BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to develop and apply a prevention program for needle-stick injuries among health care workers who have a high occupational risk of such injuries, and to analyze the effect of the program on the subjects' knowledge regarding such injuries and compliance with protocols, as well as the incidence of needle-stick injuries among subjects. METHODS: The subjects of this study were nurses (RNs) and nurse's aides (NAs) working at a university hospital in Daegu. The data were collected by conducting surveys and determining the incidence of needle-stick injuries during a 1-year period before the application of the program. The program consisted of preventive education on needle-stick injury, the use of standardized boxes to measure blood sugar test, and the use of intravenous catheters with safety needles. Six months after the intervention, surveys were conducted to analyze the incidence of needle-stick injuries. The data on knowledge and compliance related to needle-stick injuries before and after program application were analyzed using the paired t-test, and data on the incidence of injuries were analyzed using the chi-square test. RESULTS: The scores on knowledge (RN, P<0.001; NA, P=0.007) and compliance (RN, P<0.001; NA, P=0.038) were significantly higher after the intervention than before. However, the number of reports on the incidence of needle-stick injuries before and after the intervention were not significantly different (RN, P=0.691; NA, P=0.079). CONCLUSION: The prevention program for needle-stick injuries was effective in improving the knowledge and compliance related to needle-stick injuries among RNs and NAs, but the number of reports on the incidence of injuries showed no difference. Therefore, the prevention program must be reevaluated and further developed after continuously monitoring and analyzing it in a hospital setting in order to decrease the incidence of needle-stick injuries.
Blood Glucose ; Catheters ; Compliance ; Delivery of Health Care ; Humans ; Incidence ; Needles ; Needlestick Injuries ; Nurses' Aides ; Plant Extracts

Allergic contact dermatitis due to 8-MOP is a rarely known si(ie effect of this widely used drug. Other known adverse reactions due to 8-MOP such as the oallergic dermatitis as well as some isolated cases of exanthema, papular eruptions, and astloma like symptoms are also sporadically reported. A 52-year-old man with vitiligo developed erythema to the UVA exposed 0.3% Oxoralen cream applied area. Prior to this episode, the patient had history of generalized burns after systernic PUVA therapy in 1983. Even after this experience, the patient had few more episodes of erythema at the site of 0.3%. Oxoralen cream application. We performed patch test and photopatch tests with Scandinavian series, 0.3% Oxoraler or am (as is), and diluted 8-MOP, 5-MOP, TMP solution. The result showed positive reactivity to 6-methylcoumarin, 8-MOP, as well as to 0.3% Oxoralen cream. The size of erythema was same in both irradiated areas which indicates an allergic contact dermatitis rather than photoallergic dermatitis or phototoxic dermatitis.
Burns ; Dermatitis ; Dermatitis, Allergic Contact* ; Dermatitis, Photoallergic ; Dermatitis, Phototoxic ; Erythema ; Exanthema ; Humans ; Methoxsalen ; Middle Aged ; Patch Tests ; PUVA Therapy ; Thymidine Monophosphate ; Vitiligo

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge and practice level of infection managements in child guardians with respiratory infections after H1N1 diffusion of 2009. METHODS: The data were collected during February and March 2010 using a self-report questionnaire. The participants were 228 child guardians. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, means, SD, t-test, F-test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and Cronbach's alpha with the SPSS 17.0 program. RESULTS: Mean age of the guardians and children were 37.8 years, 4.1 years respectively. For knowledge level of respiratory infections, hand washing method had the highest score and snuffles prevention method, the lowest. For practice level for respiratory infections, environmental hygiene management had the highest score and symptom management, the lowest. Infection management knowledge and practice level had a positively significant correlation in every area. CONCLUSION: The results indicate the necessity of continual education on infection management, and that the most efficient timing for the education appears be for participants during their first pregnancy or after the woman has delivered her child.
Child ; Compliance ; Diffusion ; Female ; Hand Disinfection ; Humans ; Hygiene ; Legal Guardians ; Pregnancy ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Persistent light reaction is a condition of chronic photodermatitis in which photosensitive reaction persists even after the rernoval of all photosensilizers. A 56-year-old man had experienced a recurrent dermatitis involving primarily the face, neek, forearms and hands for 9 years, this condition was aggravated by sunexposure. Photopatch testing disclosed a strongly positive reaction to chloropromazine, promethazine, acid trichlorocarbanilide, Phototesting also revealed lowered MED with UVA and UVB thar norrmal mean value.
Dermatitis ; Forearm ; Hand ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Photosensitivity Disorders ; Promethazine

