No abstract available.
Fatty Liver*

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of clocortolone pivalate(Purantix) on corticosteroid responsive dermatoses, a symmetical paired. comparison technique was performed using 0. 1% clocortolone pivalate and 0. 025% triamcinolone acetonide creams. During the pericd of 7 months from September 1977 to March 1978, 37 patients with bilateral lesions of contact dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis atopic dermatitis, lichen simplex chronicus and psoriasis were selected and treated with afore mentioned drugs, In the 15 psoriatic patients, clocrtolone pivalate was superior in 3, triamcinolone acetonide was superior in 2, 4oth drugs were equally effective in 10. In the evaluation of all 37 patients clocortolone pivalate was superior in 8, triamcinolone acetonide was sureior in 3, both drugs were equally effective in 26. The overall superiority of clocortolone pivalate to triamcinolone acetonide was non significant, There was no side effects with either drug. The simplicity of the vasoconstriction tcst has led to its general use in the study of the potency of new topical steroids. In the 6h occluded single-application vasocon-strictor test performed on 40 healthy students, there was no significant difference between clocortolone pivalate and triamcinolone acetonide, but they significantly d.ifferent from 1% hydrocortisone and the control; a simple ointment base(p<0.01).
Dermatitis, Atopic ; Dermatitis, Contact ; Dermatitis, Seborrheic ; Humans ; Hydrocortisone ; Neurodermatitis ; Psoriasis ; Skin Diseases* ; Skin* ; Steroids ; Triamcinolone Acetonide ; Vasoconstriction

No abstract available.
Animals ; Macrophages, Peritoneal* ; Mice*

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency and characteristics of needlestick/sharps injuries (NSIs) in nursing students in Korea. METHODS: The study was based on a survey of questionnaires completed by 341 nursing students who had sustained at least one NSI during clinical practice in hospitals. RESULTS: The NSI incidence rate was 36.4%. Approximately half of the students reported two to four NSIs. Most (90.2%) of the NSIs occurred on the fingertips and were caused by a hollow-bore needle (46.8%) or lancet (45.8%). Some students were exposed to used needles contaminated with unknown pathogens (37.3%), HBs Ag (2.3%), Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) (0.8%), or HIV (0.6%). Students cited the reason for injury as carelessness, inexperience, hastiness, or recapping. Almost two-thirds of students who reported having experienced an NSI knew about post-exposure treatment. However, only one-third of the students with NSIs completed an official report. CONCLUSION: Korean nursing students lack knowledge about injury prevention, report procedures, and treatment after NSI. A revised educational approach with emphasis on occupational risk, skill development, and injury reporting is necessary to prevent NSI and to ensure that students obtain post-exposure prophylaxis.
Dietary Sucrose ; HIV ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Needles ; Needlestick Injuries ; Post-Exposure Prophylaxis ; Sexually Transmitted Diseases ; Students, Nursing ; Surveys and Questionnaires

No abstract available.
Leukemia* ; Leukemia, Megakaryoblastic, Acute*

The utilization of CT-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy of bone has been the subject of considerable interest, since the introduction of the CT scanning. The CT-guided needle biopsy of 11 consecutive patients with avariety of "Etiology Unknown Spinal Disorders" resulted in a 100% yield of positive tissue diagnosis without significant complicaitons. The main advantage of CT guidance is the continuous direct observation of the needletip position in relation to the target volume, the more precise sampling from smaller and deeper lesion is another advantage. We are confident that localization of pathology by CT is the most accurate method for perform ingbiopses, and thus replaces the conventional ways of approaches and this could be utilized on the other organbiopsy in the future.
Biopsy ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Biopsy, Needle ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Methods ; Pathology ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Understanding of brain morphology and magnetic resonance image(MRI) is essential for accurate diagnosis and treatment of the brain diseases. As education tools, the cadaver dissection, plastic models, and neuroanatomy books have been used for understanding brain morphology; and the MRI films and radiology books have been used for understanding brain MRI. Recently, due to the popularization of powerful personal computers, computer programs compensating the conventional education tools have been used. But these computer programs have a disadvantage that it is not possible to visualize the details of brain morphology or to compare the corresponding sectioned specimens and MRI. Therefore, we attempted to make a computer program which could visualize not only the details of brain morphology but also the corresponding sectioned specimens and MRI by using the brains removed from Korean cadavers. Three brains were removed from Korean cadavers. With a brain, 122 MRI and 122 serially-sectioned specimens with an 1.4mm interval were acquired and inputted into the computer. Ten brain structures were segmented, and 83 fine structures were designated on the images. With two brains, 27 dissected specimens were acquired and inputted into the computer. One-hundred two fine structures were designated on the images. Based on these images, a computer program for understanding brain morphology and MRI was made. The computer program, which was made in this study, visualized the corresponding sectioned specimens, MRI, and segmented images after sectioning a brain horizontally or at any angles. In addition, the computer program visualized the images of dissected brain. This computer program is helpful to understand brain morphology and MRI. This computer program is expected to be used through CD-title or Internet as an educational tool for medical students and doctors.
Brain Diseases ; Brain* ; Cadaver ; Diagnosis ; Education ; Humans ; Internet ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Microcomputers ; Neuroanatomy ; Plastics ; Students, Medical

