BACKGROUND: Blood cultures are essential in diagnosing and treating sepsis. There are several factors that affect the diagnostic yield of blood cultures such as the number of blood sampling episodes, the incubation period, the type and volume of culture media, and the amount of blood drawn. This study aimed to elucidate whether monitoring the volume of blood drawn with an educational intervention could affect the diagnostic quality of blood cultures. METHODS: We implemented quality monitoring for the blood volume drawn during blood culture testing for adults in an emergency room. We instructed the nurses in the emergency room to draw the optimal amount of blood and to reduce the number of blood culture sets from three to two. We analyzed and compared the amount of blood drawn, the rate of positive blood cultures, the contamination rate, and time to positivity (TTP) between 908 patients pre-intervention and 921 patients post-intervention. RESULTS: The amount of blood drawn increased from 0.7±0.3 mL per bottle (pre-intervention) to 6.5±1.7 mL per bottle (post-intervention) (P<0.0001). The rate of positive blood culture post-intervention (12.14%) was higher than that pre-intervention (6.65%) (P<0.0001). The contamination rate post-intervention (1.82%) was also significantly greater than that pre-intervention (0.60%) (P<0.0001). Except for anaerobes, there was no significant difference in the distribution of microorganisms between the pre- and post-intervention periods. The TTP for anaerobe bottles post-intervention was significantly shorter than that of pre-intervention (16.1±16.3 versus 18.6±18.3 h). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that continuing education about adequate blood volume and aseptic techniques is needed to increase the rate of positive blood cultures and reduce the contamination rate of blood cultures.
Adult ; Blood Volume* ; Culture Media ; Education, Continuing ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Humans ; Sepsis

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the concept of social support of nursing students using a hybrid model and to derive a definition and attributes of social support through theoretical, fieldwork, and final analysis stages. Methods: Twenty-nine studies were analyzed in the theoretical stage. Seventeen in-depth interviews were conducted with nursing students in the fieldwork stage. In the final analysis stage, the concept of social support was defined and the attributes were derived by integrating the theoretical and fieldwork stages. Results: The attributes of social support of nursing students identified in the final analysis consisted of two dimensions and eight attributes. The two dimensions were structural and functional support. The eight attributes were social network, educational, emotional, informational, economic, positive evaluation, self-esteem support, and support by providing a role model provision. The structural dimension included the social network support attribute. The functional dimension included the remaining seven attributes. Educational support and support by providing of a role model provision were newly derived attributes that reflected specific characteristics of nursing students. Conclusion Based on the results of this study, we suggest that researchers should attempt to develop a scale to measure the social support of nursing students.

Neisseria cinerea is an oropharyngeal normal flora known as a non-pathogenic gram-negative diplococcus. Encephalo-meningitis related to N. cinerea is very rare. A 15-year-old healthy male visited emergency room for altered mentality with fever, headache, and vomiting. Physical examination showed abdominal tenderness and neck stiffness but there was no skin rash. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination revealed opening pressure of 210 mmH2O, red blood cell 200/mm3, white blood cell 8,320/mm3, neutrophil 84%, glucose 34 mg/dL, suggesting acute bacterial meningitis. Empirical antibiotics were administered and N. cinerea was identified in CSF culture. The patient showed complete recovery 10 days after administration of ceftriaxone. We report this case as the first N. cinerea meningitis in Korea.
Adolescent ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Ceftriaxone ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Erythrocytes ; Exanthema ; Fever ; Glucose ; Headache ; Humans ; Korea ; Leukocytes ; Male ; Meningitis ; Meningitis, Bacterial* ; Neck ; Neisseria cinerea* ; Neutrophils ; Physical Examination ; Vomiting

