PURPOSE: To assess whether blood pressure is reduced by the intervention of intensive weekly counseling to lower alcohol intake for 12 weeks in heavy drinkers with elevated blood pressure, we conducted the quasi-experimental study through workplace health promotion program. METHODS: Thirty workers with an average intake of alcohol over 180 g/week(2 bottles of Soju, Korean popular liquor) and with over 90 mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure(DBP) or over 140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure(SBP) assigned to intervention group(15 men, IG) and control group(15 men, CG) voluntarily. Mean age was 47.2 6.5 and 43.0 5.4 years old respectivel. The goal of intervention was below 45g/week(1/2 bottle of Soju). RESULTS: Average weekly alcohol intake after 12 weeks in IG was significantly reduced(before 300.6 114.8g/week, after 24.8 24.5g/week) compared with CG(before 334.4 150.7g/week, after 311.3 150.8g/week). In IG, SBP(before 141.5 9.4mm Hg, after 128.7 13.0mm Hg) and DBP(before 95.5 6.3mm Gg, after 88.0 10.8mm Hg) was significantly decreased after 12 weeks of alcohol restriction program, but in CG there was no change. CONCLUSION: Restriction program of alcohol intake in workplace was so effective to reduce blood pressure among hypertensives, although this study has a limitation of small subjects, short duration of follow up and no randomized controlled design.
Blood Pressure* ; Counseling ; Follow-Up Studies ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Hypertension ; Clinical Trial* ; Male

PURPOSE: This study analyzed the correlation between grade point average (GPA) of medical school and the score of Korean Medical Licensing Examination (KMLE). METHODS: This study based on the results of 67th KMLE applicants who graduated from a college of medicine in 2003. We also gathered data of these applicants from the college of medicine: gender, age, type of entrance, GPA of basic medicine, clinical medicine, clinical clerkships and final test scores. We analyzed whether there was discrimination between achievement of KMLE passed and that of KMLE failed, which of variables affected the results of KMLE. RESULTS: 173 applicants passed KMLE among 189. There were significant correlations between basic medicine, clinical medicine, final test score and the score of KMLE (respective p-value; < 0.0001). There were also significant differences of GPA between KMLE passed applicants and failed. Final test scores were the most correlated with those of KMLE. If the GPA of 2nd grade was below 2.5 and the GPA of 3rd year grade was below 2.3, they was a high-risk group for failing KMLE (sensitivity 100%, specificity 90%). CONCLUSION: There were significant correlations between the GPA of medical school and the score of KMLE, and significant differences between KMLE passed applicants and failed. A high-risk group of failing KMLE was the students that the GPA of 2nd grade was below 2.5 and the GPA of 3rd grade was below 2.3.
Clinical Medicine ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Humans ; Licensure* ; Schools, Medical* ; Sensitivity and Specificity

BACKGROUND: Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune subepidermal bullous disease associated with autoantibodies against BP180 and BP230. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a sensitive tool for the detection of immunoglobulin G (IgG) anti-BP180 and anti-BP230 autoantibodies. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of ELISA for diagnosing and monitoring the disease activity of BP. METHODS: We evaluated serum IgG levels of anti-BP180 and anti-BP230 autoantibodies in 47 BP patients, 16 epidermolysis bullosa aquisita patients, and 15 healthy volunteers using ELISA. Through retrospective review of the medical records, the clinical characteristics of BP including disease activity, duration, pruritus severity and peripheral blood eosinophil counts were assessed. RESULTS: The sensitivity of BP180 ELISA was 97.9%, BP230 ELISA 72.3%, and a combination of the two was 100%. The specificity of BP180 ELISA was 90.3%, BP230 ELISA 100%, and a combination of the two was 90.3%. BP180 ELISA scores showed strong associations with disease activity, pruritus severity, peripheral blood eosinophil counts, and disease duration, whereas BP230 ELISA scores did not. CONCLUSION: BP180 and BP230 ELISAs are highly sensitive methods for the diagnosis of BP, and BP180 ELISA, in particular, is a sensitive tool for monitoring the disease activity of BP.
Autoantibodies ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Eosinophils ; Epidermolysis Bullosa ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Medical Records ; Pemphigoid, Bullous ; Pruritus ; Retrospective Studies ; Serologic Tests

Oregano (Origanum vulgare) is an aromatic herb belonging to the Lamiaceae family. This study evaluated the therapeutic effect of oregano essential oil (OEO) on clinical bovine mastitis caused by Staphylococcus (S.) aureus and/or Escherichia (E.) coli. Thirty-two quarters from 18 lactating cows with subclinical mastitis were selected from a dairy farm and were divided into 4 groups (8 quarters/group): negative control (CON), positive control (GEN) and two OEO-treated groups (OEO-1 and OEO-2). Each group was intramammarily treated with saline, 10 g/tube of gentamicin ointment, and single and double doses of 0.9 mL OEO ointment twice a day for three days, respectively. After the treatments, physical udder conditions were greatly improved in GEN and OEO groups. In CON group, somatic cell counts (SCCs), number of white blood cells (WBC) and bacteria were increased. However, in OEO groups, SCCs and number of WBC were significantly decreased and S. aureus and E. coli were not detected in milk as compared with those before the treatments as well as GEN group. These results suggest that OEO may be a useful alternative to antibiotics for the control of subclinical bovine mastitis caused by S. aureus and/or E. coli.
Animals ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bacteria ; Cattle ; Cell Count ; Escherichia coli* ; Escherichia* ; Female ; Gentamicins ; Humans ; Lamiaceae ; Leukocytes ; Mammary Glands, Animal ; Mastitis ; Mastitis, Bovine* ; Milk ; Origanum* ; Staphylococcus aureus* ; Staphylococcus*

PURPOSE: We aimed to analyze the discordance between immunohistochemistry (IHC)-based surrogate subtyping and PAM50 intrinsic subtypes and to assess overall survival (OS) according to discordance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 607 patients were analyzed. Hormone receptor (HR) expression was evaluated by IHC, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression was analyzed by IHC and/or fluorescence in situ hybridization. PAM50 intrinsic subtypes were determined according to 50 cancer genes using the NanoString nCounter Analysis System. We matched concordant tumor as luminal A and HR+/HER2–, luminal B and HR+/HER2+, HR–/HER2+ and HER2–enriched, and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and normal- or basal-like. We used Ion Ampliseq Cancer Panel v2 was used to identify the genomic alteration related with discordance. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate OS. RESULTS: In total, 233 patients (38.4%) were discordant between IHC-based subtype and PAM50 intrinsic subtype. Using targeted sequencing, we detected somatic mutation–related discordant breast cancer including the VHL gene in the HR+/HER2– group (31% in concordant group, 0% in discordant group, p=0.03) and the IDH and RET genes (7% vs. 12%, p=0.02 and 0% vs. 25%, p=0.02, respectively) in the TNBC group. Among the luminal A/B patients with a discordant result had significantly worse OS (median OS, 73.6 months vs. not reached; p < 0.001), and among the patients with HR positivity, the basal-like group as determined by PAM50 showed significantly inferior OS compared to other intrinsic subtypes (5-year OS rate, 92.2% vs. 75.6%; p=0.01). CONCLUSION: A substantial portion of patients showed discrepancy between IHC subtype and PAM50 intrinsic subtype in our study. The survival analysis demonstrated that current IHC-based classification could mislead the treatment and result in poor outcome. Current guidelines for IHC might be updated accordingly.
Breast Neoplasms ; Breast ; Classification ; Fluorescence ; Genes, Neoplasm ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; In Situ Hybridization ; Methods ; Phenobarbital ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor ; Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms