• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6237-6241
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• 2015

Usage of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) has gained popularity over the past few years. However, very little is known about TCAM use among Malaysian cancer patients. This study aimed to identify the determinants of TCAM usage among cancer patients with determination of relationships between demographic factors, patient satisfaction with conventional treatment, knowledge on TCAM and healthcare professional influence. Patient's perceptions towards TCAM were also determined. A simple random convenient sampling method was used to recruit 354 patients from Hospital Kuala Lumpur between February to April 2013. All were directly interviewed with a structured questionnaire. In this study, 172 respondents were TCAM users. There was no significant differences between demographic background of respondents in the usage of TCAM. Minimal correlation was found between patient satisfaction with the conventional treatment and usage of TCAM (r=0.091). A poor correlation was found between healthcare professional's influence and TCAM usage (r=-0.213) but the results suggested that increase in influence would decrease TCAM usage. Patient TCAM knowledge correlated negatively with the TCAM usage (r=-0.555) indicated that cancer patients are less likely to use TCAM when they have more TCAM knowledge. Healthcare professionals should be fully equipped with the necessary TCAM knowledge while maintaining patient satisfaction with the conventional treatment. They should also intervene on patient TCAM usage where a potential drug interaction or a harmful adverse event can occur.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

Objective: Currently, rivaroxaban is widely used clinically for thromboprophylaxis after surgery. However, there are concerns on effectiveness and safety of rivaroxaban for its proper use. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of rivaroxaban in orthopaedic patients after total hip replacement surgery in a large medical centre after the preferred formulary was switched from enoxaparin to rivaroxaban. Methods: The study was conducted on the patients who underwent hip arthroplasty surgery at the department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, South Korea. Electronic medical records were retrospectively reviewed to identify patients treated with rivaroxaban following total hip replacement between February 2011 and March 2012. Evaluation criteria included indications for use, dose, initiation and duration of therapy, drug interactions, adverse reactions, and status of health care reimbursement. The patients who were on enoxaparin were also reviewed as a reference. Results: We identified 57 patients who received rivaroxaban and 50 who received enoxaparin. All patients were prescribed the drugs for Korean Food and Drug Administration-approved indications. No thromboembolic or bleeding events were observed in either group. However, only 5.3% of rivaroxaban- treated patients had an appropriate length of prophylaxis and only 3.5% began rivaroxaban treatment at the recommended time. Surprisingly, 47.4% of rivaroxaban-treated patients received rivaroxaban despite being ineligible for reimbursement benefits. Conclusion: Rivaroxaban was generally well tolerated clinically. However, the duration of treatment, the time of initiation and patient eligibility for reimbursement require improvements, emphasising the need for education which indicates the area of pharmacists' involvement.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.396-404
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• 2012

The aim of the study was to investigate the inhibitory effects of calcium against intestinal cancer in vitro and in vivo. We first investigated the effects of calcium treatment in HCT116 and HT29 human colon cancer cells. At the concentration range of 0.8-2.4 mM, calcium significantly inhibited cell growth (by 9-29%), attachment (by 12-26%), invasion (by 15-31%), and migration (by 19-61%). An immunofluorescence microscope analysis showed that the treatment with calcium (1.6 mM) for 24 h increased plasma membrane ${\beta}$-catenin but decreased nuclear ${\beta}$-catenin levels in HT29 cells. We then investigated the effect of dietary calcium on intestinal tumorigenesis in $Apc^{Min/+}$ mice. Mice received dietary treatment starting at 6 weeks of age for the consecutive 8 weeks. The basal control diet contained high-fat (20% mixed lipids by weight) and low-calcium (1.4 mg/g diet) to mimic the average Western diet, while the treatment diet contained an enriched level of calcium (5.2 mg calcium/g diet). The dietary calcium treatment decreased the total number of small intestinal tumors (by 31.4%; P < 0.05). The largest decrease was in tumors which were ${\geq}$ 2 mm in diameter, showing a 75.6% inhibition in the small intestinal tumor multiplicity (P < 0.001). Immunohistochemical analysis showed significantly reduced nuclear staining of ${\beta}$-catenin (expressed as nuclear positivity), but increased plasma membrane staining of ${\beta}$-catenin, in the adenomas from the calcium-treated groups in comparison to those from the control group (P < 0.001). These results demonstrate intestinal cancer inhibitory effects of calcium both in human colon cancer cells and $Apc^{Min/+}$ mice. The decreased ${\beta}$-catenin nuclear localization caused by the calcium treatment may contribute to the inhibitory action.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.56-65
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• 2006