Thirty five male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with cadmium chloride solution ranging from 0.2 to 3.2mg CdCl2/kg by intravenous single injection. At 48 hours after administration of cadmium, total cadmium, MT bound cadmium and histopathologic finding in liver, kidney, lung, heart, testis, metallothionein in liver, kidney and total cadmium in blood were examined. Tissue cadmium concentration was highest in liver, followed by in kidney, heart, lung and testis. Cadmium bound to metallothionein(MT-Cd) and ratio of MT-Cd to total cadmium were increased in liver and kidney dependently of cadmium exposure dose, but not significantly changed in other organs. On histopathologic finding, the most susceptible organ was heart in considering cadmium exposed dose, but testis in considering cadmium concentration. Blood cadmium concentration was increased with dose-dependent pattern, and significantly correlated with tissue cadmium concentration, so that we may estimate tissue cadmium concentration by measurement of blood cadmium concentration. Metallothionein in liver and kidney was increased with dose-dependent pattern, higher in liver than in kidney, and was significantly correlated with tissue cadmium concentration. However, metallothionein induction efficiency of tissue cadmium(microgram MT/microgram Cd) was greater in liver than in kidney, and reverse to tissue concentration or exposed dose of cadmium.
Animals ; Cadmium Chloride ; Cadmium* ; Heart ; Humans ; Kidney ; Liver ; Lung ; Male ; Metallothionein* ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Testis

BACKGROUND: Recently, it has been suggested that autoantibodis face of melanocytes are prevent in the sera of vitiligo patients. However, these autoantibodies exist, whether they are specific for vitiligo a vitiligo patients possess them. In addition, the specificity of the iti lecular weight of the antigen are all unsolved areas demanding further. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the possible role of autoimmune microvitiligo, this study was designed to verify the presence of auto and vitiligo antigen from the surface of melanocytes, the specificity of gene specific antigens on the sunever, it is not known whether ents, and what percentage of goantigen and the exact moier research. anisms in the development of bodies in vitiligo patients, the utoantibodies and vitiligo anti. METHODS: Indirect immuvofluorescent microscopy, flow cytoriiety, and ELISA was done to compare the reactions between melanocytes and sera. SDS-PAC island immunoblotting were used for the identification of vitiligo antigen. RESULTS: Vitiligo sera showed more prominent fluorescence and higher optical density on the surface of melanocytes than normal sera. Forty-four percent of vitiligo sera was directed to melanocytic surface antigen with a molecular weight of 65kDa. The sition assay using rabbit antimelanocytic antibody showed an inhibition of the reaction betw er vitiligo sera and melanocytes in ELISA and immunoblotting. CONCLUSION: A surface antigen of 65kd was identified from melanocytes and 44.4% of the vitiligo sera showed positive reactions to this antigen.
Antigens, Surface ; Autoantibodies* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Fluorescence ; Humans ; Immunoblotting ; Melanocytes* ; Microscopy ; Molecular Weight ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Vitiligo*

No abstract available.
Asbestos*

BACKGROUND: The clinical behavior of vitiligo has not been clearly understood and hypothesis concerning the pathogenesis of the disease has been confusing and contradictory though autoimmune mechanisms have been considered important by many authors. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the clinical features and pathogenesis of vitiligo. METHODS: We investigated clinical features of vitiligo in 1315 patients, and also compared the clinical course and features of non-segmental type(type A) and segmental type(type B) vitiligo patients to see whether the two types of vitiligo have a different pathogenic mechanism. RESULTS: Previously reported clinical patterns of the disease were reviewed and compared with our data, and the different clinical findings between the two types which supported the hypothesis of Koga et al. that type A and type B vitiligo had a different pathogenesis and autoimmune mechanisms played a role only in type A were shown. CONCLUSION: We investigated the clinical characteristics of vitiligo in Korea and showed that the type A vitiligo might have a different pathogenic mechanism with type B.
Clinical Study* ; Humans ; Korea ; Vitiligo*

