This study examined burdens of primary family carcgivcrs of paticnto with cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) along with related factors. In addition, their needs for support group intervention were assessed to develop a support group to reduce the burdens of caregiving. Eighty-one primary family caregivers of patients with CVAs at a general hospital in Seoul participated in this study . The patients with CVAs aged from 26 to 83 years with mean age of 63 years. About 90% of the patients had some paralysis and 56.6% suffered speech problems. Fifty-eight percent of the primary family caregivers were spouses of the patients and 80.2% were women. Primary family caregivers' burdens were assessed by the Burden Scale originally devel oped by Zarit (1980) and Novak & Geust(1989) and modified by Jang (1995) for use in Korea. The instrument consists of six subscales time-dependent burden, developmental burden, physical burden, emotional burden, social burden, and financiaI burden. The results were as follows : 1. The average of burden score was 91.7, indicating moderate to severe level of burden. The time-dependent burden was scored highest followed by physical, developmental, social, financial, and emotional burdens. 2. of the characteristics of patients, age, gender, and severity of the disease were found to be associated with the level of burden. Of the characteristics of primary family caregivers, age and educational level were significantly related to the level of burden. Time of care since the CVA and the quality of relationship between a patient and a caregiver prior to the stroke were significant situational factors affecting the level of burden. 3. The need for support group intervention for the caregivero was very high (95.1%). The earcgivcrs of patients who had a CVA for the first time showed higher levels of need compared to those of patients who had a CVA more than once. The caregivers indicated a support group held once a month near home or hospital would be welcomed. In addition, they replied that a group composed of 9 to 10 caregivers and guided by health care professionals (e.g., physicians and nurses) would be most desirable. More than 85% of the earegivers identified the areas that they wanted intervention in as follows : knowledge, skills, and resources to care for a patient with a CVA. the counsel of health care professionals, share of their experiences with those who have similar situations, stress management skills, and methods to overcome emotional isolation due to the great responsibility for a patient. Given the results, support group is expected to be an effective way to reduce the burdens of primary family caregivers of patients with CVAs. As a follow up It is necessary to examine the effect of support group intervention on the patient's recovery and rehabilitation.
Caregivers* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Female ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Korea ; Paralysis ; Rehabilitation ; Self-Help Groups* ; Seoul ; Spouses ; Stroke*

PURPOSE: This study was done to clarify nurses' duties, tasks and task elements and to develop a job description for clinical nurses on general and intensive care units in tertiary-level hospitals, and dramatically reflect changing medical trends in Korea. METHODS: The job description was developed based on the Developing a Curriculum Method (DACUM). The questionnaire included frequency, importance, and difficulty of duties, tasks and task elements, measured on a 4-point scale. Results were analyzed using SPSS version 21.0. Data were collected from September 4 to 7, 2017, and analyzed using descriptive statistics and a scattered graph. RESULTS: The job description consisted of 10 duties, 38 tasks, and 51 elements. Of the 10 duties, the highest duty in order of importance was ‘Direct nursing care’ followed by ‘Infection control’. The highest duties according to frequency and difficulty were ‘Document and notify’ and ‘Research and quality improvement’. ‘Safety management’ and ‘Infection control’ were considered as relatively simple duties, however, these two duties were still included as important jobs for clinical nurses. CONCLUSION: The job descriptions for clinical nurses developed from this study contain nursing ethics and safety as well as infection control, to faithfully reflect clinical nurses' jobs.
Critical Care* ; Curriculum ; Ethics, Nursing ; Infection Control ; Intensive Care Units* ; Job Description* ; Korea ; Methods* ; Nursing ; Patients' Rooms*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the risk factors for a nosocomial urinary tract infection in intensive care units with a foley catheterization which showed a positive urine culture. METHOD: Three-hundred eighty-seven patients were included in the study. A retrospective review of the electrical medical record system's databases and medical record sheets in hospitalized patients from January 2003 to December 2003 was used. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. RESULT: The frequency of the participants' nosocomial urinary tract infection was 72.9%. Significant risk factors for a nosocomial urinary tract infection were 'age', 'place of catheter insertion', 'frequency of catheter change', and 'duration of catheterization'. These variables explained 18.4% of variance in the experience of nosocomial urinary tract infection in intensive care units with foley catheterization. CONCLUSION: Medical personnel can decrease the incidence of a nosocomial urinary tract infection by recognizing and paying attention to the duration of catheterization, frequency of catheter change, and place of catheter insertion. As a result, specific and scrupulous strategies should be developed to reflect these factors for decreasing nosocomial urinary tract infections.
Adult ; Aged ; Bacteriuria/*epidemiology/microbiology ; Cross Infection/*epidemiology/microbiology ; Equipment Contamination ; Female ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; *Urinary Catheterization ; Urinary Tract Infections/*epidemiology/microbiology

