PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of spirituality promoting intervention for the stomach and colon cancer patients. METHOD: A quasi-experimental design was used. Data collection was carried out from April 2004 to June, 2004 at a cancer center in Korea. The intervention included pray, meditation, group education and discussion for coping with cancer. The experimental group were received a 1-hour intervention per week for 6 weeks, while the control group received usual care. Data collection was done at pre and post intervention. The degree of spirituality was measured by the Korean version of WHOQOL-SRPB pilot test(WHO Quality of Life-Spirituality, Religiousness and Personal Beliefs pilot test) Module, and social support was measured using scores on a PRQ 85(Personal Resources Questionnaire). Fighting spirit was measured by the scores of MAC(Mental Adjustment to Cancer) scale. RESULTS: The experimental group showed significant increase in the scores of social support and fighting spirit compared to those in the control group after the intervention. There were no significant changes in terms of the spirituality score compared to the baseline score in the experimental group and the control group. CONCLUSION: This intervention appeared to be effective in increasing social support and fighting spirit, which considered to be very helpful in cancer adjustment.
Colonic Neoplasms ; Data Collection ; Education ; Humans ; Korea ; Meditation ; Spirituality* ; Stomach

Background: The effects of far-infrared radiation (FIR) on the treatment of rotator cuff diseases remains unknown. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of FIR after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair with regard to postoperative pain and healing. Methods: This prospective randomized comparative study included 38 patients who underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair due to a medium-sized tear. Patients were randomly divided into the FIR or control group (n = 19 per group). In the FIR group, FIR with an FIR radiator started 1 week postoperatively for 30 minutes per session twice daily. It lasted until abduction brace weaning at 5 weeks postoperatively. We assessed pain using a pain visual analogue scale (pVAS) and measured the range of motion (ROM) of the shoulder at 5 weeks, and 3 and 6 months, postoperatively. The anatomical outcome was evaluated using magnetic resonance imaging at 6 months postoperatively. Results: At 5 weeks postoperatively, the average pVAS score was lower in the FIR group than in the control group (1.5 ± 0.8 vs. 2.7 ± 1.7; P = 0.019). At 3 months postoperatively, the average forward flexion was higher in the FIR group (151.6° ± 15.3° vs. 132.9° ± 27.8°;P = 0.045), but there was no significant difference at 6 months postoperatively. There was no significant difference in healing failure between the groups (P = 0.999). Conclusions FIR after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair could be an effective and safe procedure to reduce postoperative pain, thereby facilitating rehabilitation and better ROM in the early postoperative period.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between a number of clinically relevant variables and sonographic imaging data in respect to the level of impairment experienced in the affected and unaffected shoulders of hemiplegic stroke patients. METHOD: Fifty-one hemiplegic stroke patients (32 males, 19 females; 29 right-sided hemiplegics, 22 left-sided hemiplegics) participated in this study. A musculoskeletal radiologist conducted a sonographic exam on both the affected and unaffected shoulders of all patients and two physicians classified the severity of the injury on a six-point rating scale. Clinical variables including age, sex, duration of injury, spasticity and muscle power of the hemiplegic side, and level of functional activity of the shoulder were assessed. RESULTS: The sonographic rating scores of hemiplegic shoulders were positively correlated with age (p<0.01) and negatively correlated with level of muscle spasticity (p<0.05). The sonographic rating scores of unaffected shoulders were positively correlated with duration of injury (p<0.01). Affected shoulders received sonographic rating scores that reflected significantly more impairment than those of unaffected shoulders (p<0.001), and pre-morbid handedness did not affect the relationship between impairment rating and shoulder injury status. CONCLUSION: Hemiplegic stroke influences not only affected shoulders, but also unaffected sides. Proper management of spasticity, enhancement of motor recovery, and avoidance of unaffected shoulder overuse should be considered to prevent shoulder problems following strokes which result in hemiplegia.
Functional Laterality ; Hemiplegia ; Humans ; Male ; Muscle Spasticity ; Muscles ; Shoulder ; Stroke

