This study examined burdens of primary family carcgivcrs of paticnto with cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) along with related factors. In addition, their needs for support group intervention were assessed to develop a support group to reduce the burdens of caregiving. Eighty-one primary family caregivers of patients with CVAs at a general hospital in Seoul participated in this study . The patients with CVAs aged from 26 to 83 years with mean age of 63 years. About 90% of the patients had some paralysis and 56.6% suffered speech problems. Fifty-eight percent of the primary family caregivers were spouses of the patients and 80.2% were women. Primary family caregivers' burdens were assessed by the Burden Scale originally devel oped by Zarit (1980) and Novak & Geust(1989) and modified by Jang (1995) for use in Korea. The instrument consists of six subscales time-dependent burden, developmental burden, physical burden, emotional burden, social burden, and financiaI burden. The results were as follows : 1. The average of burden score was 91.7, indicating moderate to severe level of burden. The time-dependent burden was scored highest followed by physical, developmental, social, financial, and emotional burdens. 2. of the characteristics of patients, age, gender, and severity of the disease were found to be associated with the level of burden. Of the characteristics of primary family caregivers, age and educational level were significantly related to the level of burden. Time of care since the CVA and the quality of relationship between a patient and a caregiver prior to the stroke were significant situational factors affecting the level of burden. 3. The need for support group intervention for the caregivero was very high (95.1%). The earcgivcrs of patients who had a CVA for the first time showed higher levels of need compared to those of patients who had a CVA more than once. The caregivers indicated a support group held once a month near home or hospital would be welcomed. In addition, they replied that a group composed of 9 to 10 caregivers and guided by health care professionals (e.g., physicians and nurses) would be most desirable. More than 85% of the earegivers identified the areas that they wanted intervention in as follows : knowledge, skills, and resources to care for a patient with a CVA. the counsel of health care professionals, share of their experiences with those who have similar situations, stress management skills, and methods to overcome emotional isolation due to the great responsibility for a patient. Given the results, support group is expected to be an effective way to reduce the burdens of primary family caregivers of patients with CVAs. As a follow up It is necessary to examine the effect of support group intervention on the patient's recovery and rehabilitation.
Caregivers* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Female ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Korea ; Paralysis ; Rehabilitation ; Self-Help Groups* ; Seoul ; Spouses ; Stroke*

Meningiomas are usually thought of as firm solid tumors and most standard references make no mention of cystic meningiomas. Although several cases of cystic meningioma have been reported in the literature and their neuroradiological features discussed, the rarity of this entity makes its preoperative diagnosis difficult. Recently, the authors encountered a case of cystic meningioma, which was thought as ependymal cyst or infarction, preoperatively. In this report the authors discussed its clinical, neuroradiological and pathological characteristics with brief reviews of the literature.
Cysts ; Meningioma

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the risk factors for a nosocomial urinary tract infection in intensive care units with a foley catheterization which showed a positive urine culture. METHOD: Three-hundred eighty-seven patients were included in the study. A retrospective review of the electrical medical record system's databases and medical record sheets in hospitalized patients from January 2003 to December 2003 was used. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. RESULT: The frequency of the participants' nosocomial urinary tract infection was 72.9%. Significant risk factors for a nosocomial urinary tract infection were 'age', 'place of catheter insertion', 'frequency of catheter change', and 'duration of catheterization'. These variables explained 18.4% of variance in the experience of nosocomial urinary tract infection in intensive care units with foley catheterization. CONCLUSION: Medical personnel can decrease the incidence of a nosocomial urinary tract infection by recognizing and paying attention to the duration of catheterization, frequency of catheter change, and place of catheter insertion. As a result, specific and scrupulous strategies should be developed to reflect these factors for decreasing nosocomial urinary tract infections.
Adult ; Aged ; Bacteriuria/*epidemiology/microbiology ; Cross Infection/*epidemiology/microbiology ; Equipment Contamination ; Female ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; *Urinary Catheterization ; Urinary Tract Infections/*epidemiology/microbiology

No abstract available.
Aged* ; Humans ; Tissue Donors*

No abstract available.
Aged* ; Humans ; Tissue Donors*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the main factors influencing family functioning of caregivers in families with stroke. METHOD: A Convenient sample of 173 primary family caregivers who take care of a stroke patient at an Oriental medicine hospital in Jeonbuk. Interviews were done with a standardized questionnaire including family functioning by nurses. RESULTS: In Pearson's correlation analysis, the influencing factors related to family functioning were ADL(p=.017), level of paralysis(p=.019) as stressors, Quality of relation(p=.000) as situational variables, and family caregivers' burden(p=.000). Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed 29.9% of the variance family functioning was significantly accounted for by the quality of relationship between stroke patient and caregiver(26.8%), and caregiver burden(3.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that families of stroke patients need family-focused nursing intervention as supported care to improve the relationship between patient and primary caregiver and relieve caregiver burden by culturally tailoring to Korean.
Caregivers* ; Humans ; Jeollabuk-do ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Nursing ; Stroke* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Black adenoma is known to be a rare variant of adrenal cortical adenoma containing characteristic abundant lipofuscin pigments in the cytoplasm. Almost all of them are nonfunctioning and only occasionally they are associated with Cushing's syndrome or primary hyperaldosteronism. We present two cases of black cortical adenoma of the adrenal gland associated with Cushing's syndrome in a 24-year-old woman and a 64-year-old man. This report dealt with clinical and pathologic presentation including ultrastructural identification of lipofuscin pigment.
Female ; Male ; Humans ; Adenoma

Purpose: Improving survival and health-related quality of life (HRQOL), along with symptom relief, is important for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer (MBC). This study measured HRQOL and analyzed its influence on sociodemographic and clinical factors in patients with MBC. Methods: We interviewed 298 patients with MBC to investigate their sociodemographic characteristics and HRQOL by using EuroQol-5D-5L (EQ-5D) between September and October 2014. We also reviewed medical records to examine the clinical condition of the patients, including disease progression, adverse events, treatments, chronic disease, and metastatic areas. The distribution of the EQ-5D index was compared between different clinical conditions by using the Kruskal-Wallis test. We also conducted multiple regression analyses to identify the factors affecting HRQOL in patients with MBC. Results: The mean EQ-5D index was 0.79 for all patients surveyed. The mean EQ-5D index score was significantly lower in patients in the progressed state than in those in the progression-free survival state (0.73 vs. 0.80, p = 0.0002). The HRQOL of patients treated with chemotherapy alone was significantly lower than that of patients treated with hormonal or targeted therapy (0.76 vs. 0.82 or 0.85; p = 0.0020). Regression analysis revealed that the clinical factors associated with lower HRQOL were progressed state, chemotherapy, and adverse events, such as hair loss or stomatitis. Finally, young age, high income, and employment were the sociodemographic factors that were positively associated with better HRQOL. Conclusion This study provides new information on the health utility of MBC patients on the basis of various patient characteristics and offers insights that can assist medical professionals in treating patients with MBC and help policymakers implement cancer strategies. Further research is needed to reflect the changing environment of cancer treatment and enrich available evidence.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the influencing factors on the development of pressure ulcers in patients undergoing surgery which lasted more than two hours. METHOD: One hundred nineteen surgical adult patients were included in the study. Data was measured on each participant from December 2003 to February 2004. It was collected using a structured researcher-administered sheet and analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. RESULT: The prevalence of a perioperative pressure ulcer was 26.1%. The level of moisture, friction and shear, length of surgery, and perioperative irrigation were significantly higher in the pressure ulcer group than those in the non-pressure ulcer group. The level of activity and level of consciousness were significantly lower in the pressure ulcer group than those in the non-pressure ulcer group. Significant influencing factors on the development of pressure ulcer were 'moisture' and 'irrigation' and those variables explained 23.1% of varience in the development of a pressure ulcer during surgery. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to develop a strategy to prevent pressure ulcer by taking 'moisture' and 'irrigation' into account during the preoperative, perioperative and postoperative period.
Risk Factors ; Pressure Ulcer/*etiology/nursing/prevention & control ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Humans ; Female ; Aged ; Adult

The genome of Hantaan virus, the prototype of the hantavirus genus, is composed of three segmented, single stranded negative sense RNA genome. The 5' and 3' termini of the Hantaan virus RNA genome contain noncoding regions (NCRs) that are highly conserved and complementary to form panhandle stuctures. There are some reports that these NCRs seems to control gene expression and viral replication in influenza virus and vesicular stomatitis virus. In this study, we examined whether NCRs in Hantaan virus play a role in expression of the viral nucleocapsid protein (Np) and foreign (luciferase) gene. The 5' and/or 3' NCR-deleted mutants were constructed and analysed. The Np expression of 5' NCR-deleted clone, it showed 40% reduction. To investigate the role of NCR in foreign gene expression, the clones which are replaced ORF of Hantaan viral Np gene with that of luciferase gene were constructed. The results were similar to those of the experiments using Np gene. These results suggest that 3' NCR is more important than 5' NCR in protein expression. To find out a critical region of 3' NCR in more important than 5' NCR in protein expression. To find out a critical region of 3' NCR in protein expression, several clones with a deleted part of 3' NCR were constructed and analyzed. The deletion of the conserved region in 3' NCR showed 20~30% decrease in Np expression. However there were no change in luciferase activities between clones with or without non-conserved region of 3' NCR. These results suggest that the 3' NCR of Hantaan virus S genome, especially conserved region in 3' NCR, plays and important role in the expression of Hantaan viral Np and foreign genes.
Animals ; Clone Cells ; Ecthyma, Contagious ; Gene Expression ; Genome* ; Hantaan virus ; Hantavirus ; Luciferases ; Nucleocapsid Proteins* ; Nucleocapsid* ; Orthomyxoviridae ; RNA ; Vesicular Stomatitis