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) can be progressive, and its prognosis is worse because of increased mortality when it is associated with diabetes and cardiac disease. The outcomes of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) need to be improved, despite multifactorial interventions including glucose and blood pressure (BP) control, and the use of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors, statins, and aspirin. Recent clinical trials suggest that sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors offer additional cardiorenal protection in DKD and non-diabetic CKD on top of RAS inhibition. The action of SGLT2 inhibitors is derived from the proximal tubule of the kidney, but their systemic effects beyond glucose-lowering involve hemodynamic and non-hemodynamic mechanisms. First, SGLT2 inhibitors restore tubuloglomerular feedback and relieve glomerular hypertension and albuminuria. Second, natriuresis and renal glycosuria lead to fluid and weight loss, resulting in BP lowering and prevention of heart failure. Third, SGLT2 inhibitors have anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative actions that can reduce renal and cardiac inflammation and fibrosis, probably via adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase and sirtuin-1 activation. Finally, the proximal tubular workload is relieved, accompanied by increased erythropoiesis. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 may be stimulated by renal outer medullary hypoxia when tubular sodium transport shifts from the proximal convoluted tubule to the proximal straight tubule and thick ascending limb, due to SGLT2 inhibition. These effects may also be beneficial in non-diabetic CKD, and we anticipate that SGLT2 inhibitors will prove effective for albuminuria reduction and preservation of kidney function in primary kidney diseases, including glomerulonephritis.

No abstract available.
Hypertriglyceridemia*

Hypertrophic lichen planus is the most pruritic variant of lichen planus, which is characterized by verrucous plaques with variable amounts of scales on the lower extremities, especially the shins. Annular atrophic lichen planus is the most unusual variant of lichen planus, resulting from the combination of both annular and atrophic features in the same lesions. The active border of the lesion shows the typical histopathologic findings of lichen planus, whereas its atrophic center exhibits histopathologic features of regression. A 29-year-old man presented with intermittently pruritic, multiple plaques and papules on the right thigh for 3 months. At first, small, polygonal papules and verrucous plaques developed above the right knee. In a short time, atrophic and hyperpigmented macules with raised and annular borders appeared along the line of Blascho. Histopathologic examination of verrucous plaque and annular atrophic macule revealed hypertrophic and annular atrophic lichen planus, respectively. We, herein, report an unusual case of annular atrophic lichen planus associated with hypertrophic lichen planus along the line of Blascho.
Adult ; Humans ; Knee ; Lichen Planus* ; Lichens* ; Lower Extremity ; Thigh ; Weights and Measures

This study was carried out to investigate the body weight controls and eating disorders of university students in Gunsan. The subject of the present study included 229 male students (53.8%) and 197 female students (46.2%), totalling 426 students from Kunsan University. The subjects consisted of 56 underweight (13.1%), 265 with normal weight (62.2%), and 105 overweight (24.6%). Especially, in females, 20.8% of them were underweight, which is 6.6% higher than males, showing a significant difference (p < 0.001). Regarding body image, 21.8% of the males thought they were fat, while 40.6% of the females thought they were fat. Regarding the perceived body type, shown in the difference between their own size and the ideal size, males recorded 0.03, while females recorded 1.75, showing a major significant difference (p < 0.001). Regarding body satisfaction, 33.2% of the males were unsatisfied, while 52.8% of the females were unsatisfied (p < 0.001). The social expectations of the male subjects' sizes and weights recorded 2.04, while that of females recorded .2.51, showing that people's opinions expected the female subjects' bodies to be thinner (p < 0.001). Additionally, the social expectation of the subjects' weight control recorded an average of 15.22 (13.92 for males, 16.73 for females), showing that the female subjects' felt that people's opinions wished them to lose their weight (p < 0.001). Regarding the recognition on weight control, interested males were 49.4%, while interested females were 86.8%, showing the females superior rate (p < 0.001). The beliefs in relation to weight control recorded an average of 62.01, with the score of females of 67.89 being significantly higher than that of males which was 56.96. The subjects showed a relatively positive response towards weight control (p < 0.001). EAT-26 score was employed to determine the eating attitudes in relation to gender. Here, the final score of males was 15.46, which was significantly lower than that of females, which was 22.21 (p < 0.001). Furthermore, regarding the score of eating attitudes in relation to obesity index, the eating disorder scale scores on the questions related to bulimia and diets to lose weight as weight increases were high. However, the eating disorder scale score on oral control, which actually controls food, was low. To control the expansion of excessive weight control attempts and their side effects, the recognition of the students' body types needs to be corrected, and nutrition education programs on eating habits and eating disorders to foster proper weight loss are deemed necessary.
Body Image ; Body Weight* ; Bulimia ; Diet ; Feeding and Eating Disorders* ; Eating* ; Education ; Female ; Humans ; Jeollabuk-do* ; Male ; Obesity ; Overweight ; Somatotypes ; Thinness ; Weight Loss ; Weights and Measures

