Search

The effects of complex Korean medicine treatment including acupotomy, on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are reported in this case study. A 54-year-old woman with diarrheal symptoms that alternatively improved and worsened for many years and worsening abdominal pain visited the emergency room and was diagnosed with IBS; she was admitted for approximately 2 weeks at the Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department of National Medical Center (NMC). Numerical rating scale (NRS), irritable bowel syndrome?quality of life (IBS-QOL), and gastrointestinal symptom rating scale (GSRS) scores were evaluated on the day of hospitalization, midway through the hospitalization period, and on the day of discharge. Abdominal pain was measured daily using NRS, and the score decreased from 8 at admission to 0 at discharge. The IBS-QOL percentile score improved from 42 points to 100 points. The total GSRS score also improved, from 30 points to 2 points. These results suggest that complex Korean medicine treatment with acupotomy, is useful for treating internal diseases, such as IBS, as well as musculoskeletal disorders.

This study was conducted to investigate whether treatment with Korean medicine might help to improve symptoms of patients diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. A patient diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome was hospitalized for 15 days from October 4, 2018 to October 18, 2018 and treated using Korean medicine (Sinbaro3 pharmacopuncture, acupuncture, electroacupuncture, and herbal medicine). Therapeutic effects were evaluated using the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), House-Brackmann grade, Yanagihara’s score survey, and Digital Infrared Thermographic Imaging (DITI). After treatment, the Numerical Rating Scale score (6 at admission down to 2 points at discharge), House?Brackmann grade (Grade V down to Grade II), Yanagihara’s score (6.0 up to 22.0), and Digital Infrared Thermographic Imaging showed improvement from admission to discharge. Treatment with traditional Korean medicine, may help improve symptoms of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome such as facial nerve paralysis, neuralgia after paraplegia, hearing difficulties, and dizziness.

Background: Enteroviruses are known as major pathogen for aseptic meningitis. Although rapid diagnosis for enteroviruses is very essential to exclude bacterial infections in patients with meningitis, classical diagnostic method based on virus isolation is not practicable for timely treatment of patients due to its laborious and time-consuming procedure. Recently molecular methodologies as alternatives are routinely used for rapid and sensitive diagnosis for enteroviruses infections., Methods: Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR ELISA kit for targeting 5' non-coding region (NCR) with highly conserved genetic identity among all genotypes of enteroviruses was introduced in this investigation. RT-PCR ELISA was evaluated about sensitivity and specificity through virus isolation using clinical specimens from patients suspected of enteroviral infections and enteroviral isolates comparing with conventional RT-PCR identifying them., Results: The detection limit of the RT-PCR ELISA was up to 10-100 folds higher than virus isolation using cell culture and conventional RT-PCR. On comparison between above two methods, the detection rate of RT-PCR ELISA for clinical specimens from patients with aseptic meningitis was 7% higher than that of conventional RT-PCR targeting 5'NCR (P=0.016)., Conclusions: Our results suggest that RT-PCR ELISA developed in this study could be an alternative diagnostic method for the detection of enteroviral genome with high sensitivity and specificity.