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy considerably alters cardiovascular dynamics, and thereby affects the transition of blood pressure after delivery in women. We aimed to analyze the association between parity and blood pressure in Korean adult women. METHODS: We included 8,890 women who participated in Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2010 and 2012. We divided the population according to the menopause status and analyzed the association between parity and blood pressure by using multiple regression analysis, and on hypertension, by using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were significantly associated with parity in premenopausal women (beta=-0.091 [P<0.001] and beta=-0.069 [P<0.001], respectively). In the analysis that excluded women receiving antihypertensive medication, the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of postmenopausal women were significantly associated with parity (beta=-0.059 [P=0.022] and beta=-0.054 [P=0.044], respectively). Parity was found to prevent hypertension after adjustment for confounders in postmenopausal women (odds ratio, 0.55; 95% confidence interval, 0.310-0.985). CONCLUSION: We found that parity prevented hypertension in Korean women.
Adult ; Blood Pressure* ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Logistic Models ; Menopause ; Nutrition Surveys* ; Parity* ; Pregnancy

A 25-year-old man developed tracheal stenosis due to prolonged intubation for five days. Immediately after bougienage, his left lung was not possible to ventilate and emergency tracheostomy was performed to produce ample space for airflow. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy showed that his left main bronchus was totally obstructed by sputum at the entrance of the superior and inferior lobar bronchi. Inadequate airway clearance increases the risk of infection and airway obstruction. We suggest chest physiotherapy be applied to all patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), especially patients with tracheal stenosis, due to its positive impact on pulmonary functional ability and ICU stay.
Adult ; Airway Obstruction ; Bronchi ; Bronchoscopy ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Intubation ; Lung ; Sputum* ; Thorax ; Tracheal Stenosis ; Tracheostomy

Background: To overcome the limitations of relying on data from a single institution, many researchers have studied data linkage methodologies. Data linkage includes errors owing to legal issues surrounding personal information and technical issues related to data processing. Linkage errors affect selection bias, and external and internal validity. Therefore, quality verification for each connection method with adherence to personal information protection is an important issue. This study evaluated the linkage quality of linked data and analyzed the potential bias resulting from linkage errors. Methods: This study analyzed claims data submitted to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA DATA). The linkage errors of the two deterministic linkage methods were evaluated based on the use of the match key. The first deterministic linkage uses a unique identification number, and the second deterministic linkage uses the name, gender, and date of birth as a set of partial identifiers. The linkage error included in this deterministic linkage method was compared with the absolute standardized difference (ASD) of Cohen’s according to the baseline characteristics, and the linkage quality was evaluated through the following indicators: linked rate, false match rate, missed match rate, positive predictive value, sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score. Results: For the deterministic linkage method that used the name, gender, and date of birth as a set of partial identifiers, the true match rate was 83.5 and the missed match rate was 16.5.Although there was bias in some characteristics of the data, most of the ASD values were less than 0.1, with no case greater than 0.5. Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether linked data constructed with deterministic linkages have substantial differences. Conclusion This study confirms the possibility of building health and medical data at the national level as the first data linkage quality verification study using big data from the HIRA. Analyzing the quality of linkages is crucial for comprehending linkage errors and generating reliable analytical outcomes. Linkers should increase the reliability of linked data by providing linkage error-related information to researchers. The results of this study will serve as reference data to increase the reliability of multicenter data linkage studies.

Neisseria cinerea is bacteria known as non-pathogenic strain. However, in rare cases, it can cause opportunistic infections. Those diseases caused by N. cinerea include neonatal ophthalmia, proctitis, pneumonia, peritonitis in patients with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, endocarditis and meningitis. In this report, we describe a patient with septic arthritis and skin abscess of finger joints that was caused by N. cinerea. A 27-year-old man visited the hospital due to swelling, redness and pain of proximal interphalangeal joint of the left second finger. After blood culture test, ceftriaxone was administered on admission and debridement was performed the affected joints. N. cinerea was identified in the blood culture. The patient was improved with ceftriaxone.
Abscess* ; Adult ; Arthritis, Infectious* ; Bacteria ; Ceftriaxone ; Debridement ; Endocarditis ; Endophthalmitis ; Finger Joint ; Fingers ; Humans ; Joints ; Meningitis ; Neisseria cinerea* ; Opportunistic Infections ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory ; Peritonitis ; Pneumonia ; Proctitis ; Skin* ; Soft Tissue Infections

Background: Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEi) inhibits the catalysis of angiotensin I to angiotensin II and the degradation of substance P (SP) and bradykinin (BK). While the possible relationship between ACEi and SP in nociceptive mice was recently suggested, the effect of ACEi on signal transduction in astrocytes remains unclear. Objectives: This study examined whether ACE inhibition with captopril or enalapril modulates the levels of SP and BK in primary cultured astrocytes and whether this change modulates PKC isoforms (PKCα, PKCβI, and PKCε) expression in cultured astrocytes. Methods: Immunocytochemistry and Western blot analysis were performed to examine the changes in the levels of SP and BK and the expression of the PKC isoforms in primary cultured astrocytes, respectively. Results: The treatment of captopril or enalapril increased the immunoreactivity of SP and BK significantly in glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive cultured astrocytes. These increases were suppressed by a pretreatment with an angiotensin-converting enzyme.In addition, treatment with captopril increased the expression of the PKCβI isoform in cultured astrocytes, while there were no changes in the expression of the PKCα and PKCε isoforms after the captopril treatment. The captopril-induced increased expression of the PKCβI isoform was inhibited by a pretreatment with the neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist, L-733,060, the BK B 1 receptor antagonist, R 715, or the BK B 2 receptor antagonist, HOE 140. Conclusions These results suggest that ACE inhibition with captopril or enalapril increases the levels of SP and BK in cultured astrocytes and that the activation of SP and BK receptors mediates the captopril-induced increase in the expression of the PKCβI isoform.

Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is a common causative agent of pseudomembranous colitis (PMC). C. difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) ranges from mild diarrhea to life threatening PMC. Recently, a highly virulent strain of C. difficile polymerase chain reaction ribotype 027 was found in North America, Europe, and Japan. A 52-yr-old woman with anti-tuberculosis medication and neurogenic bladder due to traffic accident experienced five episodes of C. difficile PMC after taking antibiotics for pneumonia along with septic shock and acute renal failure. She was readmitted to the intensive care unit and treated with oral vancomycin with refractory of oral metronidazole, inotropics and probiotics for over 60 days. C. difficile isolated both at the first and the last admission was identified as C. difficile ribotype 027 by ribotyping, toxinotyping, and tcdC gene sequencing, which turned out the same pathogen as the epidemic hypervirulent B1/NAP1 strain. This is the first case of C. difficile PCR ribotype 027 in Korea. After discharge, she was maintained on probiotics and rifaximin for 3 weeks. She had no relapse for 6 months.
Accidents, Traffic ; Antitubercular Agents/therapeutic use ; Base Sequence ; Clostridium difficile/*classification/genetics/isolation & purification ; Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous/*diagnosis/drug therapy/*microbiology ; Female ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Acute/diagnosis ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Ribotyping ; Shock, Septic/diagnosis

Catecholamines are among the first molecules that displayed a kind of response to prolonged or repeated stress. It is well established that long-term stress leads to the induction of catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes such as tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) in adrenal medulla. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of ginseng on TH and DBH mRNA expression. Repeated (2 h daily, 14 days) immobilization stress resulted in a significant increase of TH and DBH mRNA levels in rat adrenal medulla. However, ginseng treatment reversed the stress-induced increase of TH and DBH mRNA expression in the immobilization-stressed rats. Nicotine as a ligand of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) in adrenal medulla stimulates catecholamine secretion and activates TH and DBH gene expression. Nicotine treatment increased mRNA levels of TH and DBH by 3.3- and 3.1-fold in PC12 cells. The ginseng total saponin exhibited a significant reversal in the nicotine-induced increase of TH and DBH mRNA expression, decreasing the mRNA levels of TH and DBH by 57.2% and 48.9%, respectively in PC12 cells. In conclusion, immobilization stress induced catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes gene expression, while ginseng appeared to restore homeostasis via suppression of TH and DBH gene expression. In part, the regulatory activity in the TH and DBH gene expression of ginseng may account for the anti-stress action produced by ginseng.
Adrenal Medulla ; Animals ; Catecholamines ; Dopamine ; Dopamine beta-Hydroxylase ; Down-Regulation ; Gene Expression ; Homeostasis ; Immobilization ; Nicotine ; Panax ; PC12 Cells ; Rats ; Receptors, Nicotinic ; RNA, Messenger ; Saponins ; Tyrosine ; Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase