• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.141-147
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• 2021

This study's purpose is to report the effectiveness of Korean medicine treatment to posterior cruciate ligament tear patients due to traffic accident. 2 patients were treated with Korean medicine by acupuncture, pharmacopuncture and herbal medication. We assessed the knee pain and functional improvement by using numeric rating scale (NRS), Western Ontario and McMaster Universities arthritis (WOMAC) index and EuroQol-5 dimension (EQ-5D) index. After treatment, NRS decreased from 6 to 2 in case 1 and from 5 to 3 in case 2. EQ-5D index chaged from 0.465 to 0.72 in case 1 and from 0.719 to -0.171 in case 2. WOMAC index decreased from 82 to 13 in case 1 and from 55 to 54 in case 2. NRS improved in both cases, but WOMAC index and EQ-5D index improved in only one case. Korean medicine treatment could be helpful for posterior cruciate ligament tear traffic accident patients. However, further clinical studies are needed to clarify the effectiveness to the patients with old age, degeneration and accompanying injury.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.476-484
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• 2012

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to report the clinical characteristics of glossodynia patients and effects of traditional Korean treatment on glossodynia and to gather data in order to carry out future study. Methods : We surveyed 40 glossodynia patients visiting the Department of Korean Internal Medicine of Stroke and Neurological Disorders Center, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong and analyzed their glossodynia questionnaires, examination results, and progression of symptoms. Results : In Glossodynia patients the average age was 62.4 years old. Glossodynia was more prevalent in females than males (5.67:1). Red tongue color, white fur, and fissured tongue were observed most often. The average glossodynia duration was 36.1 months and the average glossodynia degree was VAS 5.6. The most commonly appearing symptom was burning sense, and dryness of tongue. In Korean medicine diagnosis, Yin, deficiency, Tae-eum was most commonly diagnosed. In herbal medicine, Gamichungsim-tang was the most frequently prescribed. In laboratory tests, zinc deficiency was the most common result. In heart rate variability (HRV), average SDNN was 34.03 and average LF/HF ratio was 2.11. Of 40 patients, 23 completed treatment and their pain was relieved from average VAS 5.52 to VAS 3.63. Pre-and post-treatment results showed a significant difference. The average duration of treatment was 34.91 days. Conclusions : The results of this study suggest that Korean medical approach and treatment for glossodynia could be effective. Further study should be conducted for more valuable information.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 2016

Objectives : In 2007, a survey of how Kampo was regarded in Japanese clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) was first conducted by the Special Committee for Evidence Based Medicine (EBM), namely the Japan Society for Oriental Medicine (JSOM). A manual for CPG development was also published in 2007 by the Japan Council for Quality Health Care, and the revised edition came out in 2014. The purpose this study is to review the current state in CPGs applied to Kampo after 2007, while focusing on how Kampo products being regarded evidence based branch of medicine by CPG developers. Methods : Sources include the Kampo CPGs website of Japan Society for Oriental Medicine (JSOM) and MINDS (Medical Information Network Distribution Service) website of Japan Council for Quality Health Care. Results : Among the 784 CPGs existing by the end of 2015, 91 CPGs were considered containing descriptions of Kampo. Furthermore, 28 type A Kampo CPG (KCPG) which had quality of evidence and strength of recommendation with references were found. Also, most of type A KCPGs relied on the MINDS Handbook for Clinical Practice Guideline Development that was published in 2007. Conclusions : The number of KCPGs are increasing yearly. However, there is still not much Kampo evidence found in CPGs in Japan. Overall, it could be said that we need to not only make evidence vertically but preach it horizontally well.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1383-1392
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• 2003

Apoptosis is a morphologically and biochemically district form of cell death that occurs in many different cell types in a wide variety of organisms. Albizzia julibrissin belonging the family Leguminosae has been used for the treatment of contusion, sore throat, amnesia, and insomnia in oriental traditional medicine. This study investigates whether the water extract of A. julibrissin induce apoptotic cell death in Jurkat T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells. Jurkat cells were increased inhibitions of cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner by A. julibrissin. This herbal medicine also caused apoptosis as measured by cell morphology and DNA fragmentation. The capability of A. julibrissin to induce apoptosis was associated with proteolytic cleavage of specific target proteins such as poly (ADP-ribose)polymerase (PARP) and beta-catenin proteins suggesting the possible involvement of caspases. Our result showed that Bcl-2 and Bax protein levels were not changed in all A. julibrissin-treated groups compared to control group. These results suggest that A. julibrissin-mediated apoptosis is independent with Bcl-2 related signaling pathway in this cells. The purpose of the present study is also to investigate the Effect of A. julibrissin on cell cycle progression. Our results showed that G1 checkpoint related gene products (cyclin D1, cyclin dependent kinase 4, retinoblastoma, E2F1) were decreased in their protein levels in a dose-dependent manners after treatment of the extract. These results indicate that the increase of apoptotic cell death by A. julibrissin may be due to the inhibition of cell cycle progression in wild type p53-lacking Jurkat cells.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.381-395
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• 2024

