PURPOSE: This study was designed to examine the effects of a solution-focused group counseling program on the family burden, active coping, expressed emotion, and family support in schizophrenic patients and their families. METHOD: The subjects consisted of 48 schizophrenic patients and 56 families. Twenty-four schizophrenic patients and 28 families were assigned to both the experimental and control groups. The solution-focused group counseling program was conducted for the families of the experimental group, but not for the control group or the patients of the experimental group. RESULT: There was a significant greater decrease in scores of family burden and expressed emotion in the experimental groups than the control groups. There was a larger increase in active coping scores in the experimental groups than the control groups, but it was not significant. There was no significant difference between the two groups in family support scores. CONCLUSION: This program may be an effective nursing intervention program for families with schizophrenic members.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Adult ; Aged ; *Counseling ; Expressed Emotion ; Family/*psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; *Schizophrenia ; Social Support

Saphenous vein occlusion with cyanoacrylate is a new technology for the treatment of incompetent veins by endovascular embolization with cyanoacrylate glue. The objective of this review was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of saphenous vein occlusion with cyanoacrylate. A literature search was conducted using 8 Korean databases, Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. From the 1,730 articles that were initially identified, 8 studies (1 randomized controlled trial, 1 non-randomized controlled trial, and 6 case series/case reports) were included in this review. The results show that similar levels of adverse events or complications occurred in patients treated with cyanoacrylate ablation compared to the other treatment groups (laser ablation or radiofrequency ablation), but the ecchymosis and closure rates of the treated veins were significantly better in the cyanoacrylate ablation group. Improvements in symptoms and quality of life after the treatment were also observed. On the basis of the current data, saphenous vein occlusion with cyanoacrylate can be recommended as a safe and effective treatment for patients with saphenous vein reflux.
Adhesives ; Cyanoacrylates* ; Ecchymosis ; Humans ; Quality of Life ; Saphenous Vein* ; Varicose Veins ; Veins

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study aims to evaluate that usefulness of the endoscopic ear surgery (EES) through the systematic review.SUBJECTS AND METHOD: We searched literatures in literature databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, etc.). Inclusion criteria is 1) studies of patients with chronic otitis media, otitis media with effusion, cholesteatoma, conductive hearing loss, mixed hearing loss etc. 2) studies in which a transcanal endoscopic surgery was performed; and 3) studies in which one or more of the appropriate medical outcomes have been reported. We excluded that 1) non-human studies and pre-clinical studies; 2) non-original articles, for example, non-systematic reviews; editorial, letter and opinion pieces; 3) research not published in Korean and English; and 4) grey literature. Finally, 65 articles were selected and those results were analyzed. RESULTS: The safety of the EES was reported in 61 articles. Some studies reported damaged facial nerve or perilymph gusher but these are the complications that can arise due to the characteristics of the disease and not due to the EES and other reported complications were of similar or lower level in the intervention group rather than the microscopy group. The effectiveness of the EES was reported in 23 articles. The EES tended to show improved effects in terms of graft uptake status, cholesteatoma removal, and hearing improvement although effective outcomes of most studies reported no significant difference between EES and microscopic ear surgery. CONCLUSION EES is a safe and effective technique and as it is less invasive than the microscopic ear surgery.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study aims to evaluate that usefulness of the endoscopic ear surgery (EES) through the systematic review. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: We searched literatures in literature databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, etc.). Inclusion criteria is 1) studies of patients with chronic otitis media, otitis media with effusion, cholesteatoma, conductive hearing loss, mixed hearing loss etc. 2) studies in which a transcanal endoscopic surgery was performed; and 3) studies in which one or more of the appropriate medical outcomes have been reported. We excluded that 1) non-human studies and pre-clinical studies; 2) non-original articles, for example, non-systematic reviews; editorial, letter and opinion pieces; 3) research not published in Korean and English; and 4) grey literature. Finally, 65 articles were selected and those results were analyzed. RESULTS: The safety of the EES was reported in 61 articles. Some studies reported damaged facial nerve or perilymph gusher but these are the complications that can arise due to the characteristics of the disease and not due to the EES and other reported complications were of similar or lower level in the intervention group rather than the microscopy group. The effectiveness of the EES was reported in 23 articles. The EES tended to show improved effects in terms of graft uptake status, cholesteatoma removal, and hearing improvement although effective outcomes of most studies reported no significant difference between EES and microscopic ear surgery. CONCLUSION: EES is a safe and effective technique and as it is less invasive than the microscopic ear surgery.
Cholesteatoma ; Ear ; Endoscopes ; Facial Nerve ; Hearing ; Hearing Loss, Conductive ; Hearing Loss, Mixed Conductive-Sensorineural ; Humans ; Methods ; Microscopy ; Otitis Media ; Otitis Media with Effusion ; Otologic Surgical Procedures ; Perilymph ; Transplants

PURPOSE: The high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) protein has roles in apoptosis and immune responses by acting as a ligand for receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), Toll-like receptors (TLRs), and triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1. In particular, HMGB1/RAGE is involved in tumor metastasis by inducing matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) and MMP9 expression. We investigated the associations between genetic variations in HMGB1-related genes and disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in Korean female breast cancer patients. METHODS: A total of 2,027 patients in the Seoul Breast Cancer Study were included in the analysis. One hundred sixteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were extracted from eight genes. A multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval (CI) of each SNP. The effects of the SNPs on breast cancer prognosis were assessed at cumulative levels with polygenic risk scores. RESULTS: The SNPs significantly associated with DFS were rs243867 (hazard ratio, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.05–1.50) and rs243842 (hazard ratio, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.03–1.50); both SNPs were in MMP2. The SNPs significantly associated with OS were rs243842 in MMP2 (hazard ratio, 1.33; 95% CI 1.03–1.71), rs4145277 in HMGB1 (hazard ratio, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.00–1.66), rs7656411 in TLR2 (hazard ratio, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.60–0.98), and rs7045953 in TLR4 (hazard ratio, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.29–0.84). The polygenic risk score results for the DFS and OS patients showed third tertile hazard ratios of 1.72 (95% CI, 1.27–2.34) and 2.75 (95% CI, 1.79–4.23), respectively, over their first tertile references. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study indicate that genetic polymorphisms in HMGB1-related genes are related to breast cancer prognosis in Korean women.
Advanced Glycosylation End Product-Specific Receptor ; Apoptosis ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease* ; Genetic Variation ; HMGB1 Protein ; Humans ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 2 ; Myeloid Cells ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Prognosis* ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Seoul ; Toll-Like Receptors