It is well estabilshed that the xerosis is closely related to diabeic pruritus. Although the causes of xerosis are thought to bie the abnormalities of sweating and autonomic nervous system, the exact mechanism of the xerosis in diabetic skin is still unknown. This study was designed to investigate the possible derangement of glucose metabolism in the skin of diabetes mellitus patients with xerosis. The epidemal glucose content and hexokonase activities were masured in the skin samples obtained from normal individuals and diabetes mellitus patients with xerosis The epidermal glucose content was measured by the enzymatic cycling method. The enzymatic activities of hexokinase were assayed by fluorometric method. The epidermal glucose content of diabetic patients increaed approximately twice [27.46+9.52 (mmole/kg /dry weight) that of normal individuals [13.90+4.79(mmole/kg /dry weight)] (p<0. 0001). The epidermal hexokinase activities of diabetes patients were significantly decreased [0.56+0.15(mole/hr/kg/dry weight)] compared to that of normal indivduals [0.96+0.24(mole/hr/kg dry weight)] (p<0.0001). There were no significant differences in the epidermal glucose content and enzyme activities of hexokinase between the diabetic patients with: erosis and diabetic patients without xerosis. These data indicated that decreased activities of hexokinase could reduce the glucose phopkiorylation and uptake into keratinocytes, and which could lead to accumulat. glucose in the interstitial space of diabetic epidermis. And the decreased hexokinase activities may exert on lipid metabolism and glycolysis of diabetic epiidermis, because hexokinase is a key enzyme of hexose monophosphate pathway and glycolysis.
Autonomic Nervous System ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Epidermis ; Glucose ; Glycolysis ; Hexokinase* ; Humans ; Keratinocytes ; Lipid Metabolism ; Metabolism ; Pruritus ; Skin ; Sweat ; Sweating

No abstract available.
Animals ; Lymph Nodes* ; Mice* ; Spleen*

Purpose: To report a biopsy-proven case of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) who visited for red eye and discomfort. We detected papillary thyroid cancer by a whole-body scan.Case summary: A 56-year-old female presented to our clinic with hyperemia and discomfort in the right eye for the past 1 month. The visual acuity was 0.9 in the right eye. Congestion and chemosis of the right conjunctiva were observed by slit-lamp microscopy. There was a firm, erythematous, tender mass near the right nasolacrimal duct. Impairment of adduction and infraduction and proptosis were observed. Radiologically, a 3.6 × 2.6 × 1.2 cm right orbital mass was seen in the intraorbital extraconal space, invading the right nasolacrimal duct and nasal cavity. Pathologic and supplementary investigations showed granulomatous, c-anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA)-positive inflammation in the mass. The patient was diagnosed with GPA. Whole-body computed tomography and positron emission tomography-computed tomography revealed multiple lesions in the right orbit, nasal cavity, mediastinum, retropubic area, and left thyroid gland. Thyroid ultrasonography and biopsy led to a diagnosis of papillary carcinoma with lymph node metastasis. Topical and systemic steroids and rituximab injection were administered, and total thyroidectomy with bilateral central lymph node dissection was performed. This led to improvements in proptosis and limitation of extraocular movement. Conclusions GPA is a rare disease that may initially present with ocular symptoms. It can be associated with malignancies even in the absence of immunosuppression. Patients with ocular problems suspected of having GPA should undergo autoimmune antibody testing, including ANCA and tissue biopsy.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a threat to human health and public safety. People of all ages are susceptible to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. However, the clinical manifestations of this infection differ by age. This study purposes to describe healthcare considerations for special populations, such as children, pregnant and lactating women, and older adults, who may have unique healthcare needs, in the pandemic situation. To realize the research purpose, we conducted a review of the practice guidelines of public documents and qualified studies that were published online/offline during a specific period. The review identified current knowledge on care for newborns, children in schools, pregnant women (from antenatal to postpartum care), and older adults suffering from high-risk conditions. Subsequently, we summarize vaccination guidance for special populations and, finally, discuss the issues currently affecting special populations. Therefore, this current knowledge on care for special populations helps nurses to provide accurate information on vaccinations aimed at preventing COVID-19 and protecting the masses from infection. Currently, the scarcity of information on COVID-19 variants necessitates further research on measures to reduce pandemic spread.

