Since patients who have suffered from strokes have chronic health problems, the development of a protocol for home care nursing is required. Therefore, this study was done to test the effects of such a protocol on stroke patients. This study was conducted by using a single group pre-post design. The subjects for the study were 13 home care nurses and 30 home care patients who had a stroke. Data collection was done from October 1997 to February 1998. The collected data was analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed rank test and paired t-test and the results were as follows : 1. The first hypothesis that "working satisfaction of home nurses would be higher after using the home care protocol" was supported. 2. The second hypothesis that "patients" satisfaction would be higher after using the home care protocol" was rejected. 3. The third hypothesis that "the level of ADL of patients would be higher after using the home care protocol" was supported. In conclusion, by using a home care protocol, the satisfaction of nurses' work and the ADL of patients increased, and the patients' satisfaction also increased without statistical significance. The above results confirm that the application of a home care protocol is very effective. Thus, this protocol can be helpful in the quality care of stroke patients. Therefore, developing and organizing protocols, according to health problem, can be useful for beginner nurses who interact with high risk patients.
Activities of Daily Living ; Data Collection ; Home Care Services* ; Humans ; Nurses, Community Health ; Nursing Care* ; Nursing* ; Stroke*

PURPOSE: Malnutrition and a loss of muscle mass are frequent in cancer patients and have a negative effect on clinical outcome. Nutrition risk screening aims to increase awareness and allow early recognition and treatment of cancer cachexia. Therefore, screenings should be brief, inexpensive, highly sensitive, and have good specificity. Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ) is a simple screening tool including four questions, and validated to predict weight loss within 6 months in community-dwelling adults and nursing home residents. Our study aimed to translate the SNAQ into Korean, and to assess the validity and reliability of the translated screening tool in advanced cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The SNAQ was translated into Korean according to linguistic validation. The internal consistency of the SNAQ was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Test-retest reliability was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient. Concurrent validity was evaluated by measuring the Pearson's correlation coefficient between the SNAQ and Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA). RESULTS: In the 194 patients included in full analysis set, cancer stage was predominantly metastatic (98.5%), the mean age was 60 years (range, 23 to 81 years), and the mean body mass index was 24 kg/m² (range, 15.6 to 39.6 kg/m²). According to MNA score ≤ 11, 57 patients (29.4%) were malnourished. The mean score (±standard deviation) of the Korean version of the SNAQ was 13.8±2.5 with a range of 6-19. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.737, and intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.869. The SNAQ was moderately correlated with MNA (r=0.404, p < 0.001) and PG-SGA (r=–0.530, p < 0.001). A significant weight loss of > 5% of the original bodyweightwithin 6 months occurred in 46 of the 186 patients (24.7%). SNAQ score ≤ 14 predicted > 5% weight loss with a sensitivity of 56.5% and a specificity of 44.3%. CONCLUSION: The Korean version of the SNAQ had high validity and reliability. SNAQ is useful for the screening tool for advanced cancer patients. The SNAQ had a limitation to predict impending weight loss in advanced cancer patients.
Adult ; Appetite ; Body Mass Index ; Cachexia ; Humans ; Linguistics ; Longitudinal Studies ; Malnutrition ; Mass Screening ; Nursing Homes ; Nutrition Assessment ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Weight Loss

BACKGROUND: Bacteremia is a life-threatening infection, and prognosis is highly dependent on early recognition and treatment with appropriate antimicrobial agents. We investigated the diagnostic performance of serum procalcitonin (PCT) for differentiation between contaminants and true pathogens in blood cultures. METHODS: Serum PCT, C-reactive protein (CRP) and blood culture were performed for 473 patients between February 2008 and October 2008. We retrospectively reviewed the patients' clinical characteristics and laboratory results based on medical records. RESULTS: The mean concentration of PCT was significantly different between the two negative and positive blood culture groups (6.45 ng/mL vs 28.77 ng/mL, P<0.001). Procalcitonin levels were found to be markedly higher in those with Gram-negative bacilli (mean+/-SD; 59.58+/-67.00 ng/mL) bacteremia than in those with Gram-positive cocci (mean+/-SD; 17.75+/-42.88 ng/mL) bacteremia (P<0.001). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (95% confidence interval) for PCT and CRP were 0.880 (0.820~0.940) and 0.637 (0.538~0.736), respectively. The use of a PCT level of 2 ng/mL as a cutoff value yielded an 83.6% positive predictive value and a 77.4% negative predictive value for the detection of bacteremia pathogens. CONCLUSION: Serum PCT is a helpful diagnostic marker for rapidly and accurately distinguishing between contaminants and pathogens in blood cultures.
Anti-Infective Agents ; Bacteremia ; C-Reactive Protein ; Calcitonin ; Gram-Positive Cocci ; Humans ; Prognosis ; Protein Precursors ; Retrospective Studies ; ROC Curve

