No abstract available.
Coronary Vessels* ; Pulmonary Artery*

Some circadian rhythms can become disorganized due to rotating shift work. This lack of organization, termed desynchronization, can produce a group of symptoms such as insomnia, GI disturbance and fatigue among many rotating shift workers. The magnitude of these symptoms are influenced by personal and environmental factors and the patterns of shift work. This study was carried out to investigate the subjective symptoms related to rotational schedules of shift work after personal and environmental factors adjusted. 182 male workers in rapidly rotating shift system and 86 male workers in weekly rotating shift system were conducted the questionnaire on personal factors and subjective sleep, GI and fatigue symptoms. Major findings obtained from this study are as follows: 1. The symptoms of 'feeling tired at work' and 'being irritable' were more frequent in weekly rotating shift workers(P<0.05), and the mean of symptom score was significantly higher in weekly rotating shift workers(P<0.01). 2. According to 6 hours of sleeping which is a definite elevation point of fatigue, there was not a significant difference between two groups in sleeping hours. Among workers in rapidly rotating shift system, the mean of symptom score was significantly higher in workers of less than 6 hours of sleeping(P<0.05), but it was not different among weekly rotating shift workers. 3. The symptoms of GI disturbance were more frequent in weekly rotating shift workers but statistically mot significant. 4. The positive rate of mental and physical fatigue symptoms were significantly higher in weekly rotating shift workers(P<0.01) and mental and physical fatigue symptoms were more frequent in them(P<0.01). 5. After the effect of the factors that were significantly different between two groups by X2-test were controlled, the mean score of sleep disturbance was significantly higher in weekly rotating shift workers(P<0.01) and mental physical fatigue symptoms were more frequent in them(P<0.01). Based on these study results, subjective symptoms were more common in the weekly rotating shift workers. In future, medical examination and laboratory test will be also administered to evaluate a more accurate health outcomes and the review of current shift schedules will be required.
Appointments and Schedules ; Circadian Rhythm ; Fatigue ; Humans ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders

The poverty families, who take care of the demented elderly, can suffer from the deficiency of social services for dementia and the condition and nature the families have. Therefore, This study examines the burden of the poverty caring for the demented elderly. This study focused on the three points : the level of care burden of the families, who take care of the demented elderly ; the needs of welfare services ; the differences of care burden and service demand on trait of the families and the demented elderly. In order to achieve them, the 250 families, who take care of the demented elderly at home, were sampled and the primary caregivers of family member interviewed. Then, the statistics of the 226 people were analyzed by SPSSWIN. The major findings of the study were as follows : First, the level of the care burden the families of the demented elderly have, participated in this research, is higher than 'a little yes'. In a type of the care burden, the social & personal restriction is higher than the other types, including physical restriction, economical restriction, and reciprocal restriction. Second, some families had used service and had a low satisfaction, because of no various and adequate services. It shows that the services for the demented elderly and their families is not enough to use, that the services is not various for the families having many problem related the demented elderly. Third, there are many services needed by the families caring for the demented elderly : residential care facilities for the demented elderly ; day care service center ; short-term care services ; family counseling service ; services at home ; nursing services at home ; night care services ; family meeting. Fourth, the most difficult thing of caring is the economic burden of the families. The families are willing to take care of the demented elderly at home, if the government supports economically them and serves proper services to them. Finally, the lower income of the families is, the more time of caring the demented elderly in a day is, the lower vital functions of the demented elderly are, and the lower level of academic achievement, the higher level of care burden of the families is. According to the result, the level of the care burden can be affected by the family's economic capacity, the vital function of the demented elderly, and the existence of service for the demented elderly. For the elderly welfare especially, the demented elderly and their poverty families, three opinions may be suggested. First, the service programs based on community should be developed to reduce the burdens-economic, psychological, medical burden, etc. - of the poverty families caring for the demented elderly. These programs may include preventive service, education programs of dementia, diagnosis services, family counseling, and medical service. Second, the national government and the local government must try to make policies to solve the temporary problems of the family having the demented elderly.
Aged* ; Caregivers ; Counseling ; Day Care, Medical ; Dementia ; Diagnosis ; Education ; Federal Government ; Humans ; Local Government ; Night Care ; Nursing Services ; Poverty* ; Social Work

PURPOSE: This study was carried out to develop standardized telephone counseling guidelines regarding symptom management for patients discharged after colorectal cancer surgery, and to apply and assess it in practice in order to increase patient satisfaction and compliance level. METHODS: Five frequent symptoms; pain, diarrhea, constipation, bowel obstruction and wounds were extracted by a preliminary survey. RESULTS: For wound and bowel obstruction, the most frequent applied guideline was ER recommendation, and it was statistically significant (p<.002). The assessment result of guideline application (satisfaction rate, compliance rate and symptom resolution) shows an average satisfaction rate of 3.80 on a 4 point scale and all 6 cases which recommended immediate ER visits followed the guidelines. CONCLUSION: According to the result of this study, the developed guidelines are worth while to increase patient satisfaction as well as to resolve symptoms.
Colonic Neoplasms ; Colorectal Neoplasms* ; Compliance ; Constipation ; Counseling* ; Diarrhea ; Humans ; Patient Satisfaction ; Telephone* ; Wounds and Injuries

