This study is a methodical research to develop a health behavior assessment scale for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and to test the validity and reliability of the instrument. The research procedure was as follows; 1) The first step was to develop conceptual framework based on a comprehensive review of the literature, in-depth interviews patients with rheumatoid arthritis. This conceptual framework was organized in eight dimensions; pain management, exercise, rest, diet control, active committment, self-management, positive thinking, interpersonal maintenance. Initially 56 items were selected from 164 statement. 2) These items were reviewed by panel of eight specialists and the Index of Content validity (CVI) was calculated, and forty six items were selected which met more than 70% on the CVI. 3) 174 rheumatoid arthritis pateints were interviewed, and data was gathered from Jan. 25 to Feb. 18, 1999 for test reliabilities and validities of the scale. The item analysis was carried out and 40 items were selected. Factor analysis by varimax rotation was carried out to test construct validity. The internal consistency by chronbach's alpha was calculated. The findings were as follows; 1) Item analysis and factor analysis were carried out to test the validity of the health behavior assessment scale. The item analysis was based on the corrected item`s to total correlation coefficient (.30 or more), and information about the alpha estimate. However, this was only if this item was deleted from the scale. As a result of the item analysis, forty items were selected. Thirty items were selected by a initial factor analysis by varimax rotation, and ten items were deleted because of factor complexity. In the secondary factor analysis, eight factors were labled as 'positive thinking', 'exercise', 'rest', 'pain management', 'active committment', 'self-management', 'diet control', and 'interpersonal maintenance', each similar with the conceptual framework. 2) Chronbach's alpha coefficient to test reliability of the scale was. 903 for total the thirty items. The Scale for assessing health behavior developed in this study was identified to be a tool with a high degree of reliability and validity. Therefore this scale can be effectively utilized for assessment in the health behaviors of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* ; Diet ; Health Behavior* ; Humans ; Pain Management ; Reproducibility of Results ; Self Care ; Specialization ; Thinking

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*

PURPOSE: This study was done to develop and to evaluate an integrative palliative care scale for cancer patients. METHODS: The process included construction of a conceptual framework, generation of initial items, verification of content validity, selection of secondary items, preliminary study, and extraction of final items. The participants were 173 cancer patients in Daegu and Gyeongbuk. Item analysis, factor analysis, criterion related validity, and internal consistency were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Eighteen items were selected for the final scale, and categorized into 3 factors explaining 58.3% of total variance. The factors were labeled as social/environmental palliative care (9 items), psychological palliative care (4 items), and physical palliative care (3 items), and spiritually palliative care (2 items). The scores for the scale were significantly correlated with the quality of life of cancer patients. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the 18 items was .88. CONCLUSION: The above findings indicate that the integrative palliative care scale has good validity and reliability when used for cancer patients.
Daegu ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Palliative Care* ; Quality of Life ; Reproducibility of Results

BACKGROUND: Lung pericytes are important constituent cells of blood-air barrier in pulmonary microvasculature. These cells take part in the control of vascular contractility and permeability. In this study, it was hypothesized that change of lung pericytes might be attributable to pathologic change in microvasculature in acute lung injury. The purpose of this study was how hypoxia change proliferation and genetic expression in lung pericytes. METHODS: From the lungs of several Sprague-Dawley rats, performed the primary culture of lung pericytes and subculture. Characteristics of lung pericytes were confirmed with stellate shape in light microscopy and immunocytochemistry. 2% concentration of oxygen and 200muM CoCl2 were treated to cells. Tryphan blue method and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction were done. RESULTS: 1. We established methodology for primary culture of lung pericytes. 2. Hypoxia inhibited cellular proliferation in pericytes. 3. Hypoxia could markedly induce vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) and smad-2. 4. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha)was also induced by 2% oxygen. CONCLUSION: Viability of lung pericytes are inhibited by hypoxia. Hypoxia can stimulate expression of hypoxia-responsive genes. Pericytic change may be contributed to dysfunction of alveolar-capillary barrier in various pulmonary disorders.
Acute Lung Injury ; Anoxia ; Blood-Air Barrier ; Cell Proliferation ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lung* ; Microscopy ; Microvessels ; Oxygen ; Pericytes* ; Permeability ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

Sinus histiocytosis with massive lymphadenopathy (SHML) is a rare disorder characterized by a nonneoplastic proliferation of distinctive histiocyte cells within lymph node sinuses and lymphatics in extranodal sites. SHML occurs worldwide and is primarily a disease of childhood and early adulthood. A 26-yr-old man presented with painless palpable lymph node in cervical area. Radiographic studies revealed pleural effusion with lymphadenopathy and calcification in mediastinum. The cervical lymph node biopsy showed dilated sinuses filled with histiocytes with clear cytoplasm. The cells stained positive with CD68 and S-100. These cytologic and immunohistochemical findings were considered consistent with the diagnosis of SHML.
Adult ; Antigens, CD/metabolism ; Antigens, Differentiation, Myelomonocytic/metabolism ; Histiocytes/pathology ; Histiocytosis, Sinus/*diagnosis/metabolism/pathology ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes/pathology ; Male ; Neck ; Pleural Effusion/*radiography ; S100 Proteins/metabolism ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

BACKGROUND: The solitary pulmonary nodule(SPN) presents a diagnostic dilemma to the physician and the patients in the our nation with high incidence of tuberculoma. We could not exclude whether the SPN was benign or malignant by the change of the size at chest radiograph and findings of chest CT. Recently, positron emission tomography(PET) have been tried as the differential diagnostic method of SPN. We evaluated the efficacy of PET for differentiating malignant from benign SPN and the relationship between standardized uptake values(SUV) of PET and serum glucose. METHODS: Between January 2001 and July 2002, sixty-one patients with pulmonary nodule were examined by the chest CT and PET. The SPN has been finally diagnosed by the transthorasic needle aspiration and biopsy, bronchoscopic biopsy, and open lung biopsy. RESULTS: Forty eight patients had a malignant nodule(23 squamous cell lung carcinoma, 16 adenocarcinoma, 9 small cell lung cancer) and thirteen patients had a benign nodule(3 tuberculoma, 9 inflammatory granuloma, 1 cryptococcosis). The mean size of malignant and benign nodule was 40.6 mm and 20.0 mm, respectively. All malignant nodules showed a marked increase in 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake. Mean SUV of malignant was 9.52+/-5.20 and benign nodule was 1.61+/-3.60. There were false positive cases with an increase in 18-FDG uptake (2 tuberculoma, 1 inflammatory granuloma). The SUV of malignant nodule in diabetes patients has no difference in non diabetes patients(9.10+/-4.51 vs 9.65+/-5.46). The sensitivity and specificity of the PET scan for SPN were 100%, 77%, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values were 94% and 100%. CONCLUSION: PET scanning showed highly accurate result in differentiating the malignant and benign SPN. There were no significant differences between the SUV and serum glucose in the patients with lung cancer.
Adenocarcinoma ; Biopsy ; Blood Glucose* ; Electrons ; Glucose ; Granuloma ; Humans ; Incidence ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Needles ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Solitary Pulmonary Nodule* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Tuberculoma