OBJECTIVES: This study intended to identify the staff nurse's activity in general hospital, where its Hospital Information System is well established and Electronic Nursing Record System was being used for 2 years. METHODS: Procedure was done with the following steps; In the first step, nursing activity time was analysed by checklist, which 28 nurses filled out by themselves. The group interview was followed. RESULTS: During the day shift, the direct nursing activities took 37.04%, indirect nursing 40.74%, ward management 18.52% and personal time 3.70% respectively. In evening shift, nurses used 29.41% on direct nursing, 45.10% on indirect nursing, 19.61% on ward management and 5.88% on personal time. In night shift, direct nursing took 17.91%, indirect nursing 46.27%, ward management 17.91% and personal time 11.98%. The group interview reported the differences in nursing activities which recognized by the included staff nurses after the introduction of ENR; speed and convenience in working, the correctness and speed of recording, reduction of indirect nursing time including recording time and increase of direct nursing time and patient education. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of HIS including ENR system was verified to be effective on improvement of nursing quality, by bringing reduction of indirect nursing time and increase of direct nursing time.
Checklist ; Electronics ; Electrons ; Hospital Information Systems ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Nursing Records ; Resin Cements

PURPOSE: To analysis the epidemiology, distribution of age, and social welfare statue of low vision patients. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of age, visual acuity, underlying ocular disease, and optical aids of 102 patients who visited our clinic from March 2004 to March 2006. We had an interview with patients about their educational background, jobs and registration of legal blindness. RESULTS: The mean age was 40.87+/-22.72 years old and the patients in their forties were most common. The most frequent cause of low vision included optic atrophy (16.7%), macular degeneration (15.7%), retinitis pigmentosa (11.8%), congenital cataract (10.8%), glaucoma (6.9%), amblyopia (6.9%). 42 patients had already got the registration for legal blindness but, 41 patients were newly registered during this study. Under 20 years old, there were 17 general school students, 4 special school students, and 1 preschool child. Over 20 years old, there were only 14 patients who got regular job and all patients have educational attainment under high school graduate except 10 patients. CONCLUSIONS: The epidemiology of low vision has been changed to the aging society. And the registration of legal blindness criteria and understanding of low vision need to be changed. Moreover, understanding how low vision impacts lives is important to be able to provide better social services in the future.
Aging ; Amblyopia ; Blindness ; Cataract ; Child, Preschool ; Epidemiology ; Glaucoma ; Humans ; Macular Degeneration ; Optic Atrophy ; Retinitis Pigmentosa ; Retrospective Studies ; Social Welfare* ; Social Work ; Vision, Low* ; Visual Acuity ; Young Adult

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether chronic high-fat diet (HF) induces insulin resistance independently of obesity. We randomly divided 40 rats into two groups and fed them either with a HF or with a high-carbohydrate diet (HC) for 8 weeks. Whole body glucose disappearance rate (Rd) was measured using a euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp. Firstly, we defined whether insulin resistance by HF was associated with obesity. Plasma glucose and triglyceride concentrations were significantly increased in HF. Rd was decreased (10.6+/-0.2 vs. 9.1+/-0.2 mg/kg/min in HC and HF, respectively) and the hepatic glucose output rate (HGO) was increased in HF (2.2+/-0.3 vs. 4.5+/-0.2 mg/kg/min in HC and HF, respectively). Rd was significantly correlated with %VF (p<0.01). These results implicate that visceral obesity is associated with insulin resistance induced by HF. In addition, to define whether dietary fat induces insulin resistance regardless of visceral obesity, we compared Rd and HGO between groups 1) after matching %VF in both groups and 2) using an ANCOVA to adjust for %VF. After matching %VF, Rd in HF was significantly decreased by 14% (p<0.001) and HGO was significantly increased by 110% (p<0.001). Furthermore, statistical analyses using an ANCOVA also showed Rd for HF was significantly decreased even after adjusting %VF. In conclusion, we suggest that dietary fat per se could induce insulin resistance in rats fed with chronic HF independently of obesity.
Adipose Tissue/*pathology ; Animal ; Dietary Carbohydrates/administration &age ; Dietary Fats/*administration &age ; Fatty Acids, Nonesterified/metabolism ; Female ; *Insulin Resistance ; Obesity/etiology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Viscera

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare the serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in acute depression with that in chronic depression. METHODS: Eighty subjects who met criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) were recruited. Patients experiencing at least their fourth episode or an episode of at least 24 months in duration were defined as chronically depressed (n=21). Other patients were classified as acutely depressed (n=59). Antidepressant medications were administered for 6 weeks. Serum BDNF and Hamilton rating scale for depression (HAM-D) scores were measure before and after the administration of medication. RESULTS: We found significant differences in serum BDNF between the two groups. Serum BDNF was significantly higher among those with chronic depression than among those with acute depression both at baseline and after medication. CONCLUSION: This study suggested that serum BDNF might constitute a potential biological marker for chronic depression.
Biomarkers ; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor ; Depression ; Depressive Disorder, Major ; Humans

Inadvertent vaginal insertion of barium sulfate is an uncommon complication of a barium enema examination. In the few reported cases, venous embolizaton of barium occurred and this usually resulted in death. We present here a case of vaginal insertion of the enema catheter in a young woman, resulting in barium in the uterus, fallopian tubes and abdominal cavity, but not in the veins. After an emergency laparoscopic operation, the patient had been doing well for 6 months without evidence of complication.
Abdominal Cavity ; Barium ; Barium Sulfate ; Catheters ; Colon ; Emergencies ; Enema ; Fallopian Tubes ; Female ; Humans ; Peritonitis ; Uterus ; Veins

Methods: A total of 12 C57BL/6 male mice (Orient Bio), aged 6 weeks, were fed a high-fat diet for 13 weeks to construct a diet-induced obesity model. During the following 5 weeks, diet-induced obese mice were daily administered cannabis extract or sesame seed oil orally along with the high-fat diet. The body weight of each subject was measured weekly. Venous blood was drawn for biochemistry, enzyme-linked immunoassay, and oral glucose tolerance test before and after treatment. Body fat was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and the mesenteric adipose tissue was also measured after sacrifice. We used exact Wilcoxon’s two-sample analyses and generalized estimating equations to test the differences between the cannabis-treated group and control. Results: There was significant weight loss (p=0.009) observed in the cannabis-treated mice compared to the control group after 5 weeks of treatment. High-fat diet-induced glucose intolerance in the cannabis-treated group was significantly ameliorated (p=0.032), whereas there were no profound differences between the two groups in terms of other physiological markers, including corticosterone level. Conclusion This study shows that orally administered cannabis extract had a pharmacological effect of weight loss in diet-induced obese mice. This weight loss might be attributed to an increase in energy expenditure and regulation of glucose homeostasis.

Herpetic laryngitis is extremely rare in healthy adults. The local factors that increase susceptibility to herpes simplex virus include irradiation on the head and neck area. A 66-year-old man who had history of supraglottic cancer had voice change 4 years after the radiotherapy. On laryngscopic examination, the erosive mucosal lesion was found on his left vocal fold. A pathologic examination of the lesion by suspension laryngoscopy revealed that the lesion was herpetic laryngitis, which was confirmed by immunohistochemical stain as herpes simplex virus. Herpetic laryngitis should be in the index of differential diagnosis in patients with laryngitis who have the history of irradiation on the neck.
Adult ; Aged ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Head ; Humans ; Laryngitis ; Laryngoscopy ; Neck ; Radiotherapy ; Simplexvirus* ; Vocal Cords ; Voice

The purpose of this study was to discern the critical point in skeletal muscle fatty acid oxidation by changing plasma free fatty acids (FFA) level in rat. In the study, 3 key steps in lipid oxidation were examined after changing plasma FFA level by acipimox. The rates of both palmitate and palmitoyl- carnitine oxidation were decreased by decrease of plasma FFA level, however, carnitine palmitoyl transferase (CPT) 1 activity was not changed, suggesting CPT1 activity may not be involved in the fatty acid oxidation at the early phase of plasma FFA change. In the fasted rats, beta-hydroxy acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (beta-HAD) activity was depressed to a similar extent as palmitate oxidation by a decrease of plasma FFA level. This suggested that beta-oxidation might be an important process to regulate fatty acid oxidation at the early period of plasma FFA change. Citrate synthase activity was not altered by the change of plasma FFA level. In conclusion, the critical step in fatty acids oxidation of skeletal muscles by the change of plasma FFA level by acipimox in fasting rats might be the beta-oxidation step rather than CPT1 and TCA cycle pathways.
Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase ; Animals ; Carnitine ; Citrate (si)-Synthase ; Fasting ; Fatty Acids ; Fatty Acids, Nonesterified* ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Plasma* ; Rats* ; Transferases

We examined the effect of leptin on the insulin resistance in skeletal muscles by measuring the glucose transport. Male Wistar rats were fed with chow or high-fat diets for 30 days. Three days before sacrifice, high-fat fed rats were subcutaneously injected with leptin (1 mg/kg body weight) for 3 days. The glucose transports in the epitrochlearis and soleus muscle were not different among the experimental groups under basal state, however these were decreased significantly in the high fat-diet rats under insulin-stimulation (P< 0.01). Leptin treatment recovered the decreased glucose transport in the epitrochlearis (P< 0.05) and soleus (p=0.08). Triglyceride concentration in the soleus muscle was increased significantly in the high fat-fed rats, compared to chow diet rats (P< 0.01), and it was decreased significantly by leptin treatment (P< 0.01). The glucose transport was measured under basal and 60microU/ml of insulin with or without 50 ng/ml of leptin. Leptin had no direct stimulatory effect on glucose transport under both basal and insulin-stimulated conditions in vitro. These results demonstrate that leptin injection to high fat diet fed rats recovered impaired insulin responsiveness of the skeletal muscles and muscle triglyceride concentration. However, there was no direct stimulatory effect of leptin on insulin sensitivity of the skeletal muscle in vitro.
Animals ; Diet ; Diet, High-Fat* ; Glucose ; Humans ; Insulin Resistance* ; Insulin* ; Leptin* ; Male ; Muscle, Skeletal* ; Rats* ; Rats, Wistar ; Triglycerides

Understanding how the b-wave of the electroretinogram (ERG) is generated by full-field light stimulation is still a challenge in visual neuroscience. To understand more about the origin of the b-wave, we studied the contributions of gap junctions to the ERG b-wave. Many types of retinal neurons are connected to similar and different neighboring neurons through gap junctions. The photopic (cone-dominated) ERG, stimulated by a small light beam, was recorded from goldfish (Carassius auratus) using a corneal electrode. Data were obtained before and after intravitreal injection of agents into the eye under a photopic illumination level. Several agents were used to affect gap junctions, such as dopamine D1 and D2 receptor agonists and antagonists, a nitric oxide (NO) donor, a nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor, the gap junction blocker meclofenamic acid (MFA), and mixtures of these agents. The ERG b-waves, which were enhanced by MFA, sodium nitroprusside (SNP), SKF 38393, and sulpiride, remained following application of a further injection of a mixture with MFA. The ERG b-waves decreased following NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), SCH 23390, and quinpirole administration but were enhanced by further injection of a mixture with MFA. These results indicate that gap junction activity influences b-waves of the ERG related to NO and dopamine actions.
2,3,4,5-Tetrahydro-7,8-dihydroxy-1-phenyl-1H-3-benzazepine ; Benzazepines ; Dopamine ; Electrodes ; Eye ; Gap Junctions ; Goldfish ; Humans ; Intravitreal Injections ; Light ; Lighting ; Meclofenamic Acid ; Neurons ; Neurosciences ; NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester ; Nitric Oxide ; Nitric Oxide Synthase ; Nitroprusside ; Quinpirole ; Retinal Neurons ; Sulpiride ; Tissue Donors