PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of a logotherapy program entitled 'Finding meaning in my life' for adolescents with terminal cancer. METHODS: A nonequivalent control group, non-synchronized design was conducted with a convenience sample of 44 late adolescents with terminal cancer. The experimental group (n=22) participated in the 'Finding meaning in my life' program which consisted of five-day sessions for one week. The control group (n=22) received the usual nursing care. The effects were measured using adolescent meaning in life (AMIL), and quality of life (QOL) scales. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and t-test using SPSS/PC 17.0 program. RESULTS: There were significant differences in AMIL (t=3.36, p<.05) and QOL (t=2.67, p<.05) between the experimental and control groups. CONCLUSION: Logotherapy is effective in improving the meaning in life and quality of life of late adolescents with terminal cancer, and can be used to prevent existential distress.
Adolescent ; Demography ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Neoplasms/psychology/*therapy ; Patient Education as Topic ; Program Evaluation ; *Psychotherapy ; Quality of Life ; Questionnaires ; Young Adult

Ectopic pregnancies accout for 1% of all pregnancies and abdominal pregnancies account for almost 1% of ectopic pregnancies. The causes of abdominal pregnancy are two. First is primaries implantation of gestational sac in the abdomen, second is migration of the embryo through a fistulous tract of the tube or uterus. Their early symptom is absent and diagnosis by ultrasonography is difficult. Thus the mortality is very high because of complications such as hemorrhage and infection due to delayed diagnosis. The accurate diagnosis mostly made by laparoscopy or laparotomy is usual. Nowadays the treatment of choice must be laparoscopy according to the development of efficient laparoscopic instrumentation and accumulating experience and skill of laparoscopic surgeon. Here we report a case of uterine serosal pregnancy at 8(+1) weeks with both ovarian cysts which was undergone pelviscopy at the impression of right tubal pregnancy. At local gynecologic clinic, they guessed the patient's lower abdominal pain was due to the torsion of both ovarian masses and transferred the patient for an operation. beta-hCG was 52,509 mIU/mL. By ultrasonographic finding both ovarian cysts and 2 cm sized gestational sac with fetal pole and fetal heart tone were found nearby right fallopian tube. Under the impression of right tubal pregnancy she underwent the emergent pelviscopic operation. Mass consisted with the gestational sac and placenta was attatched to the posterior surface of uterus and minimal amount of fresh blood in the posterior cul de sac was observed. Both tubes and the uterus were intact, and both ovarian cysts were not torted or ruptured. The mass was detached and the bed of implantation was biopsyed. Gestational sac contained the intact embryo within.
Abdomen ; Abdominal Pain ; Delayed Diagnosis ; Diagnosis ; Embryonic Structures ; Fallopian Tubes ; Female ; Fetal Heart ; Gestational Sac ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Laparotomy ; Liability, Legal ; Mortality ; Ovarian Cysts* ; Placenta ; Pregnancy* ; Pregnancy, Abdominal ; Pregnancy, Ectopic ; Pregnancy, Tubal ; Ultrasonography ; Uterus

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine the associations between depression, anxiety, hostility and fighting spirit among patients with stomach, colorectal or breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 223 patients, diagnosed as with stomach, colorectal or breast cancer, undergoing chemotherapy or follow up care, were the subjects of the study. The study design was cross-sectional at the time of the survey. The degrees of depression, anxiety and hostility of the patients were assessed by the SCL-90-R scores, and the fighting spirit was measured by the Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC) scale score. RESULTS: The scores of anxiety and hostility of the patients at younger age were higher than those at older age (p<0.01). The patients with metastasis were more depressed than those without it (p<0.01). There was a negative association between depression and fighting spirit (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The study showed the more depressed cancer patients had lower fighting spirit score, which was known to be one of the most active psychosocial contributors in adjusting to cancer and survival.
Anxiety* ; Breast Neoplasms ; Depression* ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hostility* ; Humans ; Korea* ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Stomach

Eosinophilic gastroenteritis is an unusual disease characterized by eosinophilic infiltration of gastrointestinal tract, peripheral eosinophilia, and gastrointestinal symptoms. There are mucosal, muscular, and subserosal types, of which the subserosal type is the rarest. We experienced a 32-year old male patient with the subserosal type of eosinophilic gastroe-nteritis, who was presented with abdominal distension. The ascitic fluid revealed increased eosinophil count. With oral prednisolone, diarrhea and ascites rapidly disappeared and eosinophils in peripheral blood returned to normal. We report this case with a review of relevant literature.
Adult ; Ascites* ; Ascitic Fluid ; Diarrhea ; Eosinophilia ; Eosinophils* ; Gastroenteritis* ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Male ; Prednisolone

