Background: On receiving chemotherapy, extravasation of drugs is a severe problem. The extravasations occur more commonly in patients who are elderly, have a poor performance status, have diabetes mellitus complications or have repeatedly received chemotherapy. Also, cancer patients usually require repeated venous punctures for this treatment. Purpose and methods: For the purpose of evaluating the efficacy and safety of peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) for intravenous chemotherapy, we retrospectively reviewed all the cancer patients for whom PICC were inserted for chemotherapy from April 2008 to December 2010. Patients' background, duration of PICC insertion and complications were evaluated in this study. Results: Ten patients (male 4, female 6) were reviewed in this study. The median age was 59 years (17∼69). A total of 13 PICCs were inserted in 10 patients. The most common underlying disease was abdominal rhabdomyosarcoma (n=3, 30%) followed by lung cancer (n=2, 20%) and hematologic tumor (n=2, 20%). The average catheter span was 46 days. Catheter-related infections were seen in 2 cases (15.4%). No phlebitis or thrombosis usually associated with venous route was detected in PICC used for chemotherapy. Conclusions: PICC might reduce patients' discomfort such as repeated venous punctures or complications associated with chemotherapy. We suggest that PICC would be one of the effective tools in chemotherapy. Palliat Care Res 2011; 6(2): 233-236

Purpose: We investigated into the effect of religious involvement in nursing homes on users, facility staff, and families to explore the clinical significance of the religious involvement from the viewpoint of nursing care workers. Method: A questionnaire survey and a semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 nursing care staff at a special nursing home for the elderly. Result: Eight factors such as “extraordinariness” caused five effects such as “positive changes in mental state in everyday situations” for the users. Two factors such as “development of awareness of religion” had two effects such as “changes in personal view of religion” for the care staff. Also, a factor of “caring for the users on their deathbeds” had an effect of the “opportunity of mental care” for the families of the users. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the religious involvement may be beneficial not only to users but also to facility staff and families of the users.

Introduction: The regional palliative care support center (PCSC) has set the following palliative care goals for correction of misunderstanding and prejudice of the general community against palliative care, home care and home death of cancer patients: practice palliative care early after diagnosis, educate the community to understand palliative care and build a regional palliative care cooperation system. Method: This study reviewed four years (2009-2012) of data from the PCSC. Outcome data of the patients were collected during outpatient care, inpatient care, and in-home care that were supported by the PCSC. The PCSC managed palliative care based on patient conditions and symptoms in the early stage after diagnosis. The PCSC worked to spread the idea and importance of palliative care to the general community and health care professionals of the region, and also worked to promote the regional palliative care cooperation. Result: These efforts led to an increase in the number of first center visit of patients, especially introduction patients, and an extension of the period of treatments of both tumor department and palliative care department. These outcomes resulted in an increase in the rate of in-home care transitions, the length of in-home care and the number of deaths at home. These results suggest that the place of appropriate medical and caregiving treatments and the place of death are converting into home gradually from hospital.

This study was conducted to assess the ability of two-dimensional tissue tracking (2DTT) to evaluate changes in left ventricular (LV) myocardial function associated with sustained high electrical pacing. Pacemakers were implanted at the right ventricular (RV) apex of five female Beagles, and sustained high electrical pacing of 250 beats per minute (bpm) was performed for three consecutive weeks. Conventional echocardiography and 2DTT were performed at baseline, and at every week for three weeks with pacing. The baseline parameters were then compared to those of weeks 1, 2, and 3. Three weeks of pacing resulted in significant reduction of radial and circumferential global strains (p < 0.001). Regional analysis revealed reduction of segmental strains in both radial and circumferential directions, as well as increased dyssynchrony after three weeks of pacing in the radial direction (p = 0.0007). The results of this study revealed the ability of 2DTT to measure radial and circumferential strains in dogs with sustained high-electrical pacing, and allowed assessment of global and regional myocardial function and the degree of dyssynchrony.
Animals ; Cardiac Pacing, Artificial ; Dogs ; Echocardiography/*methods ; Female ; Heart Rate ; Heart Ventricles/*ultrasonography ; *Ventricular Function, Left