The purpose of this study were to determine causes of low back pain in bus drivers who usually work in prolonged sitting position and to find the relationship of back pain with general characteristics and work environmental characteristics, stress symptoms, to com맹re lordosis angle of habitual driving posture and resting posture in low back pain group and non-low back pain group, and to use this result as a basis for improvement of work environment and comprehensive rehabilitative management of low back pain. Ninety-eight bus drivers were selected from the membership of an urban transit union in Seoul. These informations were collected from May 1, 1997 to May 25, 1997 by means of structured questionnaires and X-ray findings. These data were analyzed by test, t-test, logistic regression using SAS. The major results were as follows: 1. Of the respondents, 66.3% of bus drivers were found to be experiencing back pain. 2. Of the respondents of low back pain groups, 78.5% reported that major cause of low back pain was due to prolonged sitting. 3. The group with experiences of frequent or continuous vibration had more low back pain (p<0.05). There were no significant differences among other work environmental factors. 4. Average stress score was significantly higher in the group with low back pain than in the group without low back pain (p<0.05). 5. The results of the logistic regression analyses were statistically significant vibration from seat and stress score among the risk factors (p<0.05). 6. Averaged lordosis angle of habitual driving posture was degrees in low back pain group, degrees in non-low back pain and averaged lordosis angle of resting sitting posture was degrees in low back pain, degrees in non-low back pain group but the difference in mean lordosis angles of two groups was not statistically significant. The results of this study indicate that professional drivers developed chronicity of low back pain due to unfit seat, poor habitual posture and stress from vibration or other risk factors. Therefore, there is need to improve work environment, i.e. enough resting, to set a seat to support lumbar spine properly and to provide comprehensive rehabilitation program including early diagnosis, proper treatment and education for self help management.

The purposes of this study were 1) to determine the changes between pre-treatment and post-treatment of four groups of 15 persons each and 2) to compare the effect of conventional transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation(TENS) and laser at auricular acupuncture points on experimental pain threshold measured at the wrist. Sixty healthy adult men and women(M:32, F:28), aged 20 to 28 years, were assigned randomly to one of four groups. Group 1 received TENS to the appropriate auricular point for wrist pain, Group 2 received laser to the appropriate auricular point for wrist pain, Group 3 received placebo TENS to the appropriate auricular point for wrist pain, Group 4 received no treatment and served as controls. Experimental pain threshold at the wrist was determined with a painful electrical stimulus before and 20 minutes after ear stimulation. Group 1 was the only group that showed a stastically significant increase (p<0.05) in pain threshold after treatment whereas the Group 2,3 and 4 did not. These results suggest that TENS has the capability to higher pain threshold but laser does not.

The purpose of this study was to assess the biomechanical effects of corset and back brace for low back pain syndroms patients. The subjects of this study were 69 patients with low back pain syndroms who had been hospitalized or were visited out-patient department of the rehabilitation hospital, college of medicine, Yonsei University, from October 5, 1995 through November 5, 1995. Clinical results and datum were obtained by phone calls and chart reviews of low back pain patients. The results were as follows: 1) Fifty - nine subjects recovered over a good grade (85.6%). 2) The standing workers had a little effect of brace for low back pain. 3) After using a corset and back brace, the test of SLR increased from 36.23% to 72.47%, and the ability of ambulation improved from 40.57% to 85.5%. In conclusion, the biomechanical effects of corset and back brace for low back pain patients were found to be decrease pains and improve posture and ADL function.

The purpose of this study was to asses and compare the effects of superficial heating on the pain threshold at limbs in healthy adult and adult hemiplegia. We used hot pack for superficial heat and applied to healthy adult(n=12) and adult hemiplegia(n=12) on lumbar region. Pain treshold was quantatively measured by an electrical stimulator and measured before hot pack application, immediatly and post 30 minutes after hot pack application on the distal parts of limbs(styloid process of radius, medial malleoulus of tibia). The results were as follows 1) A statically significant defference in pain treshold were not found at limbs of healthy adult and adult hemiplegia that have an affected side and a non-affected side before hot pack application, immediatly and post 30 minutes after hot pack apllication(p>0.05). 2) In comparance of pain threshold of upper and lower limbs in the all subjects, pain threshold was significantly increase at lower limbs(p<0.01). 3) In comparance of pain threshold of limbs between healthy adult and adult hemiplegia, pain threshold was showed a significant defferance at the upper and lower limbs of affected side before hot pack application(p<0.05, p<0.01).