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of VDT work on eyes and vision among workers in a TV manufacturing plant. The study subjects consisted of 264 screen workers and 74 non-screen workers who were less than 40 years old male and had no history of opthalmic diseases such as corneal opacities, trauma, keratitis, etc and whose visual acuity on pre-employment health examination by Han's test chart was 1.0 or above. The screen workers were divided into two groups by actual time for screen work in a day; Group 1, 60 workers, lesser than 4 hours a day and group 11, 204 workers, more than 4 hours a day. From July to October 1992 a questionnaire was administered to all the study subjects for the general charateristics and subjective eye symptoms after which the opthalmologic tests such as visual acuity, spherical equivalent, lacrimal function, ocular pressure, slit lamp test, fundoscopy were conducted by one opthalmologist. The proportion of workers whose present visual acuity was decreased more than 0. 15 in comparison with that on the pre-employment health examination by Han's test chart was 20.6% in Group Ii, 15.0% in Group I and 14.9% in non-screen workers. However, the differences in proportion were not statistically significant. The proportion of workers with decreased visual acuity was not associated with the age, working duration, use of magnifying glass and type of shift work (independent variables) in all of the three groups. However, screen workers working under poor illumination had a higher proportion of persons with decreased visual acuity than those working under adequate illumination (P<0.05). The proportion of workers whose near vision was decreased was 27.5% in Group II, 18.3% in Group I, and 28.4% in non-screen workers and these differences in proportion were not statistically significant. Changes of near vision were not associated with 4 independent variables in all of the three groups. Six out of sever-subjective eye symptoms except tearing were more common in Group I than in non-screen workers and more common in Group II than in Group I (P<0.01). Mean of the total scores for seven subjective symptoms of each worker (2 points for always, 1 point for sometimes, 0 point for never) was not significantly different between workers with decreased visual acuity and workers with no vision change. However, mean of the total scores for Group II was higher than those for the Group I and non-screen workers (P < 0. 01). Total eye symptom scores were significantly correlated with the grade of screen work, use of magnifying glass, and type of shift work. There was no independent variable which was correlated with the difference in visual acuity between the pre-employment health examination and the present state, the difference between far and near visions, lacrimal function, ocular pressure, and spherical equivalent. Multiple linear regression analysis for the subjective eye symptom scores revealed a positive linear relationship with actual time for screen work and shift work(P<0.01). In this study it was not observed that the VDT work decreased visual acuity but it induces subjective eye symptoms such as eye fatigue, blurred vision, ocular discomfort, etc. Maintenance of adequate illumination in the, work place and control of excessive VDT work are recommended to prevent such eye symptoms.
Adult ; Asthenopia ; Corneal Opacity ; Glass ; Humans ; Keratitis ; Lighting ; Linear Models ; Male ; Plants* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Tears ; Vision, Ocular ; Visual Acuity ; Workplace

PURPOSE: This cross-sectional survey was conducted to described the compliance of Breast Self-Examination of middle-aged women using a convenient sample, and to examine relationships between the compliance of BSE and Health Beliefs, and the influencing factors on the compliance of BSE. METHODS: The subjects were 373 literate volunteers who were from 41 to 60 years of age who visited 6 public health centers. From June 7, 2004 to August 20, 2004, data were collected by 5 research assistants using a self-report questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to obtain information on the general characteristics, knowledge, health beliefs, and compliance of BSE. RESULTS: The findings of this study suggested that there were significant differences in the scores of the perceived susceptibility and severity between compliers and non-compliers of the BSE. BSE compliance was significantly correlated with knowledge, perceived susceptibility, and perceived severity. The most powerful predictor of BSE compliance was the perceived susceptibility. The perceived susceptibility, the perceived severity, the knowledge and educational level accounted for 41.8% of the variance in middle aged women's BSE compliance. CONCLUSION: Increase in knowledge about breast cancer, with a concomitant increase in both perceived susceptibility and perceived severity could produce a subtle cue or motivating force sufficient to affect a behavior change. Further research is needed to examine the qualitative difference between BSE and other early detection behaviors.
Patient Compliance/*psychology ; Middle Aged ; Korea ; Humans ; *Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Female ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Breast Self-Examination/*psychology ; Adult

