• Journal of Korean Medical Science
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• v.33 no.44
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• pp.278.1-278.12
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• 2018

Background: We evaluated the association of blood pressure (BP) with blood levels of cadmium, lead, and cadmium and lead together (cadmium + lead) in a representative sample of adolescents from Korea. Methods: We used 2010-2016 data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. This cross-sectional study enrolled adolescents aged at 10-18 years-old who completed a health examination survey and had blood measurements of lead and cadmium. The association of adjusted mean differences in diastolic and systolic BP with doubling of blood lead and cadmium were estimated by regression of BP against ${\log}_2$-transformed blood metals and their quartiles after covariate adjustment. Adjusted odds ratio for prehypertension were calculated for ${\log}_2$-transformed blood levels of lead and cadmium and their quartiles. Results: Our analysis of adolescents in Korea indicated that blood levels of lead and cadmium were not significantly associated with increased BP or risk of prehypertension. However, the cadmium + lead level was associated with prehypertension. Previous studies showed that blood levels of lead and cadmium were associated with increased BP and risk of hypertension in adult populations. We found no such association in Korean adolescents. Conclusion: We found that the cadmium + lead level was associated with prehypertension. The differences between adults and adolescents are because adolescents generally have lower levels of these blood metals or because adolescents only rarely have hypertension.

• Integrative Medicine Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.95-102
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• 2018

Background: Hypertension is a major cause of cardiovascular disease and associated mortality, and postmenopausal women are at a high risk of hypertension. We aim to investigate the hypotensive effect and safety of acupuncture, focusing on postmenopausal women with prehypertension and stage 1 hypertension. In addition, we aim to investigate whether the effect of acupuncture treatment differed, depending on Sasang Constitution and cold-heat pattern. Methods: This study is designed as an intervention cohort study. Two hundred postmenopausal women aged <65 years with prehypertension or stage 1 hypertension living in Daejeon city in Korea will be recruited, and randomly assigned to either an acupuncture or no-treatment control group. The intervention will consist of four sessions; one session will include acupuncture performed 10 times for 4 weeks. There will be a 20-week observation period after each session, and the total study duration will be 96 weeks. Acupuncture will be applied at the bilateral Fengchi (GB20), Quchi (LI11), Zusanli (ST36), and Sameumgyo (SP6) acupoints. The effect of acupuncture will be evaluated by comparing the change in systolic and diastolic blood pressure between the acupuncture and control groups every 4 weeks until the end of the study. Discussion: To evaluate the success of blood pressure management, long-term observation is required, but no long-term studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of acupuncture on blood pressure in postmenopausal women. To our knowledge, this study will be the first long-term study to investigate this issue for more than 6-8 weeks.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.460-460
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• 2005

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.745-751
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• 2009

Hypertension is a major risk factor for myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiovascular mortality in adults; its treatment reduces the risk of cardiovascular events. In recent times, attention is being paid to monitoring of blood pressure from childhood to adulthood. Childhood hypertension is associated with hypertension in later life, and early intervention is important. In the Korean socioeconomic background, a rapid increase is observed in the number of obesity cases and the rate of increase in the incidence of obesity is more in childhood. The strong association of high blood pressure with obesity and the marked increase in the incidence of childhood obesity indicate that both hypertension and prehypertension are becoming significant health issues. In this comprehensive review, we acquaint the clinician with the available literature on childhood hypertension to provide recommendations for the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of hypertension based on the available evidence and consensus in Korean clinical conditions.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.121-130
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was undertaken to identify stroke risk with risk factors and knowledge of stork in women with prehypertension. Methods: A total of 46 pre-hypertensive women in urban area aged 44.8 (SD 11.4) yr old in average were selected by a convenient sampling. Demographic data, risk factors, and knowledge of stroke were assessed through face to face interview. Stroke risk scores were calculated based on points given to age, systolic blood pressure, smoking, DM, and heart disease in Framingham stroke risk score. Data were analyzed by SPSS WIN 12.0 using descriptive statistics, two sample t-test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: The mean systolic blood pressure of participants was 133.11 mmHg, and HDL cholesterol was lower than the recommended level, although rest of physiologic risk factors were within normal. Of the participants, 82% did not do regular physical activity and 75% did not control fat intake persistently. Mean stroke risk points and knowledge scores were 4.48 and 29.15, respectively, which were significantly different between women with and without persistent controlling fat intake. Conclusion: Results indicate stroke prevention intervention for prehypertensive women should address comprehensively modifying lifestyle as well as physiologic factors, and information focusing on stroke risk factors and warning symptoms.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.1568-1574
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether group III muscle afferents play an important role eliciting abnormal blood pressure response mediated during passive muscle stretch in prehypertensive individuals. Eleven middle-aged prehypertensive men (average BP 133/80 mmHg) and nine middle-aged normotensive men (average BP 119/74 mmHg) participated in this study. After 1 min rest baseline data collection, the subject's foot was flexed (dorsiflexion) by an automated cybex for one minute. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, and total peripheral resistance were continuously measured on a beat-by-beat basis from a finger via a Finapres device for 1 minute. To evaluate the role of mechanoreflex, a component of exercise pressor reflex, SBP, DBP, and MAP responses over the course of time were examined. The results showed that the pressor response mediated by the muscle mechanoreflex was faster in prehypertensive individuals compared to the normotensive individuals. The substantial pressor response was observed within mean 20 sec of the onset of passive stretch in prehypertension, while mean 45 sec in normotension (p<0.05). It is concluded that excessive pressor response produced during exercise in prehypertension may be due to the dysfunction of the mechano-receptors.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2010

