PURPOSE: This study investigated attitudes toward general elders and elders with dementia among nursing students before beginning the clinical practicum. In addition, students' characteristics differentiating the attitudes were examined. METHODS: Attitudes were measured with questionnaires developed for Asian culture at the beginning week of the first semester of the junior year in two baccalaureate programs. Responses from 120 out of 121 students were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient, paired t-test, ANOVA, and Scheffe test. RESULTS: Students held negative attitudes toward both types of elders except for generosity dimension toward general elders showing a neutral attitude. Elders with dementia were evaluated more negatively than general elders in all the dimensions of vitality, generosity and flexibility. Vitality and generosity toward general elders were different according to intimacy and the degree of communication with elders. Generosity toward general elders was also different according to students' religious beliefs. Students with interest in elders/issues showed more negative attitudes of vitality and flexibility toward elders with dementia. CONCLUSIONS: Students in general had negative attitudes toward elders and more negative attitudes toward elders with dementia. We need to put more efforts into the entire nursing curriculum in order to improve attitudes toward elders with particular concern over attitudes toward elders with dementia.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Curriculum ; Dementia* ; Humans ; Nursing ; Pliability ; Religion ; Students, Nursing* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: This study investigated changes in attitudes toward elders in general and elders with dementia after students finished a gerontological nursing practicum. METHODS: Questionnaires developed for Asian cultures were administered pre practicum, immediately post practicum, and at 8-months follow up to 31 senior students in a baccalaureate nursing program. The 1-week practicum occurred at two adult day care centers: a center for elders with dementia and a center for elders with stroke. Repeated measures ANOVA and Bonferroni correction procedures were used to analyze data. RESULTS: Students' evaluation of elder vitality and flexibility increased significantly at post practicum, however this increase was not sustained at follow up. Score of generosity of elders, the only positively evaluated dimension for elders in general, improved partly at post practicum. Students evaluated flexibility and generosity of elders with dementia more negatively than general elders. All of the decreased attitudes at follow up were not significantly different from those at pre practicum. CONCLUSIONS: Students had more negative attitudes toward elders with dementia. Attitudes of students in direct contact with elders with dementia were improved through the practicum regarding generosity and flexibility. However the sustainability of the immediate effect was not observed at follow up.
Adult ; Aged ; Analysis of Variance ; *Attitude of Health Personnel ; Day Care ; Dementia/*nursing ; *Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate ; Female ; Geriatric Nursing/*education ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Stroke/*nursing ; Students, Nursing

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an antibody-mediated autoimmune disease characterized by exertional weakness. There is no biomarker to reflect disease activity and guide treatment decision. Here, we reported a pilot blood transcriptome study using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) that identified differences of 5 samples in active status and 5 in remission from 8 different patients and 2 patients provided samples for both active and remission phase. We found a total of 28 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) possibly related to disease activity (23 up-regulated and 5 down-regulated). The DEGs were enriched for the cell motion and cell migration processes in which included were ICAM1, CCL3, S100P and GAB2. The apoptosis and cell death pathway was also significantly enriched, which includes NFKBIA, ZC3H12A, TNFAIP3, and PPP1R15A. Our result suggests that transcript abundance profiles of the genes involved in cell trafficking and apoptosis may be a molecular signature of the disease activity in MG patients.
Apoptosis ; Autoimmune Diseases ; Cell Death ; Cell Movement ; Gene Expression Profiling* ; Humans ; Myasthenia Gravis* ; Sequence Analysis, RNA ; Transcriptome*

Guillain-Barre syndrome is an acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculopathy characterized by progressive motor weakness, areflexia, and ascending paralysis. Guillain-Barre syndrome is extremely rare in pregnant patients, and there are no established guidelines for delivery or safest anesthetic methods. We report a Cesarean delivery in the case of a 32-year old woman who was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome 18 weeks into gestation. Tracheostomy was performed due to progressive respiratory muscle weakness and respiratory failure, and ventilator support was required in the intensive care unit. The respiratory difficulty was exacerbated by the growth of the fetus, necessitating emergency Cesarean delivery. The delivery was successfully performed under general anesthesia, and the patient recovered without neurological sequelae.
Anesthesia, General ; Cesarean Section ; Emergencies ; Female ; Fetus ; Guillain-Barre Syndrome ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Paralysis ; Polyradiculopathy ; Pregnancy ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Respiratory Muscles ; Tracheostomy ; Ventilators, Mechanical