PURPOSE: Equations are frequently used to estimate resting energy expenditure (REE) in a clinical setting. However, few studies have examined their accuracy in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: To investigate agreement between indirect calorimetry and several REE estimating equations in 38 ESRD patients on peritoneal dialysis, we performed indirect calorimetry and compared the results with REEs estimated using 5 equations [Harris-Benedict (HBE), Mifflin, WHO, Schofield, and Cunningham]. RESULTS: Measured REE was 1393.2 +/- 238.7kcal/day. There were no significant differences between measured and estimated REEs except Mifflin (1264.9 +/- 224.8kcal/day). Root mean square errors were smallest for HBE, followed by Schofield, Cunningham, and WHO, and largest for Mifflin (171.3, 171.9, 174.6, 175.3, and 224.6, respectively). In Bland-Altman plot, correlation coefficients between mean values and differences were significant for HBE (r=0.412, p=0.012) and tended to be significant for Cunningham (r=0.283, p=0.086). In DM patients and patients with overhydration, HBE showed significant underestimation when REE increased. CONCLUSION: In ESRD patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), REE-estimating equations have no significant differences from indirect calorimetry, except Mifflin. However, HBE showed greater bias than others when REE was high.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Calorimetry, Indirect/*methods ; *Energy Metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/metabolism/*therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Models, Biological ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory/*methods

Vaccination against hepatitis A virus (HAV) is recommended for patients with chronic liver disease (CLD), but this has been deemed unnecessary in Korea since the immunity against HAV was almost universal in adults. However, this practice has never been reevaluated with respect to the changing incidence of adult acute hepatitis A. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 278 patients with acute hepatitis A diagnosed from January 1995 to November 2005 and prospectively tested 419 consecutive CLD patients from July to December 2005 for the presence of IgG anti-HAV. The number of patients with acute hepatitis A has markedly increased recently, and the proportion of adult patients older than 30 yr has been growing from 15.2% during 1995-1999, to 28.4% during 2000-2005 (p=0.019). Among 419 CLD patients, the seroprevalences of IgG anti-HAV were 23.1% for those between 26 and 30 yr, 64% between 31 and 35 yr, and 85.0% between 36 and 40 yr. These data demonstrate that immunity against HAV is no more universal in adult and substantial proportion of adult CLD patients are now at risk of HAV infection in Korea. Therefore, further study on seeking proper strategy of active immunization against HAV is warranted in these populations.
Risk Factors ; Risk Assessment/methods ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Liver Diseases/*epidemiology/*prevention & control ; Korea/epidemiology ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant ; Incidence ; Humans ; Hepatitis A Vaccines/*therapeutic use ; Hepatitis A/*epidemiology/*prevention & control ; Female ; Disease Outbreaks/*prevention & control/*statistics & numerical data ; Comorbidity ; Communicable Diseases, Emerging/epidemiology/prevention & control ; Chronic Disease ; Child, Preschool ; Child ; Aged, 80 and over ; Aged ; Adult ; Adolescent

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The clinical significance of serum CA 125 levels in patients with chronic liver disease has not been widely appreciated in relation to the severity of the disease. We examined serum CA 125 levels in patients with chronic liver disease according to the severity of liver disease and the presence of ascites. METHODS: Fasting serum CA 125 levels were measured by a commercial RIA kit in 92 patients with chronic liver disease: 22 with chronic hepatitis and 70 with liver cirrhosis (Child class A, 19; B, 28; C, 23). Forty-one patients (45%) had ascites. RESULTS: The patients with Child class C liver cirrhosis had significantly higher mean serum CA 125 level than those with class A (p<0.05). In Child class B patients, the mean serum CA 125 level was significantly higher in patients with ascites than in those without (p<0.05). A multiple regression analysis showed that the presence of ascites, serum albumin, and prothrombin time were independent factors related to the increase of serum CA 125 levels. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of ascites is more closely related to the increase of CA125 levels in patients with liver cirrhosis than the severity of liver disease.
Adult ; Aged ; Ascites/blood ; CA-125 Antigen/*blood ; Chronic Disease ; Female ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/*blood ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis/*blood ; Male ; Middle Aged

