Background: Placental abruption commonly occurrs in the last months of pregnancy. The current, diagnosis and treatment method of placental abruption is considerably more improved thanks to medical advances. This is still a dangerous emergency in obstetrics, however, causing severe complications for maternal and high neonatal mortality. Objective: Describe some clinical and para-clinical characteristics of placental abruption at the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 01/01/2005 to 12/09/2006. Subject and methods: A retrospective cross sectional study is conducted on 30 patients with confirmed diagnosis of placental abruption after Cesarean section or delivery from 01/01/2005 to 12/09/2006. Results: Gestational age <34 weeks: 40%; 34-37 weeks: 40%; >37 weeks: 20%. Clinical signs: abdominal pain: 83.3%, vaginal bleeding: 60%, pre-eclampsia: 23.3%, shock: 3.3%, frequency of contractions: 74.1%, uterine hypertonus: 33.3%, uterine tetany: 36.7%, bloody amniotic fluid: 36.7%, fetal demise: 40%, fetal distress: 26.7%. Para-clinical signs: red blood cells <3 millions: 26.7%, heamoglobin <90g/l: 20.7%, fibrinogen <2g/l: 23.3%, retroplacental haematoma in ultrasound: 47.8%. Apoplexy lesions in the uterus: serious and extensive: 46.6%, mild: 26.7%, no lesion: 26.7%. Conclusions: Placental abruption often occurred in premature delivery, clinical signs have high diagnostic values, para-clinical signs have limited diagnostic values and in most of the cases have shown apoplexia lesions in the uterus.
placental abruption ; clinical signs ; para-clinical signs

PURPOSE: To evaluate and compare the efficacy and safety of cyclosporine 0.05% (Cyporin N eye drops 0.05%) to an active comparator (Restasis®) in moderate to severe dry eye patients. METHODS: This is a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, parallel, active control, non-inferiority, phase III study. Patients had a 2-week run-in period (during the run-in period, patients used artificial tears, if applicable), and afterward 158 patients were randomly assigned treatment for 12 weeks with cyclosporine 0.05% (with artificial tears, if applicable), in which the efficacy and safety were evaluated every four weeks. RESULTS: Corneal staining tests showed that in the per protocol set group, the study group was not inferior to the control group; the results for the full analysis set analytic group were the same. The number of adverse events reported from the 158 patients was not significantly different between groups (p = 0.1107). Additionally, other evaluations, including tolerability evaluations, clinical pathology examinations, and vital signs, show that there is no difference in terms of safety between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Cyclosporine A 0.05% (Cyporin N eye drops 0.05%) is considered to have the same efficacy and safety compared to the active comparator.
Cyclosporine* ; Dry Eye Syndromes ; Humans ; Lubricant Eye Drops ; Ophthalmic Solutions ; Pathology, Clinical ; Vital Signs

PURPOSE: This study was done to identify the effectiveness of the 'intervention - mother's recorded song' on low-birth weight infants in an neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). METHODS: This study was conducted with a nonequivalent control group pre-posttest quasi-experimental design and the participant group was low-birth weight infants who were admitted to the NICU. Forty-eight infants, 24 in each from two groups, the experimental and control group, participated in the study. RESULTS: For physical response according to vital signs, there were no significant statistical differences in heart rate, respiration rate and pulse oximetry saturation between the experimental group and the control group. For behavioral state, there was a significant statistical difference between the experimental and control group. CONCLUSION: The study results indicate that the intervention using mother's song had some significance as a nursing intervention with positive impacts. Such an intervention can help pediatric nurses improve infants' stabilization of their vital signs and behavioral states. By showing the effectiveness of such an intervention, the results of this study provide further evidence-based information in developing the practice of pediatric nursing.
Heart Rate ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care, Neonatal ; Clinical Trial ; Mothers ; Oximetry ; Pediatric Nursing ; Respiratory Rate ; Singing ; Vital Signs

BACKGROUND: This prospective, randomized, double-blind, clinical study was conducted to compare the effects of 4% articaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine (A100) and 4% articaine with 1:200,000 epinephrine (A200) on the vital signs and onset and duration of anesthesia in an inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB). METHODS: In the first appointment, an IANB was performed by injecting A100 or A200 in 1 side of the mouth (right or left) randomly in patients referred for extraction of both their first mandibular molars. In the second appointment, the protocol was repeated and the other anesthetic solution was injected in the side that had not received the block in the previous session. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures (SBP and DBP) and pulse rate were measured during and 5 min after the injection. The onset and duration of anesthesia were also evaluated. Data were analyzed using t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test, and p-value was set at 0.05. RESULTS: SBP and pulse rate changes were slightly more with A100; however, DBP changes were more with A200, although the differences were not significant (P > 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in the parameters evaluated in this study. The onset and duration of anesthesia, and the changes in SBP, DBP, and pulse rate during and 5 min after the injection were the same in both the groups. CONCLUSIONS: For an IANB, A200 and A100 were equally efficient and successful in producing the block. Epinephrine concentration did not influence the effects of 4% articaine.
Anesthesia* ; Anesthetics, Local ; Carticaine* ; Clinical Study ; Epinephrine* ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Mandibular Nerve* ; Molar ; Mouth ; Prospective Studies ; Vital Signs*