PURPOSE: This study was designed to assess the types of nursing organizational culture, and degree of self-leadership and burnout as perceived by perioperative nurses, and to identify correlations between these variables. METHODS: Participants were 155 nurses from 3 tertiary hospitals in Seoul and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Scheffé, and Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: In the types of nursing organizational culture, the mean score for hierarchy-oriented culture was 3.57, and for self-leadership, 3.61 and for burnout, 2.87. In the relationship between the types of nursing organizational culture, self-leadership and burnout, relation-oriented culture (r=.24, p<.01), innovation-oriented culture (r=.23, p<.01) and task-oriented culture (r=.22, p<.01) had a slight positive correlation with self-leadership in that order. The innovation-oriented culture (r=-.29, p<.01) and relation-oriented culture (r=-.42, p<.01) among the types of nursing organizational culture showed a negative correlation with burnout while the hierarchy-oriented culture (r=.28, p<.01) showed a positive correlation with burnout. Self-leadership showed a negative correlation with burnout (r=-.42, p<.01). CONCLUSION: The results show that nurses in operating rooms have a high awareness of hierarchy-oriented culture that affects burnout in a negative way while having a low awareness of relation-oriented culture that has a positive influence on burnout.
Nursing* ; Operating Rooms ; Organizational Culture* ; Seoul ; Tertiary Care Centers

Recently, social cognition is becoming a hot issue in field of schizophrenia research. There are increasing demands for more clear definition of terms and knowledge about neurobiology of social cognition in schizophrenia. One of the reasons why it receives so much attention would be its role of predicting the functional outcomes of schizophrenia patients. The purpose of this article is to review and summarize the concepts and neural correlates of social cognition in schizophrenia. Functional brain imaging studies as well as behavioral studies were reviewed.
Cognition* ; Functional Neuroimaging ; Humans ; Neurobiology* ; Schizophrenia* ; Theory of Mind

Retrobulbar block is commonly performed under monitored anesthesia prior to cataract surgery. Known complications associated with retrobulbar block include cranial nerve palsies, seizures, and cardiorespiratory arrest. We report a case of severe shivering following a retrobulbar block. Two minutes after the block was administered, the patient experienced severe shivering, which subsided after injection of pethidine 25 mg. The likely etiology of the shivering was inadvertent dural puncture of the optic nerve sheath and local anesthetic spread into the cerebrospinal fluid space. Shivering may be a warning sign of brain stem anesthesia, and in such a scenario the clinician should direct special attention to possible life-threatening complications.
Anesthesia ; Brain Stem ; Cataract ; Cranial Nerve Diseases ; Humans ; Meperidine ; Nerve Block ; Optic Nerve ; Punctures ; Seizures ; Shivering

No abstract available.
Amnesia, Transient Global* ; Posterior Leukoencephalopathy Syndrome*

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mapping are functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques for detecting water diffusion. DWI and the ADC map were performed for intracranial lesions in two dogs. In necrotizing leukoencephalitis, cavitated lesions contained a hypointense center with a hyperintense periphery on DWI, and hyperintense signals on the ADC maps. In metastatic sarcoma, masses including a necrotic region were hypointense with DWI, and hyperintense on the ADC map with hyperintense perilesional edema on DWI and ADC map. Since DWI and ADC data reflect the altered water diffusion, they can provide additional information at the molecular level.
Animals ; Brain/*pathology ; Brain Neoplasms/pathology/*veterinary ; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging/*veterinary ; Dog Diseases/*pathology ; Dogs ; Female ; Leukoencephalopathies/pathology/*veterinary ; Necrosis/veterinary ; Neuroimaging/*veterinary ; Sarcoma/pathology/*veterinary

BACKGROUND: Epidural analgesia provides effective pain control during labor. However, its influence on the course of delivery is controversial. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of epidural analgesia on the course of delivery and the perinatal outcome and to examine the changes of the cesarean delivery rates that are associated with epidural analgesia. METHODS: Among 1,200 parturients who delivered in our hospital from 2003 to 2005, we obtained the demographic and obstetric data for 240 primiparous deliveries (120 women in the epidural group [group E] and 120 women in the nonepidural group [group N]). The duration of the active phase and the second and third stages of labor, the perinatal outcome and the incidence of emergency cesarean delivery were analyzed. RESULTS: The duration of the second stage of labor was longer in group E (41 +/-23 min in group N vs. 49 +/-28 min in group E, P = 0.02). The incidences of cesarean delivery were similar between the two groups [15 (12.5%) in group N vs. 18 (15%) in group E, P = 0.6]. The incidences of fetal distress during the active phase of labor did not differ in both groups (48% vs. 41%, respectively, P = 0.4). The neonatal outcomes, including the birth weight, fetal heart rate deceleration or bradycardia during labor and the Apgar score, were similar between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that epidural labor analgesia does not seem to be associated with an increased incidence of cesarean delivery. In addition, epidural labor analgesia seems to have no adverse effect on the perinatal outcomes of primiparous women.
Analgesia ; Analgesia, Epidural ; Apgar Score ; Birth Weight ; Bradycardia ; Deceleration ; Emergencies ; Female ; Fetal Distress ; Heart Rate, Fetal ; Humans ; Incidence ; Pregnancy ; Retrospective Studies