Dizziness and vertigo are frequent complaints in the clinic, but standardized treatments have not yet been established. Here we report three cases of dizziness and vertigo successfully treated with takushato. Case 1 involved a 38-year-old woman who experienced dizziness, which had made her feel as if she was sea sick for 2 years, and which was worsening. After taking takushato for a month, her dizziness improved.Because she complained of an abnormal pharyngeal sensation, her prescription was changed to hangekobokuto in combination with takushato, and her dizziness almost disappeared 2 months after her first visit. Case 2 involved a 61-year-old woman who had had dizziness and vertigo for 4 months. Although no abnormality was observed on MRI, she developed labile vertigo a few days later. After taking takushato for a month, she felt no dizziness or vertigo at all. Case 3 involved a 67-year-old woman in whom labile vertigo had developed even while supine for 2 months, and although receiving medication for a diagnosis of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, did not improve. Triple dose takushato was remarkably effective, and improved her otological findings. Takushato is one hopeful option for the medical treatment of refractory dizziness and vertigo.

Takushato is a Kampo formula used for the treatment of dizziness and vertigo. Signs and symptoms suggestive of fluid retention have been regarded as clinical indications for takushato administration, but it is not clear if improvement of these signs and symptoms is related to the clinical efficacy of takushato, so we analyzed the correlation among these factors. Twenty patients who suffered from dizziness and vertigo were treated with takushato for 4 weeks. Before and after treatment, subjective symptoms and objective data including vestibular function tests were assessed, and correlation among the factors was analyzed. Improvement of patients' total symptoms was significantly correlated with improvement of fluid retention scores. Furthermore, improvement in vestibular function tests showed a trend toward correlation with that of fluid retention scores.These results suggest that improvement in the signs and symptoms of fluid retention is related to the clinical efficacy of takushato. We conclude that the presence of fluid retention is a reasonable clinical indication for takushato administration.

OBJECTIVES: Shiftwork is known to be one of the common causes of sleep and health problems and finally causes the decreased quality of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the sleep patterns of shiftworking and daytime psychiatric nurses using actigraphy and compare it with subjective assessment for sleep. METHODS: Twenty-three shift-working and 25 daytime nurses were enrolled. They rated their sleep quality using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI) and other self-rating scales were measured for psychosocial aspects. Actigraphy was applied to the subjects for a total of 7 days to measure the sleep parameters. They also wrote sleep diaries during the period of wearing actigraphy. Sleep-related parameters of actigraphy, global score and components of PSQI, and the results of other self-rating scales were compared between shift-working and daytime nurses. RESULTS: Although the global score of PSQI did not show significant difference, the PSQI components showed significant differences between two groups: the shift-working nurses showed lower sleep quality, more sleep disturbance and hypnotic medication use, and worsened daytime dysfunction than daytime nurses. The shift-working nurses showed significantly shorter total time in bed and total sleep time, lower sleep efficiency, and longer average awakening time than those of daytime nurses in actigraphy. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that shift-working nurses experienced more sleep disturbances in both subjective and objective aspects of sleep than daytime nurses. This study also suggests that actigraphy may be useful to measure the objective aspects of sleep that are difficult to assess with subjective questionnaires alone.
Actigraphy ; Quality of Life ; Weights and Measures