Giant duodenal ulcer can be defined as a variant of peptic ulceration that exceeds 2 cm at the greatest diameter. The high mortality and morbidity of giant duodenal ulcer are directly related to the resultant perforation, obstruction and massive hemorrhage. The patient usually has a long history of an inadequately treated or neglected peptic ulcer, but this malady is rarely induced by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). A 60-year-old man was referred to us due to epigastric pain. He underwent appendectomy 1 week ago, and he was administered ketorolac (tarasyn(R)) for 5 days to control the postoperative pain. Esophagogastroduodenos copy (EGD) revealed a giant duodenal ulcer encircling the lumen from the pylorus to the postbulbar portion of the duodenum, and he was then treated with proton pump inhibitor. Two weeks later, the follow-up EGD showed complete duodenal obstruction at the bulb. He was treated by laparoscopic gastrojejunostomy. We report here on this case of duodenal obstruction that was induced by the short-term use of NSAIDs.
Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal ; Appendectomy ; Duodenal Obstruction* ; Duodenal Ulcer ; Duodenum ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gastric Bypass ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Ketorolac ; Middle Aged ; Mortality ; Pain, Postoperative ; Peptic Ulcer ; Proton Pumps ; Pylorus

Gastrointestinal bleeding from small bowel lesions is uncommon but it is the most common cause of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding that can go undiagnosed using traditional upper endoscopy and colonoscopy. Recently, various new methods, including wireless capsule endoscopy and double-balloon enteroscopy have been used to detect and manage small bowel lesions. A 51-year-old man was admitted with hematochezia. The source of bleeding could not be identified using conventional upper endoscopy and colonoscopy. Wireless capsule endoscopy revealed a mass-like lesion with active blood spurting in the proximal jejunum. Finally, a tumor with central ulceration was detected at the proximal jejunum using a clean colonoscope through the oral approach. This lesion was surgically resected, and the histology findings were consistent with a gastrointestinal stromal tumor. We report a case of gastrointestinal bleeding from a proximal jejunal GIST diagnosed by clean colonoscopy through the oral approach with a review of the relevant literature.
Capsule Endoscopy ; Colonoscopes ; Colonoscopy* ; Double-Balloon Enteroscopy ; Endoscopy ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Jejunum ; Middle Aged ; Ulcer

PURPOSE: We measured the gastric cancer tissue uPA and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) levels and compared them to those of the peripheral and portal blood levels to evaluate the correlation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tissue uPA and PAI-1 levels were measured by ELISA assay (Monozyme, Netherland) in paired 85 normal and cancer tissues resected from gastric cancer patients. In 50 patients, blood uPA and PAI-1 levels were measured from pre- operative peripheral and portal blood, post-operative portal blood. RESULTS: Gastric cancer tissue uPA and PAI-1 levels increased from the early stage. The elevated cancer-to-normal ratios of the uPA and PAI-1 were constant from stage I to IV. There were correlations of uPA between normal and cancer tissues (r2=0.38) and between peripheral and pre-resection portal blood level (r2=0.64). There were no correlations between tissue PAI-1 level and blood PAI-1 levels. However, there were correlations in PAI- 1/uPA ratio between cancer tissue and peripheral blood (r2=0.25), peripheral blood and pre- resection portal blood (r2=0.60). CONCLUSION: Even if the cancer tissue levels of uPA and PAI-1 increased from the early stage of gastric cancer, only blood uPA level correlated with tissue uPA level. A modest correlation found in PAI-1/uPA ratio between cancer tissue and blood suggests applicability of blood PAI-1/uPA ratio in predicting tissue uPA, PAI-1 expression.
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1 ; Plasminogen Activators ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator*