Blood utilization review has recently been used to minimize inappropriate transfusion, reduce post transfusion infections and improve the quality of transfusion practices. Ajou University Hospital is a 906 bed tertiary care teaching institution. Since March, 1995, the concurrent review of blood transfusion requests using institutional blood transfusion criteria has been initiated. To evaluate the effectiveness of the transfusion review, the units of blood components transfused per patient(total number of units of blood components transfused/total number of patients discharged) and inappropriate transfusion ratio of blood components(total number of units of blood components inappropriately transfused/total number of units of blood components transfused) were compared during the concurrent review for 9 months and pre-concurrent review for 9 months, respectively. The possible savings of blood components realized by the review were also extrapolated. The results were as follows : 1. The unit transfused per patient for pre-review and during review were 0.675 (9,080/ 13,422) and 0.654(12,123/18,546) for packed RBC(PRBC); 0.417 (5,602/ 13,422) and 0.296 (5,444/18,546) for fresh frozen plasma(FFP); 0.372(5,007/13,422) and 0.424(7,868/18,546) for platelet con-centrates(PC), respectively. 2. The inappropriate transfusion ratio of blood components for pre-review and during review were 0.039 and 0.009 for PRBC; 0.321 and 0.064 for FFP; 0.143 and 0.008 for PC, respectively. These differences were statistically significant(p=0.000). 3. The PRBC and FFP anticipated to have been saved by this review was 519 units and 2,992 units annually, respectively. 4. However, 2,621 units of PC were used additionaly during this review due to increased number of oncology patients and better hemostatic therapy practiced during the same period. In conclusion, the concurrent review of transfusion requests was very effective tool to educate residents in clinical departments the transfusion medicine and improve utilization of blood and its components.
Blood Platelets ; Blood Transfusion* ; Concurrent Review* ; Humans ; Income ; Tertiary Healthcare ; Transfusion Medicine ; Utilization Review

No abstract available.
Prostate* ; Prostate-Specific Antigen*

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to evaluate accuracy of newly developed HCV Ab test kits by Korea Green Cross Co.(Yongin, Kyunggi), namely GenediaTM HCV ELISA 3.0 (ELISA) for routine test, GenediaTM HCV Rapid (RAPID) for quick screening. and GenediaTM HCV Confirm 4.0 (CONFIRM) for confirmation. METHODS: Performance of ELISA was compared with that of Ortho HCV 3.0 ELISA (Neckargemund, Germany; ORTHO ELISA) using 990 patients' sera. Accuracy of RAPID was evaluated by testing on 114 HCV Ab negative and 86 positive specimens by ELISA. Discrepant results obtained by RAPID were confirmed by Chiron RIBA HCV 3.0 Strip Immunoblot Assay (Ca, USA; RIBA) and HCV Blot 3.0 (Genelabs Diagnostics, Singapore; BLOT). Accuracy of CONFIRM test was compared between RIBA and BLOT using 78 ELISA positive sera. To elucidate prevalence of viremia, RT-PCR was performed on 165 serum samples and results were compared with that of ELISA and RAPID. RESULTS: Agreement of test results between ELISA and ORTHO ELISA was 99.6% (986/990). On HCV Ab negative specimens 99.1% (113/114) agreed among RAPID, ELISA and ORTHO ELISA. However, on seropositive specimens 91.7% (79/86) agreed between RAPID and ELISA. Agreement between CONFIRM and RIBA was 83.3% (65/78). Core antigen showed the highest reactivity and NS5 antigen showed the lowest reactivity with CONFIRM. HCV RNA was detected in 58.3% (28/48) of ELISA positive specimens, however, it was not detected in ELISA negative specimens. There was no correlation between prevalence of HCV RNA and 5 antigens used in ELISA test. CONCLUSIONS: Newly developed Korea Green Cross GenediaTM HCV ELISA 3.0, Rapid and HCV Confirm were considered to be clinically accurate routine, quick screening and confirmatory test for detecting HCV Ab in serum samples.
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay* ; Germany ; Hepatitis C Antibodies* ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Prevalence ; RNA ; Singapore ; Viremia

