No abstract available.
Electrophoresis*

To a patient suffering from intractable pain due to the terminal state of cervix cancer, 7% phenol-glycerine solution was injected through the L2-L3 interspace. We obtained a good result of pain relief, but motor paralysis developed.
Humans ; Pain, Intractable ; Paralysis ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

Lumbar braces, cast jackets and lumbar corsets are commonly prescribed for the relief of low back pain or the prevention of instability of lumbar or lumbosacral vertebrae. These devices have been presumed to achive their effect by (1) decreasing movement at the involved intervertebral joints, (2) shifting a portion of the load from the spine to the rest of the trunk by compressing the abdomen, (3) decreasing lumbar lordosis and therefore, mechanical stress on the spine and (4) providing sufficient support to allow relaxation of the muscles of the trunk. But it is doubtful that lumbar braces or corsets significantly decrease movement between lumbar vertebrae. To maintain the stability of the lumbar and lumbosacral spine, abdominal muscles and intrinsic muscles of the back play an important role. When these muscles weaken the lumbar lordosis becomes exaggerated possibly bringing about degenerative changes in the articular processes and approximation of the spinous processes. In severe cases results in the so-called kissing spine which causes low back pain. The pain may be relieved by use of lumbo-sacral corsets or knight braces, which diminish lordosis. However, there has been no scientific report on adequate types of braces, duration of use or muscle weakness resulting from its use as yet. The prupose of this study is to provide a theoretical braces for, planning adequate prevention and early treatment, so that labour loss from retirement or change of job due to low back pain could be minimized, permitting early return to employment and resumption of activities of daily living. In other words, this study concentrates on the indications for use and selection of which will produce optimum results in the treatment of patients with low back pain. The EMG was taken immediately after admission, and after 3 weeks of bed rest accompanied by pelvic traction with or without heating, and also it was taken after 6 weeks of use of brace. The results obtained from this study were as follows; 1. After bed rest the EMG activities were increased in back muscles, such as longissimus dorsi, multifidus and iliocostalis lumborum and in abdominal muscles of internus abdominis while decreased in rectus abdominis. 2. There has been no significant change after use of corset in acute cases while the muscle activities. were increased after use of lumbar corset in chronic cases. 3. Rectus abdominis was most senstively influenced by bed rest or use of brace both in acute and chronic cases. And it was the last to recover probably because it does not contract in ordinary alow walking. 4. Knight brace was considered to be preferable to lumbar corset in acute cases with evidence of weakness in abdominal muscles by EMG. 5. There was no difference between bed rest and use of brace in patients who had radiculopathy with functional difficulties or not.
Abdomen ; Abdominal Muscles ; Activities of Daily Living ; Animals ; Back Muscles ; Bed Rest ; Braces ; Employment ; Heating ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Joints ; Lordosis ; Low Back Pain ; Lumbar Vertebrae ; Muscle Weakness ; Muscles ; Paraspinal Muscles ; Radiculopathy ; Rectus Abdominis ; Relaxation ; Retirement ; Spine ; Stress, Mechanical ; Traction ; Walking

BACKGROUND: Candida species are one ol the major pathogens causing opportunistic infection. The need for a standardized. and clinically relevant method for antifungal susceptibility testing has become more increased because resistance to antifungal agents is now being reported with increasing frequency. The purposes of this study were to measure the minimal inhibitory concentrations actions amphotericin B, flucytosine and fluconazole of clinical isolates of Candida species, and to evaluate broth microdilution method as a more efficient test method, compared with NCCLS standard broth macrodilution. METHODS: The minlmal Inhibitory concentrations of C. parapsilosis ATCC 90018, C, albicans ATCC 90028 and 32 Candida isolates from Korea University Hospital were evaluated against amphotericin B, flucytosine and fluconazole by broth macrodilution and microdilution methods. RESULTS: The minimal inhibitory concentrations of Candida species ranged 0.25 to 1.0 microgram/mL for amphotericin B, 0.125 to 2.0 microgram/mL for flucytosine and 0.125 to 64 microgram/mL for fluconazole. The percent of agreement between NCCLS standard broth macrodilution and microdilution was highest when inoculum size was 0.5-2.5x103 CFU/mL and incubation time was 48 hours, and one fold dilution agreement was 100% for amphotericin B, 100% for flucytosine and 88-96% for fluconazole. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed good agreement of results of broth microdilution test with those of macrodilution, and suggested that broth microdilution method is an accessible and useful method and can be substituted for broth macrodilutlon method with the expectation of good results.
Amphotericin B ; Antifungal Agents ; Candida* ; Fluconazole ; Flucytosine ; Korea ; Opportunistic Infections