BACKGROUND: PTCA is often unsuccessful in a patient with chronic total occlusion of coronary arteries with success rates varying from 60 to 70%. Success rates are related to the duration of total occlusion, longer occlusions being associated with lower success rates. Chronic total occlusion may be associated with thrombi superimposed on the stenotic lesion. We used an intra-coronary bolus of urokinase followed by a prolonged urokinase infusion in an attempt to lyse the lesion and allow for passage of the PTCA wire during subsequent angioplasty. The purpose of prolonged durokinase infusion was to reduce the clot sufficiently to recanalize the coronary artery and make it more amenable to PTCA. METHODS: Study patients: We were included six patients who developed total occlusion for more than 3 weeks and good collateral channels of Grade 2 or more and previous attempts at angioplaty had failed. Procedures: All patients underwent dual catheter system and incremental dose protocol of intracoronary urokinase infusion. RESULTS: The mean duration of occlusion was calculated to be 65.3+/-2.7 weeks and urokinase dose ranged from 130,000 to 200,000U/hr and treatment lasted 21.7+/-1.4 hours in our study. The prolonged urokinase infusion resulted in reperfusion of the occluded dvessel in 5 of the 6 patients(83%), with or without the complementary balloon inflation. One patient failed to recanalize the occluded vessel because cardiac tamponade was developed during the prolonged urokinase infusion. CONCLUSION: We concluded that the prolonged urokinase infusion in occluded coronary artery appeared to increase the likelihood of successful PTCA in patients with chronic total occlusion of coronary arteries.Also, in carefully selected patients, prolonged urokinase infusion in occluded coronary artery was relatively safe and well tolerated.
Angioplasty ; Cardiac Tamponade ; Catheters ; Coronary Vessels* ; Humans ; Inflation, Economic ; Reperfusion ; Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator*

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, NS5B protein, is the key viral enzyme responsible for replication of the HCV viral RNA genome. Although several full-length and truncated forms of the HCV NS5B proteins have been expressed previously in insect cells, contamination of host terminal transferase (TNTase) has hampered analysis of the RNA synthesis initiation mechanism using natural HCV RNA templates. We have expressed the HCV NS5B protein in insect cells using a recombinant baculovirus and purified it to near homogeneity without contaminated TNTase. The highly purified recombinant HCV NS5B was capable of copying 9.6-kb full-length HCV RNA template, and mini-HCV RNA carrying both 5'- and 3'-untranslated regions (UTRs) of the HCV genome. In the absence of a primer, and other cellular and viral factors, the NS5B could elongate over HCV RNA templates, but the synthesized products were primarily in the double stranded form, indicating that no cyclic replication occurred with NS5B alone. RNA synthesis using RNA templates representing the 3'-end region of HCV minus-strand RNA and the X-RNA at the 3'-end of HCV RNA genome was also initiated de novo. No formation of dimersize self-primed RNA products resulting from extension of the 3'-end hydroxyl group was observed. Despite the internal de novo initiation from the X-RNA, the NS5B could not initiate RNA synthesis from the internal region of oligouridylic acid (U)20, suggesting that HCV RNA polymerase initiates RNA synthesis from the selected region in the 3'-UTR of HCV genome.
3' Untranslated Regions/genetics ; 5' Untranslated Regions/genetics ; Animals ; Cell Line ; Gene Expression ; Genome ; Genome, Viral ; Hepacivirus/*enzymology/genetics ; RNA/biosynthesis/genetics ; RNA, Viral/genetics/metabolism ; Recombinant Proteins/genetics/isolation & purification/metabolism ; Spodoptera ; Templates, Genetic ; Uridine Monophosphate/metabolism ; Viral Nonstructural Proteins/chemistry/*genetics/isolation & purification/*metabolism

Background: Cyclosporine is an effective drug for the treatment of psoriasis. Nonetheless, little is known about the factors associated with its effectiveness. Objective: This study aimed to analyze the factors affecting the treatment efficacy of cyclosporine in patients with psoriasis. Methods: ‘Good treatment response’ and ‘treatment failure’ were each defined as achievement of 75% improvement in the psoriasis area and severity index and failure to achieve 50% improvement in the psoriasis area and severity index, respectively. The factors affecting good treatment response were investigated by comparing the group that achieved psoriasis area and severity index 75 to the not achieved group. Similarly, we also analyzed the factors affecting treatment failure and the time required to achieve psoriasis area and severity index 75. Results: In total, 78 patients (63 males and 15 females) were analyzed. Age of onset, body surface area, accompanying hypertension, accompanying psoriatic arthritis, induction phase mean dose, and cumulative dose showed a relationship with good treatment response. Body surface area, initial dose, and accompanying hypertension were correlated with treatment failure. The mean time taken to achieve psoriasis area and severity index 75 was 6.70±3.17 weeks and it did not correlate with any factor. Conclusion In patients with psoriasis vulgaris, maintaining an adequate mean dose in the induction phase may be necessary for successful treatment with cyclosporine, especially in the patients with early-onset psoriasis, severe psoriasis, or accompanying psoriatic arthritis. In addition, a sufficiently high start dose may be needed to prevent treatment failure, particularly in patients with severe psoriasis vulgaris.