A 70-year-old female who was diagnosed as myxoid chondrosarcoma by fine needle aspiration of a pleural mass is described. She presented with left chest discomfort of 4 months' duration and aggravating dyspnea and chest pain for 2 months. Chest X-ray and CT scan revealed a large lobulated low density mass invading chest wall at the left pleural cavity and massive pleural fluid. Fine needle aspiration was done under the impression of mesothelioma or metastatic cancer. The aspirates from the mass were very cellular and composed of isolated or clustered forms of large plump cells. Abundant cytoplasm was bluish opaque and the margin was rounded in the isolated cells, whereas clustered cells show ill-defined cell borders and aggregating tendency. The nuclei were eccentric, round to ovoid, and had fine chromatin pattern and multiple small nucleoli. Cellular pleomorphism or mitotic figure was not definite. These findings were consistent with cytologic features of chondrosarcoma. Final diagnosis was confirmed as myxoid chondrosarcoma by mediastinoscopic biopsy and the tumor showed strong positivity for S-100 protein.
Aged ; Biopsy ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Chest Pain ; Chondrosarcoma ; Chromatin ; Cytoplasm ; Diagnosis ; Dyspnea ; Eosinophils* ; Female ; Humans ; Mesothelioma ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory* ; Peritonitis* ; Pleural Cavity ; S100 Proteins ; Thoracic Wall ; Thorax ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

A 50-year-old man who had suffered from chronic indigestion complained of upper abdominal pain and vomiting which had persisted for 4 days. Consequently, he had eaten two persimmons before sleeping detected each day for five days. An irregular multinodular villous filling defect was in the duodenal bulb on, the UGI series, which had its location and changed its position. It was difficult to differentiate a papillary gastric polyp or villous tumor from the duodenal bezoar, but the patient's history of having eaten persimmons was helpful. The endoscopic and pathologic study confirmed a phytobezoar which was located in the normal duodenal bulb. Subsequently we are reporting this case having reviewed the related literature of the phytobezoar which was found in the normal duodenal bulb.
Abdominal Pain ; Bezoars* ; Diospyros ; Duodenum ; Dyspepsia ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Polyps ; Vomiting

PURPOSE: Although the diagnosis of foreign bodies in the airway can be made early, retained and neglected foreign bodies are a common occurrence. The objective of this study was to characterize the clinical features of children diagnosed beyond 14 days following inhalation of a foreign body, long-standing foreign body in airway(LFB). METHODS: We reviewed the records of 180 cases of airway foreign body, noting the age, symptoms and signs, types and location of foreign body, chest radiographs, and lung perfusion scan findings, and compared these findings of children diagnosed within 14 day(short-term foreign body in airway : SFB, n=130) with those of LFB(n=50). RESULTS: Of chief complaints on admission, sputum was more frequent in LFB(24.0%) than in SFB(6.9%). The age distribution was similar, but the proportion of patients aged 3 to 6 years was higher in LFB(16.0%) compared with SFB(3.9%). Of the types of foreign body, plastic was more common in LFB. Abnormal chest radiographic findings were more frequent in LFB(94.0%) than in SFB(80.6%), while the location within the bronchial tree was similar. Hypoperfusion on lung scan was noted in all patients except one in LFB(93.8%). CONCLUSION: There was some difference in age distribution, sputum production, type of foreign body, and abnormal radiographic and perfusion scan findings between SFB and LFB. This suggests that retained foreign bodies may present atypical clinical manifestation and physicians should be alert to the possibility of airway foreign body in children with chronic respiratory symptoms or signs.
Age Distribution ; Child ; Diagnosis ; Foreign Bodies* ; Humans ; Inhalation ; Lung ; Perfusion ; Plastics ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Sputum

PURPOSE: To evaluate between DHS and ITST nail (2nd generation) on the treatment of unstable femur intertrochanteric fracture in patients over 70 years old. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 61 cases of unstable intertrochanteric fracture (grouped 37 patients with DHS and 24 patients with ITST) who were taken the operation from Mar. 2003 to Sep. 2007 were analysed regarding to union time, sliding length of lag screws, operation time, blood loss, postoperative complications and functional recovery score by Skovron. RESULTS: The mean union time was 14.7 weeks in study group (ITST). The mean union time was 16.2 weeks in control group (DHS). The lag screw slidings were 7.2 mm in study group and 8.7 mm in control group. The operation times were 57.9 min in study group and 76.9 min in control group. The amount of blood loss were 67.7 ml in study group and 227.4 ml in control group. The complications were 4 cases in study group and 4 cases in control group. The Skovron recovery scores were 76.5% in study group and 73.7% in control group. CONCLUSION: From a practical point of short operation time, less amount of bleeding and less complication, author think that the ITST nail is useful implant for treatment of unstable femur intertrochanteric fracture in patient of old age.
Femur ; Hemorrhage ; Hip ; Humans ; Nails ; Postoperative Hemorrhage

