OBJECTIVES: We investigated the prevalence and composite score of the neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with mild cognitive impairment(MCI), and dementia of Alzheimer's type(AD). The aim of this study is to analyze the correlation between the result of Korean Neuropsychiatric Inventory(K-NPI) and cognitive function. METHODS: A total of 163 patients diagnosed with MCI or AD was divided into three groups(55 MCI patients, 56 dementia patients with mild stage, and 52 dementia patients with moderate, severe stage). We examined neuropsychiatric symptoms by K-NPI and compared the prevalence and composite score of each subdomain in K-NPI among three groups. RESULTS: The most common symptoms in the MCI group were depression/dysphoria, sleep/night-time behavior, anxiety, and irritability/lability. In mild AD group, the most frequent disturbance was agitation/aggression, depression/dysphoria, anxiety, apathy/indifference, and sleep/night-time behavior. In moderate to severe AD group, the most frequent disturbance was apathy/indifference, depression/dysphoria, agitation/aggression, and delusion. The frequencies of delusion, hallucination, agitation/aggression, apathy/indifference, aberrant motor behavior, appetite/eating change were statistically significant. The total NPI score showed a negative correlation with MMSE-KC and a positive correlation with GDS. CONCLUSIONS: Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common features of MCI and AD. These symptoms observed in MCI are similar to those of mild AD. Psychosis is most common in moderate to severe AD, leading to a faster rate of cognitive decline. Therefore, proper management according to the neuropsychiatric symptoms of MCI and three stages of dementia is needed.
Anxiety ; Delusions ; Dementia ; Hallucinations ; Humans ; Mild Cognitive Impairment ; Prevalence ; Psychotic Disorders

OBJECTIVES: Mild cognitive impairment(MCI) and dementia of Alzheimer's type(AD) are characterized by progressive decline of cognitive abilities and a wide range of neuropsychiatric symptoms like depression. Among various diagnostic tools of AD, many studies showed that elevated levels of serum total homocysteine are associated with increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders. We investigated whether elevated homocysteine concentrations are associated with depressive symptoms in MCI and AD. METHODS: A total of 86 patients diagnosed with MCI or AD participated. Total serum homocysteine levels in fasting blood samples were measured. We examined cognitive symptoms by MMSE-KC, Global Deterioration Scale(GDS), Clinical dementia rating(CDR) and depressive symptoms by Korean version of Geriatric Depression Scale(K-GDS). RESULTS: The total serum homocysteine levels were significantly higher in MCI with depression than in MCI without depression. There was no significant difference in the mean homocysteine levels between AD patients with depression and AD patients without depression. The total homocysteine levels showed a negative correlation with MMSE-KC and a positive correlation with CDR, GDS. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that elevated homocysteine level is a risk factor for the decline of cognitive function and depression. We found a significant relationship between elevated serum homocysteine level and depressive symptoms in MCI. But our study had several limitations, thus more research is needed to confirm this finding.
Alzheimer Disease ; Dementia* ; Depression* ; Fasting ; Homocysteine* ; Humans ; Mild Cognitive Impairment* ; Neurobehavioral Manifestations ; Risk Factors

Transient global amnesia(TGA) is not a rare event in the elderly, which is characterized by transient inability to form the new memory traces plus retrograde amnesia with benign prognosis. The etiology is unknown, but suggested causes have included transient ischemic attack, migraine, epilepsy, brain tumor, drug intoxication, other toxic/metabolic disturbances, or hysteria. Especially, TGA associated with ischemic stroke is important on the elderly patients and necessary to be differentiated with other causes, for stroke prevention. As far as we know, the case of TGA due to cerebral infarction confirmed by brain imaging study is extremely rare in the literature. We report the case of 67 year-old female patient with typical TGA showing ischemic lesion on the right temporal area on MRI and discussed its significance as one of the cause of TGA.
Aged ; Amnesia, Retrograde ; Amnesia, Transient Global* ; Brain Neoplasms ; Cerebral Infarction ; Epilepsy ; Female ; Humans ; Hysteria ; Infarction* ; Ischemic Attack, Transient ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Memory ; Migraine Disorders ; Neuroimaging ; Prognosis ; Stroke