Studies on epidemiological aspects of contact dermatitis have been published in recent years since the introduction of standardized method of patch test.However, most previous epidemiologic reports studied patients with allergic contact dermatitis in hospitals with patcb testing. Such data are not directly applicable to the population at large. Very recentiy there are a few reports ahout rates of exposure and patch test reactivity to certain antigens in a general population. which is difficult to be applicable in a developing country at present. With regard to this, we have tried to analyze the contact dermatitis questionaire containing various items of common causative agents producting contact dermatitis (for example, metals, cosmetics, plants, medicaments and rubber etc.) for the detection of past contact dermatitis histories in a total new dermatologic outpatients. A11 2258 dermatologic outpatients entered this study including 303 contact dermatitis patients (allergic contact dermatitis, primary irritant dermatitis and housewife eczema). We also analyzed the patch test results of 107 patients with suggesting contact dermatitis who visited our hospital at the same period of collecting questionaires. The study results were as follows. 1. Positive rate of each item of the questionaire (No. of said Yes/ No. of responders) was metals, 10.4% cosmetics, 31.8%, plants, 18.2%; medicaments, 12.4%; rubber, 5.8%; and others, 11.7%. 2. The most common all regens of the patch test positive reactions were nickel sulfate (9.3%), fragrance mix(9.3%), formaldehyde(6.5%), potassium dichromate (5.6%), neomycin sulfate (5.6%), balsam of Peru (4.7%), cobalt chloride(3.7%), wood tar(3.7%) and paraphenylene diamine (2.8%) in order of frequency. And the patch test positive rate of commercial cosmetic products was 10.3%. In conclusion, cosmetics, medicaments, metals, plants and rarely rubber are found the most common etiologic agents of contact dermatitis in this study. The reasons and back-ground of the results were also discussed in various aspects.
Cobalt ; Dermatitis, Allergic Contact ; Dermatitis, Contact* ; Dermatitis, Irritant ; Developing Countries ; Epidemiologic Studies* ; Humans ; Metals ; Neomycin ; Nickel ; Outpatients ; Patch Tests ; Peru ; Potassium Dichromate ; Rubber ; Wood

No abstract available.
Hyperlipidemias* ; Hypertension* ; Mass Screening*

PURPOSE: This study aimed to develop a sexual rights awareness scale for female adults and to further examine the differences after educational sessions for sexual rights awareness with female adults. METHODS: Convenient sampling was employed to recruit 152 participants. A self administered questionnaire was developed to explore adult females' understanding of sexual rights awareness. In the next phase, education was provided over 3 consecutive sessions to 28 female university students. Factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha were performed in order to test validity and reliability of the educational sessions. The Wilcoxon rank test was used to identify the differences between pretesting of sexual rights awareness knowledge and post testing after educational sessions was provided. RESULTS: After conducting factor analysis, 5 factors explained 63.3% of the total variance, namely: I) sexuality education, II) prejudice & biasaberration, III) sexual satisfaction, IV) safe & equal sexuality, and V) sexual autonomy. A Cronbach's alpha of 17 items was 0.80. After the education sessions, there was a significant increase in sexual rights awareness. CONCLUSION: The Sexual rights awareness questionnaire is acceptable as a tool for measuring the level of education in studies. Future research should aim at conducting comparison studies of sexual rights awareness between sexes and cultural differences with larger populations which will further help to develop and to strengthen the rigor with in methodologies.
Adult ; Female ; Human Rights ; Humans ; Prejudice ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reproducibility of Results ; Reproductive Rights ; Sex Education ; Sexuality