458 female workers working in the small and medium scaled industries in Inchon area were surveyed to study their general characteristics, health behavior, working and environmental conditions, current health status etc. Self-administered questionnaire was developed by authors and distributed to the female workers with the explanation by trained interviewer on the purpose of survey and the method how to answer. The results were as follows: t. General characteristics showed that most(75.3%) of workers were living in their own home, and their age distribution was relatively even from teenagers to the forties. The level of education was high school graduate(including drop-out) in 69.4%, suggesting that the education level of female workers was increasing gradually. The marrital status was 69% in unmarried, and 31% in married state. 2. Survey on their health status showed that more than 20% of female workers complained that they have some kind of disease and most of them complained that they have chronic symptoms more than three kinds. Also, they complained at least two or three symptoms in physical, mental or sensoryneural symptoms respectively. But their medical care utility rate was only 22%. 3. There were no significantly correlated variables between health status and general characteristics(by x2-test). Among the variables on the health behavior, only alcohol drinking was significant to health status. Perceived health status related to the working environment was significantly different to the degree of work satisfaction and awareness for the exposure to harzadous materials. 4. Multivariable analysis showed that work satisfaction, awareness for the exposure to harzadous materials, alcohol drinking, type of employment were significantly related to the physical or mental health index, and also marrital status was to the physical health index. Work satisfaction, awareness for the exposure to harzadous materials, marrital status were related to the sensoryneural health index. Alcohol drinking, work satisfaction, awareness for the exposure to harzadous materials, marrital status were significantly related to the number of complained chronic symptoms. In summary, this study showed that inspite of wide and various range of the general characteristics of female industrial workers in Korea comparing to the past, there was high prevalence of disease due to the poor working conditions and low work satisfaction etc. Therefore, more detailed disease preventive policies or improvement of the work environment, and systematic management to raise the work satisfaction of female workers are urgently needed. And also, occupational health policies increasing the access to health care to provide the adequate health service for the workers who have perceived need are necessary.
Adolescent ; Age Distribution ; Alcohol Drinking ; Education ; Employment ; Female* ; Health Behavior ; Health Services ; Health Services Accessibility ; Humans ; Incheon ; Job Satisfaction ; Korea ; Mental Health ; Occupational Health ; Prevalence ; Single Person ; Surveys and Questionnaires

This study was designed to test the effects of a full body massage on uterine contraction, length of labor, type of delivery, and drug intervention for primipara during labor. Data were collected using a quasi-experiment method (nonequivalent control group, pre-post test design) from November 1, 2001 to July 31, 2002. The subjects of this experiment consisted of 28 women in the experimental group and 29 in the control group, out of 57 primipara hospitalized at the U OB & GYN hospital in Inchon. The experimental group was given a 20 minute full body massage for each of the three delivery phases (latent, active, and transition). The control group was given conventional delivery care. Three (3) parameters were analyzed in this experiment. (1) The interval, duration, and strength of uterine contraction, using an electric tocodynamometer (2) The elapsed time for stage 1 and stage 2 labor. (3) The types of deliveries and drug interventions, using postpartum medical records The data collected were analyzed using the repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test, and X(2) test of the SPSS program. The results of the experiment are as follows: 1) Uterine contraction interval was signifi- cantly reduced (F=3.210, p=.050). Duration of uterine contraction showed significant increase only during the transition phase (t=-2.319, p=.023). Strength of uterine contraction showed no significant difference. 2) Total length of labor was significantly shortened (t=-5.245, p=.000). The length of 1st stage labor was signifi- cantly shortened (t=-5.164, p=.000), with latent phase showing (t=-4.709, p=.000), active phase (t=-2.973, p=.005), and transition phase (t=-2.031, p=.047). The length of 2nd stage labor showed no significant difference. 3) The number of natural deliveries were significantly increased (X(2)=13.127, p=.004). 4) The number of drug interventions were significantly fewer (X(2)= 4.493, p=.034). In conclusion, this study shows that a full body massage has a significantly positive effect on uterine contraction interval, length of labor, type of delivery, and drug intervention. Therefore, this study suggests that a full body massage be used clinically to help primipara during labor.
Evaluation Studies as Topic ; Female ; Humans ; Incheon ; Massage* ; Medical Records ; Postpartum Period ; Uterine Contraction*