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to develop risk-adjustment models for acute stroke mortality that were based on data from Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) dataset and to evaluate the validity of these models for comparing hospital performance. METHODS: We identified prognostic factors of acute stroke mortality through literature review. On the basis of the avaliable data, the following factors was included in risk adjustment models: age, sex, stroke subtype, stroke severity, and comorbid conditions. Survey data in 2014 was used for development and 2012 dataset was analysed for validation. Prediction models of acute stroke mortality by stroke type were developed using logistic regression. Model performance was evaluated using C-statistics, R2 values, and Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit statistics. RESULTS: We excluded some of the clinical factors such as mental status, vital sign, and lab finding from risk adjustment model because there is no avaliable data. The ischemic stroke model with age, sex, and stroke severity (categorical) showed good performance (C-statistic=0.881, Hosmer-Lemeshow test p=0.371). The hemorrhagic stroke model with age, sex, stroke subtype, and stroke severity (categorical) also showed good performance (C-statistic=0.867, Hosmer-Lemeshow test p=0.850). CONCLUSION: Among risk adjustment models we recommend the model including age, sex, stroke severity, and stroke subtype for HIRA assessment. However, this model may be inappropriate for comparing hospital performance due to several methodological weaknesses such as lack of clinical information, variations across hospitals in the coding of comorbidities, inability to discriminate between comorbidity and complication, missing of stroke severity, and small case number of hospitals. Therefore, further studies are needed to enhance the validity of the risk adjustment model of acute stroke mortality.
Clinical Coding ; Comorbidity ; Dataset ; Insurance, Health ; Logistic Models ; Mortality* ; Quality of Health Care ; Risk Adjustment ; Stroke* ; Vital Signs

BACKGROUND: Letrozole is an oral non-steroidal inhibitor of the aromatase enzyme, which has proven to be a useful drug against breast cancer. METHODS: This single-dose, randomized 2 x 2 crossover study was conducted in healthy male volunteers. Participants of each sequence group (each 13 volunteers for sequence group) received, in randomized sequence, a single oral 2.5-mg dose of generic letrozole (test) or branded letrozole (reference). Each treatment period was separated by a 5-week washout period. Blood samples were collected for up to 312 hours after drug administration, and drug concentrations were determined using validated LC/MS-MS. Pharmacokinetic properties were obtained using noncompartmental analysis. Drug tolerability was assessed throughout the study, using measurements of vital signs, physical examination, clinical chemistry testing, EKG, and interviews. RESULTS: A total of 26 subjects completed the study. The geometric mean ratios (90% CI) of Cmax and AUClast were 0.92 (0.85 - 0.99) and 1.01 (0.97 - 1.04), respectively. No serious AEs were reported, and there were no clinically significant differences between test and reference groups. CONCLUSION: The findings from this study suggest bioequivalence between two formulations of letrozole in healthy male volunteers. The safety profile of two formulations had similar characteristics.
Aromatase ; Breast ; Clinical Chemistry Tests ; Cross-Over Studies ; Electrocardiography ; Humans ; Male ; Nitriles ; Physical Examination ; Therapeutic Equivalency ; Triazoles ; Vital Signs

PURPOSE: This study was done to identify learning experiences and self-confidence and to analyze nursing students' self-confidence according to learning experiences for core nursing skills (CNS). METHOD: Participants were 502 final year nursing students. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test. RESULTS: Over 60% of participants had practiced 15 items of the 24 CNS in the basic nursing lab (BNL). In clinical practice (CP), they had practiced five items but experienced only one item in a simulation lab (SL). Items with the highest confidence level were vital signs (4.69) followed by blood sugar test (4.60), pulse oximeter (4.38), and oral medication (4.12). Items with the lowest confidence level were blood transfusion (2.17) followed by enema (2.64) and indwelling catheterization (2.67). The group with CNS experience in the practice curriculum was generally more confident than the group with no experience. Self-confidences in some skills was significantly different depending on availability of SL, credits for BNL and CP, and presence of preceptors. CONCLUSION: Results indicate a need to develop practice education strategies such as changing the CP to practice-centered learning with preceptors and including well-designed SL to increase confidence of nursing students.
Blood Glucose ; Blood Transfusion ; Catheters, Indwelling ; Clinical Competence ; Curriculum ; Education ; Education, Nursing ; Enema ; Humans ; Learning* ; Nursing* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Students, Nursing* ; Vital Signs

BACKGROUND: An automatic alarm system was developed was developed for unexpected vital sign instability in admitted patients to reduce staffing needs and costs related to rapid response teams. This was a pilot study of the automatic alarm system, the medical emergency system (MES), and the aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the MES before expanding this system to all departments. METHODS: This retrospective, observational study compared the performance of patients admitted to the pulmonary department at a single center using patient data from three 3-month periods (before implementation of the MES, December 2013–February 2014; after implementation of the MES, December 2014–February 2015 and December 2015–February 2016). RESULTS: A total of 571 patients were admitted to the pulmonary department during the three observation periods. During this pilot study, the MES automatically issued 568 alarms for 415 admitted patients. There was no significant difference in the rate of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before and after application of the MES. The mortality rate also did not change. However, it appeared that CPR was prevented in four patients admitted from the general ward to the intensive care unit (ICU) during MES implementation. The median length of hospital stay and median length of ICU stay were not significantly different before and after MES implementation. CONCLUSIONS: Although we did not find a significant improvement in outcomes upon MES implementation, the CPR rate and mortality rate did not increase despite increased comorbidities. This was a small pilot study and, based on these results, we believe that the MES may have significant effects in longer-term and larger-scale studies.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ; Clinical Alarms ; Comorbidity ; Critical Care ; Emergencies* ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Internal Medicine ; Korea* ; Length of Stay ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; Mortality ; Observational Study ; Patients' Rooms ; Pilot Projects* ; Retrospective Studies ; Vital Signs

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the predictive factors for prolonged length of stays of adult patients with acute appendicitis (AA) in an emergency department (ED). METHODS: This was a retrospectively clinical study including patients in an ED. All patients were diagnosed from the clinical symptoms and a typical physical examination, and had undergone a computed tomography (CT) evaluation on the ED visiting date. All data were collected from the electrical medical records. The clinical parameters analyzed were the laboratory data, including the white blood cell count with differential values, C-reactive protein (CRP) level, initial vital signs, duration of admission, coexisting perforation of the appendix in the CT findings. The relationship between the clinical parameters and length of stay was assessed. RESULTS: A total of 547 patients with AA were enrolled in this study. Among them, there were 270 male patients with a mean age of 40.7±15.8 years. The baseline characteristics, initial clinical features, laboratory, and imaging studies results of 129 patients in the prolonged length of stay (pLOS) group, and 418 patients of the non-pLOS group in AA were compared. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed the predictive factors related to pLOS in AA to be as follows: age 40 years or older, body temperature over 37.3℃, CRP level greater than 5.0 mg/dL, and evidence of perforation in CT findings (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: If we check age, fever, CRP level and find evidence of perforation, it might be helpful for predicting the increasing period of length of hospital stay for patients with AA in ED.
Adult* ; Appendicitis* ; Appendix ; Body Temperature ; C-Reactive Protein ; Clinical Study ; Diagnosis-Related Groups ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Fever ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Length of Stay ; Leukocyte Count ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Medical Records ; Physical Examination ; Retrospective Studies ; Vital Signs

BACKGROUND: An automatic alarm system was developed was developed for unexpected vital sign instability in admitted patients to reduce staffing needs and costs related to rapid response teams. This was a pilot study of the automatic alarm system, the medical emergency system (MES), and the aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the MES before expanding this system to all departments. METHODS: This retrospective, observational study compared the performance of patients admitted to the pulmonary department at a single center using patient data from three 3-month periods (before implementation of the MES, December 2013–February 2014; after implementation of the MES, December 2014–February 2015 and December 2015–February 2016). RESULTS: A total of 571 patients were admitted to the pulmonary department during the three observation periods. During this pilot study, the MES automatically issued 568 alarms for 415 admitted patients. There was no significant difference in the rate of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before and after application of the MES. The mortality rate also did not change. However, it appeared that CPR was prevented in four patients admitted from the general ward to the intensive care unit (ICU) during MES implementation. The median length of hospital stay and median length of ICU stay were not significantly different before and after MES implementation. CONCLUSIONS: Although we did not find a significant improvement in outcomes upon MES implementation, the CPR rate and mortality rate did not increase despite increased comorbidities. This was a small pilot study and, based on these results, we believe that the MES may have significant effects in longer-term and larger-scale studies.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ; Clinical Alarms ; Comorbidity ; Critical Care ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Internal Medicine ; Korea ; Length of Stay ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; Mortality ; Observational Study ; Patients' Rooms ; Pilot Projects ; Retrospective Studies ; Vital Signs