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Quadruple therapy can be considered as a first-line therapy in areas where the resistance rate to clarithromycin is high. Comparison study of triple therapy and quadruple therapy for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication is still lacking in Korea despite the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance. This study was conducted to compare the efficacy of triple and quadruple therapy as a first-line treatment in H. pylori infected patients with peptic ulcer. METHODS: Consecutive 149 cases of peptic ulcer disease associated with H. pylori infection were randomized either to proton pump inhibitor (PPI, bid), amoxicillin (1,000 mg, bid), and clarithromycin (500 mg, bid) (PAC group) or to PPI (bid), bismuth subcitrate (300 mg, qid), metronidazole (500 mg, tid), and tetracycline (500 mg, qid) (PBMT group) eradication treatments for 7 days. Outcome of eradication therapy was assessed by 13C-urea breath test performed 4-6 weeks after eradication. RESULTS: Eradication rates in PAC and PBMT group were 78.7% (59/75) and 71.6% (53/74) by intention to treat analysis, respectively (p=0.424). By per protocol analysis, eradication rates of PAC and PBMT group were 85.5% (59/69) and 85.5% (53/62), respectively (p=1.012). Adverse reactions occurred in 5 (6.6%) and 7 (9.5%) patients in PAC and PBMT group, respectively (p=0.346). CONCLUSIONS: One week-quadruple therapy as a first-line treatment for H. pylori infection does not offer any advantage over PPI-based triple therapy in Korean patients.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Antacids/administration & dosage ; Anti-Infective Agents/administration & dosage ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; English Abstract ; Female ; Helicobacter Infections/complications/*drug therapy/microbiology ; *Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Peptic Ulcer/microbiology ; Proton Pumps/antagonists & inhibitors

BACKGROUND/AIMS: First-line therapies against Helicobacter pylori, including proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) plus two antibiotics, may fail in up to 20% of patients. 'Rescue' therapy is usually needed for patients who failed the first-line treatment. This study evaluated the eradication rate of bismuth-containing quadruple rescue therapy over a 1- or 2-week period. METHODS: We prospectively investigated 169 patients with a persistent H. pylori infection after the first-line triple therapy, which was administered from October 2008 to March 2010. The patients were randomized to receive a 1- or 2-week quadruple rescue therapy (pantoprazole 40 mg b.i.d., tripotassium dicitrate bismuthate 300 mg q.i.d., metronidazole 500 mg t.i.d., and tetracycline 500 mg q.i.d.). After the 'rescue' therapy, the eradication rate, compliance, and adverse events were evaluated. RESULTS: The 1-week group achieved 83.5% (71/85) and 87.7% (71/81) eradication rates in the intention to treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) analyses, respectively. The 2-week group obtained 87.7% (72/84) and 88.9% (72/81) eradication rate in the ITT and PP analyses, respectively. There was no significant difference in the eradication rate, patient compliance or rate of adverse events between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: One-week bismuth-containing quadruple therapy can be as effective as a 2-week therapy after the failure of the first-line eradication therapy.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bismuth ; Compliance ; Helicobacter ; Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Intention ; Metronidazole ; Organometallic Compounds ; Patient Compliance ; Prospective Studies ; Proton Pump Inhibitors ; Tetracycline

BACKGROUND: Stomach cancer is the most common cancer in Korea, and it can be easily diagnosed by performing endoscopy. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is associated with stomach cancer, and there has been much recent interest in the epidemiology of stomach cancer. Therefore, we estimated the incidence of stomach cancer in Chuncheon-si during 2000-2002. METHODS: From July 1st, 2000 through June 30th, 2002, we investigated the subjects who were confined to be newly diagnosed cases living in Chuncheon-si. The data was collected from the medical records from all the medical facilities located in Chuncheon-si. RESULTS: The total number of cases of newly diagnosed stomach cancer during this period (2000-2002) was 186 (117 males and 69 females). The annual crude incidence rate of stomach cancer was estimated to be 37.0 per 100,000 persons overall, and 47.0 and 27.2 in the males and females, respectively. The annual age standardized incidence rate for the Korean population was 33.7 per 100,000 persons overall, and 42.2 and 25.1 for the males and females, respectively. The major symptoms of stomach cancer patients were epigastric pain (61.8%) and weight loss (31.2%). The proportion of early gastric cancer was 34.9% (60 among 172 persons) of the cases of stomach cancer. 64 patients (74%) were H. pylori positive. CONCLUSIONS: We report here on the estimated incidence rate of the stomach cancer and the characteristics of the stomach cancer patients in Chuncheon-si during 2000-2002. This study has generated basic epidemiologic data to identify the effect of H. pylori eradication on the future incidence rate of stomach cancer.
Endoscopy ; Epidemiology ; Female ; Gangwon-do* ; Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Korea ; Male ; Medical Records ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Stomach* ; Weight Loss