• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.955-970
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• 2017

Objectives: The aim of this observational study was to identify and analyze the patterns to compare the characteristics of asthma patients. Methods: The subjects were 40 asthma patients who had satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria. They were divided into deficiency syndrome and excess syndrome groups, and cold syndrome and heat syndrome groups. Their quality of life was measured by the quality of life questionnaire for adult Korean asthmatics (QLQAKA) and VAS. Heart rate variability (HRV) was measured, and the degree of obesity was evaluated by body mass index (BMI). Hematological, biochemical, and immunoglobulin (Ig) E laboratory tests were included. Results: Based on pattern identification, the 40 asthma patients could be divided into two categories of groups: 1) the deficiency syndrome (N=18) and the excess syndrome (N=22) groups: 2) the cold syndrome (N=35) and the heat syndrome (N=5) groups. The mean value of HF differed significantly between the deficiency and excess syndrome groups. The mean value of IgE in blood tests of asthmatics was greater than four times the reference value. For BMI, the subjects were classified into three groups: normal weight (N=12), overweight (N=12), and obese (N=16). Conclusions: Development of a more accurate asthma-specific pattern identification tool could play a crucial role in asthma control. In addition, good control of asthma can improve the quality of life. Obesity is one of the factors associated with asthma exacerbation.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.183-191
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• 2010

Objectives: The objective of this study is to investigate the distribution patterns and exposure concentrations of bioaerosols in industries suspected to have high levels of bioaerosol exposure. Methods: We selected 11 plants including 3 livestock feed plants (LF industry), 3 metal working fluids handling plants (MWFs industry), and 5 sawmills and measured total airborne bacteria, fungi, endotoxins, as well as dust. Airborne bacteria and fungi were measured with one stage impactor, six stage cascade impactor, and gelatin filters. Endotoxins were measured with polycarbonate filters. Results: The geometric means (GM) of the airborne concentrations of bacteria, fungi, and endotoxins were 1,864, $2,252\;CFU/m^3$, and $31.5\;EU/m^3$, respectively at the sawmills, followed by the LF industry (535, $585\;CFU/m^3$, and $22.0\;EU/m^3$) and MWFs industry (258, $331\;CFU/m^3$, and $8.7\;EU/m^3$). These concentrations by industry type were significantly statistically different (p < 0.01). The ratio of indoor to outdoor concentration was 6.2, 1.9, 3.2, and 3.2 for bacteria, fungi, endotoxins, and dust in the LF industry, 5.0, 0.9, 2.3, and 12.5 in the MWFs industry, and 3.7, 4.1, 3.3, and 9.7 in sawmills. The respiratory fractions of bioaerosols were differentiated by bioaerosol types and industry types: the respiratory fraction of bacteria in the LF industry, MWF industry, and sawmills was 59.4%, 72.0%, and 57.7%, respectively, and that of fungi was 77.3%, 89.5%, and 83.7% in the same order. Conclusion: We found that bioaerosol concentration was the highest in sawmills, followed by LF industry facilities and MWFs industry facilities. The indoor/outdoor ratio of microorganisms was larger than 1 and respiratory fraction of microorganisms was more than 50% of the total microorganism concentrations which might penetrate respiratory tract easily. All these findings suggest that bioaerosol in the surveyed industries should be controlled to prevent worker respiratory diseases.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.90-110
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• 2011

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the parental recognition and utilizing patterns of oriental medical care in children who live in Seong-Dong district. Methods 802 day-care center children's parents participated in the survey on recognition and utilizing patterns of oriental medical care, and 702 of the surveys were analyzed. Results: 1. 38.33% has received previous oriental medical treatments and most were received at the children's age under 12-24 months. Majority of the treatments took place in the clinical settings. By recommendation, some also received their treatment at the medical centers. One of the reasons why they receive oriental medical treatments was that they prefer to balance their treatment with the orental medical treatments along with the western's. 2. 53.85% of those who received oriental medical treatments were satisfied with their treatments. The effective treatment results were the major reason for the satisfaction. 3. 49.56% of those who had oriental medical treatments chose specific oriental medical facilities for the children's ailment. Most specific oriental medical facilities were local oriental medical clinics. Reputation fame were the main reason in choosing the clinics. 4. In 2009, 55.26% had received care in the specific oriental medical clinics for the diseases, such as respiratory symptoms, systemic symptoms, gastrointestinal symptoms, skin problems, neurological and psychiatric disease for infants, and respiratory symptoms, gastrointestinal symptoms, systemic symptoms, skin problems, neurological and psychiatric symptoms, urinary symptoms and musculoskeletal symptoms for toddlers. 5. The average duration of herbal treatment were 7-14 days, preferably 4-6 days, and preferred number of medical visits were once a week on Saturdays and preferred day for night cares were on Friday nights. Average treatment fee per treatment was less than 10,000 won which coincided with the preferred treatment fee per visit. 6. The very first medical institutions chosen by parents once their children are ill are the following; Western medical institutions, western medical clinics, pharmacies, oriental medical clinics, health centers, and lastly, oriental medical institutions. The major concerns in receiving oriental medical cares include pesticides in herbs and hazardous substances in heavy metals. Preferred form of oriental medicine was decoction, the negative feedback of oriental medicine was mostly due to the bitter taste of the oriental herbal decoctions. Preferred frequency of intake was twice a day with less than 10cc~20cc per single intake. Conclusions: Taken all together, we conclude that the growing recognition of Oriental Pediatric medicine is needed among parents.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.308-314
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• 2000