This study was undertaken to identify medical staffs perception about nutrition care and dietitian's role in hospitals. Questionnaires were sent to 874 medical staffa at 50 general hospials size over 100 beds, located in Seoul and Pusan, A total of 649(74.3%) of medical staffs returned questionnaries from 47 general hospitals. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. 1. 89.6% if educak stffs responded that they required the help of the dietitian when the patients needed the nutrition acre and also most of them(87.0%) held positive perceptions abuot the necessity of the nutrition support team. 2. When the medical staffs prescribed the special diet of the patients' nutrition care, 90.0% of them preferred that diet would be order after consulting with dietitian. 3. Half of the medical staffs(52.1%) responded that they were scarced of the knowledge about the clinical mutrition and then 66.4% of them recognized the need of nutrition education at the medical school. 4. The medical staffs responded that dietitian must have the knowledge abuot food, nutrition and medical science(52.5%) and the competence of discussion with medical staffs about nutrition the patients(30.8%).
Busan ; Diet ; Education ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Medical Staff ; Mental Competency ; Nutritionists ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Schools, Medical ; Seoul

PURPOSE:Hypochondroplasia is a skeletal dysplasia characterized by poor childhood growth and an inadequate pubertal growth spurt. Final height attainment of hypochondroplasia has been reported to range between 120 and 152cm. Increased availability of growth hormone with the introduction of recombinant human growth hormone has allowed for clinical trials in a number of growth hormone sufficient children with growth problems. The purpose of this study was to assess the growth promoting effect of human growth hormone in children with hypochondroplasia. METHODS:Five patients with hypochondroplasia diagnosed by clinical and radiological findings between 1993 and 1997 at our hospital was aged 3 and 1/2 -11 and 1/2 years. Each patients continuously received human growth hormone 0.6-0.7U/Kg/week, intramuscularly or subcutaneously in 6-7 divided dose for 2 years. Standard auxologic assessment was carried out every 3 month interval in the first year after commencement of therapy and then same assessment was 6 monthly. Bone age was assessed 6 monthly using Gleurich-Pyle method. RESULTS:Mean height velocity of pretreatment and year 1 and 2 of GH treatment were 3.9+/-0.7, 6.5+/-1.8 and 5.7+/-1.5cm/year, respectively. Mean height standard deviation score for chronological age of pretreatment and year 1 and 2 of GH treatment were -2.7+/-0.3, -2.4+/-0.3 and -2.2+/-0.4, respectively. The increase in the height velocity diminishes over the subsequent year. The increment of bone age after GH treatment were same as the increments of chronological age. CONCLUSION: Short-term GH therapy increases the height velocity of children with hypochondroplasia, but the effect of GH therapy on final height remains unknown.
Child* ; Growth Hormone* ; Human Growth Hormone ; Humans

To apply rehabilitation program for stroke patients' functional improvement, various factors such as timing for initiation of rehabilitation, intensity of therapy, and individual compliances should be considered. Both animal and neuroimaging studies suggested that greater intensity of therapy is associated with increased cortical reorganization and subsequent functional recovery, and repetition also may play a major role in inducing and maintaining brain plasticity. However, the proper intensity of rehabilitation therapy has not been well established yet. In this review, we examined the previous studies assessing the effect of intensity and repetition of therapy on functional recovery. From the randomized controlled trials and meta-analysis, increased intensities of treatment and repetitions are shown to be effective in improving activities of daily living and gait function, but limited evidences in functional outcomes of upper extremities. It is difficult to provide standardized optimal intensities and repetitions in clinical practice because of the variability in components of rehabilitation therapies, patients' motivation and participation, the degree of therapists' involvement, and reimbursement and healthcare system. Clinical practice guidelines of US, Europe and Korea recommended that intensive rehabilitation and repetitive task training should be provided to post stroke patients in rehabilitation unit. Further studies are needed to investigate the effective delivery system of rehabilitation program in terms of repetition and intensity.
Activities of Daily Living ; Animals ; Brain ; Delivery of Health Care ; Europe ; Gait ; Humans ; Korea ; Motivation ; Neuroimaging ; Plastics ; Stroke ; Upper Extremity