BACKGROUND: The usage of appropriate disinfectants is essential for infection control in a hospital. Inadequate use of disinfectants is the cause of human or environmental toxicity and is a waste of cost. The objective of this study was to describe the status of the usage of disinfectants in Korean hospitals. METHOD: One hundred and eighty three hospitals of over 300 beds were investigated by a questionnaire distributed by mall. Data collection was done on November 1999. The questionnaire was made by the Association of Infection Control Nurses in Korea, based on references and protocols of the Korean Society of Nosocomial Infection Control. Numerical and percentage data were analyzed by SPSS. RESULTS: The collection rate of the questionnaire was 43.7% (80/300). Thirty five hospitals (46.7%) had an official process in selecting disinfectants in their hospitals. Regarding skin antiseptics, 10% povidone iodine and 70% alcohol were commonly used in skin preparation for intravenous catheterization or pre-operative skin disinfection, For disinfection of mucosal membranes such as mouth and periurethral area, 3% boric acid solution or 3% H202 were used. Most of the hospitals decontaminated contaminated medical instruments manually with dodecyl diamino ethyl glycine (20.8%). glutaraldehyde (15.6%). quaternary ammonium compounds (13.8%), virkon (12.3%) and sodium hypochlorites (11.7%). Glutaraldehyde and virkon were frequently used for disinfection of endoscopes. Sodium hypochlorites (48.9%) and quaternary ammonium compounds (19.8%) were the most commonly used environmental disinfectants. Some noticeable problems in disinfectants were as follows. First, for mouth care, many hospitals (41.7%) over-used boric acid, which has cumulative toxicity for humans. Second, many hospitals had an incorrect protocol of disinfecting endoscopes. Third, for environmental decontamination and instrument cleaning, some hospitals used high level disinfectants such as glutaraldehyde, which is too costly and provides unnecessary safety problems. Fourth, after patient discharge, many hospitals did not use disinfectants at all. Considering the specific Korean medical environment of high incidence of multi-drug resistant microorganisms, use of disinfectants for discharged environments may be warranted. CONCLUSION: This study included only hospitals of over 300 beds, which has a limitation in representing the status of disinfectants usage in a country. However, significant problems from misunderstanding the basic principles of disinfectants and misusages of disinfectants were observed in this investigation. These observations will provide useful information for designing a guideline for the appropriate uses and for efficient education of disinfectants, and also for planning a national control program for proper disinfectants usage in this country.
Anti-Infective Agents, Local ; Catheterization ; Catheters ; Cross Infection ; Data Collection ; Decontamination ; Disinfectants* ; Disinfection ; Education ; Endoscopes ; Glutaral ; Glycine ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infection Control ; Korea* ; Membranes ; Mouth ; Patient Discharge ; Povidone-Iodine ; Quaternary Ammonium Compounds ; Skin ; Sodium ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The purpose of the study was to investigate two areas as a basis for providing an educational program for pulmonary rehabilitation. A) the learning needs about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and B) the perception of nurses of the same learning needs. The subjects consisted of 57 patients, with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, at the general hospital in Seoul and 71 nurses, who were working in the medical ward. Data was obtained from a "learning need" questionnaire between October 29 and November 19, '99. Data was analyzed using SAS program for t-test, ANOVA, Scheff test. The result were as follows: 1. The learning needs of the nurses(mean 4.36 +/- .38) were higher than those of the patients (mean 3.56 +/- .83). (t=6.78, P=.001) 2. The highest ranked patient education needs were as follows ; a)"how to control dyspnea", b)"cause for activating dyspnea", and c)"how to minimize the necessity of oxygen in daily living": and nurses' learning needs were ; a)"how to cope with the risk situation", b)"management after discharge", and c)"how to control dyspnea". 3. In the patient group, those who had a college degree or higher education and paid their own hospital expenses were higher in the learning needs. According to the above results, we should consider an educational program which is realistic and effective for patients by evaluating the items the patients really want to learn about and how much they know about the evaluated items.
Education ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Learning* ; Oxygen ; Patient Education as Topic ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive* ; Rehabilitation ; Seoul ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Many studies for LPS-induced cytokines, chemokines gene expressions have been reported, but results are highly diverse. The dose of LPS used, cell type studied or other technical factors may contribute to the differences. We investigated the cytokine mRNA expressions, interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-6, IL-10 and IFNr, on thioglycollate (TG) elicited-mouse peritoneal macrophages stimulated with various concentrations, 1 ng/ml, 10 ng/ml, 100 ng/ml, 1 ug/ml and 10 ug/ml, of LPS used by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and northern blot analysis. TG- elicited peritoneal macrophages expressed IL-6 and IFN-r mRNA in a dose-dependent manner. The expressions of IL-2 and IL-10 mRNA were dose-independent manner. In northern blot analysis, IL-6 mRNA expression was detected only in 10 ug/ml LPS concentration for short stimulation time (0.5 h), while IL-10 mRNAs were expressed evenly in all LPS concentrations. The expression of IL-6 mRNA was sustained until 72 h at 10 ug/ml concentration only, but IL- 10 mRNAs of all cases of LPS concentrations were sustained evenly until then. These results suggest that the concentration of LPS required for cytokine induction must be determined differently from gene to gene types, and although LPS concentration 10 ug/ml has not been used as an ordinary concentration in vitro cytokine study, 10 ug/ml of LPS might be more appropriate concentration in the study of IL-6 expression on mouse peritoneal macrophages.
Animals ; Blotting, Northern ; Chemokines ; Cytokines ; Gene Expression ; Interleukin-10 ; Interleukin-2 ; Interleukin-6 ; Macrophages, Peritoneal* ; Mice* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Reverse Transcription ; RNA, Messenger*