Background : DNA fingerprinting of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with RFLP is a very useful tool for deciphering the molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis. An international comparison of the RFLP pattern became possible with the proposal to standardize RFLP methodology using Pvu-II restricted IS-6110, and the comparison has noted some predominance of RFLP pattern in East Asia. The RFLP patterns of tuberculosis strains collected at SNUH was studied and was compared with other strains from East Asia. Method : Fifty strains of M. tuberculosis were isolated from patients who visited 'or were admitted to the SNUH in 1998. Some isolates belonging to the Beijing family were also received. After the extraction of DNA from M. tuberculosis isolates, the chromosomal DNAs were digested with Pvu-II and analyzed by the Southern blot method with DNA probe to IS6110. Result : Six strains belonged to the Beijing family. The RFLP patterns of other 9 strains were similar to each other. No statistically significant endobronchial tuberculosis, presence of underlying disease. and the province of residence were found. Conclusion : Few groups of M. tuberculosis strains from SNUH showed similar RFLP patterns, but their clinical implications are not yet clear.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.02a
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• pp.9-22
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• 1996

Among the various dysarthric subtypes, diagnosis of ataxic dysarthria is rendered when the speech characteristics include imprecise and irregular articulatory breakdowns, marked degree of speech rate impairment, overall monopitch and monoloudness, and respiratory-articulatory incoordination. Traditionally, speech pathologists have relied only upon their ‘ears’ to describe and evaluate the dysarthric speech. A statement of percentage of correct words identified by a listener do not provide so much more than an index of severity. Within the same perceptual dimension, a carefully constructed speech intelligibility test can specify patterns of errors. The patterns can contain a diagnostic value as well as Provide strategies for remediation. The phonetically transcribed texts on single words and a standard passage, 'kail' produced by an ataxic dysarthria are presented in this report, with an emphasis of the articulatory error analysis. Furthermore,, acoustic tools [e.g., spectrography to measure formant transitions, segment durations, consonant spectra, etc.] are utilized to serve as basic measures that objectively document patients' speech intelligibility, Finally, the treatment methods [e.g., spectrography as a visual feedback, gestural reorganization using pacing method, DAF (Delayed Auditory Feedback)] to modify the dysarthric behaviors are presented.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6317-6325
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• 2015

Ginkgo biloba extract (GBE) is a popular phytomedicine and has been used for disorders of the central nervous system, cardiovascular, renal, respiratory, and circulatory diseases. Although GBE is a complex mixture of over 300 compounds, its major components are 24% flavonoids and 6% terpene lactones. In this study, we tested the inhibitory effects of the three major flavonoids (kaempferol, quercetin, and isorhamnetin) from GBE, independently and as mixtures, on aromatase activity using JEG-3 cells (human placental cells) and recombinant proteins (human placental microsome). In both systems, kaempferol showed the strongest inhibitory effects among the three flavonoids; the flavanoid mixtures exerted increased inhibitory effects. The results of exon I.1-driven luciferase reporter gene assays supported the increased inhibitory effects of flavonoid mixtures, accompanied by suppression of estrogen biosynthesis. In the RT-PCR analysis, decreased patterns of aromatase promoter I.1 mRNA expressions were observed, which were similar to the aromatase inhibition patterns of flavonoids and their mixtures. The present study demonstrated that three flavonoids synergistically inhibit estrogen biosynthesis through aromatase inhibition, decrease CYP19 mRNA, and induce transcriptional suppression. Our results support the usefulness of flavonoids in adjuvant therapy for breast cancer by reducing estrogen levels with reduced adverse effects due to estrogen depletion.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.161-164
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• 2017

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is one of the most important diseases in calves. It causes a huge economic loss in farms. BRD in calves is concentrated during winter because of the cold weather and lack of ventilation. However, BRD during summer in calves has continuously been a problem in farms. But there is no study about pathogens of summer pneumonia in calves and antimicrobial susceptibility in Korea. Therefore, aims of this study were to identify the pathogens and their antimicrobial susceptibility in calves with summer pneumonia. One hundred and one calves (2 weeks to 5 months after birth) with clinical sign of BRD from 5 farms were selected. After sampling by deep nasal swab, bacterial isolation and identification was conducted. Also, antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed. Pasteurella spp (49.4%), Staphylococcus spp (21.5%), Actinomyces spp (12.9%), E coli (10.7%), and Mannheimia haemolytica (5.3%) were isolated. The patterns of isolated pathogens from each farm were various. Also, the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics was showed a variety of patterns in each farm.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.149-158
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• 2022