Objectives: The main purpose of this study is to investigate the clinical characteristics of patients complaining of indigestion after COVID-19 infection (CI) or COVID-19 vaccination (CV) and to confirm the effectiveness and safety of Korean medical treatment. Methods: We retrospectively collected and investigated the medical records of 39 patients admitted to the Kyung Hee University Korean Medicine Hospital with a chief complaint of dyspepsia from January 1, 2020 to February 29, 2024 who reported the onset or significant exacerbation of dyspepsia after CV or CI. Patients were divided into vaccination and infection groups, and their demographic characteristics, Ryodoraku results, presenting symptoms, traditional Korean medicine treatments, and treatment outcomes were analyzed. Results: When comparing the groups with dyspepsia after CV and after CI, it was observed that the CI group had significantly lower average body weight, and the measurements of LH6, LF1, and LF6 in the Ryodoraku test were significantly lower. Additionally, compared to the CV group, the CI group showed significantly more abdominal distension, nausea, and abdominal pain. Significant relief of upper gastrointestinal symptoms was observed in both the CV and CI groups after treatment. No adverse reactions were observed during the course of treatment. Conclusion: The CI group tended to complain more severely of various dyspeptic symptoms and had a tendency to lower body weight than the CV group, as was also reflected in the results of the Ryodoraku test. Korean medical treatment can be effective and safe in treating these patients.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.31-44
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• 2023

Objectives The purpose of this study is to check the research trends of pharmacopuncture treatment in nerve entrapment syndrome, identify specific techniques, identify which pharmacopuncture are used, and provide directions for future research. Methods This study was conducted based on the five steps suggested by Arksey and O'Malley. We searched five domestic databases (Research Information Sharing Service, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, Korean studies Information Service System, Science ON, and KMBASE) and identified studies with key search terms like "nerve entrapment" And "pharmacopuncture" until June 23, 2023. Results Twenty-nine studies were finally selected. among them, 25 papers were non-comparative studies (86.2%). The most common disease was carpal tube syndrome (n=10). All the investigated studies were treated by injecting pharmacopuncture into the pathway of the entraped nerve. The depth of pharmacopuncture injection was mentioned only in 13 studies. As for the pharmacopuncture used, sweet bee venom was 8 studies and bee venom was 6 studies, and about half of the pharmacopuncture manufactured with Bee venom as the main component accounted for. Conclusions This study is a scoping review of the pharmacopuncture treatment for nerve entrapment, which was first conducted in Korea. The treatment is mainly performed on the path way of the entraped nerve. After that, it is necessary to study the standardization of the specific technique method of pharmacopuncture and the uniformity of evaluation criteria.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.303-309
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• 2014

The fruit of Gleditsia sinensis has been extensively used as a key ingredient of an herbal remedy for the treatment of various inflammatory diseases in traditional Korean Medicine. However, the reason of using the fruit of G. sinensis for the remedy is unclear. Since Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) is a key anti-inflammatory transcription factor, which is activated by the fruit of G. sinesis, we examined whether other plant parts of G. sinensis are also capable of suppressing inflammatory responses by activating Nrf2. Water extracts of various parts of G. sinensis were prepared and tested for Nrf2 activation by reporter assay and western blot analysis. Our results show that the hull of G. sinensis is the most potent in activating Nrf2. Sequential organic solvent extraction of the hull show that all the fractions had a higher potency in activating Nrf2 than the water extract, albeit differential degrees. The hull originated from Korea in general activated Nrf2 strongly compared to that of China. Chloroform fraction of the hull was further examined, showing that the fraction induced nuclear localization of Nrf2, indicative of activated Nrf2, and Nrf2-dependent gene expression including NAD(P)H dehydrogenase quinone 1 (NQO-1), glutamate-cysteine ligase catalytic subunit (GCLC), and heme oxygenase - 1 (HO-1). Therefore, our results show that, among other plant parts examined in this study, the hull of G. sinensis is the most potent, providing the experimental basis for the use of the hull of G. sinensis as an active ingredient for an anti-inflammatory remedy.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.89-105
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• 2012