The purpose of this study was to determine a more effective method for shoulder pain reduction. Forty-five normal subjects were randomly assigned to one of 3 groups a control group, an acupuncture-like transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation(ALTENS) group, and a silver spike point(SSP) group. Each person in the ALTENS and SSP groups was measured for pressure pain threshold before and after a 20 minute treatment. The control group was also checked for pressure pain threshold before and after a 20 minute period but no "treatment" was given. The major findings were as follows ; 1)The ALTENS and SSP groups showed significant differences before and after treatment but the control group showed no significant difference. 2)When the three groups were compared, the only significant difference was between the SSP group and the control group. As mentioned above, it may be concluded that both ALTENS and SSP therapy were effective in reducing shoulder pain when measured directly after treatment. However, SSP did not show any superior effect. Further study should be done to determine the effective the maintained pain reduction with post-treatment time lapse.

Lilium lancifolium (LL) is widely cultivated in East Asia and used to attenuate airway diseases. Our current study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of LL on pain level and inflammatory response in a rat model of monosodium iodoacetate (MIA)-induced osteoarthritis (OA). We first examined the effect of LL on inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory mediators in IL-1β-treated HTB-94 cells. The LL extract was found to significantly inhibit the levels of Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Interleukin-8 (IL-8), and prostaglandin-E2 (PGE-2) in Interleukin-1 β (IL-1β)-stimulated HTB-94 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, chronic oral administration of LL effectively restored the weight-bearing distribution in the rat model of MIA-induced OA. In addition, administration of LL inhibited inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory mediators, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-6, leukotriene B4 (LTB-4), PGE-2, and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9). Our findings collectively suggested LL as one of the potential therapeutic agents for OA, owing to its properties of reducing pain and inflammatory responses.

Spinal pain is a symptom caused by changes of the vertebral column or its adnexa. Sometimes spinal pain cannot be treated, especially in case of multiple pain lesions, because of its difficulty in evaluating original causes which contributes to the symptoms. Thus, the precise localization of the lesion causing symptoms is very important for targeted treatment. However, the diagnosis based on limited screening test including physical evaluation and radiological finding may lead to misdiagnosis of the actual lesion causing symptoms, failure of treatment, and unnecessary surgery. From this point of view, nonsurgical interventional for spinal pain can be helpful to diagnose the precise cause of spinal pain. We report several cases that nonsurgical interventional therapy which diagnosed the precise lesion that cause the spinal pain and treated successfully with nonsurgical interventional therapy for diagnostic purposes with therapeutic purpose.

증가하는 유방암을 발견하고 치료하기 위한 기본검사인 유방 촬영은, 대부분 여성에게 암이나, 방사선 피폭으로 인한 불안을 주게 된다. 게다가 두려운 압박 통증을 주게 되므로, 불안과 통증의 정도를 파악하 고, 통증을 완화할 방법을 실험 연구하였다. 임상 경험을 바탕으로 변형된 촬영 방법과 기본 방식의 촬영 방법을 각각 비교 분석하여, 그 효과를 평가하는데 목적이 있다. 연구대상은 2017년 2월부터 3월까지 서울 대병원운영 서울특별시보라매병원에 유방촬영을 목적으로 내원한, 30대부터 60대 이상까지의 여성 160명 이었다. 변형된 유방촬영 방법 80명과, 기존의 유방촬영 방법 80명의 두 그룹으로 나누어 검사하고, 순차적 으로 연구대상자 모르게 각각에게 설명하고 설문지를 작성하게 하였다. 연구방법은 첫 번째는 자동페달을 4회 이상 나누어 압박하고, 수동압박을 동시에 이용하며, 자세히 설명하는 태도로 시행하는 변형 방법이다. 두 번째는 기본 방법인 자동 페달 압박 방식만 사용하며, 압박 횟수를 1-3회 이내로 제한하고, 단순히 설명 하는 태도로 촬영하였다. 통증 분포의 평균을 살펴보면 실험군(변형촬영방법)은 2.49이고, 대조군(기본촬영 방법)은 평균 4.86으로 48.8%로 통증이 감소하는 효과를 나타냈다. 이처럼 변형된 방법으로 촬영한 경우, 실험군이 대조군보다 통증 지수가 낮게 나타났으며, 그 정도는 통계적으로 유의한 결과를 보여주었다 (p <0.001).