This study was carried out to understand the home health care needs of postpartum women during the postpartum period. The goal of this study was to obtain data needed to develope postpartum home health care programs and to improve the nursing quality for postpartum women. A convenient sample of 105 healthy women who were discharged after delivery at a maternity hospital in Ulsan, Korea were studied from January 25 to April 15, 2001. Data collection was done with a structured questionnaire (maternal concerns questionnaire) by mailing. Data was collected from 1 to 4 weeks after delivery. The Results of this study were as follows: 1. The mean score of home health care need of postpartum women was 2.51. The degree of nursing need according to the category of home health care needs was 'concerns about the infant (2.91 +/- .68)', 'maternal physical and emotional concerns (2.62 +/- .52)', 'concerns related to the husband (2.45+/-73)', 'concerns related to the family (2.16+/-.64)', 'concerns related to the community (2.03+/-.60)' in rank. Among the items, 'recognizing illness in the newborn (3.36+/-.83)', 'normal growth and development (3.33+/-.92)' were high. 2. Among items of concerns about infant (2.91+/-.68), 'recognizing illness in the newborn (3.36+/-.83)', 'normal growth and development (3.33+/-.52)' showed high nursing needs. 3. Among items of maternal physical and emotional concerns (2.62+/-.52), 'being a good mother (3.31=/-.86)', 'return of their figures to normal (3.04+/-1.05) showed high nursing needs. 4. Among items of concerns about husband (2.45+/-.73), 'husband being a good father (2.84+/-1.00) shows high nursing needs. 5. Among items of concerns related to the community (2.03+/-.60), 'getting to health care facilities (2.69+/-.90) shows high nursing needs. 6. On considering the relationship between the postpartum women s home health care needs and their general characteristics, parity (t=2.436, p=.017) and delivery type (t=2.074, p=.041) were statistically significant.
Delivery of Health Care* ; Fathers ; Female ; Growth and Development ; Hospitals, Maternity ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea ; Mothers ; Nursing ; Parity ; Postal Service ; Postpartum Period* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Spouses ; Ulsan

The purpose of the study was to investigate the characteristics of the clients registered in the department of home health care nursing in a hospital and to analyze nursing intervention activities recorded in charts by application of Nursing Intervention Classification (NIC) system. For the descriptive survey study, data were collected by reviewing charts of 572 home health care clients between May, 1997 and July, 2000 at K hospital in Seoul. The average age of the clients was 66 years and the number of clients in their 70s ranked first with 28.2 percent(158 people). The mean length of home care service was 47 days with the highest frequency of less than four weeks (56 %). With regard to medical diagnosis, cancer showed the highest frequency (48%, 271 people), followed by cerebrovascular disease (19%), and pulmonary disease (6.9%). According to analysis of nursing interventions by the NIC system, the most frequently used nursing interventions in level 1 were interventions in the Physiological: Complex domain which were used 3,663 times (33%) among 11,107 total interventions. The Safety domain was the second most frequently used intervention, followed by the Physiological: Basic, and the Behavioral domains. In level 2, the Risk Management class was the most frequently used interventions with 3,108 interventions (27.9%), followed by Drug Management, and Tissue Perfusion Management classes. In level 3 interventions, Vital Sign Monitoring was the most frequently used intervention, 569 times (5.1%), followed by Health Screening, and Neurological Monitoring interventions. In sum, half of the clients in the study had cancer and were in their 70s. The most frequent reason for ending home care was death (40%), followed by readmission (28%). These findings represent clients with severe conditions referred to the home care nursing department as it was a University teaching hospital. Further research on analyzing nursing interventions performed in each institution needs to be conducted to develop a standardized list of nursing interventions to use in home health care settings.
Classification ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Diagnosis ; Home Care Services ; Home Health Nursing ; Hospitals, Teaching ; Lung Diseases ; Mass Screening ; Nursing* ; Perfusion ; Risk Management ; Seoul ; Vital Signs

Clinical trials were done to obtain ifnormation on the clinical efficacy, tolerance and side effects of a new antihistarnine, Mecloprodine(Tavegyl), in various skin disordetrs. A total of 48 patients suffered from various skin disorders as urticaria, eczema etc. v ere treated with 2mg. daily for 3 days to 15 days according to state of disorders. The results are as follows. 1. Improvement was noticed in 79.2% of total patients(38/48). 2. Tavegyl was efiective in all 8 cases of acute urticaria and most cases(7/8) of urticaria factitia. 3. Among 19 cases of chronic urticaria, improvement was noticed in 13 cases(68. 49). Improvement was alsa noticed in all 6 cases of eczema. 5. Drowsiness and weakness cccurred in 6.2% of cases(3/48).
Clemastine* ; Eczema ; Humans ; Skin ; Sleep Stages ; Urticaria

PURPOSE: The locoregional failure rate remain high in advanced cervical carcinoma. Chemotherpy(CT) was added to radiotherapy(RT) in order to improve therapeutic result. We performed this study to evaluate the response rate, toxicities and survival benefit of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and to investigate potential role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in treatment of cervical cancer. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The patients(68 cases of cervical cancer) were divided into two groups ; The one group was neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy(n=30) and the other was the radiotherapy(n=38) group. The patients were maintained by regular follow-up and evaluated with regards to treatment related toxicity and effectiveness by response using World Health Organization criteria and 5-year survival rate. RESULTS: 30 patients were assigned to receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy. After chemotherpy, the overall clinical response rate was 46.7%. The response rate of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed radiotherapy was higher than that of the radiotherapy in cervical cancer (100% vs 84.2%). The 5-year survival rate of patients was not different between two groups(p>0.05). Toxicities of chemotherapy were generally tolerable and usually well resolved with conservative treatment. CONCLUSION: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed radiotherapy help to improve response rate but did not affect survival benefit in the cervical cancer in this study. However, well controlled long-term prospective study will be need to get firm conclusion.
Drug Therapy* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Radiotherapy* ; Survival Rate ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms* ; World Health Organization

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to explore the health-related quality of life of caregivers for demented elders. METHOD: The subjects of this study were 170 pairs of demented elders and their caregivers. Socio-demographic characteristics of the demented elders and the caregivers, Barthel index and SF-36 were used in this study. Data analysis procedure included t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression. RESULTS: The score of overall health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was 288.62 in norm-based scoring. The major factors that affect HRQoL of the demented elders' caregivers were burden, the age of the caregiver, ADL and gender of the demented elder, and these factors explained 34.5% of HRQoL. CONCLUSION: The factors significantly affecting the caregivers' HRQoL were burden, the age of the caregiver and ADL. The effective social support system should be considered in respective nursing interventions to decrease the level of burden and to increase HRQoL in demented elders' caregivers. Further studies and efforts will be needed to investigate preceding factors of burden and HRQoL.
Activities of Daily Living ; Caregivers ; Dementia* ; Humans ; Nursing ; Quality of Life* ; Statistics as Topic

Traumatic hemipelvectomy is rarely observed because very few patients have survived from the initial trauma. We describe one male child who survived from this massive trauma with a good functional outcome. The boy was 28 months old when he was accidentally struck by a truck. He had severe open trauma of the pelvis and hemorrhage of the left lower limb. Amputation of the left hemipelvis, colostomy, cystostomy and removal of the left avulsed testicle were performed. Once healing had been achieved, he was transferred to our Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and rehabilitative management was begun, including prosthetic measurement and psychologic intervention for the patient and his parents. For 13 years of long-term follow-up, his prosthesis was readjusted annually. Now he is a 16-year-old middle school student. He is functioning remarkably well with a prosthesis. The psychologic report shows that he is emotionally stable and has good scholastic performance. Although hemipelvectomy appears to be a radical procedure in children, the potential for rehabilitation in a group of children before body image has developed appears to be unexpectedly good.
Adolescence ; Case Report ; Child, Preschool ; Hemipelvectomy*/psychology ; Hemipelvectomy*/adverse effects ; Human ; Male ; Wounds and Injuries/surgery*

The purpose of this study was to determine the meaning of the pain and experiences of elderly women with osteoarthritis, by adopting Colaizzi's phenomenological method. The participants were 7 elderly women over the age of 65. They were selected using a theoretical sampling technique. The Data was collected by in-depth and open-ended interviews from Dec. 1. 1999. to Feb, 28. 2000. The length of the interviews varied from 120 minutes to 180 minutes. Data was recorded and analyzed by a constant comparative method. From the data, significant statements were extracted and then organized into 48 themes, which resulted in 15 clusters of themes and 6 categories. The final descriptions turned out to be valid through the interviewee' validation process. Essential themes of the pain experiences emerged : "physical discomfortness(disturbances)", "negative state of mind", "influence of the death", "positive change in life", "Cause of pain perceived", and "change of their personal relationships". From these results, it was found that elderly women need nursing care based on a deep understanding of pain, and a reflection on their past is imperative to overcome their given situations. In conclusion, it is suggested that the care givers provide more support to solve the problems experienced by the elderly. Thus the researchers expect to provide understanding of older people and give basic data of holistic care for them.
Aged* ; Arthritis ; Caregivers ; Female ; Humans ; Nursing Care ; Osteoarthritis*

Measurement of thiopurine metabolites is helpful to monitor adverse effects and assess compliance in patients on thiopurine treatment. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an analytical method for measurement of thiopurine metabolites, thioguanine nucleotides (6-TGN) and 6-methylmercaptopurine nucleotide (6-MMPN), in RBCs. We developed and validated a liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for the quantification of 6-TGN and 6-MMPN and evaluated the stability of the thiopurine metabolites in RBC and whole blood states without any preprocessing at various storage conditions. The linear range was 0.1–10 µmol/L and 0.5–100 µmol/L for 6-TGN and 6-MMPN, respectively. The mean extraction recovery at the two concentrations was 71.0% and 75.0% for 6-TGN, and 102.2% and 96.4% for 6-MMPN. Thiopurine metabolites in preprocessed RBC samples were stable at 25℃ and 4℃ after storage for 4 hours and at −70℃ for up to 6 months. However, 6-TGN decreased by 30% compared with the initial concentration when stored at −20℃ for 180 days. In whole blood states, 6-TGN decreased by about 20% at four days after storage at 4℃. We validated a reliable LC-MS/MS method and recommend that the patient's whole blood sample be preprocessed as soon as possible.
Compliance ; Humans ; Mass Spectrometry ; Methods* ; Nucleotides ; Thioguanine

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the main physiological stimulus for human skin pigmentation. Recently, nitric oxide (NO) have been involved in mediation of skin pigmentation induced by UVB. Rutin, a flavonoid of vegetables and fruits, has antiviral and antioxidant properties. Therefore, we investigated the effect of rutin on UVB-induced melano-genesis and NO production in HM3KO cells. In this study, we demonstrated that UVB-irradiation stimulated melanin content and tyrosinase activity in HM3KO cells. Rutin suppressed UVB-stimulated total melanin content and tyrosinase activity in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, we showed that UVB-irradiation stimulated NO production in HM3KO cells. Rutin also suppressed UVB-induced NO production and repaired reduction of cell proliferation by UVB. UVB stimulation of melanogenesis was mimicked by exogenous NO donor (sodium nitroprusside, SNP), and rutin effectively suppressed it. Therefore, we concluded that rutin suppressed UVB-stimulated melanogenesis and that it is involved in melanogenesis regulation partially through the suppression of UVB-induced NO production.
Cell Proliferation ; Fruit ; Humans* ; Melanins ; Melanoma* ; Monophenol Monooxygenase ; Negotiating ; Nitric Oxide* ; Nitroprusside ; Rutin* ; Skin Pigmentation ; Tissue Donors ; Vegetables

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between psychosocial factors and symptom experience of patients with cardiovascular disease over a 6-month follow-up period. METHOD: Baseline data for each of the 138 patients were collected. Eighteen patients were dropped for a final total of 120 patients in the present study. To monitor patients' symptom experience after discharge, each patient was interviewed by telephone, and interviewed directly with a questionnaire at each clinic visit. RESULTS: Mean scores for hostility, anger, anxiety, and depression were 51.63, 22.87, 48.95, and 41.21, respectively. Mean scores for the level of symptom experience at discharge, 3 months and 6 months after discharge were 32.83, 24.79, and 26.70, respectively. There were significant differences in the level of hostility by gender, BMI, job, and monthly income. Also the differences in the level of anxiety and depression were statistically significant according to gender and existence of spouse. In the regression analysis, depression was identified as the significant factor associated with symptom experience at discharge, 3 months, and 6 months after discharge. CONCLUSION: This study presented baseline data to elucidate whether psychosocial factors were associated with the progression of cardiovascular diseases. Accordingly, it suggests that nurses need to take into consideration psychosocial factor as well as physiological factor in symptom management for patients with cardiovascular disease.
Ambulatory Care ; Anger ; Anxiety ; Cardiovascular Diseases* ; Depression ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Hostility ; Humans ; Psychology* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Spouses ; Telephone