OBJECTIVES: Our aims of this study is to analyze the clinical characteristics and the prognos is of the disease which develops in patient swith chronic liver disease as acutely exacerbated hepat it is accompanied by myosit is. Finally we try to identify and is olate the causative agent. METHODS: The patient swith chronic liver diseases, who developed muscle weakness and paralysis, were classified to group A or group B, according to the level of creatinine kinase ( CK) activity. The group A consists of patients with less than 3-fold increase of normal CK activity and the group B includes patients with over 3-fold increase of it. We evaluated clinical characteristics, blood chemistry, clinical course, and causes of deathin patients of study groups, compared with those of patients with chronic liver disease with normal CK activity as controls. The causative agent was suggested by conventional culture and RT-PCR analysis in two cases of group B. RESULTS: 1. There was no significant differences in age, sex, underlying disease, or liver function test bet ween control and study group ( control and group A or B) before entry. 2. The clinical symptoms and signs , such as drowsy mental state, generalized weakness/myalgia caused by hepatic encephalopathy and myositis , occurred frequently in the study group. 3. Significant elevation of aspartic acid transaminase (AST ) and alaninetr ans aminase ( ALT ) was noted in Group B. AST / ALT ratio is over 2 in group A or B. Synthetic function of the liver such as prothrombin time ( PT ) or serum albumin level is significantly decreased. Blood urea nitrogen ( BUN) and creatinine were increased as a result of impaired renal function. 4. Culture of coxs ackievirus was positive by immunofluor escence as say IFA) as a caus ative agent and also was positive in reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analys is using universal primer of enterovirus in two recent cases of group B. 5. Death rate increased significantly in study group, compared with that of control group ( 20.7% versus 5.6%). Major cause of death, 12 patients died of which, is hepatic failure. CONCLUSION: The patients with chronic liver disease abruptly developed a exacerbated hepaticdys function and muscle paralysis and/or weakness. This exacerbated hepatitis accompanied by myositis was suggested to be caused by coxsackie B viral infection. Furthermore, this infection increase deathrate and resulted in poor prognosis. Thus, further study should be continue to confirm the causative agent and classify the subtype.
Aspartic Acid ; Blood Urea Nitrogen ; Cause of Death ; Chemistry, Clinical ; Creatinine ; Enterovirus ; Hepatic Encephalopathy ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Liver Diseases* ; Liver Failure ; Liver Function Tests ; Liver* ; Mortality ; Muscle Weakness ; Myositis* ; Paralysis ; Phosphotransferases ; Prognosis ; Prothrombin Time ; Serum Albumin

PURPOSE: This study was done to identify the meaning and substantial nature of NICU practice among nursing students by applying a research method based on hermeneutic phenomenology in an attempt to lay a foundation for enhancing theoretical and practical child nursing education. METHODS: The participants were eight nursing student who had experience in clinical practicing in NICU. In-depth interviews were performed from April to December, 2014 until data were fully saturated. Collected data were analyzed using Colaizzi's method. RESULTS: Seven theme clusters were extracted from fourteen themes. The seven theme clusters of the nursing students' clinical practice experience in NICU were: 1) Excitement about the clinical practice setting 2) Afraid of practice environment 3) Babies have priority over clinical practice 4) Comparing with adult nursing clinical practice 5) Feeling pity for babies and their parents 6) New awareness about the role of nurses 7) Demands of enhancing clinical practice. CONCLUSION: The results of the study provide useful information in understanding nursing students' practice experience in NICU and establishing effective strategies to support these nursing students.
Adult ; Child ; Education, Nursing ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal* ; Intensive Care, Neonatal* ; Nursing* ; Parents ; Qualitative Research ; Students, Nursing

This study was performed to observe the therapeutic effects of interferon-gamma(IFN-gamma) and gamma-globulin(gamma-globulin) in experimental Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia of immune suppressed mice. After 9 weeks, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole(TMP-SMZ; 10-50 mg/mouse/day), mouse IFN-gamma(5 x 10(4) units/mouse/day) and mouse gamma-globulin(20 mg/mouse/day) were administered to the mice for 3 weeks by the experimental group. The therapeutic efficacy was evaluated by body weights, histopathologic and electron microscopic findings of the lungs, and number of P. carinii cysts by Gomori's methenamine silver stain. Body weights of the mice were significantly increased in the group of combination therapy of TMP-SMZ with IFN-gamma or gamma-globulin, and in the group of TMP-SMZ treatment (p < 0.05), however, little effect was found in the group of gamma-globulin alone. Histopathologic findings of P. carinii pneumonia were much improved in the group of combination therapy of TMP-SMZ with IFN-gamma. Treatment with either TMP-SMZ or IFN-gamma significantly reduced the number of cysts in the P. carinii pneumonia, but gamma-globulin alone was ineffective. In electron microscopic findings of P. carinii pneumonia, the number of trophozoites and cysts were reduced by treatment with either TMP-SMZ or IFN-gamma, and most of the cysts were empty or containing one or two intracystic bodies. The present results suggested, that combination therapy of TMP-SMZ with IFN-gamma had synergistic effects in treatment of P. carinii pneumonia in experimental mice.
Drug-Synergism ; Drug-Therapy,-Combination ; English-Abstract ; Gamma-Globulins-administration-and-dosage ; Interferon-Type-II-administration-and-dosage ; Mice- ; Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole-Combination-administration-and-dosage ; *Gamma-Globulins-therapeutic-use ; *Interferon-Type-II-therapeutic-use ; *Pneumonia,-Pneumocystis-carinii-therapy ; Gamma-Globulins ; Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole-Combination ; Interferon-Type-II

No abstract available.
Humans ; Male ; Prostate* ; Prostate-Specific Antigen*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Male ; Prostate* ; Prostate-Specific Antigen*

BACKGROUND: Silver has been used for disinfection and sterilization. We aimed to confirm the in-vitro antibacterial effects of nanocrystalline silver-coated gauze. METHODS: Fourteen clinical isolates each of Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter baumannii were used. Bacterial suspensions made in tryptic soy broth were exposed to Ordinary and silver-coated gauze. Bacteria were then harvested from the gauze immediately and after 24 h incubation, cultured on blood agar plates and eunmerated for viable counts. The number of colonies was converted into common logarithms for comparison. RESULTS: The number of colonies recovered from silver-coated gauze was significantly lower than those recovered from ordinary gauze when harvested immediately after exposure (E. coli, 3.06 vs 1.73; A. baumannii, 3.13 vs 1.98; P<0.001). After 24 h incubation of exposed gauze, silver-coated gauze produced less than 1 CFU/mL, whereas ordinary gauze produced a number of colonies significantly higher than it did immediately after exposure (E. coli, 4.13; A. baumannii, 4.46; P<0.001). Conclusion: Compared with ordinary gauze, silver-coated gauze was shown to have 99.99% antibacterial effect.
Acinetobacter baumannii ; Agar ; Bacteria ; Disinfection ; Escherichia coli ; Silver ; Sterilization ; Suspensions

No abstract available.
Prostate*

No abstract available.
Lung*

BACKGROUND: Soluble IL-2R, soluble CD8 and TNF-alpha are elevated in sera of some patients with hematological malignancies, and a marked elevation of these cytokines could be used to assess disease activity and prognosis in this malignancy group. METHODS: The serum levels of sIL-2R, sCD8 and TNF-alpha were assessed in 28 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and 32 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and 39 cases of healthy control subjects to define clinical usefulness as prognostic markers by sandwich enzyme immunoassay. RESULTS: In MDS patients, serum sIL-2R levels were significantly higher as compared with controls, and a more pronounced increase of serum sIL-2R levels was found in patients with RAEB RAEB-t and CMML as compared with RA and RARS. Serum sCD8 levels were higher as compared with controls, but not related with FAB classification. In patients with leukemic conversion. sCD8 levels tended to be higher as compared with patients with non-conversion. The sIL-2R levels of AML patients were significantly higher than controls, and a significant correlation was detected between the levels of sIL-2R and WBC counts. Higher sIL-2R levels( >2000 U/ml) tended to affect both complete remission rate and survival. Serum sCD8 levels were higher than controls, but not related to FAB classification. No differences of serum TNF-alpha levels were detected as compared with healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: From these results, this study indicates that serum sIL-2R and sCD8 are significantly increased in some patients with MDS and AML, and increased levels of serum sIL-2R and sCD8 may be useful for predicting prognosis of these patients.
Anemia, Refractory, with Excess of Blasts ; Classification ; Cytokines ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute* ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes* ; Prognosis ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*

No abstract available.
Bites, Human* ; Herpes Simplex* ; Humans ; Simplexvirus