The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the effect of surface defects and cross-sectional configuration of NiTi rotary files on the fatigue life under cyclic loading. Three NiTi rotary files (K3(TM), ProFile(R), and HERO 642(R)) with #30/.04 taper were evaluated. Each rotary file was divided into 2 subgroups: control (no surface defects) and experimental group (artificial surface defects). A total of six groups of each 10 were tested. The NiTi rotary files were rotated at 300rpm using the apparatus which simulated curved canal (40 degree of curvature) until they fracture. The number of cycles to fracture was calculated and the fractured surfaces were observed with a scanning electron microscope. The data were analyzed statistically. The results showed that experimental groups with surface defects had lower number of cycles to fracture than control group but there was only a statistical significance between control and experimental group in the K3(TM) (p<0.05). There was no strong correlation between the cross-sectional configuration area and fracture resistance under experimental conditions. Several of fractured files demonstrated characteristic patterns of brittle fracture consistent with the propagation of pre-existing cracks. This data indicate that surface defects of NiTi rotary files may significantly decrease fatigue life and it may be one possible factor for early fracture of NiTi rotary files in clinical practice.
Fatigue* ; Fractures, Stress*

We describe a group of 3 cases of invasive meningococcal disease that occurred in a military training camp in April 2011. All three patients were hospitalized. Ultimately, two patients recovered and one died. One patient had meningitis, one patient had septicemia and meningitis, and the other had no definite septicemia or meningitis. Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W-135 was detected in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of all patients by real-time polymerase chain reaction. In the one case of mortality, two strains were isolated from the patient's blood and CSF. Using multilocus sequence typing analysis, these strains were identified as a novel sequence type, ST-8912. Special attention is required for the meningococcal disease in military camp because the military personnels are in high risk of contact transmission.
DNA, Bacterial/blood/cerebrospinal fluid ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field ; Humans ; Male ; Meningitis/complications/*diagnosis/microbiology ; Military Personnel ; Multilocus Sequence Typing ; Neisseria meningitidis, Serogroup W-135/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sepsis/complications/*diagnosis/microbiology ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the influencing factors on the development of pressure ulcers in patients undergoing surgery which lasted more than two hours. METHOD: One hundred nineteen surgical adult patients were included in the study. Data was measured on each participant from December 2003 to February 2004. It was collected using a structured researcher-administered sheet and analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. RESULT: The prevalence of a perioperative pressure ulcer was 26.1%. The level of moisture, friction and shear, length of surgery, and perioperative irrigation were significantly higher in the pressure ulcer group than those in the non-pressure ulcer group. The level of activity and level of consciousness were significantly lower in the pressure ulcer group than those in the non-pressure ulcer group. Significant influencing factors on the development of pressure ulcer were 'moisture' and 'irrigation' and those variables explained 23.1% of varience in the development of a pressure ulcer during surgery. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to develop a strategy to prevent pressure ulcer by taking 'moisture' and 'irrigation' into account during the preoperative, perioperative and postoperative period.
Risk Factors ; Pressure Ulcer/*etiology/nursing/prevention & control ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Humans ; Female ; Aged ; Adult