The pandemic of Covid-19 (Coronavirus Disease 19) has devastated the world, affected millions of people, and disrupted the world economy. The cause of the Covid19 epidemic has been identified as a new variant known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV2). It motives irritation of a small air sac referred to as the alveoli. The alveoli make up most of the tissue in the lungs and fill the sac with mucus. Most human beings with Covid19 usually do no longer improve pneumonia. However, chest x-rays of seriously unwell sufferers can be a useful device for medical doctors in diagnosing Covid19-both CT and X-ray exhibit usual patterns of frosted glass (GGO) and consolidation. The introduction of deep getting to know and brand new imaging helps radiologists and medical practitioners discover these unnatural patterns and pick out Covid19-infected chest x-rays. This venture makes use of a new deep studying structure proposed to diagnose Covid19 by the use of chest X-rays. The suggested model in this work aims to predict and forecast the patients at risk and identify the primary COVID-19 risk variables

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.100-109
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• 2014

In stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), the accurate location of treatment sites should be guaranteed from the respiratory motions of patients. Lots of studies on this topic have been conducted. In this letter, a new verification method simulating the real respiratory motion of heterogenous treatment regions was proposed to investigate the accuracy of lung SBRT for Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy. Based on the CT images of lung cancer patients, lung phantoms were fabricated to equip in $QUASAR^{TM}$ respiratory moving phantom using 3D printer. The phantom was bisected in order to measure 2D dose distributions by the insertion of EBT3 film. To ensure the dose calculation accuracy in heterogeneous condition, The homogeneous plastic phantom were also utilized. Two dose algorithms; Analytical Anisotropic Algorithm (AAA) and AcurosXB (AXB) were applied in plan dose calculation processes. In order to evaluate the accuracy of treatments under respiratory motion, we analyzed the gamma index between the plan dose and film dose measured under various moving conditions; static and moving target with or without gating. The CT number of GTV region was 78 HU for real patient and 92 HU for the homemade lung phantom. The gamma pass rates with 3%/3 mm criteria between the plan dose calculated by AAA algorithm and the film doses measured in heterogeneous lung phantom under gated and no gated beam delivery with respiratory motion were 88% and 78%. In static case, 95% of gamma pass rate was presented. In the all cases of homogeneous phantom, the gamma pass rates were more than 99%. Applied AcurosXB algorithm, for heterogeneous phantom, more than 98% and for homogeneous phantom, more than 99% of gamma pass rates were achieved. Since the respiratory amplitude was relatively small and the breath pattern had the longer exhale phase than inhale, the gamma pass rates in 3%/3 mm criteria didn't make any significant difference for various motion conditions. In this study, the new phantom model of 4D dose distribution verification using patient-specific lung phantoms moving in real breathing patterns was successfully implemented. It was also evaluated that the model provides the capability to verify dose distributions delivered in the more realistic condition and also the accuracy of dose calculation.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.102-113
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• 2003

Purpose : Acute respiratory tract infections are the most common illnesses in children. The great majority of these infections involving lower respiratory tracts infections(LRTI) are caused by respiratory viruses such as respiratory syncytial virus(RSV), parainfluenza virus (PIV), influenza virus(INF), adenovirus(ADV), etc. Our purpose of this study was to examine the seasonal occurrence, clinical and laboratory features of each viral infections. Methods : Nasopharyngeal aspirates(NPA) were collected from 913 hospitalized children on the first day of admission. They were all admitted to Hangang Sacred Heart hospital and diagnosed as LRTIs. The study period was from September 1998 to August 2002. Specimens were inoculated onto HEp-2 cell, LLC-MK2 cell and MDCK cell. Viruses were detected by immunofluorescent method performed at day 10 postinoculation. Respiratory viruses were detected in 251(27%) cases. Medical records of 208 cases diagnosed as acute LRTIs were all taken reviewed and analyzed. Results : The identified pathogens were RSV 122 cases(58%), PIV 30 cases(14%), INFA 20 cases(10%), INFB 21 cases(11%) and ADV 15 cases(7%) during the study period. Outbreaks of RSV infections occurred every year but mostly on December, 1998 and November, 1999. LRTIs by PIV and ADV occurred during all seasons of the year. INFA was isolated moslty on March, 1999 and January, 2000. INFB infections occurred largely on April, 2002. The clinical diagnoses were bronchiolitis 88 cases(43%), pneumonia 87 cases(42%), croup 19 cases(9%) and tracheobronchitis 14 cases(6%). Common symptoms and signs were cough, rhinorrhea, sputum and fever. WBC counts in peripheral blood showed normal findings in 123 cases(59%). Each viral infections also showed some differences in auscultatory findings and chest X-ray findings. Conclusion : We learned that viruses are one of the major and important etiologic agents of acute LRTIs of children in Korea. However, we still need to find out more about its characteristic clinical features and continue studying on their seasonal occurrence to focus on their management and also prevention.