The word "Delayed" in the legend of Figure 2 should have been written as "Controls."

PURPOSE: To investigate the clinical effects of a single high dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) combined with initial dexamethasone as a primary treatment on Kawasaki disease (KD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between January 2008 and December 2010, we reviewed the medical records of 216 patients with complete KD patients that were admitted to a single medical center. 106 patients were treated with a single high dose of IVIG (2 g/kg) alone and 110 patients received IVIG and dexamethasone (0.3 mg/kg per day for three days). RESULTS: The combined IVIG plus dexamethasone patient group had a significantly shorter febrile period and duration of hospital stay (1.4+/-0.7 days vs. 2.0+/-1.2 days, p<0.001; 5.8+/-1.7 days vs. 6.9+/-2.5 days, p<0.001, respectively) than the IVIG alone group. The combined IVIG plus dexamethasone group required IVIG retreatment significantly less than the IVIG only group (12.7% vs. 32%, p=0.003). After completion of the initial IVIG, C-reactive protein levels in the combined IVIG plus dexamethasone group were significantly lower than those in the IVIG only group (2.7+/-4.0 mg/dL vs. 4.6+/-8.7 mg/dL, p=0.03). In the combined IVIG plus dexamethasone group, the incidence of coronary artery lesions tended to be lower without worse outcomes at admission after initial infusion of IVIG and in follow-up at two months; however, the differences were not significant (8.2% vs. 11.3%, p=0.22; 0.9% vs. 2.8%, p=0.29). CONCLUSION: Initial combined therapy with dexamethasone and a single high-dose of IVIG resulted in an improved clinical course, in particular a shorter febrile period, less IVIG retreatment, and shorter hospital stay without worse coronary outcomes.
Child, Preschool ; Dexamethasone/administration & dosage/adverse effects/*therapeutic use ; Female ; Fever/drug therapy ; Glucocorticoids/administration & dosage/adverse effects/*therapeutic use ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins, Intravenous/administration & dosage/adverse effects/therapeutic use ; Immunologic Factors/administration & dosage/adverse effects/*therapeutic use ; Infant ; Length of Stay ; Male ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome/*drug therapy ; Treatment Outcome

PURPOSE: This study was performed to identify factors affecting terminal care performance of clinical nurses. METHODS: The participants in this study were 175 nurses working in hospitals in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province. Data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire and were analyzed with the IBM SPSS WIN 19.0 program. RESULTS: Nurses' terminal care performance was significantly related with suffering experience, empathy ability and caring behaviors. Significant predictors for terminal care performance were their department, empathy ability and caring behaviors. These factors explained 43.52% of the variance in terminal care performance of clinical nurses. CONCLUSION: Our study results suggest that terminal care performance of clinical nurses can be strengthened by improving empathy ability and caring behaviors.
Daegu ; Empathy* ; Nursing Care ; Terminal Care*

Lymphoma is the second most common neoplasm in the head and neck, and is the most common cause of unilateral neck mass in patients between 21 and 40 years of age. This report is a retrospective review of histologically proven lymphomas in 42 patients regarding histologic type, clinical stage, and CT imaging patterns. CT imaging plays an important role in making diagnosis, planning treatment, and evaluating recurrence after treatment. CT imaging patterns are classified into 4 types: Type 1 is nodal lymphoma, Type 2 extranodal lymphoma, Type 3 combined nodal and extranodal lymphoma, and Type 4 multifocal extranodal lymphoma. In conclusion, Lymphoma should be considered when multiple, nonnecrotic, homogenous lymph nodes are located in deep lymphatic chains (especially when they are large and bilateral or when both are the superficial and deep lymph node chains are involved simultaneously) and no mucosal abnormality of the aerodigestive tract is observed. Additionary, when a large nasopharyngeal mass lesion shows limited or equivocal bone destruction or a mass is identified on two sides of a nasal bone without frank destruction and when multiple sites of disease are identified in extranodal tissues.
Diagnosis ; Head* ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphoma* ; Nasal Bone ; Neck* ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies

BACKGROUND: The use of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) in childhood hypertension has been in great advance. ABPM has been able to detect significantly high blood pressure (BP) and also helpful for identifying white coat hypertension. METHODS: Between March 2007 and December 2009, we evaluated individuals aged from 7 to 19 years who were referred as high BP with ABPM, echocardiogram, and abdominal computerized tomography, calculation of body mass index (BMI) at Ajou University Hospital. ABPM was performed using the Tonoport V monitors and SpaceLab 90217 monitors. Seventy were evaluated with 55 boys and 5 girls. The mean age of them was 13.1 +/- 2.8 years (mean +/- standard deviation). RESULTS: Forty of seventy (57.1%) were diagnosed as hypertension in ABPM and 8 of 40 were diagnosed as secondary hypertension with underline diseases such as hyperthyroidism, chronic renal disease, Takayasu's arteritis, coarctation of aorta. The mean BMI in 40 was 24.8 +/- 4.72 kg/m2. Twenty-three of seventy (32.8%) were obese with higher prevalence than in general population. White coat hypertension was diagnosed in 30 of 70 (42.9%). CONCLUSIONS: ABPM could provide more detailed data including mean values of BP, load, and night dip in assessment of children's BP. According to increasing children's obesity, use of ABPM was thought to be necessary for evaluation of their risk of hypertension and useful for diagnosis of masked hypertension and white coat hypertension. Further more study of ABPM in children and adolescents would be needed for absolute standards of ABPM.
Adolescent ; Aged ; Aortic Coarctation ; Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory ; Body Mass Index ; Child ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Hyperthyroidism ; Masked Hypertension ; Obesity ; Prevalence ; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic ; Takayasu Arteritis ; White Coat Hypertension

