A case-crossover study between air pollution and hospital emergency room visits by asthma attack / 대한산업의학회지

OBJECTIVES: This study, using case-crossover design, search a relationship between changing levels of air pollutants and asthma attack in asthma patients. METHODS: We searched the daily total number of asthmatic patients at hospital' s emergency room in Seoul, Korea by investigating total 49 general hospitals emergency room records. Otherwise, We investigated medical records of asthmatic patients at one of the 49 hospitals we have searched. We investigated addresses that they are living, diagnosis, smoking history, whether respiratory infection or not, medications. We analyzed the data by 1:m conditional logistic regression used when matched case-control study is analyzed. Control periods were chosen by bidirectional paired matching technique 7, 14 days before and after case periods. RESULTS: the relative risk of asthmatic attack by 100 ppm ozone increase between June and September were 1.348(95 % CI = 1.010~1.619). Between November and February, the relative risk by 100 /m TSP increase, 100ppb sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide were respectively 1.278(1.010~1.619), 1.237(1.019~1.502), 1.285(1.006~1.640). In stratified analysis, the relative risk were significant when the asthmatic patients were children aged 15 years or below, when there were respiratory infection, and when the patients took medications irregularly CONCLUSIONS: There was statistically significant association between ambient levels of air pollutants and asthmatic attack. So, we have to exert our efforts to minimize the air pollution effectively, to protect public health from air pollution.

An experimental study on the effect of maltol against oxygen toxicity / 예방의학회지

Since the widespread application of hyperbaric oxygenation in clinical medicine, the problems of oxygen toxicity have been attracting a deep interest from the researchers on hyperbaric medicine as a practical issue. Among extensive research trials, the study on the protective agents oxygen toxicity occupied one of the most challenging field. As the mechanisms of oxygen toxicity, the role of the oxygen free radicals produced by peroxidation process are strongly accepted by the leading researchers on oxygen toxicity, the probable protective effects of antioxidant against oxygen toxicity are sustaining a sufficient rational. Maltol(2-methyl-3-hydroxy-gamma-pyrone) which is known to be a component of Korean red ginseng has been reporting to have an antioxidant action. But, further study is needed to provide definite evidence for this compound to be an antioxidant, since the action was based on the results which were obtained under in vitro experiment. In this study, the author attempted to evaluate the effect of maltol as protective agent against oxygen toxicity through the observation of death rate, convulsion rate, time to convulsion and microscopic pathological changes in some organs of experimental rats exposed to various conditions. The findings observed are as follows: 1) The death rate, convulsion rate, time to convulsion, lung/weight ratio and microscopic pathological finding of lung were identified as reliable objective and quantitative indices for oxygen toxicity. 2) Maltol showed excellent protective effect against pulmonary oxygen toxicity as an antioxidant.