Vibrio cholerae non-O1/O139 strains are widely distributed in the environment such as sewage, estuarine waters, seafood, seawater, animals and contaminated foods in Europe, Asia, and the United States. V. Cholerae non-O1/O139 is the etiologic agent of gastroenteritis and extraintestinal infections such as bacteremia and wound infection. Gastroenteritis by Vibrio cholerae non-O1/O139, a prevalent disease in western countries and Asia, is considered rare in Korea. The authors isolated V. cholerae non-O1/O139 from a stool of a 2 year-old male with diarrhea and mild fever. To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of V. cholerae non-O1/O139 gastroenteritis in Korea.
Animals ; Asia ; Bacteremia ; Child, Preschool ; Cholera ; Diarrhea ; Europe ; Fever ; Gastroenteritis* ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Seafood ; Seawater ; Sewage ; United States ; Vibrio cholerae* ; Vibrio* ; Wound Infection

BACKGROUND: The estrogen receptor (ER) in breast cancer specimens has traditionally been assessed using a biochemical ligand binding assay (LBA). Recently, the application of an immunohistochemical method (IHC) for formalin-fixed breast carcinoma tissue has greatly increased. Controversy exists over the accuracy of IHC compared with that of LBA in determining ER. METHODS: Breast-carcinoma tissues were obtained from 247 patients. ER was determined within 1 week or at 4 weeks after surgery by using the traditional LBA and by using IHC with monoclonal antibodies. The ER status was assessed with respect to age, size of tumor, and stage according to the two methods. RESULTS: The concordant rate of ER status was 75% between IHC and LBA. IHC-negative/LBA- positive results occurred in 31 cases (13%) and IHC-positive/LBA-negative were observed in 30 cases (12%). ER-positive cases were more common in older patients. The disconcordant rate was much higher in premenopausal females. There was a significantly lower ER positivity in tumors of larger than 5 cm. ER positivity was significantly lower at 4 weeks compared to within 1 week in both methods, but this did not change the concordance rate between the two methods. CONCLUSIONS: The ER-IHC method appears to be a reasonable substitute for a biochemical ligand binding assay. This is based on a 75% concordance of the method as well as on the findings in the disconcordant cases. The appropriate measured time for ER was within 1 week after the cancer tissues were obtained.
Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Biochemistry ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Estrogens* ; Female ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry

PURPOSE: Asthma is one of the most common allergic diseases in which depression is an important comorbidity. However, little is known about the prevalence of depression in Korean adult asthmatics. This study was performed to evaluate the association between asthma and depression and to investigate the clinical characteristics of Korean adult asthmatics with depression. METHODS: Data were acquired from 18,066 men and women, aged older than 19 years who participated in the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, which was conducted from 2010 to 2012. The presence of asthma was based on self-reported physician diagnosis of asthma in the Health Interview Surveys. RESULTS: The prevalence of asthma was 3.2%, and that of depression was 4.2%. In univariate analysis, adults with asthma were old age, marital status, unemployment, low education, low monthly family income, low number of household members, obesity (P<0.05) were significantly associated with asthma, but sex, residence area, and smoking status were not associated with asthma. The prevalence of hypertension and depression were higher in asthmatics (P<0.05), while diabetes mellitus was not associated with asthma. After adjustment for age, marital status, number of household members, monthly family income, body mass index, hypertension, unemployment, low educated status, and depression were associated with the higher prevalence of asthma (P<0.01). Depression was associated with female sex, unemployment, while it was not associated with lung function in asthmatics. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that depression may be an important risk factor for asthma in Korean adults. Further studies are needed to explore mechanisms responsible for the association between depression and asthma.
Adult* ; Asthma* ; Body Mass Index ; Comorbidity ; Depression* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diagnosis ; Education ; Family Characteristics ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Korea ; Lung ; Male ; Marital Status ; Obesity ; Prevalence ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Unemployment

The diagnosis of breast disease relies primarily on histopathological diagnosis of hematoxylin-eosin stained specimens. Recently, the histopathological diagnosis has been complemented to an extent by analyses of a growing array of immunohistochemical and molecular markers. Prohibitin is an evolutionarily conserved gene with homologues found in organisms ranging from yeast to man. Prohibitin has anti-proliferous activity and available data suggest a role in such diverse processes as normal cell cycle regulation, replicate senescence, cellular immortalization, and the development of sporadic breast tumors. In this study, the prohibitin protein was immunohistochemically stained in representative samples from 10 patients with fibrocystic diseases, 10 with fibroadenomas, 10 with ductal carcinomas in situ, and 33 with infiltrating ductal carcinomas of the breast. There were weaker expressions throughout the tissue in benign breast diseases, but there was stronger staining in the glandular epithelium of breast cancers than with the stromal components. The epithelial and the stromal prohibitin expressions were elevated in carcinomas in situ and in infiltrating ductal carcinomas. However, the expression was most notable in infiltrating ductal carcinomas. There was no correlation between the prohibitin protein and the histologic grade or the TNM stage in breast cancer(p<0.05). These results show that imunohistochemical staining of prohibitin can be used as a diagnostic biomarker in breast cancer.
Breast Diseases ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Carcinoma, Ductal ; Cell Aging ; Cell Cycle ; Complement System Proteins ; Diagnosis ; Epithelium ; Fibroadenoma ; Humans ; Yeasts

The p16 is a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor(CDKI) that inhibits cell cycle progression. In recent studies, homozygous deletions of p16 gene have been noted in some cancer cell lines, which implies the deletion or mutation of p16 gene may contribute to the malignant progression of cells in some ways. This study was to investigate the frequency of p16 gene mutation in breast cancer patients by using polymerase chain reaction-single stranded confromational polymorphysm(PCR-SSCP) analysis. Examination of 24 blood samples and corresponding 16 tissue samples from 24 breast cancer patients were performed by PCR-SSCP method. Four from 24 blood samples(16.7%) disclosed 3 abnormal bands and one band shifting. Among 13 tissue samples revealed three conformational changes(23.1%). In two cases, there were abnormal bands in both blood samples and cancer tissues. One case with no products by PCR in the tissue sample showed a band shifting in the blood sample. Three cases with no PCR products in tissue samples may considered as total allelic deletion of the p16. The cases of abnormal PCR-SSCP results show some abnormalities on direct sequencing by Sanger method as T base insertion, C/T and A/G bases substitution. The results may suggest some of breast cancer patients have germline mutations of the p16 gene and some have somatic mutations. In the carcinogenesis of some breast cancers, p16 gene mutation may dysregulates the cell cycle, that may play an important role in the unlimited tumor cell proliferations.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Carcinogenesis ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Line ; Genes, p16 ; Germ-Line Mutation ; Humans* ; Phosphotransferases ; Polymerase Chain Reaction

OBJECTIVE: To compare the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonographic endometrial thickness with that of hysteroscopy, it is to establish the most appropriate method for the diagnosis of endometrial cancer and other endometrial diseases in postmenopausal women with abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB). METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted in 105 consecutive postmenopausal patients with AUB, who underwent ultrasonographic evaluation of endometrial thickness, hysteroscopy and endometrial biopsy. Evaluation of sensitivity and specificity was performed. RESULTS: Histologic findings for <4 mm level revealed that atrophy was present in 30 (71.4%) and in 1 case (2.4%) endometrial cancer was found; for > or =4 mm values polyps and myomas were present in 31 (49.2%) and there were 3 (4.8%) in endometrial cancer. Sensitivity and specificity for trans-vaginal ultrasound, with a cut-off value > or =4 mm, was 75% and 40.6%. CONCLUSIONS: Generally speaking, obstetrics & gynecologists know that endometrial aspiration biopsy is the routine method in postmenopausal women with AUB. However transvaginal ultrasound remains the first line diagnostic procedure in postmenopausal women without AUB. In case of endometrial thickness less than 4 mm, it is likely to miss the early stage endometrial cancer but trans-vaginal ultrasound remains the first line diagnostic procedure in postmenopausal women, because it is not invasive and has high sensitivity for detecting endometrial cancer and other endometrial disease; According to our experience, hysteroscopy with biopsy is mandatory in all postmenopausal women with AUB.
Atrophy ; Biopsy ; Biopsy, Needle ; Diagnosis ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; Female ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Hysteroscopy* ; Myoma ; Obstetrics ; Polyps ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Ultrasonography ; Uterine Diseases ; Uterine Hemorrhage