No abstract available.

The search for tumor-avid agents for use in nuclear medicine imaging is an ongoing field of importance. The purpose of this study was to determine the affinity for radiolabeled vitamin B12 by a wide histologic variety of tumor types in mice. Seventeen different types of tumor were grown subcutaneously in female Balb/C or Balb nu/nu(nude) mice. When the tumors reached about 1 cm in diameter, mice were injected intraperitoneally with 57Co-vitamin B12. Twenty-foul hours later, the mice were sacrificed. Organs and tissues were removed, weighed, and activity per mg determined by gamma counter. Values represented cpm/mg tissue that was normalized to 20 grams body weight for each mouse. A wide variety of tumor types showed significant uptake and concentration of 57Co-vitamin B12, as evidenced by tumor:tissue activity ratios. For many tissues of great importance in terms of background(bone, muscle, blood), the tumor:tissue activity ratios of uptake were high. These data strongly suggest that further efforts to evaluate the utility of radiolabeled adducts of vitamin B12 for clinical use in oncologic imaging are warranted.
Animals ; Body Weight ; Female ; Humans ; Mice* ; Nuclear Medicine ; Vitamin B 12

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans ; Urinary Tract Infections* ; Urinary Tract*

Background: The Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision-Making Act has allowed anyone aged 19 or older to sign an Advance Directive not to receive life-sustaining treatment when they are in the ‘death process’. Recently, the Korean Pharmaceutical Association announced to raise awareness of the Advance Directive to the general public through community pharmacies across the country. This study aimed to investigate the public’s willingness to accept pharmacist’s consultation regarding the Advance Directive and to present future directions to pharmacists Methods: This cross-sectional questionnaire study using 16-items was conducted in adults, Study subjects were recruited by convenience sampling method during August 5-15, 2020. Results: Of 460 respondents, 51.7% were younger than 30-year-old and 58.7% were not in the healthcare field in terms of job or major. 60.2% knew about the Advance Directive and 81.7% agreed the necessity to sign when healthy. 50.0% had the willingness to consult with pharmacists on the Advance Directive for well-dying and 80.4% preferred verbal explanation together with written information. Simple linear regression analysis results showed a significant relationship between trust in pharmacists or satisfaction with pharmacist’s communication and willingness to use pharmacist’ consultation on the Advance Directive (1-point increases in values measured on a five-point scale are associated with 0.464 and 0.486 increases, respectively.) Conclusion This study suggests that pharmacists need to improve the public’s trust and communication capability to satisfy with public’s demands on well-dying service.

Background: The Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision-Making Act has allowed anyone aged 19 or older to sign an Advance Directive not to receive life-sustaining treatment when they are in the ‘death process’. Recently, the Korean Pharmaceutical Association announced to raise awareness of the Advance Directive to the general public through community pharmacies across the country. This study aimed to investigate the public’s willingness to accept pharmacist’s consultation regarding the Advance Directive and to present future directions to pharmacists Methods: This cross-sectional questionnaire study using 16-items was conducted in adults, Study subjects were recruited by convenience sampling method during August 5-15, 2020. Results: Of 460 respondents, 51.7% were younger than 30-year-old and 58.7% were not in the healthcare field in terms of job or major. 60.2% knew about the Advance Directive and 81.7% agreed the necessity to sign when healthy. 50.0% had the willingness to consult with pharmacists on the Advance Directive for well-dying and 80.4% preferred verbal explanation together with written information. Simple linear regression analysis results showed a significant relationship between trust in pharmacists or satisfaction with pharmacist’s communication and willingness to use pharmacist’ consultation on the Advance Directive (1-point increases in values measured on a five-point scale are associated with 0.464 and 0.486 increases, respectively.) Conclusion This study suggests that pharmacists need to improve the public’s trust and communication capability to satisfy with public’s demands on well-dying service.

Background: Recently clinical trials have expanded extensively in Korea; thus, ensuring the rights of subjects participating in clinical trials is imperative. Accordingly, national regulations on subject recruitment advertisement were enforced from October 25, 2018. In this study, the effect of this regulation was evaluated by analyzing the difference in the provision of information before and after enforcement of the regulation. Methods: Recruitment advertisements for clinical trial subjects 3 years before and after enforcement of the regulation were collated by the significance sampling approach. Print-based (newspapers, buses, and subways) and web-based (clinical trial center websites and online platforms) materials for recruitment in clinical trials of phase 1 to 4 for investigational drugs, medical devices, and oriental medicine were considered. Chi-square tests were conducted for inter-group comparisons. SPSS version 26 was employed for statistical analyses. Results: A total of 137 advertisements were collected comprising 60 pre- and 77 post-regulation enforcement. The overall rate of delivery of critical information in advertisements increased significantly from 47.5% before regulation to 93.2% after regulation enforcement. Particularly, details on expected adverse events augmented significantly (p<0.001). Benefits from participation in clinical trial reduced significantly from 88.3% to 70.1% (p<0.05). As the information provision amplified, the inclusion of professional terms increased. Conclusions Enforcement of regulations has led to a surge in the amount of information and challenging terms contained in advertisements for recruiting subjects. Therefore, additional efforts are required by subjects to completely understand the information provided in the advertisements.