Contact hypersensitivity (CH) responsiveness to 24-dinitro-l-fluorobenzene(DNFB)is depressed in mice sensitized through unexposed skin sites after exposure to high dose of ultraviolet B radiation(UVB). Exposure of mice to ultraviolet A(UVA) radiation in combination with 8-methoxypsoralen(8-MOP) also results in a systemic suppression of CH. Our study was designed to determine whether a high dose of UVA radiation alone can induce a systemic suppression of CH, and if so, which phase of CH response is influenced by UVA radiation. Relatively large doses of UVA(400, 600, 800J/cm²) induced significant systemic suppression of CH when DNFB was applied to UVA-unirradiated abdominal skin. The duration of the rest period after UVA exposure did not cause any significant change in systemic suppresion of CH. Functional analyses showed that lymph node cells(LNCs) obtained from donors that were sensitized on the unirradiated skin site with DNFB 5 days after UVA treatment transferred normal ear-swelling responsiveness to non-primed recipients, thus implying that high doses of UVA can induce systemic suppression which is not affected in the induction phase of CH but affected in the elicitation phase of CH. UVA irradiation de-creased Langerhans cell(LC) numbers significantly with a dose of 100J/cm² or greater. LNCs obtained from donors that were sensitized on the irradiated skin site with DNFB 5 days after UVA treatment did not transfer normal ear-swelling responsiveness to non-primed recipients. This phenomenon may be related to the decreased number of LC after UV treatment. To look for possible mediators impairing the elicitation phase of the CH reaction, we checked prostaglandin E(PGE) levels in serum after 800J/cm² irradiation. A high dose of UVA did not increase the serum PGE level in mice as much as UVB irradiation, in which a significant increase of PGE may affect CH response.
Animals ; Dermatitis, Contact* ; Dinitrofluorobenzene ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Mice ; Prostaglandins E ; Skin ; Tissue Donors

Contact hypersensitivity (CH) responsiveness to 24-dinitro-l-fluorobenzene(DNFB)is depressed in mice sensitized through unexposed skin sites after exposure to high dose of ultraviolet B radiation(UVB). Exposure of mice to ultraviolet A(UVA) radiation in combination with 8-methoxypsoralen(8-MOP) also results in a systemic suppression of CH. Our study was designed to determine whether a high dose of UVA radiation alone can induce a systemic suppression of CH, and if so, which phase of CH response is influenced by UVA radiation. Relatively large doses of UVA(400, 600, 800J/cm²) induced significant systemic suppression of CH when DNFB was applied to UVA-unirradiated abdominal skin. The duration of the rest period after UVA exposure did not cause any significant change in systemic suppresion of CH. Functional analyses showed that lymph node cells(LNCs) obtained from donors that were sensitized on the unirradiated skin site with DNFB 5 days after UVA treatment transferred normal ear-swelling responsiveness to non-primed recipients, thus implying that high doses of UVA can induce systemic suppression which is not affected in the induction phase of CH but affected in the elicitation phase of CH. UVA irradiation de-creased Langerhans cell(LC) numbers significantly with a dose of 100J/cm² or greater. LNCs obtained from donors that were sensitized on the irradiated skin site with DNFB 5 days after UVA treatment did not transfer normal ear-swelling responsiveness to non-primed recipients. This phenomenon may be related to the decreased number of LC after UV treatment. To look for possible mediators impairing the elicitation phase of the CH reaction, we checked prostaglandin E(PGE) levels in serum after 800J/cm² irradiation. A high dose of UVA did not increase the serum PGE level in mice as much as UVB irradiation, in which a significant increase of PGE may affect CH response.
Animals ; Dermatitis, Contact* ; Dinitrofluorobenzene ; Humans ; Lymph Nodes ; Mice ; Prostaglandins E ; Skin ; Tissue Donors