PURPOSE: This study was conducted to identify the factors associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) risk in patients with metabolic syndrome (MS). METHODS: Patients with MS between 30 and 74 years of age were recruited in an outpatient clinic of a cardiovascular center in Seoul, South Korea. MS and the risk of OSA were evaluated by Berlin questionnaire survey, the medical records of the participants were reviewed and a comprehensive lifestyle survey was performed. SPSS WIN 21.0 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: BMI (OR: 1.31, CI: 1.14-1.51, p<.001) and lifestyle score (OR: 0.96, CI: 0.93-0.99, p=.028) were associated with the risk of OSA. Physical activity, weight control and diet were specifically associated with the risk of OSA after controlling for age, gender and BMI. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that lifestyle was an important factor associated with OSA risk in patients with MS.
Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Berlin ; Diet ; Humans ; Korea ; Life Style ; Medical Records ; Motor Activity ; Seoul ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive*

PURPOSE: Adherence to immunosuppressants is the key to prevent organ rejection in organ transplant recipients. The purpose of this study was to investigate current interventions to improve adherence to immunosuppressants in liver transplant recipients. METHODS: A systemic literature search was done using PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and four Korean databases to identify experimental studies reported in English or Korean up to and including 2015. We identified eight intervention studies on the adherence to immunosuppressants in liver transplant recipients independently reviewed by two reviewers. The quality and risk of bias of the selected studies were assessed. RESULTS: Education, conversion of regimen, and text messaging were identified as intervention techniques to improve adherence. We found positive results in three out of four studies implementing educational strategies, but the results were not sufficient to draw a definite conclusion. Conversion from a twice-daily tacrolimus-based regimen to a once-daily tacrolimus extended-release formula was used in three adult-only studies and its effectiveness was confirmed. One study showed that improved adherence and outcomes were effected by using text messaging with pediatric patients. CONCLUSION: Future research is needed to facilitate interventions to improve adherence to immunosuppressants in various ages of patients including pediatric/adolescent liver transplant recipients.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Education ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents* ; Clinical Trial ; Liver* ; Tacrolimus ; Text Messaging ; Transplantation* ; Transplants

We report herein an unusual case of tick bite. A 56 year old woman complained of erythematous nodular skin lesion on the left upper chest. An excision biopsy specimen of the lesion showed darkish-red nodule, in which there was a tick. It was identified as an adult female of Ixodes nipponensis by the scanning electron microscopic examination.
Adult ; Biopsy ; Female ; Humans ; Ixodes* ; Middle Aged ; Skin ; Thoracic Wall* ; Thorax* ; Tick Bites ; Tick Infestations* ; Ticks*

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to describe the effects of aroma inhalation on sleep and fatigue in night shift nurses. METHODS: The research design was one group pre-posttest design. The subjects were 17 night shift nurses who work at neurosurgery intensive care unit of K hospital of C university in Seoul. During three consequent night shifts, the participants were worn the Actigraph to measure the sleep pattern on their wrist since their first night shift work. The quality of sleep and fatigue was measured by survey when they awoke at 6 pm after second night shift work. And these measures were repeated during the night shifts in second and third week. Aroma inhalation was applied before going to bed after finishing each night shift work during second and third week. SPSS 12.0 program was used for data analysis. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences in sleep latency and total sleeping time. However, significant differences were found in the sleep efficiency, awakening number, sleep quality, subjective symptom and intensity of fatigue. CONCLUSION: These results showed that aroma inhalation had positive effects on the pattern and quality of sleep and reducing fatigue in night shift nurses.
Aromatherapy ; Fatigue ; Inhalation ; Intensive Care Units ; Neurosurgery ; Research Design ; Statistics as Topic ; Wrist

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to describe the effects of aroma inhalation on sleep and fatigue in night shift nurses. METHODS: The research design was one group pre-posttest design. The subjects were 17 night shift nurses who work at neurosurgery intensive care unit of K hospital of C university in Seoul. During three consequent night shifts, the participants were worn the Actigraph to measure the sleep pattern on their wrist since their first night shift work. The quality of sleep and fatigue was measured by survey when they awoke at 6 pm after second night shift work. And these measures were repeated during the night shifts in second and third week. Aroma inhalation was applied before going to bed after finishing each night shift work during second and third week. SPSS 12.0 program was used for data analysis. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences in sleep latency and total sleeping time. However, significant differences were found in the sleep efficiency, awakening number, sleep quality, subjective symptom and intensity of fatigue. CONCLUSION: These results showed that aroma inhalation had positive effects on the pattern and quality of sleep and reducing fatigue in night shift nurses.
Aromatherapy ; Fatigue ; Inhalation ; Intensive Care Units ; Neurosurgery ; Research Design ; Statistics as Topic ; Wrist

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine illness perception, knowledge about the disease and health promoting behaviors, and to identify factors influencing health promoting behaviors among Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) patients. METHODS: The participants were 128 PAD patients who had been treated as an outpatient or an inpatient at the department of cardiology in a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea. Data were collected from October to December 2014, regarding general characteristics, disease related characteristics, illness perception and knowledge on PAD, health promoting behaviors by using a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: The number of subjects who had an awareness of PAD diagnosis was 70 (54.7%) among 128. In this study, knowledge on PAD was significantly correlated with health promoting behaviors (r=0.205, P=0.020). Especially, knowledge on PAD had a significant correlation with health responsibility (r=0.353, P<0.001) and exercise (r=0.230, P=0.009). In the regression analysis, knowledge on PAD was a factor that influences the health promoting behavior in this study subjects (R2=0.212, P=0.032). CONCLUSIONS: We could determine the degree of perception, knowledge, and health promoting behaviors among participants and the influence of PAD-related knowledge on health promoting behaviors. Conclusively, the results of this study support the development of education intervention to ameliorate disease perception and PAD related knowledge in order to improve health promoting behaviors among PAD patients.
Cardiology ; Diagnosis ; Education ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Korea ; Outpatients ; Peripheral Arterial Disease* ; Seoul ; Tertiary Care Centers

A 50-year-old woman who had chronic headache was admitted to the hospital. Stent-assisted coil embolization of the aneurysm in the right vertebral artery was performed. After the procedure, the patient experienced a transient memory impairment. A microembolic lesion in the right medial temporal lobe and cerebral hemisphere was observed on diffusion-weighted imaging. We report a case of transient global amnesia caused by microembolus in the medial temporal lobe after embolization of an aneurysm.
Amnesia, Transient Global* ; Aneurysm ; Cerebrum ; Embolization, Therapeutic* ; Female ; Headache Disorders ; Humans ; Intracranial Aneurysm* ; Memory ; Middle Aged ; Temporal Lobe ; Vertebral Artery

BACKGROUND: Tissue biopsy is of significant importance to the parasitic diseases. This report describes in order to know the species and frequency of human parasitic infection diagnosed by biopsy at the department of anatomical pathology, KyungHee Medical Center. Finally, we estimated the trend of parasitic diseases of tissue in a feature, in Korea. METHOD: 262(0.57%) cases of parasitic infection were reviewed for analysis of the different types of parasitic infection, 45,651 biopsied materials were submitted for routine histopathological examination during a period of 12 years from 1972 to 1983 at the department of anatomical pathology, KyungHee Medical Center. RESULTS: They consisted of 136 cases of cysticercosis, 73 clonorchiasis, 16 amebiasis, 12 paragonimiasis, 9 ascariasis, 9 sparganosis, 4 scabies, 1 taeniasis, 1 enterobiasis and 1 anisakiasis. 136 cases of cysticercosis were mainly of the skeletal muscle and subcutaneous tissue. The 73 cases of clonorchiasis occurred mainly in the liver and gallbladder. In the 16 cases of amebiasis, the liver and the rectum were the main loci. In 12 cases of paragonimiasis, pleura was the main site. CONCLUSION: The frequency of parasitic infections found in biopsied specimens was found to decrease as the years passed by, but some disease such as sparganosis showed a possible increase. Tissue biopsy is an important method for detection of tissue or ectopic parasitic infections.
Amebiasis ; Anisakiasis ; Ascariasis ; Biopsy* ; Clonorchiasis ; Cysticercosis ; Enterobiasis ; Gallbladder ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Liver ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Paragonimiasis ; Parasitic Diseases* ; Pathology ; Pleura ; Rectum ; Scabies ; Sparganosis ; Subcutaneous Tissue ; Taeniasis

BACKGROUND: Kidney transplant recipients inevitably take a life-long immunosuppressive medication to prevent graft rejection. Non-compliance to immunosuppressive medication is one of the main causes leading to acute and chronic rejection and diminished renal function, resulting in a return to dialysis, increased morbidity, or mortality with an additional health care cost and poor quality of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate actual medication compliance and its related factors. METHODS: A total of 222 functioning kidney transplant recipients were surveyed in a single center, and 25 patients were excluded due to incomplete responses. We reviewed medical records retrospectively, and the data were statistically analyzed with SPSS version 13.0. RESULTS: Among 197 patients, 113 (57.4%) were compliant to the immunosuppressive agents, and 84 (42.6%) recipients were non-compliant. Non-compliant patients were significantly younger (P=0.004), highly educated (P=0.004), employed (P=0.005), more likely to live alone (P=0.035), and drank more (P=0.001) than the compliant patients. Regarding psychosocial factors, more barriers (P=0.015), weak beliefs about the necessity of taking medications (P=0.001), strong beliefs about specific concerns related to medications (P=0.038), and low self efficacy (P=0.003) were identified in the non-compliant group compared with the compliant group. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that multiple factors affected medication compliance in patients taking immunosuppressants. It would be helpful to identify potential recipients with a risk for non-compliance based on their general characteristics and psychosocial factors, so they can be provided a specialized education program to promote compliance. This strategy may help produce more favorable long-term outcomes among kidney transplant recipients.
Compliance ; Dialysis ; Graft Rejection ; Health Care Costs ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents ; Kidney ; Kidney Transplantation ; Medical Records ; Medication Adherence ; Quality of Life ; Rejection (Psychology) ; Retrospective Studies ; Self Efficacy

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate nutritional risk, physical activity, and quality of life (QoL) and the interaction of these factors in colorectal cancer patients. METHODS: Participants were colorectal cancer patients receiving follow-up treatment at the colorectal cancer outpatient clinic of Severance Hospital in Seoul. Participants were recruited from October 25 to November 30, 2010. The survey questionnaire consisted of Nutritional Risk Score (NRS), International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - scales for Colorectal Cancer (FACT-C). RESULTS: NRSs were significantly higher in patients with low BMI (F=18.63, p<.001) and those who were underwent colorectal surgery within 1 month (F=5.96, p<.001). Physical activity level of the participants was 28.96METs. Lower nutritional risk was associated with a higher QoL (r= - .34, p<.001). In a multiple regression analysis, the predictors of QoL were the age, economic status, and nutritional risk of the patient (R2=40.0%). CONCLUSIONS: Targeted tailored nursing interventions are needed to assess nutritional risks in order to improve colorectal cancer patients' QoL.
Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Child ; Colorectal Neoplasms* ; Colorectal Surgery ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Motor Activity* ; Nursing ; Nutrition Disorders ; Quality of Life* ; Seoul ; Weights and Measures ; Surveys and Questionnaires