H2-receptor blockers are widely used for therapy of peptic ulcer disease and gastroesophageal reflux disease. H2-receptor blockers infrequently cause adverse hepatic effects, and when they occur they are usually asymptomatic. There are several previous reports of liver injury related to ranitidine. Until now, only two cases of acute hepatitis associated with the use of famotidine were reported in the world. We report three cases of clinical hepatitis that followed administration of famotidine (2 cases) and ranitidine (1 case). First, a 54-year-old woman received famotidine, 40mg, daily for treatment of erosive gastritis. After 6 weeks of treatment with famotidine, jaundice and itching sense developed. Second, a 45-year-old man was hospitalized for jaundice. He had a long history of duodenal ulcer and had been intermittently treated with famotidine. He had 6 weeks of treatment with famotidine prior to admission. Third, a 19-year-old woman was hospitalized for nausea, vomiting and urticaria. She had a history of acute hepatitis B virus infection and was discharged 4 weeks prior to readmission. She had been received ranitidine, 300 mg, daily for treatment of gastritis. After 17 days of drug ingestion, whenever she had taken her medication, she developed these symptoms of nausea, vomiting and urticaria. Other causes of hepatitis were ruled out and all patients recovered after discontinuation of drug ingestion.
Duodenal Ulcer ; Eating ; Famotidine* ; Female ; Gastritis ; Gastroesophageal Reflux ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Jaundice ; Liver ; Middle Aged ; Nausea ; Peptic Ulcer ; Pruritus ; Ranitidine* ; Urticaria ; Vomiting ; Young Adult

H2-receptor blockers are widely used for therapy of peptic ulcer disease and gastroesophageal reflux disease. H2-receptor blockers infrequently cause adverse hepatic effects, and when they occur they are usually asymptomatic. There are several previous reports of liver injury related to ranitidine. Until now, only two cases of acute hepatitis associated with the use of famotidine were reported in the world. We report three cases of clinical hepatitis that followed administration of famotidine (2 cases) and ranitidine (1 case). First, a 54-year-old woman received famotidine, 40mg, daily for treatment of erosive gastritis. After 6 weeks of treatment with famotidine, jaundice and itching sense developed. Second, a 45-year-old man was hospitalized for jaundice. He had a long history of duodenal ulcer and had been intermittently treated with famotidine. He had 6 weeks of treatment with famotidine prior to admission. Third, a 19-year-old woman was hospitalized for nausea, vomiting and urticaria. She had a history of acute hepatitis B virus infection and was discharged 4 weeks prior to readmission. She had been received ranitidine, 300 mg, daily for treatment of gastritis. After 17 days of drug ingestion, whenever she had taken her medication, she developed these symptoms of nausea, vomiting and urticaria. Other causes of hepatitis were ruled out and all patients recovered after discontinuation of drug ingestion.
Duodenal Ulcer ; Eating ; Famotidine* ; Female ; Gastritis ; Gastroesophageal Reflux ; Hepatitis B virus ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Jaundice ; Liver ; Middle Aged ; Nausea ; Peptic Ulcer ; Pruritus ; Ranitidine* ; Urticaria ; Vomiting ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND: Currently establishment of public pharmaceutical companies became an issue for securing stable supply of national essential drugs in order to respond appropriately to national public health crisis. Pharmacy students as future pharmacists need to be interested in drug related issues under the discussion in our society. This study aimed to investigate perceptions of pharmacy students on the national drug supply strategy through public pharmaceutical companies. METHODS: A 20-items questionnaire designed for this study was used. Pharmacy students nationwide were enrolled in July 2017. They responded to questions through on-line survey program. Data were analyzed descriptively. RESULTS: 160 students from 26 pharmacy schools participated. 5th and 6th grade students accounted for two-thirds, and one third aspired future jobs in pharmaceutical industry. Among responders, 71.3% was unaware of current national essential drugs, 52.5% did not know the Rare and Essential Drug Center, and 91.9% was unaware of the legislation on the supply and management of essential drugs. 82.5% favored the establishment of public pharmaceutical companies. 80.6% agreed that government should intervene in pharmaceutical market for ensuring drug accessibilities, 73.8% agreed that public pharmaceutical companies make possible to reach a goal of stable supply of pharmaceuticals, and 85.1% agreed that active compulsory license by public pharmaceutical companies is necessary. CONCLUSION: We found that pharmacy students recognized the need for governmental control to achieve social values of pharmaceuticals. More attention and participation of the pharmacy students as well as pharmacists in the process of national debate on public pharmaceutical companies are expected.

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate payer-driven medication adherence intervention program from the patient's and counselor's perspectives. METHODS: Target patients for intervention were selected by retrospective adherence measures based on national health insurance claims data for hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia. As a serial intervention for higher risk groups of medication non-adherence, initial direct mailing, the first direct telephone call and the second direct call or a home visit were followed. Interview approach to qualitative inquiry was used to evaluate intervention results. RESULTS: Participants including 4 patients received telephone calls, and 4 National Health Insurance Service staff and 4 pharmacists participated as counselors were interviewed regarding their impression of the intervention program. Three major themes arose: overall perception; necessities; and suggestions for success, of the intervention. Despite short period of intervention, educational intervention by telephone counseling involving pharmacists shows potential to improve self-management of chronic disease, and pharmacist-involvement. But more sophisticated selection of target patients requiring the intervention and complementation of electronic database system would be necessary. In addition, personal disposition of counselor was revealed to be an important factor for achieving successful outcome of intervention. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that the individualized counseling intervention would be an efficient option for improved medication adherence. Further researches should include longer periods of interventions, a quantitative analysis using adherence measures based on claims data and consideration of clinical benefits associated with the intervention.
Chronic Disease* ; Complement System Proteins ; Counseling* ; House Calls ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Medication Adherence ; National Health Programs ; Pharmacists ; Postal Service ; Retrospective Studies ; Self Care ; Telephone