in Chennai between 1995 and 2008. Results: Our study suggests that the earlier trends have clearly changed whereby nearly half of our patients are now never-tobacco users. The findings of the study indicate that a majority of the patients were never alcohol users (86.4%) and nearly half of them were never tobacco users (49.3%), and they had the best survival outcomes. This increasing trend of OTSCC among non-tobacco users is in contrast to our earlier experience of tongue cancer more than five decades ago.The median age of patients in our study was 53.3 years; the male to female ratio was approximately 2:1. The median follow up for the 458 patients was 53 months. Conclusions: Our study importantly as well as interestingly shows a conspicuous absence of association with the traditional risk factors, tobacco and alcohol.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.31-48
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• 2005

Purpose: Studies focus on cancer control, prevention, or assessment of psychosocial problems and intervention methods. However, few studies exist concerning psychosocial problems, measuring tools for those problems, and interventions for cancer patients in Korea. One of the purposes of this study was to review studies in this area, to examine various psychosocial problems experienced by cancer patients. This is a crucial area to investigate, since psychosocial problems in turn negatively influence the patients' immune function, which speeds the progress of the disease. Another goal was to identify instruments used to measure psychosocial functioning and problems in cancer patients, to analyze their validity and reliability, with the aim to discover the best instruments. A final goal was to explore and compare the effects of psychosocial interventions, to determine the most effective practices. Method: Journal articles published since 1995 were searched from PubMed Data base, Google search engine, and published cancer-related studies, using search keywords "psychosocial function and intervention for the cancer patients"; whole articles of selected references were reviewed and analyzed. Result: Most common psychosocial problems were depression, fatigue, nausea, pain, distress, resulting in a low quality of life. The seven scales found in the literature to assess the psychosocial functioning were Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Symptom Checklist 90-R, Profile of Mood States, Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory, and SF-36 HRQOL(Health Related Quality of Life). Social support interventions for cancer patients were effective in improving quality of life scores. Conclusion: It is necessary to apply support intervention strategies to help cancer patients in Korea. These strategies can help to reduce the effects of psychosocial symptoms, which in turn affect the development and control of cancer. Strategies developed in Western countries may need to be modified for use within Korea. Further studies are warranted to review the support intervention strategies that were being used to for cancer patients

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.37.1-37.14
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• 2021

Background: Ticks are one of the most common external parasites in dogs, and are associated with the transmission of a number of major zoonoses, which result in serious harm to human health and even death. Also, the increasing number of pet dogs and pet owners in China has caused concern regarding human tick-borne illnesses. Accordingly, studies are needed to gain a complete understanding of the bacterial composition and diversity of the ticks that parasitize dogs. Objectives: To date, there have been relatively few reports on the analysis of the bacterial community structure and diversity in ticks that parasitize dogs. The objective of this study was to investigate the microbial composition and diversity of parasitic ticks of dogs, and assessed the effect of tick sex and geographical region on the bacterial composition in two tick genera collected from dogs in China. Methods: A total of 178 whole ticks were subjected to a 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) next generation sequencing analysis. The Illumina MiSeq platform targeting the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was used to characterize the bacterial communities of the collected ticks. Sequence analysis and taxonomic assignment were performed using QIIME 2 and the GreenGene database, respectively. After clustering the sequences into taxonomic units, the sequences were quality-filtered and rarefied. Results: After pooling 24 tick samples, we identified a total of 2,081 operational taxonomic units, which were assigned to 23 phyla and 328 genera, revealing a diverse bacterial community profile. The high, moderate and low prevalent taxa include 46, 101, and 182 genera, respectively. Among them, dominant taxa include environmental bacterial genera, such as Psychrobacter and Burkholderia. Additionally, some known tick-associated endosymbionts were also detected, including Coxiella, Rickettsia, and Ricketssiella. Also, the potentially pathogenic genera Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas were detected in the tick pools. Moreover, our preliminary study found that the differences in microbial communities are more dependent on the sampling location than tick sex in the tick specimens collected from dogs. Conclusions: The findings of this study support the need for future research on the microbial population present in ticks collected from dogs in China.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제32권10호
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• pp.1307-1314
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• 2022

In this study, we sought to investigate the various characteristics of Salmonella spp. isolated from raw chicken meats available in Korean markets. The data collected, such as food source of isolation, sampling information, serotype, virulence, and genetic profile including sequence type, were registered in the database for further comparative analysis of the strains isolated from the traceback investigation samples. To characterize serotype, virulence and gene sequences, we examined 113 domestically distributed chicken meat samples for contamination with Salmonella spp. Phylogenetic analysis was conducted on 24 strains (21.2%) of Salmonella isolated from 113 commercially available chicken meats and by-products, using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Serotyping of the isolated Salmonella spp. revealed S. Enteritidis in 11 strains (45.8%), S. Virchow in 6 strains (25%), S. Montevideo in 2 strains (8.3%), S. Bsilla in 2 strains (8.3%), S. Bareilly in 1 strain (4.2%), S. Dessau in 1 strain (4.2%), and S. Albany in 1 strain (4.2%). The genetic correlation indicated that 24 isolated strains were classified into 18 clusters with a genetic similarity of 64.4-100% between them. Eleven isolated S. Enteritidis strains were classified into 9 genotypes with a sequence identity of 74.4%, whereas the most distantly related S. Virchow was divided into five genotypes with 85.9% identity. Here, the MLST analysis indicated that the major Sequence Type (ST) of the Salmonella spp. isolated from domestic chicken sold in Chungcheong Province belongs to the ST 11 and 16, which differs from the genotype of Salmonella isolated from imported chicken. The differential sequence characteristics can be a genetic marker for identifying causative bacteria for epidemiological investigations of food poisoning.