ABSTRACT
The institutional review board is crucial to ensure the scientific and ethical quality of human participant research. This paper analyzes a survey on the current constitution and operation of institutional review boards (IRBs) in Korea, conducted by the Korean Association of Institutional Review Boards in April 2002. Out of 74 IRBs, 63 responded to the survey (85.1% response rate). IRB membership has a male-to-female ratio of approximately 80:20, a predominance of male clinicians (60%) and an underrepresentation of community people unaffiliated to the institutions (less than 10%). Most IRBs (around 80%) confine the scope of their reviews to the clinical evaluation of drugs or devices, leaving the remaining areas of research involving human participants untouched. As their role is limited, the majority of IRBs do not operate actively: 72% of responding IRBs reviewed less than one protocol per month in 2001. Sixty two percent of institutions have never discussed the need for insuring research participants' risks or making indemnity arrangements. This survey reveals many shortcomings and points for improvement by the institutional support bodies, including the need to establish regular education programs for IRB members and investigators.
Subject(s)
Female , Humans , Male , Appointments and Schedules , Clinical Trials as Topic/legislation & jurisprudence , Clinical Trials as Topic/standards , Data Collection , Epidemiologic Studies , Ethics Committees, Research/legislation & jurisprudence , Ethics Committees, Research/standards , Ethics Committees, Research/statistics & numerical data , Human Experimentation/legislation & jurisprudence , Human Experimentation/standards , Korea , Politics , Public Policy , Research Design/standardsABSTRACT
To assess the relationship between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene polymorphism and myocardial infarction in Koreans, we recruited 112 healthy, unrelated subjects (mean age 53.4 years) and 104 myocardial infarction survivors (mean age 54.2 years) of both sexes. An insertion/deletion (IID) polymorphism of the ACE gene was typed by polymerase chain reaction. The I allelic frequency of ACE gene in Korean subjects was irrelevant to myocardial infarction (patients, 65%; control subjects 66%), as was true with the D allele. When compared with other populations, the frequency of D allele in Koreans (0.34) was lower than that in Caucasians, and was close to that of other Oriental populations. The data suggest that the ACE gene polymorphism is not an independent genetic risk factor for myocardial infarction in Koreans.
Subject(s)
Humans , Alleles , Asian People , Myocardial Infarction , Polymerase Chain Reaction , Risk Factors , SurvivorsABSTRACT
Cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) is involved in the toxicity and carcinogenicity of a number of solvents and xenobiotics. Like the various types of oxidation pharmacogenetics, the activity of the enzyme shows a discernible interindividual and interethnic variation. However, no pharmacogenetic information on CYP2E1 polymorphism has been available from a Korean population. The aim of this study was to explore the pharmacogenetics of CYP2E1 polymorphism in a native Koreans after an oral 400 mg dose of chlorzoxazone administered to 128 subjects. Urine samples were collected during the subsequent 8-hour period and urinary concentrations of chlorzoxazone and 6-hydroxychlorzoxazone were determined by a high performance liquid chromatography with an ultraviolet detector. The limit of detection in the samples was found to be 0.5 mug/ml. The mean value of the 6-hydroxychlorzoxazone excreted in 8 hr urine expressed as the percentage was 48.2 13.8%. The frequency distribution of percentage of the administered dose excreted as the 6-hydroxy metabolite was unimodally distributed in the subjects studied. However, the values showed wide (7-fold) interindividual difference, ranged from 11.6% to 79.8% of the dose of chlorzoxazone. Thus, it was considered that the pharmacogenetic characteristics of CYP2E1 in a Korean population did not-represent multimodal distribution in the 6-hydroxychlorzoxazone excreted in 8-hr urine expressed as the percentage. And the activity of the CYP2E1 in a Korean population seemed to be less compared with that of the Caucasian subjects.