No abstract available.

Fatigue is regarded as a universal and unavoidable side effects of chemotherapy. Most of patients in chemotherapy prefer resting and reducing their level of activity, but reduced physical activity can actually decrease physical strength and functional status to produce secondary fatigue. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of rhythmic walking exercise on physical strength, fatigue, and functional status of breast cancer patients in adjutant chemotherapy. A matched control group pretest-pottiest design was used. Seventeen subjects of the experimental group were taught the rhythmic walking exercise(Winningham etal, 1990) on their first visiting day and encouraged to practice it at home throughout that treatment cycle(four weeks). Participants kept an everyday exercise diary that included pulse rates, exercise time and subjective data. The rhythmic walking exercise consists of approximately 30-minute walking, everyday if possible for 4 weeks. Outcomes were measured by each instrument :1) physical strength by the treadmill test estimated the walking ability. The subject is instructed to walk as long as possible to the level of their tolerance ;2)functional status by the Inventory of Functional Status-Cancer(Tollman et al, 1991) ; and 3)fatigue was measured by the Piper Fatigue Scale in both groups at five different times-before beginning chemotherapy(pretest) and one time per week for 4 weeks. Data were analyzed with mean, standard deviation, X2-test, t-test, repeated measure MANOVA using SPSSWIN program. Results were obtained as follows :1)The physical strength of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group following the rhythmic walking exercise(t=3.92, p<.001). 2)The fatigue scores of the experimental group measured at the end of each week were significantly lower than those of the control group following the rhythmic walking exercise (1st week ; F=6.51, p<.016, after 1st week ; 863, p<.0001, after 2nd week ; F=46.754, p<.0001, after 3rd week ; F=60. 183, p<.0001, after 4th week). 3)The functional status of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group following the rhythmic walking exercise (t=13.20, p<.0001). The results suggest that the appropriate rhythmic walking exercise for the breast cancer patients in adjutant chemotherapy can improve physical strength and functional status, and ultimately decrease the secondary fatigue.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Drug Therapy* ; Exercise Test ; Fatigue* ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Motor Activity ; Piper ; Walking*

No Abstract Available.
Cytokines* ; Receptors, Cell Surface*

No abstract available.

PURPOSE: Spontaneous heterotopic pregnancy (HP) is a rare .condition, however, the rising incidence after in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) may present serious problems as the diagnosis of this potentially fatal condition is often missed. The purposes of this study were to investigate the frequency of HP after IVF-ET, to analyze the clinical presentation and the outcome of coincidental intrauterine pregnancy, and to evaluate the value of routine transvaginal ultrasonography in early diagnosis and treatment of HP. MATERIALS AND METHODS: There were 11 cases of HP among 484 pregnancies after IVF-ET (The incidence was 2. 3%) in recent 2 years. We evaluated the clinical findings and the findings of transvaginal sonography in those 11 patients. RESULTS: The combined extrauterine pregnancies were tubal (n=9), cornual (n=l), and both the tubal and cornual (n=l). Vaginal bleeding was absent in 4 cases and one of them was asymptomatic. HP may be suspected if there was an elevated serum hCG in the absence of intrauterine multiple gestations. In all cases, the condition was diagnosed by transvaginal sonography performed prior to surgical intervention. The coincidental intr'auterine pregnancies were ended in successful full-term delivery in 7 cases, while one pregnancy was ongoing at that time. CONCLUSION: The incidence of HP was evidently higher in IVF-ET than in spontaneous pregnancies. Transvaginal sonography was useful in accurate diagnosis in clinically suspected cases and even in asymptomatic cases. Routine transvaginal sonography played an important role in early diagnosis and prompt management of HP.
Diagnosis ; Early Diagnosis ; Embryo Transfer ; Embryonic Structures* ; Fertilization ; Fertilization in Vitro* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Heterotopic* ; Ultrasonography* ; Uterine Hemorrhage

No abstract available.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones*

No abstract available.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to review articles related to the psychometric properties of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). METHODS: Systematic literature searches of computerized databases were performed to identify articles on psychometric evaluation of the PSS. RESULTS: The search finally identified 19 articles. Internal consistency reliability, factorial validity, and hypothesis validity of the PSS were well reported. However, the test-retest reliability and criterion validity were relatively rarely evaluated. In general, the psychometric properties of the 10-item PSS were found to be superior to those of the 14-item PSS, while those of the 4-item scale fared the worst. The psychometric properties of the PSS have been evaluated empirically mostly using populations of college students or workers. CONCLUSION: Overall, the PSS is an easy-to-use questionnaire with established acceptable psychometric properties. However, future studies should evaluate these psychometric properties in greater depth, and validate the scale using diverse populations.
Humans ; Psychometrics ; Surveys and Questionnaires

