No abstract available.
Blood Donors* ; Hepacivirus* ; Hepatitis C* ; Hepatitis* ; Humans ; Incheon* ; Prevalence*

PURPOSE: The primary purpose of this study was to reexamine underlying dimensions of attitudes toward the elderly held by undergraduate nursing students. A secondary purpose was to investigate characteristics of nursing students associated with attitudes toward elders. METHODS: A survey was performed using self-report questionnaire completed by nursing students from a total of 10 nursing schools or departments each selected randomly from one province of Korea. Students' responses (N=366) were analyzed using factor analysis, correlation coefficients, t-test, and ANOVA. RESULTS: Three attitudinal dimensions explaining 35.29% of the variance were extracted: vitality, generosity and flexibility. From a neutral point of 4.0 in the range of 1 to 7, only generosity (4.47) was evaluated positively, whereas vitality (3.31) and flexibility (2.91) were evaluated negatively. The mean scores of the vitality and generosity dimensions were significantly different by students' level of communication with the elderly, experience living with the elderly, and interest in elders or in issues related to elders. Interest in elders/elder issues was the only characteristic affecting significant mean score difference in flexibility. CONCLUSION: Educational process should increase students' exposure to healthy elderly to modify negative attitudes toward the elderly among nursing students.
Adolescent ; Adult ; *Aged ; Analysis of Variance ; *Attitude of Health Personnel ; Communication ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; *Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate/standards ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Female ; Geriatric Nursing/education ; *Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Negativism ; Nursing Education Research ; Nursing Methodology Research ; *Prejudice ; Questionnaires ; Residence Characteristics/statistics & numerical data ; Stereotyping ; Students, Nursing/*psychology

BACKGROUND: Sinusitis is a common and frequently recurrent illness in children. Respiratory allergy has been recognized as a major factor that predisposes children to recurrent and chronic sinusitis. Another important causative factors of recurrent sinusitis in children is immunodeficiency diseases. Among them, humoral immunodeficient disease especially is associated with recurrent sinusitis. Most common immune defect in recurrent sinusitis is immunoglobulin deficiency. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to obtain a quantitative data of serum immunoglobulins in children with recurrent sinusitis, to investigate a relationship between recurrent sinusitis and immunoglobulin deficiency. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 30 childrens were selected who had been diagnosed as recurrent sinusitis at Nowon Eulji hospital in 1996. The serum immunoglobulins were evaluated by Latex agglutination immunoassay and ELISA. RESULTS: The serum IgG was within normal limits and IgA deficiency appeared in 1 patient but serum IgM appeared higher than normal value over 3 years patients. The serum IgG subclass deficiency appeared in 3 patients for IgG(1), 7 patients for IgG(2), 14 patients for IgG(3), 10 patients for IgG(4). The combined serum IgG subclass deficiency appeared in 4 patients for IgG(2) and IgG(3), 1 patient for IgG(2) and IgG(4), 4 patient for IgG(3) and IgG(4), 1 patient for IgG(1) and IgG(2) and IgG(3). CONCLUSION: Immunoglobulin deficiency is approved to be closely associated with recurrent sinusitis in children.
Agglutination ; Child* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; IgA Deficiency ; Immunoassay ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulin M ; Immunoglobulins* ; Latex ; Reference Values ; Sinusitis*

A 63-year-old woman was referred to a breast surgeon with a breast mass discovered incidentally during follow-up study after colon cancer surgery. Invasive adenocarcinoma was revealed on core needle biopsy. Wide excision of the breast including the tumor was performed. On standard histological examination the tumor showed features of moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. The immunohistochemistry study revealed positive results for cytokeratin (CK)20 and CDX2, but negative for CK7. These are typical characteristics for colon cancer. Considering her history of subtotal colectomy for sigmoid colon cancer, it is presumable that the mass in the breast was of colonic origin, and it was an extremely rare case of metastasis to the breast from primary colorectal neoplasm. Although the instance is rare, clinicians should keep the possibility of breast metastasis from colorectal cancer in mind for early and correct diagnosis.
Adenocarcinoma ; Biopsy, Large-Core Needle ; Breast ; Colectomy ; Colon ; Colonic Neoplasms ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Keratins ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Sigmoid Neoplasms

Heterotrimeric G proteins are key intracellular coordinators that receive signals from cells through activation of cognate G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The details of their atomic interactions and structural mechanisms have been described by many biochemical and biophysical studies. Specifically, a framework for understanding conformational changes in the receptor upon ligand binding and associated G protein activation was provided by description of the crystal structure of the β2-adrenoceptor-Gs complex in 2011. This review focused on recent findings in the conformational dynamics of G proteins and GPCRs during activation processes.
GTP-Binding Proteins* ; Heterotrimeric GTP-Binding Proteins

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest superfamily of transmembrane receptors and have vital signaling functions in various organs. Because of their critical roles in physiology and pathology, GPCRs are the most commonly used therapeutic target. It has been suggested that GPCRs undergo massive genetic variations such as genetic polymorphisms and DNA insertions or deletions. Among these genetic variations, non-synonymous natural variations change the amino acid sequence and could thus alter GPCR functions such as expression, localization, signaling, and ligand binding, which may be involved in disease development and altered responses to GPCR-targeting drugs. Despite the clinical importance of GPCRs, studies on the genotype-phenotype relationship of GPCR natural variants have been limited to a few GPCRs such as β-adrenergic receptors and opioid receptors. Comprehensive understanding of non-synonymous natural variations within GPCRs would help to predict the unknown genotype-phenotype relationship and yet-to-be-discovered natural variants. Here, we analyzed the non-synonymous natural variants of all non-olfactory GPCRs available from a public database, UniProt. The results suggest that non-synonymous natural variations occur extensively within the GPCR superfamily especially in the N-terminus and transmembrane domains. Within the transmembrane domains, natural variations observed more frequently in the conserved residues, which leads to disruption of the receptor function. Our analysis also suggests that only few non-synonymous natural variations have been studied in efforts to link the variations with functional consequences.
Amino Acid Sequence ; DNA ; Genetic Variation ; Pathology ; Physiology ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Receptors, Opioid ; Vital Signs

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to be identify the effects oral hygiene improvement of the elderly by caregiver in a rural. METHODS: It recruited Fifty three elderly patients were recruited who admitted at a long-term hospital located in Mokchon city, Chungchungnam-do province. as the intervention group. Fifty two elderly patients group were selected another one long-term care hospital in Daegu city as control group. study was conducted for seven months. long-term care hospital. for seven months from Dec. 2007 to June 2008. For three months, the caregivers provide tooth brushing and cleaning artificial teeth once a day, to intervention group. once a day for three months. RESULTS: Before the program there was no significant difference between the control and the intervention groups in general characteristics, prevalence rates of diseases, oral sanitary condition. Dental plague score was decreased significantly (p<0.001) before and after intervention in the intervention group. Using analysis of covariance for evaluation of the effect of the intervention, a significant difference was observed between the intervention group and the control group (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: These results were thought to be used as important basic data to develop oral health management program for elderly patients who needed long-term care.
Aged ; Caregivers ; Humans ; Long-Term Care ; Oral Health ; Oral Hygiene ; Plague ; Prevalence ; Tooth ; Tooth, Artificial

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between meteorological factors and occurrence of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) according to age. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the records of 735 ICH patients in a metropolitan hospital-based population. Observed and expected numbers of ICH patients were obtained at 5degrees C intervals of ambient temperature and a ratio of observed to expected frequency was then calculated. Changes in ambient temperature from the day before ICH onset day were observed. The Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was used to test differences in meteorological variables between the onset and non-onset days. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used for comparison of meteorological variables across gender and age. RESULTS: ICH was observed more frequently (observed/expected ratio > or = 1) at lower mean, minimum, and maximum ambient temperature (p = 0.0002, 0.0003, and 0.0002, respectively). Significantly lower mean, minimum, and maximum ambient temperature, dew point temperature, wind speed, and atmospheric pressure (p = 0.0003, 0.0005, 0.0001, 0.0013, 0.0431, and 0.0453, respectively) was observed for days on which spontaneous ICH occurred. In the subgroup analysis, the ICH onset day showed significantly lower mean, minimum, and maximum ambient temperature, dew point temperature, relative humidity, and higher atmospheric pressure in the older (> or = 65 years) female group (p = 0.0093, 0.0077, 0.0165, 0.0028, 0.0055, and 0.0205, respectively). CONCLUSION: Occurrence of spontaneous ICH is closely associated with meteorological factors and older females are more susceptible to lower ambient temperature.
Atmospheric Pressure ; Cerebral Hemorrhage* ; Female ; Humans ; Humidity ; Meteorological Concepts* ; Meteorology ; Retrospective Studies ; Wind

Ceramides are the main lipid component maintaining the lamellae structure of stratum corneum, as well as lipid second messengers for the regulation of cellular proliferation and/or apoptosis. In our previous study, psoriatic skin lesions showed marked decreased levels of ceramides and signaling molecules, specially protein kinase C-alpha (PKC-alpha) and c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in proportion to the psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) scores, which suggested that the depletion of ceramide is responsible for epidermal hyperproliferation of psoriasis via downregulation of proapoptotic signal cascade such as PKC-alpha and JNK. In this study, we investigated the protein expression of serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT) and ceramidase, two major ceramide metabolizing enzymes, in both psoriatic epidermis and non-lesional epidermis. The expression of SPT, the ceramide generating enzyme in the de novo synthesis in psoriatic epidermis, was significantly less than that of the non-lesional epidermis, which was inversely correlated with PASI score. However, the expression of ceramidase, the degradative enzyme of ceramides, showed no significant difference between the lesional epidermis and the non-lesional epidermis of psoriatic patients. This might suggest that decreased expression of SPT protein is one of the important causative factors for decreased ceramide levels in psoriasis.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Amidohydrolases/*biosynthesis/metabolism ; Apoptosis ; Cell Proliferation ; Ceramidases ; Ceramides/chemistry ; Child ; Epidermis/metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; JNK Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases/metabolism ; Male ; Models, Biological ; Protein Kinase C-alpha/metabolism ; Psoriasis/*blood/diagnosis ; Serine C-Palmitoyltransferase/*biosynthesis

Crohn's disease was originally described as a small bowel disorder and has been known to involve the large bowel in approximately 40% of all cases with or without concomitant ileal component. We describe two cases of Crohn's diseas of small intestine and colon with a summary of differential diagnosis with ulcerative colitis. Both cases were originally diagnosed and treated as ileal tuberculosis. Grossly, there were skip lesions in both cases with prominent pseudopolyps and ulcerations in colon. Also noted were typical serpentine lesions in ileum as well as in colon. Microscopically, transmural inflammation was confirmed and one case showed scattered noncaseating granulomas in the wall. Submucosal edema and fibrosis with thickening of the wall was not prominent in colon. Polymerase chain reaction performed on paraffin block for the demonstration of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in one case showed negative reaction.
Colitis, Ulcerative ; Colon* ; Crohn Disease* ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Edema ; Fibrosis ; Granuloma ; Ileum ; Inflammation ; Intestine, Small* ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Paraffin ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Tuberculosis ; Ulcer