OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of self-esteem and social support on the depression stati of some clinical nurses, and propose basic data for a depression care program. METHODS: Between March 31 and April 5 at 2006, a self-reporting questionnaire survey was administered to 200 nurses at a general hospital located in Gyeonggi-do. The Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to assess the subjects'depression stati. RESULTS: The average BDI score of the clinical nurses was 8.9+/-7.5, with 59% belonging to the normal category, 28% having mild depressive symptoms, and 13% with a moderate degree of depressive symptoms. The degree of depression was significantly increased in the clinical nurses with a lower self-esteem and less social support. The degree of depression was significantly increased in the clinical nurses with a lower self-esteem and less social support. According to a multivariate regression analysis, a significant association was found between self-esteem and social support in relation to the depression of clinical nurses. The effect of social support was found to not be significant in cases where the self-esteem was high: however, depression was significantly influenced by social support in cases where the self-esteem was low. CONCLUSION: Self-esteem and social support were observed to influence the depression stati of clinical nurses. Therefore, it is suggested that an increase in depression management programs is required to create systematic management to maintain an atmosphere of high self-esteem and close relationships to manage the depression of clinical nurses.
Atmosphere ; Depression* ; Gyeonggi-do ; Hospitals, General ; Questionnaires

OBJECTIVES: This study compared cognitive-behavioral traits related to eating behaviors, obsessive-compulsive traits, and depression levels in bulimic subjects with and without a history of anorexia nervosa according to the perspective that there are common diagnostic transitions over time in subgroups of eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and eating disorder not otherwise specified). METHODS: We compared EDI-2, MOCI, and BDI scores between the bulimic group with a history of anorexia (n=98), the bulimic group without a history of anorexia (n=99), and the non-clinic group (n=100) by ANOVA. RESULTS: The bulimic group with a history of anorexia showed significantly higher scores on four of the EDI-2 subscales (Ineffectiveness, Interoceptive Awareness, Impulse Regulation and Social Insecurity) than the other two groups. They also indicated significantly higher scores on both the MOCI subscale 'rumination' and BDI than both the other groups. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that it is important to consider a prior history of anorexia nervosa in order to understand symptom severity in patients with bulimia. Psychological variables such as ineffectiveness, impulse regulation, social insecurity, rumination, and depression are crucial to consider while treating bulimics with a history of anorexia.
Anorexia ; Anorexia Nervosa ; Bulimia ; Bulimia Nervosa ; Depression ; Feeding and Eating Disorders ; Feeding Behavior ; Female ; Humans

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this case report is to introduce the development process, structure, characteristics, and effectiveness of the web database (DB) system developed for the hypertension management program in the primary health care setting in the low-income urban areas of Peru. METHODS: A Korean research team cooperated with a Peruvian IT startup company to develop a web DB system to improve the data management of the hypertension management program. The entire web application infrastructure was hosted using the Amazon Web Service. Two different web platforms were established for the user groups of health workers and researchers (program managers). RESULTS: A total of 2,827 program participants were registered in the web DB system until December 2017. Health professionals can input the participant data while providing consultation to the program participants, and the data is accumulated in the web DB in real time. Input errors or data loss is prevented by setting restrictions in the data entry system. During the 4-year project period, 7,696 hours of working time and USD 39,536.48 for data management were saved as the result of web DB system utilization. CONCLUSIONS: The developed web DB system contributed to improve the health condition of the health program participants by providing necessary information to the health professionals at the right time. This case report could be a reference for other researcher to develop web databases for their own context, especially in developing countries.
Developing Countries ; Electronic Health Records ; Health Information Systems ; Health Occupations ; Hypertension* ; Peru* ; Primary Health Care*

Silent information regulator 2 (Sirtuin2 / SIRT2) is a NAD⁺-dependent deacetylase that regulates the cellular oxidative stress response. It modulates transcriptional silencing and protein stability through deacetylation of target proteins including histones. Previous studies have shown that SIRT2 plays a role in mood disorders and hippocampus-dependent cognitive function, but the underlying neurobiological mechanism is poorly understood. Here, we report that chronic stress suppresses SIRT2 expression in the hippocampus. Molecular and biochemical analyses indicate that the stress-induced decrease in the SIRT2 expression downregulates synaptic plasticity-related genes in the hippocampus through the increase of euchromatic histone-lysine N-methyltransferase 2 (Ehmt2) (also known as G9a). shRNA-mediated knockdown of SIRT2 in the dentate gyrus alters the expression of synaptic plasticity-related genes in a way similar to those induced by chronic stress, and produces depression-like behaviors. Our results indicate that SIRT2 plays an important role in the response to stress, thereby modulating depression-like behaviors.
Cognition ; Dentate Gyrus ; Depression ; Down-Regulation ; Hippocampus ; Histone-Lysine N-Methyltransferase ; Histones ; Mood Disorders ; Neuronal Plasticity ; Oxidative Stress ; Protein Stability ; Up-Regulation

Background/Aims: Weather and air pollution are associated with the exacerbation of respiratory diseases. We investigated patterns of medical care use according to meteorological factors and air pollution in patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: We analyzed the medical care utilization patterns of patients with asthma or COPD registered in the Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment database for the period 2007 to 2013. The patterns were divided into hospitalization and emergency department (ED) use. Results: The medical care use of patients with asthma or COPD increased when the mean temperature and relative humidity were lower, and the temperature difference and atmospheric pressure were greater. Medical care use increased with the concentrations of particulate matter and ozone. Among age groups, sensitivity to pollutants was greatest in patients aged ≥ 65 years. The effect of being elderly was greater for asthma than for COPD, with a higher hospitalization rate. ED utilization affected by environmental factors was significantly greater for females and hospitalization was significantly more common for males. Conclusions Meteorological factors and air pollutants were shown to contribute to increased medical care utilization by patients with asthma and COPD, particularly elderly patients. The overall effect was greater for COPD, but the effect in elderly patients was greater for asthma. In addition, the patterns of change in medical care use due to environmental factors differed according to sex.

Background/Aims: Weather and air pollution are associated with the exacerbation of respiratory diseases. We investigated patterns of medical care use according to meteorological factors and air pollution in patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: We analyzed the medical care utilization patterns of patients with asthma or COPD registered in the Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment database for the period 2007 to 2013. The patterns were divided into hospitalization and emergency department (ED) use. Results: The medical care use of patients with asthma or COPD increased when the mean temperature and relative humidity were lower, and the temperature difference and atmospheric pressure were greater. Medical care use increased with the concentrations of particulate matter and ozone. Among age groups, sensitivity to pollutants was greatest in patients aged ≥ 65 years. The effect of being elderly was greater for asthma than for COPD, with a higher hospitalization rate. ED utilization affected by environmental factors was significantly greater for females and hospitalization was significantly more common for males. Conclusions Meteorological factors and air pollutants were shown to contribute to increased medical care utilization by patients with asthma and COPD, particularly elderly patients. The overall effect was greater for COPD, but the effect in elderly patients was greater for asthma. In addition, the patterns of change in medical care use due to environmental factors differed according to sex.

Oral metastatic tumor, which is uncommon and represents less than 1% of malignant oral neoplasms, usually arises from a primary mucosal or cutaneous cancer located in the head and neck regions. Metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to the oral cavity, especially to gingiva, is extremely rare. A 50-year-old man, who was a chronic alcoholic and hepatitis B virus carrier, presented with abdominal distension and weight loss for the past 3 months. Three-phased contrast-enhanced abdominal CT revealed numerous conglomerated masses in the liver, suggesting huge HCCs arising in the background of liver cirrhosis with a large amount of ascites. He complained of recurrent profuse bleeding from the left upper gingival mass. A facial CT revealed an oral cavity mass destructing the left maxillary alveolar process and hard palate, which was diagnosed as metastatic HCC by an incisional biopsy. Herein, we report a case of metastatic HCC to the gingiva.
Alcoholics ; Alveolar Process ; Ascites ; Biopsy ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Gingiva ; Head ; Hemorrhage ; Hepatitis B virus ; Humans ; Liver ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Middle Aged ; Mouth ; Mouth Neoplasms ; Neck ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Palate, Hard ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Weight Loss

Myxoma is the most common primary tumor in the heart. Cardiac myxomas can present in various manners including embolization and fever, sometimes simulating endocarditis. However, they are rarely infected. We report here a case of an infected left atrial myxoma that seeded a normal mitral valve and atypically presented with multiple embolic events in the lower extremities along with multiple splenic and a cerebellar infarction.
Endocarditis ; Fever ; Heart ; Infarction ; Lower Extremity ; Mitral Valve ; Myxoma ; Seeds

Tuberculosis generally affects the respiratory tract. In developing nations, the pericardium is the most common location of extrapulmonary tuberculosis; however, tuberculous pericarditis rarely appears as a localized mass or tuberculoma. We present here a case of a 62-year-old woman with pericardial tuberculoma. She had a history of effusive tuberculous pericarditis and drainage. Because she had taken regular medication over a period of six months, the pericardial mass with an adjacent lung nodule newly detected on the chest radiogram was initially suspected of being invasive lung cancer. Prior to pathologic confirmation, precise information from imaging tests, including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography-computed tomography are helpful when making decisions regarding which methods should be used for surgical approach and treatment. Through imaging, our case showed typical features of pericardial tuberculoma and a favorable clinical course after two months with a change in antituberculous therapy.
Developing Countries ; Drainage ; Electrons ; Female ; Humans ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Pericarditis, Tuberculous ; Pericardium ; Respiratory System ; Thorax ; Tuberculoma ; Tuberculosis

PURPOSE: Parsonage-Turner syndrome is a rare disorder with sudden onset of severe pain around the shoulder girdle, followed by weakness of the shoulder muscles. The purpose of the current study was to describe the clinical features associated with this condition and to review the literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study of the Parsonage-Turner syndrome was carried out for 6 patients seen from December 2005 to July 2008. The clinical and radiographic data was collected by medical records and telephone interviews. Five patients were males and one was female with ages ranging between 20-68 years (mean, 43.5). The mean follow-up period was 19.1 months (range, 14-27 months). RESULTS: The intense pain around shoulder continued for 1 day to 3 weeks and decreased spontaneously at a mean of 3.3 weeks (range, 2-5 weeks) after onset of pain. Weakness in the involved muscles had developed at a mean of four weeks (range, 2-7 weeks). At the end of follow-up, five patients had an improvement of their strength and one patient had regained full strength. Electromyography was the most helpful in diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Parsonage-Turner syndrome is a self-limited disorder with a good outcome. Understanding of the course will assist in the diagnosis and treatment.
Brachial Plexus Neuritis ; Electromyography ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Male ; Medical Records ; Muscles ; Retrospective Studies ; Shoulder