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the levels of customer orientation in nurses whose work experience was between 1 and 5 years and to examine factors associated with customer orientation and nursing productivity. METHODS: For this descriptive correlational study, nurses (N=164) were recruited from a University Hospital in B city, from November 1 to 23, 2012. Questionnaires included measures of customer orientation, nursing productivity, organizational commitment, job stress, and turnover intention. Data were analysed with the SPSS/WIN 18.0 program using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 25 years, 96% were single, and 54.9% had a bachelor degree. Organizational commitment (beta=.387) and job stress (beta=.280) significantly explained the variance in customer orientation (R2=15.8). Customer orientation (beta=.479), education level (beta=.196), and turnover intention (beta=-.184) significantly explained the variance in nursing productivity (R2=35.3). Customer orientation was the most important factor in explaining the variance in the nursing productivity. CONCLUSION: This study highlighted the relationship between customer orientation and nursing productivity. Improving the customer orientation could result in increasing nursing productivity. Future managerial intervention to improve customer orientation is warranted.
Education ; Efficiency* ; Efficiency, Organizational ; Intention ; Nursing* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Purpose: Silicone tube intubation is the most common method for treatment of nasolacrimal drainage disorder or repair of lacerated canaliculus. However, some cases are prolapsed earlier than expected, subsequently affecting the success rate of silicone tube intubation. The author introduced a successful reposition of the prolapsed silicone tube. Methods: This study is a retrospective case series of 11 patients who were treated with reposition of prolapsed silicone tube using hole and lacrimal probe method. In all cases, the tubes were prolapsed within 2 months after the first surgery due to careless rubbing of the medial canthus by the patient. In all 11 cases, the development of a biofilm on tube was not observed at the time when the tube was prolapsed. All patients underwent immediate reposition of prolapsed tube without local anesthesia in the outpatient operating room on the day they visited. Results: In all 11 cases, the prolapsed silicone tube was repositioned without any complications using this hole and lacrimal probe method. At 6-month follow-up examination, all patients presented with a well-positioned silicone tube up to the day of extubation without replacing it with a new silicone tube. Conclusions This hole and lacrimal probe method is effective for the repositioning of prolapsed silicone tube after bicanalicular intubation of lacrimal system. This procedure includes easy performance in a short time and without local anesthesia in the outpatient operating room.

The purpose of this study were to constructed multi-level cervical spine finite element (FE) model and to investigate changes in load distribution and range of motion (ROM) at index level and adjacent levels at immediately after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) and after full bony union using constrained and semi-constrained cervical plate systems(dynamic plate, variable screw). A FE model of intact cervical spine (C3-6) was created from computer tomography (CT) images of the healthy adult (male, 26 years, no pathologies). The post-op FE models (C5-6 with ACDF, cage with bone graft) were constructed by modifying a intact cervical FE model. Four different configurations of the model were considered: Type 1-Rigid plate+Fixed screw, Type II-Rigid plate + Variable screw, Type III-Dynamic plate + Fixed screw, Type IV-Dynamic plate + Variable screw. The bone-cage and bone screw interface behavior were accomplished via 'tie' contact condition and friction coefficient of 0.2 to assume fusion and non-fusion, respectively. The inferior endplate of C6 vertebral body was constrained in all directions. Loading condition used hybrid protocol with follower load of 73.6N at superior endplate of C3 vertebral body. In non-fusion cases, load at the bone graft increased from Type I to IV (2.3
Adult ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Bone Screws ; Diskectomy ; Freedom ; Friction ; Humans ; Range of Motion, Articular ; Spine ; Transplants