PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore the factors associated with the intention to receive a Pap test among married immigrant women of Vietnamese origin living in Taiwan. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional community-based study.We enrolled 281 women aged 30 years and over in the study, from July 2013 to January 2014. The participants' characteristics, cervical cancer knowledge, Pap test knowledge, attitudes toward cervical cancer, barriers to receiving a Pap test, fatalism, and intention to receive a Pap test, were measured using self-report questionnaires. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the variables associated with participants' intentions to receive a Pap test. RESULTS: Vietnamese women with low scores on the measures of cervical cancer knowledge and perceived barriers to receiving a Pap test were more willing to receive the test, as were those with high scores on the measures of Pap test knowledge and fatalism. Women who received a Pap test in the previous year were more willing to receive a Pap test within the next 3 years. CONCLUSIONS: Preventive healthcare for immigrant women should be a focus of nurses. The development of culturally appropriate health education and strategies should enhance their knowledge of Pap tests and reduce perceived barriers to Pap test participation. This study's results can be a reference for nurses who work with immigrant women.
Adult ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Emigrants and Immigrants/*psychology ; Emigration and Immigration ; Female ; Humans ; *Intention ; Marriage/psychology ; Papanicolaou Test/*psychology ; Patient Acceptance of Health Care/*psychology ; Self Report ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Taiwan/epidemiology ; Vietnam/ethnology

PURPOSE: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health issue among women. IPV victims usually seek help from hospitals, and emergency nurses are the frontline staff with whom the victims come into contact first. This study examined the conditions and patterns of IPV in southern Taiwan. METHODS: From designated hospitals in Kaohsiung under the Department of Health Injury Assessment Clinic, data were collected on 497 women regarding their injury assessment for IPV reported to the Kaohsiung City Government. RESULTS: Taiwanese survivors were older compared to immigrant survivors. Taiwanese survivors also had higher education levels compared to immigrant survivors. Taiwanese survivors had higher employment rate than immigrant survivors did. The time between IPV and medical help seeking was longer for divorced than married women. CONCLUSIONS: These results can facilitate understanding of the conditions and patterns of IPV in Taiwan, increase the awareness of nurses, especially the emergency nurses for the prevention of IPV, and increase professional competency for the provision of appropriate healthcare services to survivors of IPV.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Battered Women/*statistics & numerical data ; Female ; Humans ; Intimate Partner Violence/*statistics & numerical data ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Taiwan/epidemiology ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to investigate the quantitative relationship between pituitary macroadenoma size and degree of visual impairment, and assess visual improvement after surgical resection of the tumor. METHODS: The medical records of patients with pituitary adenoma, who had undergone trans-sphenoidal adenectomy between January 2009 and January 2011, were reviewed. Patients underwent an ocular examination and brain MRI before and after surgery. The visual impairment score (VIS) was derived by combining the scores of best-corrected visual acuity and visual field. The relationship between VIS and tumor size/tumor type/position of the optic chiasm was assessed. RESULTS: Seventy-eight patients were included (41 male, 37 female). Thirty-two (41%) patients experienced blurred vision or visual field defect as an initial symptom. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that tumors <2.2 cm tended to cause minimal or no visual impairment. Statistical analysis showed that 1) poor preoperative vision is related to tumor size, displacement of the optic chiasm in the sagittal view on MRI and optic atrophy, and 2) poorer visual prognosis is associated with greater preoperative VIS. In multivariate analysis the only factor significantly related to VIS improvement was increasing pituitary adenoma size, which predicted decreased improvement. CONCLUSION: Results from this study show that pituitary adenomas larger than 2 cm cause defects in vision while adenomas 2 cm or smaller do not cause significant visual impairment. Patients with a large macroadenoma or giant adenoma should undergo surgical resection as soon as possible to prevent permanent visual loss.
Adenoma ; Brain ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Medical Records ; Multivariate Analysis ; Ophthalmologic Surgical Procedures ; Optic Atrophy ; Optic Chiasm ; Pituitary Neoplasms* ; Prognosis ; ROC Curve ; Vision Disorders ; Visual Acuity ; Visual Fields

Adult ; Anemia, Aplastic ; drug therapy ; Antilymphocyte Serum ; administration & dosage ; Bone Marrow Transplantation ; Cyclosporins ; administration & dosage ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Dyskeratosis Congenita ; complications ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents ; administration & dosage ; Male

Glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) is an important serine/threonine kinase that implicates in multiple cellular processes and links with the neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, structure-based virtual screening was performed to search database for compounds targeting GSK-3β from Enamine’s screening collection. Of the top-ranked compounds, 7 primary hits underwent a luminescent kinase assay and a cell assay using human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells expressing Tau repeat domain (TauRD) with pro-aggregant mutation ΔK280. In the kinase assay for these 7 compounds, residual GSK-3β activities ranged from 36.1% to 90.0% were detected at the IC50 of SB-216763. In the cell assay, only compounds VB-030 and VB-037 reduced Tau aggregation in SH-SY5Y cells expressing ΔK280 TauRD-DsRed folding reporter. In SH-SY5Y cells expressing ΔK280 TauRD, neither VB-030 nor VB-037 increased expression of GSK-3α Ser21 or GSK-3β Ser9. Among extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), AKT serine/threonine kinase 1 (AKT), mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 (P38) and mitogenactivated protein kinase 8 (JNK) which modulate Tau phosphorylation, VB-037 attenuated active phosphorylation of P38 Thr180/ Tyr182, whereas VB-030 had no effect on the phosphorylation status of ERK, AKT, P38 or JNK. However, both VB-030 and VB-037 reduced endogenous Tau phosphorylation at Ser202, Thr231, Ser396 and Ser404 in neuronally differentiated SH-SY5Y expressing ΔK280 TauRD. In addition, VB-030 and VB-037 further improved neuronal survival and/or neurite length and branch in mouse hippocampal primary culture under Tau cytotoxicity. Overall, through inhibiting GSK-3β kinase activity and/or p-P38 (Thr180/Tyr182), both compounds may serve as promising candidates to reduce Tau aggregation/cytotoxicity for AD treatment.

AIMTo report a series of varicocelectomy performed under pure local anesthesia.

METHODSFrom July 1988 to June 2003, a total of 575 patients, aged between 15 and 73 years, underwent high ligation of the internal spermatic vein for treatment of a varicocele testis under a regional block in which a precise injection of 0.8 % lidocaine solution was delivered to involved tissues after exact anatomical references were made. A 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS) was used to assess whether the pain level was acceptable.

RESULTSThe surgeries were bilateral in 52 cases, and unilateral in 523 cases. All were successfully performed on an outpatient basis except in the case of two patients, who were hospitalized because their surgeries required general anesthesia. Overall, 98.6 % (567/575) of men could go back to work by the end of the first post-operative week and only 8 (1.4 %) men reported feeling physical discomfort on the eighth day. The VAS scores varied from 11 mm to 41 mm with an average of (18.5+/-11.3) mm that was regarded as tolerable.

CONCLUSIONThis study has shown varicocelectomy under local anesthesia to be possible, simple, effective, reliable and reproducible, and a safe method with minimal complications. It offers the advantages of more privacy, lower morbidity, with no notable adverse effects resulting from anesthesia, and a more rapid return to regular physical activity with minor complications.

Acetaminophen ; administration & dosage ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Analgesics, Non-Narcotic ; administration & dosage ; Anesthesia, Local ; Anesthetics, Local ; administration & dosage ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lidocaine ; administration & dosage ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Outpatients ; Pain, Postoperative ; drug therapy ; Postoperative Complications ; Varicocele ; surgery ; Vascular Surgical Procedures ; methods