Adverse drug events (ADEs) are the most common type of adverse events in medical practice. Hospital admissions related to ADEs cost high and should be monitored to prevent them. While concerns about the ADEs are increasing, the frequency and characteristics of admissions related to ADEs have not been reported in Korea. The objective of the study was to assess the rate of hospital admission related to ADEs and their characteristics through ADE signal-based retrospective reviews of medical records. As results, a total of 1,420 patients had ADE signals suggesting potential ADEs from 3,494 patients who discharged from an academic medical center over one month period. Six pharmacists independently assessed the presence of ADEs after the review of patients' medical records. Among the 3,494 discharges, 62 admissions (1.8%) were found to be realted to ADEs. Of admissions with ADEs, 83.9% were moderate (category F by the NCC MERP classification), 37.2% were preventable, and 85.5% were type A reaction. The most frequent suspected drugs causing ADEs were antineoplastics (48.9%), and the most frequent ADE signal detecting hospital admissions related to ADEs was white blood cell count (24.2%). Hospital admissions related to ADEs were found through screening the ADE signals. The ADE signal-based retrospective review could be a practical approach for identifying hospital admissions related to ADEs.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.249-255
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• 2013

In this study, the protective effects of EGCG on L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA)-induced oxidative cell death in catecholaminergic PC12 cells, the in vitro model of Parkinson's disease, were investigated. Treatment with L-DOPA at concentrations higher than $150{\mu}M$ caused cytotoxicity in PC12 cells, as determined using the 3-(4,5-dimetylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and flow cytometry detection. The apoptotic ratio was similar in cells treated with $100{\mu}M$ EGCG plus $150{\mu}M$ L-DOPA (5.02%) and the control (0.96%) (P > 0.05), and was lower than that of cells treated with L-DOPA only (32.24%, P < 0.05). The generation level of ROS (% of control) in cells treated with EGCG plus L-DOPA was lower than that in cells treated with L-DOPA only (123.90% vs 272.32%, P < 0.05). The optical density in production of TBARS in cells treated with L-DOPA only was higher than that in the control ($0.27{\pm}0.05$ vs $0.08{\pm}0.04$, P < 0.05), and in cells treated with EGCG only ($0.14{\pm}0.02$, P < 0.05), and EGCG plus L-DOPA ($0.13{\pm}0.02$, P < 0.05). The intracellular level of GSH in cells treated with EGCG plus L-DOPA was higher than that in cells treated with L-DOPA only ($233.25{\pm}16.44$ vs $119.23{\pm}10.25$, P < 0.05). These results suggest that EGCG protects against L-DOPA-induced oxidative apoptosis in PC12 cells, and might be a potent neuroprotective agent.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.171-180
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• 2021

Currently, hospitals and medical practices have a large amount of unstructured information, gathered in time at each ward or practice by physicians in a wide range of medical branches. The data requires processing in order to be able to extract relevant information, which can be used to improve the medical system. It is useful for a physician to have access to a patient's entire medical history when he or she is in an emergency situation, as relevant information can be found about the patient's problems such as: allergies to various medications, personal history, or hereditary collateral conditions etc. If the information exists in a structured form, the detection of diseases based on specific symptoms is much easier, faster and with a higher degree of accuracy. Thus, physicians may investigate certain pathological profiles and conduct cohort clinical trials, including comparing the profile of a particular patient with other similar profiles that already have a confirmed diagnosis. Involving information technology in this field will change so the time which the physicians should spend in front of the computer into a much more beneficial one, providing them with the possibility for more interaction with the patient while listening to the patient's needs. The expert system, described in the paper, is an application for medical diagnostic of the most frequently met conditions, based on logical programming and on the theory of probabilities. The system rationale is a search item in the field basic knowledge on the condition. The web application described in the paper is implemented for the ward of pathological anatomy of a hospital in Romania. It aims to ease the healthcare staff's work, to create a connection of communication at one click between the necessary wards and to reduce the time lost with bureaucratic proceedings. The software (made in PHP programming language, by writing directly in the source code) is developed in order to ease the healthcare staff's activity, being created in a simpler and as elegant way as possible.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.217-227
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• 2021

This study is a record of ethnomedicinal knowledge in Begumganj province focussed on medicinal plants and their local uses for primary health care. The aim was to document and preserve the ethnomedicinal knowledge used by traditional healers of Begumganj upazila, Bangladesh, to treat human diseases and evaluate the relative efficacy of the medicinal plants. The uses of medicinal plants were documented as an ethnomedicinal data sheet using direct observation, field interview, plant interview and group interview techniques from December 2012 to January 2014 in the study area. Data were collected from 98 traditional healers through a questionnaire survey and analyzed through informant consensus factor and fidelity level. This study revealed comprehensive relationship among various diseases and families, forms and parts of plants and modes of preparation. Overall, 75 plant species under 71 genera of 47 families were documented, which are used to treat 41 diseases. Data analysis revealed that 41.33%, 14.67%, 36% and 8% of the medicinal plant species were herbs, shrubs, trees, and climbers, respectively. Leaves were the most used parts, followed by stem, root, fruit, bark, latex and rhizome. The most frequently treated diseases were dysentery, rheumatism and skin diseases. This is the first ethnobotanical survey, which recorded the importance of medicinal plants in Begumganj upazila, Bangladesh. This study can contribute to preserving the indigenous knowledge on the traditional use of medicinal plants in this region and new drug development with attracting future generations towards traditional healing practice.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.319-328
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• 2021

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Curcuma zedoaria R. (Zingiberaceae) has been used to treat headache, fever, and hypertension-related symptoms in Asian countries, including Korea, China, and Japan. We investigated whether dietary intake of a C. zedoaria extract (CzE) affected atherosclerosis in vivo. MATERIALS/METHODS: Apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE^-/-) mice (n = 32) were fed a normal diet (ND), a high-cholesterol diet (HCD), an HCD containing CzE (100 mg/kg/day), or an HCD containing simvastatin (10 mg/kg/day) for 12 weeks. The anti-atherosclerotic effects were evaluated by observing changes in fatty streak lesions, immunohistochemical analysis, ex vivo fluorescence imaging, lipid profiles, and western blot analysis. RESULTS: The CzE-fed group showed a 41.6% reduction of atherosclerosis. Furthermore, CzE significantly reduced the levels of serum triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein, the chemokine (C-X3-C-motif ) ligand 1, the adhesion molecules vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, intracellular adhesion molecule-1, and E-selectin; down-regulation of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, high mobility group box-1, and cathepsin levels in the aortic sinuses and aortas of ApoE^-/- mice were also observed. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the inclusion of a water extract of C. zedoaria in a HCD is closely correlated with reducing the risk of vascular inflammatory diseases in an ApoE mouse model.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.22-34
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• 2023

Background: With the increasing use of narcotic analgesics, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has been operating the National Narcotics Information Management System (NIMS) since 2018 in Korea. Some studies are related to the narcotic analgesics use, but the evaluation studies of system, including NIMS users are insufficient. Objective: This study evaluated the NIMS enforcement process through in-depth interviews on the experience of using NIMS of doctors and pharmacists who prescribe or dispense opioid analgesics. Methods: Participants in this study were selected through purposeful sampling as three doctors and two pharmacists in the metropolitan area. The interviews were conducted from August 27 to October 19, 2022. Each interview was analyzed using a phenomenological method. Results: Six components of this study included "Doctors and pharmacists come across drug abusers", "They respond individually to drug abusers", "They use NIMS tailored to the needs of system managers", "They are concerned about the role of NIMS in practice settings", "They face challenges against drug abusers" and "They find a way to utilize the system to deal with drug abusers." The interviews confirmed that doctors and pharmacists used NIMS little in their work, and they only reported data. Therefore, it might be difficult for doctors and pharmacists to take measures for the safe use of narcotic analgesics. Conclusion: It is likely that adding data-feedback and medication-check function can reduce the abuse of narcotic analgesics. In the future, further studies on the evaluation of the empirical results of NIMS and review of systems in other countries will be required.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.333-338
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• 2015

Background: Oral health professionals are responsible in Iran for providing a brief tobacco cessation program to smoker patients. The aim of this study was to assess Iranian dental student and dentist practice, knowledge and attitudes toward smoking cessation programs. Materials and Methods: A valid and reliable self-administered questionnaire was designed and distributed to 150 dentists working in Isfahan-Iran and 60 dental students. Some questions were developed based on the expected 5A tobacco cessation protocol. Statements on attitudes focused on professional responsibility towards smoking cessation and its effectiveness. Chi-square, ANOVA, and t test were used for statistical analysis. Results: The cessation program in dental settings covers a small group of patients (18%). Some 69.1% (n=96) of dentists reported asking their patients about tobacco use, 64% (n=83) advising their patients to quit, 33.8% (n=47) assessing their patients willingness to quit and 20% (n=28) reported helping their patients in changing their behavior. A far lower percentage reported active involvement in arranging assistance for smokers to quit (4.3%, n=5). Some 22% of students and 26% of dentists disagreed that the tobacco cessation programs should be as part of dentists' professional responsibility and 70% of them were willing to follow the protocol of tobacco cessation for patients. Conclusions: Iranian dentist performance regarding tobacco cessation is weak. Dentists and students indicated their lack of knowledge as the major reason for non-adherence to the protocol. Therefore, planning to encourage dentist to follow the protocol needs continuous educational programs.