PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of structured information provided on self care knowledge, self care performance, and functional status. METHOD: The data were collected using self care knowledge and performance assessment tool, and functional status assessment tool from both group hospitalized patients at D hospital in Busan. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement(p=.032) in self care knowledge in experimental group compared to the control group. But there were not improvement in self care performance and functional status in experimental group compared to the control group. But comparing to pretest and posttest in experimental group, There were significant improvement in self care performance (p=.003) and functional status(p=.013). CONCLUSION: Structured information provided showed increased in the degree of knowledge, self care performance, and functional status. But the effect size of program which had been developed in this study was estimated small, so there is needed to modify this program and to research repeatedly.
Busan ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver* ; Self Care*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the CT findings of acute pyelonephritis (APN) in children and to assess the correlation between these findings, clinical parameters and renal scar development, as seen on follow-up CT scans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Contrast-enhanced CT scans of thirty children in whom APN had been diagnosed were assigned to one of three groups according to whether an abscess had formed, and then to subgroups on the basis of the number of lesions in the renal parenchyme. Initial CT findings were retrospectively correlated with five clinical parameters (maximal body temperature, fever duration, leukocytosis, pyuria and admission period) and renal scar development, as seen on follow-up CT (n=12). RESULTS: CT scans demonstrated linear, wedge-shaped, low-density renal parenchymal lesions in 35 kidneys of 25 patients and abscesses in seven kidneys of seven patients, but no abnormal lesions in five patients. In the three groups there was correlation between these findings and some clinical parameters (maximal body temperature, fever duration and admission period), but no subgroup showed significant correlation with any clini-cal parameter. Renal cortical scars detected by follow-up CT were more prevalent in patients in whom initial CT demonstrated the presence of an abscess. CONCLUSION: Clinical parameters correlated with the presence of renal parenchymal hypoenhancing lesions and abscess formation, as seen on CT scans, rather than the number of renal parenchymal lesions. Renal cortical scars were more prevalent in patients in whom initial CT revealed the presence of an abscess. Enhanced CT is thought to be useful both for diagnosing APN and for predicting its clinical course in children.
Abscess ; Body Temperature ; Child ; Cicatrix ; Fever ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kidney ; Leukocytosis ; Pyelonephritis* ; Pyuria ; Retrospective Studies ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to empirically investigate the determinants on oxygen free radical degree which causes biological damage focusing on smoking habit and health behaviors in daily life. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the subjects were adult males who submitted free radical tests among the examinees of the comprehensive medical testings at an university hospital in Suwon from 2008 to 2010. Total 497 samples were used in analyses for clarifying the relations of free radical degree to age, smoking, obesity, and other health behaviors. RESULTS: First, the degree of oxygen free radical increases by 0.164 as the age group increases (P<0.05). Second, the degree of oxygen free radical increases by 0.547 as the smoking habit increases (P<0.001). Third, the degree of oxygen free radical increases by 0.087 as the exposure to hazardous factors in workplace increases (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the study imply that the smoking habit has more great influence on the increase of oxygen free radical in body than any other health behaviors. The causality of free radical to smoking and health behavior was not identified due to the limit of the cross-sectional study so it needs to be studied prospectively in the future.
Adult ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Free Radicals ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Male ; Obesity ; Oxygen ; Smoke ; Smoking

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the degree of self-care, symptom experience and disease state among the patients with liver cirrhosis and to identify its correlation. METHODS: The subjects were 220 patients with liver cirrhosis who were treated in D-university hospital in Busan. The instruments used for study were the self-care inventory, the symptom experience inventory and modified childpugh classification scale. RESULTS: The average points of the patient's self-care performance, symptom experience, and disease status were 3.67, 29.10 and 6.12 respectively. Their self care was negatively correlated to symptom experience, and symptom experience was positively correlated to disease state. CONCLUSION: This research findings suggested that active self-care by patients with liver cirrhosis might contribute to reduce various symptoms they can undergo and to prevent aggravation of disease state. Therefore, patients with liver cirrhosis have to carry out self care actively in daily life and discreet nursing intervention should be offered to facilitate their self-care.
Busan ; Classification ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver* ; Nursing ; Self Care*

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to confirm the efficacy of the urinary fluoride concentration/creatinine ratio for monitoring fluorine intake in fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities. METHODS: The correlations among the fluoride concentration in drinking water and that in the urine and fingernails of 52 preschool children (age, 60-72 months) from fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities were analyzed. RESULTS: The urinary fluoride concentration/creatinine ratio had a relatively high correlation with the fluoride concentration in drinking water (Pearson's correlation coefficient, 0.606; P<0.05). Further, this ratio was significantly positively correlated with the urinary fluoride concentration (Pearson's correlation coefficient, 0.374; P<0.01). However, there was no significant correlation between this ratio and the fluoride concentration in fingernails (Pearson's correlation coefficient, 0.145; P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that the urinary fluoride concentration/creatinine ratio in children can be utilized as an index for monitoring excess fluoride intake in fluoridated communities.
Child ; Child, Preschool ; Drinking ; Drinking Water ; Fluoridation ; Fluorides ; Fluorine ; Humans ; Nails

Apert syndrome is an uncommon congenital disorder characterized by malformation of the skull, most often acrocephaly or oxycephaly, in association with symmetrical syndactyly of both hands and feet. It is due to a disturbance in the growth of bone and soft tissue, affecting principally the head, hands, and feet. Recently we experienced a typical Apert syndrome expressed only in one neonate of dizygotic twin.
Acrocephalosyndactylia* ; Congenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and Abnormalities ; Craniosynostoses ; Foot ; Hand ; Head ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn* ; Skull ; Syndactyly ; Twins, Dizygotic*