Epiduroscopy is very useful in the treatment of not only low back pain caused by failed back surgery syndrome, epidural scar or herniated disc but also by chronic refractory low back pain which does not respond to interventional conservative treatment including fluoroscopically-directed epidural steroid injections and percutaneous adhesiolysis. Because cauterization using a laser fiber has become recently available, a wider opening is required to enter into the sacral canal in the case of epiduroscopic laser neural decompression (ELND). However, in a few patients, it is difficult to insert a device into the epidural space due to stenosis around the opening, and there is no alternative method. Herein, we report a case where a hiatus rasp specially designed for such patients was used to perform the operation.
Cicatrix ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Decompression ; Epidural Space ; Failed Back Surgery Syndrome ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc Displacement ; Low Back Pain

In many clinical settings, patients undergoing major surgery and patients with critical illness or cancer routinely receive a central venous catheter (CVC). Although several complications including hematoma formation, hemothorax, hydrothorax, chylothorax and cardiac tamponade with vascular injury are associated with the placement of CVCs, their incidence are not frequent. Especially, hydromediastinum and bilateral hydrothorax are very rare. We experienced an unusual complication of hydromediastinum and bilateral hydrothorax by left brachiocephalic vein perforation with misplacement of the catheter tip after right subclavian vein catheterization.
Brachiocephalic Veins ; Cardiac Tamponade ; Catheterization ; Catheters ; Central Venous Catheters ; Chylothorax ; Critical Illness ; Hematoma ; Hemothorax ; Humans ; Hydrothorax ; Incidence ; Subclavian Vein ; Vascular System Injuries

BACKGROUND: 5-Hydroxytryptamine3 (5-HT3) receptor antagonists have been reported to attenuate spinal anesthesia-induced hemodynamic changes. This study was conducted to determine whether the second generation 5-HT3, antagonist palonosetron attenuates hypotension and bradycardia during spinal anesthesia. METHODS: Sixty adult patients scheduled for lower limb surgery were enrolled in this study. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either normal saline (Control group, N = 30) or palonosetron (0.075 mg, i.v.) (Palonosetron group, N = 30) prior to spinal anesthesia. Hemodynamic variables were recorded during anesthesia. RESULTS: The mean blood pressure (MBP) were 89.2 ± 11.4 mmHg in the control group and 87.6 ± 12.1 mmHg in the palonosetron group at 10 min after intrathecal injection (P = 0.609). The median blocked levels of the control group and the palonosetron group were T10 (interquartile range, 9-10) and T10 (8-10) at 20 min after intrathecal injection (P = 0.939). Requirements for ephedrine, phenylephrine, and atropine were similar (P = 0.652, 0.533 and 0.417, respectively). The incidences of hypotension (40% vs. 41%) and bradycardia (7% vs. 17%) were comparable (P = 0.562, P = 0.198, respectively) between the control and the palonosetron group. There were no significances in the changes of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, MBP and heart rate by the group (P = 0.632, 0.287, 0.556, 0.733, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous palonosetron (0.075 mg) prior to spinal anesthesia might not attenuate spinal anesthesia-induced hypotension during low level of neuroaxial block for lower limb surgery.
Adult ; Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, Spinal ; Atropine ; Blood Pressure ; Bradycardia ; Ephedrine ; Heart Rate ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Hypotension* ; Incidence ; Injections, Spinal ; Lower Extremity ; Orthopedics* ; Phenylephrine

We describe a 58-year-old woman who was incidentally found to have gastric and colonic polyposis, hypoalbuminemia, cutaneous hyperpigmentation and onychodystrophy (Cronkhite-Canada syndrome). Histology of polyps from the stomach showed features of juvenile or retention type (hamartomatous) polyps with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. The large pedunculated colonic polyps showed hamartomatous polyps with adenomatous component and polypectomy was performed. After the treatment with H. pylori eradication and omeprazole, the gastric polyposis, hypoalbuminemia and anemia regressed, and endoscopic polypectomy of gastric polyps were performed. After the continuous use of omeprazole for 14 months, the patient showed complete resolution of clinical features of Cronkhite-Canada syndome. The experience of this case suggests that eradication of H. pylori and proton pump inhibitor treatment might be considered in patients with gastric polyposis combined with Cronkhite-Canada syndome.
Anti-Ulcer Agents/*therapeutic use ; Colonic Polyps/complications/microbiology/pathology ; Female ; Helicobacter Infections/complications/*drug therapy ; *Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Hyperpigmentation/pathology ; Middle Aged ; Nails, Malformed/pathology ; Omeprazole/*therapeutic use ; Polyps/*complications/microbiology/pathology ; Proton Pumps/antagonists & inhibitors ; Stomach Neoplasms/*complications/microbiology/pathology ; Syndrome

Dieulafoy's lesion is an uncommon source of massive gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The lesion predominantly occurs in the proximal stomach, but may occur in all parts of the gastrointestinal tract including small bowel, colon and rectum. We herein report a case of a patient who presented with hematochezia from Dieulafoy's lesion of the terminal ileum with adherent blood clots. Bleeding was successfully controlled with endoscopic treatment by utilizing hemoclipping.
Colon ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Ileum ; Rectum ; Stomach