Malignant biliary or pancreatic duct stricture is dilatated using dilatating catheter or balloon catheter but a high grade stricture is difficult to dilate by general dilatating methods. Using Soehendra stent retriever is an effective method for exchanging an impacted stent. Recently, high grade malignant biliary strictures have been dilatated by Soehendra stent retriever. We report 3 cases of successful biliary drainage in high grade malignant biliary strictures using 7 Fr Soehendra stent retriever.
Catheters ; Constriction, Pathologic* ; Drainage* ; Pancreatic Ducts ; Stents*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Assessing accurate audiometry might be an important index treating patients with hearing loss. So far there have been no studies on analysis of correlations between pure tone audiometry (PTA) and auditory steady-state response (ASSR) for children in Korea. We analyzed correlations between PTA and ASSR in order to investigate the usefulness of ASSR. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Past medical records were retrieved from the patients who visited Department of Otolaryngology at Tertiary Referral Hospital from January 2012 to December 2012 and underwent the correlation study between ASSR and PTA with a correlation analysis of frequency. The participants over the age of 15 were classified into the adult group and those below in the children group. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant correlation between the average hearing threshold of ASSR and PTA (correlation coefficient=0.934). There was a strong correlation between children and adult group, too. With the frequency range of 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz, the correlation coefficients were 0.875, 0.896, 0.915, and 0.900, respectively. The degree of hearing loss was classified by using PTA follows: below 25 dB as normal; between 26-55 dB as moderate hearing loss; above 56 dB as severe hearing loss. Correlation coefficients for the above hearing ranges were 0.527, 0.670, and 0.744, respectively. Strong correlation was found between children and adult group, too. CONCLUSION: The comparison results between the average hearing threshold of ASSR and PTA indicated that the threshold of ASSR could well reflect the results of both children and adult group.
Adult* ; Audiometry* ; Child* ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory ; Hearing ; Hearing Loss ; Humans ; Korea ; Medical Records ; Otolaryngology ; Statistics as Topic ; Tertiary Care Centers

Cardiac involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) is common and has been reported in more than 50% of the patients at the same stage during their illness. SLE can affect the heart in a number of ways;myocarditis, pericarditis, aortic insufficiency, hypertensive heart disease, and coronary arteritis. In recent years, with prolonged survival and improvement in diagnostic modalities, the cardiovascular manifestations of SLE have become more apparent. Coronary artery disease has a number of possible pathogenic mechanisms;atherosclerosis, coronary arteritis, spasm, and hypercoagulability. For management purposes, differentiation between arteritis and artheroslerosis is important. Atherosclerosis in the coronary as well as other vessels appears to be accelerated by SLE. Cardiovascular care to the SLE patients should be emphasized, because corticosteroid treatment and auto-immune mechanisms of SLE are able to promote the atherosclerosis of coronary arteries. We report 36-year-old otherwise healthy female with SLE who presented with severe ischemic heart disease requiring coronary by-pass surgery.
Adult ; Arteritis ; Atherosclerosis ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels ; Female ; Heart ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic* ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Pericarditis ; Spasm ; Thrombophilia

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of mechanical irrigation in combination with mouthwash of antimicrobial agents on salivary bacterial counts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was performed with a randomized study employing a panel of 40 healthy volunteers (20 males and 20 females) between the age of 26 and 32 years. Volunteers were randomly put in one of four treatment groups. In the first group, 0.2 mL of non-stimulatory saliva was collected from every subjective person. Then, saliva was collected after rinsing with chlorhexidine (CHX) for 1 minute. In the second group, non-stimulatory saliva was collected, and then saliva was collected after rinsing with CHX and irrigation with saline. In the third and fourth groups, the same procedures as the first and second groups were performed with povidone iodine (PVI) instead of CHX. All of these samples were cultured for 48 hours aerobically. The reduction rates of colony-forming units (CFU) were calculated for each group. The reduction rate between each group was tested statistically using student t-test. RESULTS: Using CHX in combination with saline irrigation showed a significant decrease of the salivary bacterial CFU when compared with only using CHX.(P<0.01) And using PVI with saline irrigation showed a little decrease of the CFU when compared with only using PVI, but there was no statistical significance.(P>0.01) CONCLUSION: It was concluded that the CHX or PVI used with saline irrigation made the salivary bacterial counts reduced more than when CHX or PVI was used alone as an oral antiseptic agent.
Anti-Infective Agents ; Bacterial Load ; Chlorhexidine ; Humans ; Male ; Mouthwashes ; Povidone-Iodine ; Saliva ; Stem Cells