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate sexual behaviors and influencing factors affecting premenopausal women who have breast cancer and have undergone surgery. METHODS: Seventy premenopausal women, ranging between 35~55 years of age, were included in this study. Sexual behaviors were evaluated using the WSBQ-F (Wilmoth Sexual Behaviors Questionnaire-Female). The in-depth interview was analyzed utilizing content analysis. RESULTS: There were no significant differences regarding the type of surgery, age, time of marriage, education level, occupation, chemotherapy, use of Tamoxifen, and radiotherapy in the sexual activities of premenopausal women with breast cancer. However, quality-related information utilizing qualitative in-depth interviews, revealed 3 issues regarding sexual behaviors.. Participants reported physical discomfort such as vaginal dryness, dyspareunia, emotional changes such as decrease in sexual confidence, and interaction-related changes such as mandatory sexual life, sexual intimacy with one's partner, and being more active sexual behaviors. CONCLUSION: There were complex changes associated with sexual behavior after surgery for women with breast cancer which included various events related to stress regarding sexual behavior. Communication between women with breast cancer, their partners, and medical caregivers has a ability to maximize the sense of sexual wellbeing while minimizing the sexual crises.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Caregivers ; Drug Therapy ; Dyspareunia ; Education ; Female ; Humans ; Marriage ; Occupations ; Radiotherapy ; Sexual Behavior* ; Tamoxifen

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing regular exercise of the elderly in discriminating regular exercise and non - regular exercise groups. METHOD: The subjects of this study were 167 elderly over the age of 60, living in a rural city in Korea. The data was collected by interview and self report questionnaire in 1999. The Cronbach 's alpha of scales used this study were .66 ~.97. RESULT: 1. There were significant differences in doing regular exercise between the perceived importance of the health(p=021), the perceived health status(p=.050), the perceived need of the exercise(p=000), the perceived importance of the exercise(p= .000), the intent of participation in the exercise program(p=.000), IADL score(p= .022), the perceived benefits of exercise (p=.000), the emotion of exercise(p=.000), HPLP(p=.000), the self efficacy(p=.001), the perceived benefits of health promoting behaviors(p= .011), the perceived barriers of the health promoting behaviors(p=.002), and the Internal locus of control(p=.021) of the elderly. 2. Variables which showed significance for discriminating regular exercise of the elderly in this study were the perceived need of the exercise(p=.000) and the perceived benefits of the exercise(p=.000). By using the combination of these variables, the possibility of proper prediction for predicting regular exercise group was 84.8 %, non - regular exercise group was 93.9%, and total Hit ratio was 89.4%. CONCLUSION: To improve exercise behavior in older adults, health care providers should focus of developing interventions to strengthen the perceived benefits, the perceived needs of the exercise.
Adult ; Aged* ; Discriminant Analysis ; Health Personnel ; Humans ; Korea ; Self Report ; Weights and Measures ; Surveys and Questionnaires

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans

PURPOSE: This study was done to measure the level of social support, self-esteem, and empowerment and to identify any effect of social support and self-esteem on the empowerment of nurses. METHODS: The study design was a descriptive survey using questionnaires which were given to 381 nurses in C province. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple regressions. RESULTS: The mean score for nurses' empowerment was 2.83+/-0.66. Seven individual characteristics, social support(family, meaningful persons, supervisors, and co-workers) and self-esteem accounted for 23.3% of the variance in nurses' empowerment. Prediction elements influencing empowerment of nurses were salary per month, self-esteem, and social support(supervisors). CONCLUSION: The results indicate that it is necessary to increase nurses' empowerment. Social support by supervisors and self-esteem were confirmed as important factors to increase nurses' empowerment. In addition, raising the monthly average income would increase empowerment of nurses.
Humans ; Power (Psychology)* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; Sociology