Neonatal ascites is an uncommon problem with many etiologies. The common causes include hematologic diseases, bowel perforation, obstructive uropathy, cardiovascular diseases, chylous ascites, intrauterine infection, and meconium peritonitis. Recently, the wide application of sonography has greatly narrowed the list of differential diagnosis of neonatal ascites. Meconium peritonitis is readily diagnosed if calcification in the abdomen or scrotum can be seen radiologically or sonographically in a neonate with abdominal distension at birth. We report a case of generalized meconium peritonitis without intraabdominal calcification by radiologic and sonographic study and notable meconium hydrocele at birth.
Abdomen ; Ascites ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Chylous Ascites ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Hematologic Diseases ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Meconium* ; Parturition ; Peritonitis* ; Scrotum ; Ultrasonography

PURPOSE: The clinical findings of early neonatal hypocalcemia are variable and it is difficult to find relationship between the symptoms and hypocalcemia due to complex causes. The purpose of this study is to establish the relationship between early neonatal hypocalcemia and clinical manifestations and to propose a guideline for appropriate treatment of early neonatal hypocalcemia, especially in asymptomatic cases. METHODS: Study subjects were all sick babies admitted to nursery and NICU and randornly selected 43 healthy babies at Sun General Hospital from January 1996 to December 1996. We examined serum calcium level within 72 hours after birth. Then we evaluated prospectively clinical findings according to each disease category in hypocalcemic cases and analysed the relationship of time course of clinical findings with hypocalcemia and compared serum calcium concentration followed by each therapy after 3 days. RESULTS: The results were as follows. 1) The incidence of early neonatal hypocalcernia was high in premature infants, low birth weight infants, infants with neonatal asphyxia, hyaline membrane disease and transient tachypnea. 2) Tremor, seizure, apnea, dyspnea, abdominal distension, cyanosis, and vomiting were frequently presented symptoms in early neonatal hypocalcemia. 3) In the cases of early hypocalcemia with symptoms, these symptoms persisted continuously after norrnalization of serum calcium concentration. 4) Among asymptomatic hypocalcernic group, mean serum calcium levels changed from 6.7 mg/dL to 8.7 mg/dL in 23 cases of no treatment, from 5.4 mg/dL to 10.3 mg/dL in 4 cases of calcium gluconate infusion, and from 6.3 mg/dL to 8.7 mg/dL in 7 cases of feeding low phosphorus containing milk. None persisted in hypocalcemic state irrespective of treatment methods. CONCLUSION: It is difficult to regard these symptoms as a rule to treatment because these symptoms were present after normalizaton of serum calcium concentration. In addition, asymptomatic hypocalcemia was improved shortly without any treatment without any problem. We conclude that for asymptomatic hypocalcemia, withholding dangerous calcium gluconate infusion would be perrnissible.
Apnea ; Asphyxia ; Calcium ; Calcium Gluconate ; Cyanosis ; Dyspnea ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Hyaline Membrane Disease ; Hypocalcemia* ; Incidence ; Infant ; Infant, Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; Milk ; Nurseries ; Parturition ; Phosphorus ; Prospective Studies ; Seizures ; Solar System ; Tachypnea ; Tremor ; Vomiting

Guillain-Barr syndrome is rarely complicated by hypertension, which has been ascribed to sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity. We report a 11 years old female with Guillain-Barr syndrome complicated by persistent hypertension associated with elevated renin-angiotensin. So we report this case with brief review of related literatures.
Child ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension* ; Sympathetic Nervous System

PURPOSE: To estimate the prevalence of co-prescribing contraindicated drugs for elderly patients in Busan. METHODS: We used the Health Insurance Review Agency (HIRA) claims database. Study population consisted of elderly patients who visited clinics or hospitals in Busan metropolitan city from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2001. Contraindicated drugs were defined as 162 combinations of contraindicated drugs announced by the Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2004. The co-prescription of contraindicated drugs was defined as prescribing two or more contraindicated drugs in combination in the same prescription. The prevalence of co-prescribing contraindicated drugswas estimated as proportion of co-prescribed patients out of the study patients. We estimated and age-adjusted prevalence and its 95% confidence interval of co-prescription of contraindicated drugs among the elderly patients in Korean population in 2001. RESULTS: The study elderly patients were 262,952 with 2,483,227 prescriptions. Among the study patients 1,208 (4.6%) were prescribed contraindicated drugs in combination. A total of 16,255 patients were estimated as the number of co-prescribed patients among the Korean elderly in 2001. Age-standardized prevalence of co-prescription to the Korean elderly was estimated to be 45 per 10,000 persons. The most frequently prescribed combinations were cisapride & amitriptyline, roxithromycin & ergoloid mesylate, and terfenadine & erythromycin, and the frequency were 325 (16.8%), 149 (7.7%), and 132 (6.8%),respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The contraindicated drugs were co-prescribed to the elderly patients in Korea. Many of these co-prescriptions should be avoided if unnecessary. The patients should be carefully monitored if they were inevitably prescribed the contraindicated drugs.
Aged ; Amitriptyline ; Cisapride ; Drug Combinations ; Drug Utilization Review ; Ergoloid Mesylates ; Erythromycin ; Humans ; Insurance, Health ; Korea ; Prescriptions ; Prevalence ; Roxithromycin ; Terfenadine