Antipsychotics are the drug of choice for patients with schizophrenia, but they can induce hyperprolactinemia and growth of pituitary adenomas by blocking dopamine 2 receptors in the pituitary gland. In contrast, the medical treatment for a prolactinoma is a dopamine agonist. Therefore, managing a patient concurrently diagnosed with a prolactinoma and psychosis is challenging. We describe a patient with schizophrenia who was diagnosed with a prolactinoma. We changed his neuroleptic to quetiapine and prescribed bromocriptine for the prolactinoma. As a result, the patient was successfully treated with a dopamine agonist and antipsychotic without psychotic exacerbation. Our case suggests that dopamine agonists can be administrated to patients with schizophrenia and a prolactinoma without adversely affecting their psychopathological status.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Bromocriptine ; Dopamine ; Dopamine Agonists ; Humans ; Hyperprolactinemia ; Pituitary Gland ; Pituitary Neoplasms ; Prolactinoma ; Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia ; Quetiapine Fumarate

D2GSNP is a web-based server for the selection of single nucleotide polymorph isms (SNPs) within genes related to human diseases. The D2GSNP is based on a relational database created by downloading and parsing OMIM, GAD, and dbSNP, and merging it with positional information of UCSC Golden Path. Totally our server provides 5,142 and 1,932 non-redundant disease genes from OMIM and GAD, respectively. With the D2GSNP web interface, users can select SNPs within genes responding to certain diseases and get their flanking sequences for further genotyping experiments such as association studies.
Databases, Genetic ; Humans* ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide*

PURPOSE: Triple-positive breast cancer is defined by estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positivity. Several systemic breast cancer therapies target hormonal and HER2 responsiveness. We compared clinical outcomes of triple-positive disease with those of HER2-enriched and luminal HER2-negative disease and investigated the clinical efficacy of anti-HER2 therapy for triple-positive disease. METHODS: We retrospectively compared overall and recurrence-free survival among cases included in the Korean Breast Cancer Society (KBCS) and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital breast cancer registries and the therapeutic efficacy of trastuzumab for triple-positive and HER2-enriched cases. RESULTS: KBCS registry data (2006–2010; median follow-up, 76 months) indicated that patients with triple-positive breast cancer had intermediate survival between those with luminal A and HER2-enriched subtypes (p < 0.001). Trastuzumab did not improve overall survival among patients with triple-positive breast cancer (p=0.899) in contrast to the HER2-enriched subtype (p=0.018). Seoul St. Mary's Hospital registry data indicated similar recurrence-free survival outcomes (p < 0.001) and a lack of improvement with trastuzumab among patients with triple-positive breast cancer (median follow-up, 33 months; p=0.800). Multivariate analysis revealed that patients with triple-positive breast cancer had better overall survival than those with HER2-enriched disease and similar survival as those with the luminal A subtype (triple-positive: hazard ratio, 1.258, p=0.118; HER2-enriched: hazard ratio, 2.377, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our findings showed that anti-HER2 therapy was less beneficial for treatment of triple-positive breast cancer than for HER2-enriched subtypes of breast cancer, and the triple-positive subtype had a distinct prognosis.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Estrogens ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Multivariate Analysis ; Phenobarbital ; Prognosis ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor ; Receptor, ErbB-2 ; Receptors, Estrogen ; Receptors, Progesterone ; Registries ; Retrospective Studies ; Seoul ; Trastuzumab ; Treatment Outcome