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyse researches on nursing intervention for elderly health promotion. METHOD: A literature review of 38 researches was carried out using guidelines developed by the present researchers. RESULT: The research papers studied in this research were theses written for doctoral or master's degree and published between 1994 to 2004. These researches applied nursing intervention for health promotion of elders and used experimental study design. The average period of nursing intervention was about 9 weeks and the average frequency was three times per week. As for major characteristics of subject groups, most of them were over 65 years old (76.3%) and resided in community (65.8%), and each group consisted of 10 to 29 elders. The dependent variables used in these studies included physiological variables (blood pressure, blood cholesterol level, pulmonary function, fasting blood sugar, blood cortisol level, body mass etc.), psychologic variables (depression, quality of life, life satisfaction, loneliness, anxiety etc.), cognitive variables (perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, self-concept, subjective health status etc.), activities of daily livings, health promotion behavior, pain, risks of fall, and variables related to Trans Theoretical Model. The majority of these studies (78.9%) applied exercise programs for health promotion including exercise motivating programs (15.8%). CONCLUSION: We suggest that more various nursing interventions must be applied to promote elders' health and to take care of their chronic diseases.
Aged* ; Anxiety ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Cholesterol ; Chronic Disease ; Fasting ; Health Promotion* ; Humans ; Hydrocortisone ; Loneliness ; Models, Theoretical ; Nursing* ; Quality of Life

PURPOSE: We investigated serum levels of MTX and accompanying organic toxicities after administration of High-Dose Methotrexate (HDMTX). METHODS: We reviewed a total of 42 courses of HDMTX administration in 6 patients who were diagnosed with osteosarcoma in Hanyang University Hospital from 1993 to 1997. The HDMTX was infused at the doses of 8~12 g/m2, and serum levels were assessed. Leucovorin administration was started 20 hours from the beginning of MTX infusion, and continued until the serum MTX level is below 1x10-7 mol/L and toxicities are not detectable. RESULTS: Of 6 patients (4 males and 2 females), mean age at diagnosis was 11.6 years (8.5~15.6 years). Sites of origin included distal femur in 3, proximal tibia in 1, proximal fibula in 1 and proximal humerus in 1. Serum MTX levels were 1.87+/-0.69x10-4 mol/L at 12~23 hours, and 5.10+/-3.22x10-8 mol/L at 120 hrs after HDMTX infusion. Of 42 courses, hematologic toxicity greater than grade III was observed in 19(45.2%) resulting reduction of dose in 2 patients, and hepatic toxicity greater than grade III in 28(67%). The mean ALT levels was 680+/-563 U in 1st day, and mostly normalized in 10th day. Stomatitis was generally mild, except 1 patient with grade III toxicity. No renal or neurologic toxicity was observed, except 1 seizure episode due to SIADH. CONCLUSION: HDMTX with leucovorin in osteosarcoma was well tolerated, and in majority of courses, serum MTX levels returned to non-toxic level after 120 hours and leucovorin will be desirable to administer during at least 5 days.
Child* ; Diagnosis ; Femur ; Fibula ; Humans ; Humerus ; Inappropriate ADH Syndrome ; Leucovorin ; Male ; Methotrexate* ; Osteosarcoma* ; Seizures ; Stomatitis ; Tibia

PURPOSE: We studied the change of bronchial hyperresponsiveness(BHR) from childhood to early adulthood and to know the risk factors which influence on the persistence of BHR. METHODS: Seventy two atopic asthma children with nonspecific BHR to methacholine were observed for about 10 years, longitudinally. They were divided into 3 groups depend on the degree of BHR; no BHR group(A group), asymptomatic BHR group(B group), symptomatic BHR group(C group) and compared clinical and atopic findings, inflammation degree of airway, and environmental factors between the groups. RESULTS: In the group A, B, C, the number of subjects were, respectively, 15(20.8%), 19 (26.4%), 38(52.8%). The frequency of group C was higher in the subjects with more severe asthma symptoms and higher BHR at diagnosis. The positive rates of skin prick test to Dp, Df, and pets, serum total IgE, sputum eosinophils, sputum ECP at the time of follow-up were significantly higher in group C. The frequency of subjects with carpets/sofa/bed, pets at home and smokers at the time of follow-up were higher in group B, C. CONCLUSION: Significant number of childhood asthma showed persistent nonspecific BHR in early adulthood. The persistence of nonspecific BHR in early adulthood was related with severity of asthma at diagnosis, laboratory findings and environmental factors at follow up.
Asthma* ; Child ; Clinical Laboratory Techniques ; Diagnosis ; Eosinophils ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; Inflammation ; Methacholine Chloride ; Risk Factors* ; Skin ; Sputum