With growing need in the field, the application of computers in nursing has been frequently studied to improve the quality of nursing care in Korea. But the development of useful clinical programs has not received adequate alternatives. The aim of this study is to compare of two Nursing Diagnosis Systems - Neutral Network and Expert System. The simulated output of each Nursing Diagnosis System and the Judgment from the researcher and two professors of nursing were comparatively examined. The misdiagnosis rate of Nursing Diagnosis System using the Neural Network was nine percent, while the Nursing Diagnosis System using the Expert System showed consistency with those three experts in every aspect. Accordingly, the result of this study demonstrated the possibility of application of a nursing diagnosis system as another nursing tool.
Diagnostic Errors ; Expert Systems* ; Judgment ; Korea ; Nursing Care ; Nursing Diagnosis* ; Nursing*

Congenital hepatic fibrosis is an inherited, congenital disorder of the liver, and is occasionally associated with cystic disease of the liver and kidney. We present a case of congenital hepatic fibrosis with Caroli's disease. A 21-year-old woman had suffered from an episodic fever with headaches for 3 years. In laboratory examination, the liver function test was within the normal limits. Esophageal varix was noted by an endoscopic examination. Hepatosplenomegaly and multiple dilated bile ducts were seen by abdominal CT scanning. An orthotopic whole liver transplantation was done. The liver was fibrotic and enlarged. Multiple cystically dilated intrahepatic ducts were noted. Microscopically, diffuse portal fibrosis and widening with proliferation of bile ductules were seen. Intrahepatic bile ducts were markedly dilated and tortuous. The liver cell cords were well preserved.
Bile ; Bile Ducts ; Bile Ducts, Intrahepatic ; Caroli Disease* ; Congenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and Abnormalities ; Esophageal and Gastric Varices ; Female ; Fever ; Fibrosis* ; Headache ; Humans ; Kidney ; Liver ; Liver Function Tests ; Liver Transplantation ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Young Adult

Expert systems emerged during early 1970s have become one of the most important innovations in computer science. They actively work in various areas and achieve a big success especially in medical domain. It is to be difficult to obtain reliable recognitions about each diagnosis that has common characteristics and to manage data about over 140 nursing diagnoses by using existing Nursing Diagnosis System with artificial neural network. But a rule-based approach has been studied to automate diagnosis and is more effective that nursing diagnosis depends on objective data and has more common characteristics. In this paper, Nursing Diagnosis System was built with a rule-based approach due to the above reasons. Nursing Diagnosis System is implemented by using rules of production system, a kind of knowledge representation technique based on standardized nursing care plans. The ten nursing diagnoses, found most frequently from the patients on medical-surgical wards were determined to develop Nursing Diagnosis System. To verify the usefulness of Nursing Diagnosis System was tested with 80 patient's data. A diagnosis was judged correct if the system and the nursing experts agreed on diagnosing. The nursing experts evaluated 100 percents of the system's diagnosis was deemed correct. Judging from the results given above, the system seems highly reliable. In this work, I show that it can contribute to clinical application of nursing process as another nursing tool.
Diagnosis ; Expert Systems* ; Humans ; Nursing Diagnosis* ; Nursing Process ; Nursing* ; Patient Care Planning

Two hundred sixty six children were retrospectively surveyed from first to fifth grade to find out the status of obesity during four years. The obesity index was gained by height and weight data from student's health file and the data about eating behaviors and weight control behaviors, etc. were collected by questionnaires. Children assigned to one of the following groups : underweight, normal, overweight and obese. The results were as follows ; 1. Obese children were 18.6%(n=27) of boys and 10.8%(n=13) of girls at fifth grade. 2. Twenty eight children among forty obese children at fifth grade were also overweight or obese at first grade, and the other twelve was normal. 3. Breakfast skipping rate was significantly high among underweight and obese group of boys(p<0.01).The most children(8736%) had prejudice for special foods. 4. The rate of agreement between obesity index and self recognition of body image was 60.7% in boys and 63.6% in girls. 5. Forty two point five percent of children have ever tried weight control as exercise(35.7%), reducing sugars and snacks(27%), feasting(23.8S%), avoiding fatty foods(12.7%), taking diet food or drug(0.8%). In conclusion, the prevalence of children obesity is gradually increasing and children tried weight control without right guidances. In order to prevent progress into adulthood obesity, nutrition education should be followed with school foodservice including the right perception for obesity, proper weight control and eating behavior modification.
Body Image ; Breakfast ; Carbohydrates ; Child* ; Diet ; Eating* ; Education ; Feeding Behavior ; Female ; Humans ; Incheon* ; Obesity* ; Overweight ; Prejudice ; Prevalence ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Retrospective Studies* ; Thinness

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self concept and the climacteric symptoms in middle-aged women. METHOD: From a convenience sample of 123 women between 40 and 59 years of age living in P-city data were collected using a structured questioanaire. It included a self concept scale and climacteric symptom scale. With spss/pc(+), data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation coefficients. RESULT: 1. The mean score for self concept was 108.73+/-16.24. 2. The variables that influenced the self concept of middle-aged women most were 'health state' and 'marriage satisfaction'. They were statistically significant at the .01 level. 3. The mean score for climacteric symptoms was 3.13. Of psychophysical, physical and psychological symptoms the scores for psychophysical symptoms were the highest. 4. There were significant negative correlations between self concept and climacteric symptoms (r=-0.333, p=0.000). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that positive self concept can reduce climacteric symptoms in middle-aged women.
Climacteric* ; Female ; Humans ; Self Concept*

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of coronary heart disease risk factors in healthy men and women. METHOD: The subjects of this study were 346 people (173 men and women aged 20 years and over) who received health screenings. Data was collected from December 1, 2005 to February 28, 2006. The FANTASTIC Lifestyle Assessment Inventory except smoking and the Framingham risk score of subjects were investigated. Data was analyzed by descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, pearson correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression using the SPSS 10.0 program. RESULTS: The mean score of the lifestyle of the women (64.24) was higher than that of the men (59.12). The mean score of the risk of coronary heart disease of the men (5.28%) was higher than that of the women (0.28%). The framingham risk for men was significantly related to lifestyle such as dietary habit, use of caffeine and drugs, anxiety and depression, job satisfaction, and closeness with family. The main predictors of framingham risk for men and women were 'use of caffeine and drugs', and 'menopause' which explained 16.5%, and 30.7% respectively. CONCLUSION: Since lifestyles can be changed with effort, coronary heart disease can be prevented while people are healthy.
Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Cohort Studies ; Coronary Disease/diagnosis/*epidemiology ; Female ; Food Habits ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Life Style ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multivariate Analysis ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Risk Factors

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine lifestyle, BMI, BP, and lipids profiles in male subjects and to explore the relationships among variables. METHODS: A total of 148 male subjects were recruited from one life insurance company from December 1, 2005 to February 28, 2006. Data collection methods were structured questionnaire, anthropometry and serum analysis. The relationships among lifestyle, BMI, BP, and serum lipid profiles were assessed by descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, and partial Pearson's correlation coefficient of variables after controlling for age, educational level, and economic status. RESULTS: The mean BMI of the participants was relatively high as 25.38(range: 18.38 - 32.83). The differences of serum lipid profiles according to age, educational level, and economic status were significant. 'Use of caffeine and drugs'(r = -.187, p < .05) and 'consciousness of safety'( r= -.200, p < .05) was negatively related to BMI. Higher score of 'type of personality' domain was correlated with lower systolic BP(r = -.221, p < .01) and lower diastolic BP(r = -.195, p < .05) and was positively correlated with HDL(r = .191, p < .05). CONCLUSION: 'Use of caffeine and drugs', 'consciousness of safety' and 'type of personality' of lifestyle as well as 'dietary habit' and 'exercise' played a key role in circulatory disease.
Anthropometry ; Blood Pressure ; Caffeine ; Data Collection ; Humans ; Insurance, Life ; Life Style ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the evidence for the effectiveness of different isolation policies in reducing the incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection in hospital in-patients. METHODS: We prospectively evaluated the effectiveness of an isolation policy on transmission of MRSA in the 745-beds hospital. First period, all patients with MRSA (March - July 2000) were not isolated Second period, strict isolation policies were performed (August 2000 - January 2002). All patients with MRSA were isolated in separated room, hand hygiene using alcohol handrub, gowning and g1oving, apply of MRSA notice sticker, criteria in isolation remove, separated disinfection and wastement. Third period, semi strict isolation policies were performed (February 2002 - August 2005). Some patients with MRSA were isolated in separated room and others were admitted in general ward for bed shortage. Only some practices were performed in hand washing and separated disinfection in general ward. RESULTS: The rates of MRSA nosocomial infection per patients during 1st, 2nd, and 3rd surveillance were reported 0.56, 0.23, and 0.42 (P<0.05). Patient-days rate of MRSA nosocomial infection during 1st, 2nd, and 3rd surveillance were reported 0.62, 0.27, and 0.38 (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: With many different isolation policies, it was possible to reduce nosocomial infection of MRSA. In this study, strict isolation policies (2nd period) were the most effective practices in reducing MRSA infection.
Cross Infection ; Disinfection ; Hand Disinfection ; Hand Hygiene ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infection Control ; Methicillin Resistance* ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus* ; Patients' Rooms ; Prospective Studies

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most potent antigen presenting cells that can activate naive T cells. Mature DCs exress high levels of MHC and costimulatory molecules on their surface and have capacity to produce IL-12, a 75 kDa heterodimeric cytokine composed of p35 and p40 subunit. IL-12 is currently thought to be one of most critical determinants for skewing the immune response towards Th1. Expression of IL-12 in dendritic cells seems to be regulated by various stimuli including CD40L. In the present study we investigated expression of IL-12 in mature DCs, which were cultured from bone marrow cells in the presence of GM-CSF. Maturity of the DCs was confirmed by morphologic characteristics, immunophenotypes, and allostimulatory activities. Exprssion levels of IL-12 p40 in the DCs were measured by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. Increases in IL-12 p40 expression were observed after treatment with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), an anti-MHC class II monoclonal antibody, or an anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody. The most remarkable increases, however, were observed in the DCs treated with an anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody. These results support a previous notion that signals through CD40/CD40L interaction may be important for the production of IL-12 by DCs. Moreover, results of this study show a possibility of using monoclonal antibodies against CD40 molecules for preparing DCs producing high amount of IL-12, which can be used for anti-tumor or anti-viral immunotherapy.
Animals ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Antigen-Presenting Cells ; Bone Marrow Cells ; CD40 Ligand ; Dendritic Cells* ; Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor ; Immunotherapy ; Interleukin-12* ; Mice* ; T-Lymphocytes

No abstract available.