PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of a logotherapy program entitled 'Finding meaning in my life' for adolescents with terminal cancer. METHODS: A nonequivalent control group, non-synchronized design was conducted with a convenience sample of 44 late adolescents with terminal cancer. The experimental group (n=22) participated in the 'Finding meaning in my life' program which consisted of five-day sessions for one week. The control group (n=22) received the usual nursing care. The effects were measured using adolescent meaning in life (AMIL), and quality of life (QOL) scales. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and t-test using SPSS/PC 17.0 program. RESULTS: There were significant differences in AMIL (t=3.36, p<.05) and QOL (t=2.67, p<.05) between the experimental and control groups. CONCLUSION: Logotherapy is effective in improving the meaning in life and quality of life of late adolescents with terminal cancer, and can be used to prevent existential distress.
Adolescent ; Demography ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Neoplasms/psychology/*therapy ; Patient Education as Topic ; Program Evaluation ; *Psychotherapy ; Quality of Life ; Questionnaires ; Young Adult

The term histiocytic medullary reticulosis first was introduced by Scott and Robb-Smith. It is a clinicopathologic syndrome characterized by wasting, fever, lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, pancytopenia, and is often accompanied by jaundice, purpura. Cardinal pathologic feature are systemized proliferation of atypical, neoplastic, erythrophagocytic D. We are here reporting one case which considered compatible for HMR, with a few elementary reviewed literatures.
Fever ; Jaundice ; Lymphatic Diseases ; Pancytopenia ; Purpura

The 46, XX male syndrome is rare disease that is characterized by a phenotypic male who has a 46, XX female karyotype. Since the first report by de la Chapelle and associates in 1964, several cases have been reported, but it is still a rare entity. Recently we examined a 20-year-old XX male who had the symptoms of gynecomastia, an infantile appearance of the external genitalia, scanty pubic hair, no Adams apple, and no axillary hair. We presently describe a patient with the 46, XX male syndrome who showed a 46, XX karyotype on chromosomal study and review the literatures.
46, XX Testicular Disorders of Sex Development* ; Female ; Genitalia ; Gynecomastia ; Hair ; Humans ; Karyotype ; Male ; Rare Diseases ; Young Adult

A 76-year-old female admitted with nausea, anorexia, vague abdominal pain, and malaise. Her past medical history included an 15-year history of type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension. She had been taking metformin, glipizid, and amlodipine for past 2 years. One week previously, she underwent gastroscopy to evaluate epigastic pain, and she was diagnosed Helicobacter pylori positive duodenal ulcer, for which she was treated with amoxicillin, clarithromycin, and omeprazole. At admission, laboratory test revealed lactic acidosis (pH 7.23, bicarbonate 8.3 mEq/L, and lactate 5.51 mmol/L) and acute renal failure with a serum creatinine of 7.4 mg/dL. We diagnosed meformin-associated lactic acidosis and the patient made a complete recovery following therapy with bicarbonate-based hemodialysis and supportive care. It is the first report of metformin-associated lactic acidosis in Korea.
Abdominal Pain ; Acidosis, Lactic* ; Acute Kidney Injury ; Aged ; Amlodipine ; Amoxicillin ; Anorexia ; Clarithromycin ; Creatinine ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; Duodenal Ulcer ; Female ; Gastroscopy ; Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Korea ; Lactic Acid ; Metformin ; Nausea ; Omeprazole ; Renal Dialysis

Marfan's syndrome is a an autosomal dominant disorder of connective tissue that is characterized by ocular, skeletal, and cardiovascular manifestation. It is estimated to have a prevalence of 4-6 per 10,000 people, and at least 25 percent of the cases occur in the absence of a family history. Coronary artery ectasia is a diffuse abnormality of the vessel wall, which has been reported in associated with coronary atherosclerosis, infectious process, congenital heart lesion, syphilis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. We reported a case of 25-year-old male who presented with Marfan's syndrome associated with dissecting ascending arotic aneurysm and diffuse dilatated coronary artery ectasia. Coronary angiographic study demonstrated the diffusely dilatated coronary artery ectasia.
Adult ; Aneurysm ; Connective Tissue ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Vessels* ; Dilatation, Pathologic* ; Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome ; Heart ; Humans ; Male ; Marfan Syndrome* ; Prevalence ; Syphilis

The incidence of postspinal headache is one of the well known complications of spinal anesthesia. Several factors such as needle size, bevel direction, multiple dural puncture and previous history of postspinal headache were thought to influence the incidence of postspinal headache. This studies were done to see the effect of needle size (22 and 25 gauge needle) and needle bevel direction (parallel, vertical, oblique insertion to the longitudinal dural fiber) on the incidence, duration, severity and location of spinal headache in the 548 patients underwent spinal anesthesia. The following results wre observed: 1) Neither needle size nor needle bevel direction had effect on the incidence of severity, duration and location of postspinal headache. 2) The ineidence of headache was 8.8% (48 cases), 3) The onset of headache was 1~2 day (67%) and duration of headache was 4~5 day (85%) in postanesthetic day. 4) The severity of headache was mild and moderate in 77% cases. 5) In the half cases, headache was relieved by means of bed rest alone.
Anesthesia, Spinal ; Bed Rest ; Headache* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Needles* ; Punctures

Tracheopathia osteoplastica is a rare disease of unknown cause and characterized by cartilaginous or bony projection into the tracheobronchial lumen, usually not involved posterior membranous portion of tracheobronchial tree. In the past, most of the cases were diagnosed incidentally at autopsy. But after the introduction of bronchoscopy and computed tomography, antemortem diagnosis was reported. Because of initial presenting symptoms were indolent and non-specific, misdiagnosis was reported frequently and correct diagnosis was delayed usually. We report two cases of tracheopathia osteoplastica diagnosed by fiberoptic bronchoscopic biopsy.
Autopsy ; Biopsy ; Bronchoscopy ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic Errors ; Rare Diseases

Nail toxicity following systemic chemotherapy is common. Onychopathy during the period of neutropenia following chemotherapy may cause subungual abscesses and serious infection. Despite taxoid-related toxicity being increasingly reported since 2000, there are still phase II systemic chemotherapy studies using taxoid that have never mentioned nail changes. Recently, new criteria for the evaluation of nail toxicity have been suggested. The present report is the first of its kind, in Korea, to describe a case of docetaxel-associated onychopathy, which improved following a reduction in the docetaxel dose.
Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic/administration & dosage ; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic/administration & dosage/adverse effects ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/*adverse effects ; Deoxycytidine/administration & dosage/analogs & derivatives ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Female ; Fluorouracil/analogs & derivatives ; Humans ; Lymphatic Diseases/drug therapy ; Middle Aged ; Nail Diseases/*chemically induced ; Stomach Neoplasms/drug therapy ; Taxoids/*administration & dosage/*adverse effects

Prolonged ingestion of licorice can cause hypermineralocorticoidism, with sodium retention, potassium loss and hypertension. Nevertheless, its initial presentation with a very severe degree of hypokalemic paralysis and rhabdomyolysis are exceedingly rare. We describe a patient who experienced hypokalemic paralysis and rhabdomyolysis after licorice ingestion. The patient's initial blood pressure was 160/80mmHg. The major biochemical abnormalities included; hypokalemia(K+ 1.3mEq/L), metabolic alkalosis, with a pH of 7.64, and urine myoglobin > 3000ng/mL. The plasma rennin activity and aldosterone level were suppressed. The 24 hour urine cortisol concentration was normal. The patients, over a 1 month period, had ingested 500g of licorice boiled in water. After quitting the licorice, the hypokalemia and muscle paralysis gradually improved and blood pressure returned to normal
Aldosterone ; Alkalosis ; Blood Pressure ; Chymosin ; Eating ; Glycyrrhiza* ; Glycyrrhizic Acid ; Humans ; Hydrocortisone ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Hypertension ; Hypokalemia ; Myoglobin ; Paralysis* ; Plasma ; Potassium ; Rhabdomyolysis* ; Sodium ; Water

Type 1 diabetes is considered as Th1 cell mediated autoimmune disease and the suppression of Th1 cells or the activation of Th2 cells has been regarded as a plausible immunologic intervention for the prevention of type 1 diabetogenesis in a rodent model. CpG ODN is an immunostimulatory sequence primarily present in bacterial DNA, viral DNA and BCG. CpG ODN is conventionally classified as a Th1 cell activator, which has been clinically applied to cancer, allergy and infectious disease. Recently, there was a promising report of that CpG ODN administration suppressed the development of type 1 diabetes in NOD mice by inducing Th2 cell mediated cytokine. However, the antidiabetogenic effect of CpG ODN on NOD mice is controversial. Thus, two studies were serially undertaken with various kinds of CpG motif to find a more optimal sequence and administration method. In the first study, CpG ODN was vaccinated four times and pancreatic inflammation and the quantity of serum insulin subsequently evaluated. In the second study, the amounts of IFN gamma and IL-4 in sera were measured as representative cytokines of Th1 and Th2 cells, respectively. As a result, vaccination or continuous injection of CpG ODN failed to show a preventive effect on type 1 diabetogenesis in NOD mice. Structural differences of CpG ODN also had no affect on the result. CpG ODN also consistently showed affect on the pancreatic pathology. The productions of IFN gamma and IL-4 were detected only in the K and D type CpG ODN administration groups. Comparison of the two cytokines leads to the conclusion that CpG ODN generated a Th1-weighted response in both study groups. It was assumed that CpG ODN failed to produce Th2-weighted cytokine milieu, which can overcome the genetically determined phenotype of NOD mice. Given these results, it was concluded that the immunotherapeutic application of CpG ODN on Type 1 diabetes had clear limitations.
Animals ; DNA/*pharmacology ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1/*immunology/*prevention & control ; Female ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred NOD ; Th1 Cells/*immunology