BACKGROUND: Hemodialysis patients are increasing every year and bloodstream infections (BSIs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients receiving hemodialysis. As the domestic studies have not explored the incidence of BSIs, the distribution and current situation of microorganism and so on this study was carried out to determine the incidence and epidemiological risk factors of the BSIs in hemodialysis patients. A distribution of pathogenic organism of the BSIs was investigated. METHODS: This study was carried out for those 275 patients with hemodialysis for 12 months the patients who underwent hemodialysis in the hemodialysis center within the university hospital. Data was collected by structural questionnaire, medical record review. The definition for BSIs was based on that of CDC. RESULTS: A total of 59 BSIs occurred during 123,502 dialysis sessions. The bloodstream infection rate per 1,000 dialysis sessions was 0.48 overall and varied markedly by the type of vascular access: 0.1 for arteriovenous fistulas, 0.54 for arteriovenous grafts. 2.57 for permanent catheters and 5.39 for temporary catheters. The most common pathogen isolated from the BSIs was MSSA and MRSA 18.0%, Streptococcus species 11.5%. In a logistic regression analysis, immunosuppressive therapy (OR=8.081, p=0.001), case of starting hemodialysis in the intensive care unit (OR=4.855, p=0.043) were associated independently with BSIs. CONCLUSION: Based on this study, continuous study and effort together with interest in BSIs, and the study on BSIs in hemodialysis patients should be further continued in the years to come. Surveillance for BSIs is recommended as a routine activity in hemodialysis center.
Arteriovenous Fistula ; Bacteremia ; Catheters ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Cross Infection ; Dialysis ; Humans ; Incidence ; Intensive Care Units ; Logistic Models ; Medical Records ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ; Mortality ; Renal Dialysis* ; Risk Factors ; Streptococcus ; Transplants ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder that leads to a progressive muscle wasting and paralysis. The pathological phenotypes are featured by severe motor neuron death and glial activation in the lumbar spinal cord. Proposed ALS pathogenic mechanisms include glutamate cytotoxicity, inflammatory pathway, oxidative stress, and protein aggregation. However, the exact mechanisms of ALS pathogenesis are not fully understood yet. Recently, a growing body of evidence provides a novel insight on the importance of glial cells in relation to the motor neuronal damage via the non-cell autonomous pathway. Accordingly, the aim of the current paper is to overview the role of astrocytes and microglia in the pathogenesis of ALS and to better understand the disease mechanism of ALS.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ; Astrocytes* ; Glutamic Acid ; Microglia* ; Motor Neurons ; Neurodegenerative Diseases ; Neuroglia ; Oxidative Stress ; Paralysis ; Phenotype ; Spinal Cord

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the social determinants of health (SDH) associated with health-related quality of life (HQOL) among the community-dwelling elderly, based on the conceptual framework of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH). METHODS: A survey was conducted with 199 elders aged 65 years or older sampled through convenient sampling. Data were collected through face to face interviews by trained interviewers using a structured questionnaire, which included scales of the residential area, social support, sense of community, social network, health behaviors, and HQOL. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and stepwise multivariate regression. RESULTS: Major SDH affecting HQOL included the participants' residential area, sense of community, and health behavior. The HQOL of the elderly residing in the B area with a low rate of basic livelihood security recipients was higher than that of those residing in other areas. CONCLUSION: CSDH framework was useful to determine the factors associated with HQOL among the community-dwelling elderly. In addition to their health behavior, their sense of community was found to be a SDH of HQOL, indicating the need of health promotion programs tailored to the characteristics of residential areas and strategies to enhance involvement in community activities.
Aged* ; Health Behavior ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Quality of Life* ; Social Determinants of Health* ; Weights and Measures ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The purpose of this study was to verify whether small intestinal peristalsis could be observed and quantitatively assessed using pulsed-Doppler ultrasound. Pulsed-Doppler ultrasound was used to evaluate small intestinal peristalsis after a meal in ten normal dogs and ten sedated dogs. The small intestinal peristalses were measured 0, 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 hours after a 24-hour fast and after feeding. The number of small intestinal peristalsis were 0.133/min, 0.100/min, 0.033/min, 0.167/min, 0.070/min, 0.067/min, and 0.100/min in the fasted dogs, and 1.667/ min, 0.933/min, 1.133/min, 1.234/min, 1.933/min, 1.533/ min, and 0.533/min in fed dogs, respectively. In the dogs sedated with xylazine HCl, the number of small intestinal peristalsis was significantly reduced (p<0.01). However, in the dogs treated with ketamine HCl and acepromazine, the number of small intestinal peristalsis remained unchanged. Therefore, it can be concluded that pulsed-Doppler ultrasound allows graphic visualization of the intestinal movements, which can be subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis, and may be suitable for a non-invasive study of small intestinal motility.
Acepromazine/pharmacology ; Animals ; Dogs ; Dopamine Antagonists/pharmacology ; Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists/pharmacology ; *Gastrointestinal Motility/drug effects ; Intestine, Small/drug effects/*physiology/ultrasonography ; Ketamine/pharmacology ; Peristalsis/drug effects/*physiology ; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Pulsed/methods/*veterinary

The purpose of this study was to examine sanitation management practices of restaurant managers for the training needs analysis. A total of 26 restaurant managers participated in this study. A check list was consisted of three parts : facility, personal, and food hygiene. Two observers and one manager evaluated the same check list at same time and the results were compared. The results of this study suggested that most restaurants have needed for re-training programs in the view of facility, personal, food sanitation practices. Specially, proper washing and sanitizing methods for hands and utensils, proper cooking and holding temperature, and proper storing methods were needed to be trained. Based on this study, most independent restaurant managers in Cheonan were aware of training, but they had no effective training program manuals. Results of this study implicated that dietitians have new opportunity for consultants of independent restaurants in the region because they have practiced sanitation management manuals.
Chungcheongnam-do* ; Consultants* ; Cooking ; Diagnostic Self Evaluation* ; Education ; Feasibility Studies* ; Hand ; Humans ; Hygiene ; Nutritionists ; Restaurants* ; Sanitation*

A 1-year-old male Persian cat was presented for castration. Liver incarcerated in a peritoneopericardial diaphragmatic hernia (PPDH) was diagnosed through pre-anesthetic tests. Multiple homogeneous hyperechoic nodules in the hepatic parenchyma were identified using ultrasound. The nodules showed decreased attenuation compared with normal hepatic parenchyma, and the herniated hepatic parenchyma showed increased arterial and decreased portal enhancement on computed tomography. From the histopathology, we diagnosed hydropic degeneration with portal fibrosis and myelolipoma. This report presents diagnostic imaging features of hepatic myelolipoma incarcerated in a PPDH in a cat. When perfusion of the hepatic parenchyma is altered, surgical treatment should be considered.

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

BACKGROUND: Remifentanil has gained wide clinical acceptance during anesthesia due to its short context-sensitive half time and organ-independent metabolism. However, its mechanism as an anesthetic remains unclear. Glutamate transporters may be important targets for anesthetic action in the central nervous system, and we tested whether remifentanil affected the activity of the primary neuronal glutamate transporter, EAAC1 (excitatory amino acid carrier 1). METHODS: EAAC1 was expressed in Xenopus oocytes by mRNA injection. By using two-electrode voltage clamping, membrane currents were recorded before, during, and after application of L-glutamate (30microM) in the presence or absence of remifentanil. Oocytes were exposed to a protein kinase C (PKC) activator and inhibitor to study the role of PKC on EAAC1 activity. RESULTS: L-Glutamate induced an inward current in EAAC1-expressing oocytes. This response increased in a bell-shaped manner in the presence of 0.1microM to 1 mM remifentanil. Remifentanil significantly increased Vmax (3.1 +/- 0.2microC for controls vs. 4.9 +/- 0.3 microC for remifentanil treatment; n = 12-15; P < 0.05). However, remifentanil did not significantly change Km. Treatment of the oocytes with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), a PKC activator, caused a significant increase in transporter current (1.00 +/- 0.03 to 1.35 +/- 0.03microC; P < 0.05). Oocytes pretreated with the PKC inhibitor alone (staurosporine) abolished remifentanilenhanced EAAC1 activity. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggests that remifentanil enhances EAAC1 activity and that PKC is involved in mediating this effect.
Amino Acid Transport System X-AG ; Anesthesia ; Central Nervous System ; Constriction ; Glutamic Acid ; Membranes ; Negotiating ; Neurons ; Oocytes ; Piperidines ; Protein Kinase C ; RNA, Messenger ; Xenopus

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*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the reality of workplace violence experienced by emergency nurses and the relationship of violence response to professional quality of life. METHODS: The participants in this study were 899 emergency nurses from Korea nationwide. Data were obtained through an online survey done during October, 2017. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Of the emergency nurses, 72.1% recognized that workplace violence is serious. Experience with workplace violence correlated positively with violence reaction (r=.32, p < .001), burnout (r=.20, p < .001) and secondary trauma (r=.22, p < .001). Also, reaction to violence was positively correlated with burnout (r=.28, p < .001) and secondary trauma (r=.56, p < .001). CONCLUSION: Findings indicate that the diverse workplace violence experienced by emergency nurses decreases their professional quality of life. Further study is needed to develop solutions to the problem of workplace violence in emergency settings.
Compassion Fatigue ; Emergencies ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Korea ; Quality of Life ; Violence ; Workplace Violence