Objectives: Prehypertension is associated with a higher risk of developing hypertension compared with normotension. Yet, factors predicting the development of hypertension among prehypertensive people are ill-understood. This prospective cohort study was performed to examine if serum gamma-glutamyltrasferase (GGT) within a normal range can predict the future risk of hypertension among prehypertensive adults. Methods: Study subjects were 293 prehypertensive persons >30-years-of-age who participated in a community-based health survey in 2003 and who were followed up in 2008. Sex-specific quartiles of baseline serum GGT were used to examine association with 5-year hypertension incidence. Results: Baseline serum GGT within normal range predicted the risk of developing hypertension for 5 years only in prehypertensive women. Adjusted relative risks were 1.0, 3.7, 3.6, and 6.0 according to quartiles of baseline serum GGT (P for trend <0.01). This pattern was similarly observed in non-drinkers. However, serum GGT was not associated with incident hypertension in men. Different from serum GGT, baseline serum alanine aminotransferase, another well-known liver enzyme, did not predict the risk of incident hypertension in both genders. Conclusions: Even though baseline serum GGT within normal range strongly predicted the future risk of hypertension, it was observed only in women, Although underlying mechanisms of this association are currently unclear, serum GGT can be used to select a high risk group of hypertension in prehypertensive women.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.55-69
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• 2004

Purpose ： To describe epidemiological characteristics and related factors in school personnel with hypertension. Method ： 5,384 school personnel (2,638 males and 2,746 females) received physical examination at the Seoul School Health Center in 2002. blood pressure(BP) was classified by JNC 7th report. Normal BP is systolic BP <120 and diastolic BP<80, prehypertension BP is 120-139 or 80-89mmHg, stage 1 hypertension BP is 140-159 or 90-99, and stage 2 hypertension >=160 or >=100 mmHg. each group was evaluated by gender. We used multiple regression and logistic regression. Results ： Normotension was 20.13% in males and 48.65% in female, prehypertension 43.4% in males and 38.06% in females, stage 1 hypertension 26.38% in males and 10.99% in females, stage2 hypertension 9.59% in males and 3.2% in females. the older age group had higher distribution of stage 1 hypertension and stage 2 hypertension. The means and abnormal rates of BMI, blood sugar, total cholesterol, GOT, GPT, and GTP was higher when their blood pressure was higher. However, an alcohol habit among lifestyle factors had an inverse effect. Higher Bp was correlated to a higher BMI, FBS, and cholesterol-like dose response. In stage 1 hypertension, the related factors of hypertension for males were BMI, amount of cigarettes smoked, exercise, blood sugar, total cholesterol, and GTP. In stage 1 hypertension, age, BMI, exercise, blood sugar, total cholesterol were related factors in female. In stage 2 hypertension, age and smoking were related factors in male, and age, BMI, and cholesterol in female. Conclusions ： It is possible to intervene in all related factors of hypertension except age through life-style modification and appropriate medical management. Active health promotion is needed in School personnel.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.258-263
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• 2018

Color Doppler sonography is a useful tool for examining blood flow and related indices. However, it should be done by well-trained operator, that is, operator subjectivity exists. In this paper, we propose an automatic blood flow area extraction method from brachial artery that would be an essential building block of computer aided color Doppler analyzer. Specifically, our concern is to examine hypertension suspicious (prehypertension) patients who might develop their symptoms to established hypertension in the future. The proposed method uses fuzzy C-means clustering as quantization engine with careful seeding of the number of clusters from histogram analysis. The experiment verifies that the proposed method is feasible in that the successful extraction rates are 96% (successful in 48 out of 50 test cases) and demonstrated better performance than K-means based method in specificity and sensitivity analysis but the proposed method should be further refined as the retrospective analysis pointed out.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 2014

Objectives : This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture and explore the appropriate number of treatment for postmenopausal women diagnosed with prehypertension and stage 1 hypertension. Methods : A 4-arm randomized open label pilot trial will be performed at 2 centers. Sixty participants will be divided into 2 treatment groups and 2 control groups. Treatment groups will receive acupuncture at 8 points(bilateral GB20, LI11, ST36, SP6) for 4 weeks(treatment group A, 10 total sessions) or 8 weeks(treatment group B, 20 total sessions), while maintaining usual care. Control groups will not receive acupuncture but will be under usual care for 16 weeks(control group C) or 20 weeks(control group D). Each patient's living habits will be corrected and drugs that may affect blood pressure(BP) will be prohibited. Treatment group A and control group C will be evaluated at 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks after randomization, while treatment group B and control group D will be evaluated at 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 weeks after randomization. The major outcome variable is the magnitude of change in diastolic BP levels at 4 weeks after randomization; auxiliary outcome variables are (1) diastolic BP change at 8, 16, and 20 weeks, (2) systolic BP change, (3) BP control rate, (4) lipid profiles, and (5) high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. Patient safety will be assessed at every visit. Results and Conclusions : The study findings may help develop evidence for the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for BP control.