With aging, several progressive changes occur on the midface including descent of attenuated lower eyelid skin which creates a skeleton-like appearance with infraorbital hollowness, and descent of the malar fat pad with exaggeration of the nasolabial fold. Most of the procedures for midfacial rejuvenation require extensive peripheral-to-central dissection in the subcutaneous, sub-SMAS or subperiosteal plane. The author's procedure entails direct access to the midface through a subciliary incision, elevation of the orbicularis oculi muscle and ptotic malar soft tissue. It has been performed through subcutaneous dissection on 67 patient and subperiosteal dissection on 4 patients. Subcutaneous dissection on the midface was made laterally to the zygomaticus maior, medially to the levator labii superioris under the oricularis muscle and inferiorly beyond the nasolabial fold. The range of subperiosteal dissection was similar to subcutaneous dissection, except on the dissection plane. Suspension sutures made at the malar retaining ligament and infero-lateral portion of the orbicularis oculi were fixed to periosteum of the lateral canthal area. In some patients, this procedure was combined with forehead lift(4), temporal lift(2), upper blepharoplasty(28), cervicoplasty(2), and lateral canthoplasty(12). In 23 patients who had a particularly prominent tear trough, a fat sliding technique was combined. The author has followed up 62 patients from a minimum 2 months to a maximum 27 months. Complications included urdercorrection(3), longstanding malar fullness(2), ectropion(1), transient numbness(2), and cheek dimpling(1). In conclusion, this centrofacial can be applied to patients who have limited ptosis of the midface with mild nasolabial fold.
Adipose Tissue ; Aging ; Cheek ; Eyelids ; Forehead ; Humans ; Ligaments ; Nasolabial Fold ; Periosteum ; Rejuvenation ; Skin ; Sutures

This study was carried out to identify the important risk factors for reduced bone mass of postmenopausal RA patients and to develop discriminant function which can classify postmenopausal RA patients with either reduced or normal bone mass. Through the literature review, individual characteristics such as age, body weight, height. age of menarche, duration of menopause, gravity, parity, and breast feeding period and factors of life style such as milk consumption exercise habit. alcohol intake, cigarette smoking, coffee consumption, disease activity, corticosteroid therapy were identified as influencing factors of reduced bone mass in RA patients Sixty eight postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis aged between 42 and 76 were selected among those who checked bone mineral density in lumbar spine and femur from October. 1998 to April. 1999 at Dong-a university hospital in Pusan. Assessment of disease activity, duration of disease and corticosteroid therapy were made by the same rheumatologist and included Ritchie articular index, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and C-reactive measuring bone protein on mineral density. Cumulative steroid dosage was calculated from the daily dosage multiplied by the number of days received. The information of other risk factor including health assessment score, individual characteristics and life style factors were collected by questionnaire. Bone mineral density(BMD) was measured using DXA at lumbar spine and femoral Ward's triangle. Discriminant function (regression equation) was developed for estimating the likelihood of the presence or absence of reduced bone mass. The results are as follows: Among the subjects, thirteen(l9.1%) exhibited osteoporosis in lumbar spine and twenty four(35.3%) exhibited osteoporosis in femoral Ward's triangle. For lumbar spine, the variables significant were age, body weight, health assessment score, while for femoral Ward's triangle, age, body weight, duration of disease. But disease activity and corticosteroid therapy were not signigicant to distinguish reduced bone mass from normal bone mass. When the discriminant function was evaluated by comparing the observed outcome with predicted outcome, the discriminant function correctly classified 85.4% of patients with reduce bone mass and 63.0% of patients with normal bone mass in the lumbar spine and 100% of patients with reduced bone mass and 9.1% of patients with normal bone mass in the femoral Ward's triangle. In summary, we found that osteoporosis in postmenopausal women with RA is more evident at the femur than the lumbar spine. Also the important discriminant factors of reduced bone mass postmenopausal women with RA were age, body weight, duration of disease and health disability. In nursing situation, the efforts to improve of functional capacity of postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis should be considered to prevent osteoporosis and fractures. Also we recommend those postmenopausal women with RA who are classified as a group of the reduced bone mass in the discriminant function should examine the bone mineral density to further examine the usefulness of this discriminant function.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* ; Body Weight ; Bone Density ; Breast Feeding ; Busan ; Coffee ; Erythrocyte Indices ; Female ; Femur ; Gravitation ; Humans ; Life Style ; Menarche ; Menopause ; Milk ; Nursing ; Osteoporosis ; Parity ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Risk Factors ; Smoking ; Spine