Objectives : This study was carried out to know the status of clinical utilization of Korean medical knowledge and the Korean medical knowledge system which Korean medical doctors want. Methods : Questionnaires were distributed to Korean medical doctors registered for the Association of Korean medicine via the email and 249 answered questionnaires were analyzed. Results : 50.6 % of Korean medical doctors utilized the textbooks for Korean medicine when they treated their patients. The reason why they did not utilize the textbooks for Korean medicine was mostly that 'it could not be applied directly into clinical application with only contents of textbook because clinical approach (diagnosis and treatment methods) was not clearly described in the textbook'. 48.6 % of Korean medical doctors utilized the EBM materials when they treated their patients. EBM materials that they referred included domestic articles, other EBM materials excluding papers and international academic papers based on PubMed in order. The reasons why they did not utilize the EBM materials were mostly that 'it was difficult to find the evidence' and 'EBM materials were not actually helpful for the clinical practice.' It was found that Korean medical doctors approached the disease in aspects of Korean and Western Medicine concurrently upon the diagnosis of patients and performed the diagnosis and treatment of Korean medicine on the diseases which seemed to be effective with Korean medicine. It was also found that they thought that they needed to know the Western medical knowledge as much as general doctors who have a doctor's license or family medicine specialists who comprehensively treat the general diseases know. Korean medical doctors wanted to have the systematic summary of modern research performance in fields of acupoint, acupuncture, herbal drugs and formula. They thought that constitutional medicine and Sa-am acupuncture therapy were representative characteristics in Korean medicine differentiated from Traditional Chinese medicine and Kampo medicine. Conclusions : Korean medical doctors wanted to establish the Korean medical knowledge system based on evidence focusing on clinical and practical contents. New Korean medical knowledge system should be established based on these requirements in the future.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.104-116
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• 2021

In order to reduce the social and economic costs due to the increase in dementia patients, which is a representative senile disease in an aging society, it will be important to prevent dementia and to detect and treat early in high-risk groups. This study reported the results of treatment for the elderly with high risk of dementia and depression who received Korean medicine (KM) treatment in 9 KM clinics. Medical charts were surveyed on 116 patients with high risk of dementia and depression who received KM treatment at 9 KM clinics in Gangseo-gu from September 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. The majority of the patients were female(76.72%), the average age was 71.66±7.18 years old, and the average education level was 8.96±3.91 years. The average treatment period was 61.47±10.30 days, the average number of treatments was 15.38±1.06 times, and both acupuncture and herbal medicine were administered. After receiving KM treatment, cognitive assessment scores such as MMSE-DS and MoCA-K, depression-related GDSSF-K score, dementia knowledge, attitude, and preventive behavior, blood debilitation scale, and GQOL-D score were improved compared to before. There was no specific adverse reaction except that one patient with elevated AST and ALT levels was observed. This study showed improvement in cognitive function, depression, dementia-related scale, and quality of life in high-risk groups for dementia and depression over 60 years old who received KM treatment. More systematic and large-scale planned clinical studies will be needed.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.109-117
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• 2008

Phellinus linteus (Sang Hwang mushroom; P. linteusis) has been widely used for a traditional medicine in Japan, Korea and China. In traditional oriental applications, P. linteus and their extracts have been exclusively used to treat various diseases like insomnia, neurasthenia, gastric ulcers, arthritis, nephritis, stress, asthma, bronchitis, neuromuscular disorders, hypertension and also as an immune system stimulator in cancer therapy. In a number of articles, it is indicated how tremendous their therapeutic values are. According to these studies, P. linteus and their extracts show immunomodulatory activities like enhancing immune system function including anti-tumor activity and inhibiting the growth of existing tumors. P. linteus and their extracts have been being studied for use as immunotherapy agents and biological response modifiers (BRMs) for the possible treatment of cancer without side effects. Recently, the cultured mycelium product of P. linteus has been developed and approved as a medicine in Korea. This review shows not only the current status of methods of developmental technology like artificial culture and various biological applications of P. linteus but also recent market trends of functional foods made from P. linteus.