Operating Room nurses are required to have special skills and knowledge to do their job. However, because there is no systematic education program, which considers special circumstances in the OR, novice nurses have a great deal of difficulty adapting themselves to the work environment. The purpose of this study is to develope a multimedia education program, which provides the systematic learning environment, so novice nurses can adapt to the OR environment more effectively. This study has been implemented according to Computer Assisted Instruction Design Model(Il-Joo Na and In-Sung Jung, 1990), which goes through the following steps; 1). Education program analysis 2). Development, evaluation 3). CompletionLearning goals, objectives, motive strategy, and analysis of the education program are analyzed by the concepts based on basic education materials for novice surgery nurses of 6 Medical Centers in Seoul and 'Development of the job training program for newly employed nurses in operating rooms. 'written by Ji-Young Yoon(2000). We divided 9 areas of the contents in surgery education; 1. Basic orientation 2. OR nurses' roles and responsibilities 3. Asceptic technique 4. Disinfection and sterilization 5. OR safety 6. OR nursing care 7. Surgical positioning 8. OR Material management 9. Anesthetic care. We selected asceptic technique, which is the most fundamental concept in OR nursing care. The program screens consist of cover screen, screen for guide, mini menu screen, and test screen. We distributed questionnaires to fifteen experts and investigated their opinions to analyze learning contents and effects of the Courseware. The education program was modified based on respones provided by experts. This study offers an educational program, which allows the individuals to choose the areas they want to learn. The program is easy to use, which encourages the individuals to search for additional information more than one area.
Computer-Assisted Instruction ; Disinfection ; Education* ; Learning ; Multimedia* ; Nursing Care ; Operating Rooms* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Seoul ; Sterilization

We report four cases of unilateral pulmonary vein atresia without associated congenital intracardiac anomalies to illustrate a part of the clinical and radiological characteristics and its diagnosis. Pulmonary vein atresia was in right side in all cases. Narrowing of contralateral pulmonary vein and pure red cell anemia were combined in one cases. In four cases, initial presentations were hemoptysis and lower respiratory tract infection. The simple chest X-ray revealed loss of volume, increased reticular interstitial markings of the involved lung and the shift of mediastinal structures to the involved side, and hilar prominency in the contralateral side. Lung perfusion scan revealed no visualization of involved lung. Cardiac Catheterization revealed pulmonary artery hypertension 2/4 and pulmonary artery wedge pressure 1/2. On pulmonary angiogram, nonvisualiaztion of pulmonary vein in the involved side in 3: partial visualization of pulmonary vein not connected to atrium in 1: dysmorphic pulmonary artery on the contralateral side in 1. Right pneumonectomy was done without specific problems in two cases. In conclusion, Unilateral pulmonary vein atresia should be suggested when the clinical and radiological characteristics are present.
Anemia ; Cardiac Catheterization ; Cardiac Catheters ; Diagnosis ; Hemoptysis ; Hypertension ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; Lung ; Perfusion ; Pneumonectomy ; Pulmonary Artery ; Pulmonary Veins* ; Pulmonary Wedge Pressure ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; Thorax

Although excessive arteriovenous fistula blood flow may be a factor in the development of high-output cardiac failure, this diagnosis is easily over-looked. Surgical reduction of fistula blood flow can improve the condition. We here report a case of high-output cardiac failure due to excessive arterio-venous fistula blood flow in a hemodialysis patient. A 51-year-old man who had been treated with hemodialysis since 5 years ago was admitted for increasing cardiac failure. Echocardiographic evaluation of cardiac output and duplex measurement of the fistula confirmed the diagnosis of high-output cardiac failure due to excessive arteriovenous fistula blood flow. After surgical closure of the fistula, the signs and symptoms of cardiac failure subsequently subsided and both systolic and diastolic dimension of left ventricle much decreased.
Arteriovenous Fistula* ; Cardiac Output ; Diagnosis ; Echocardiography ; Fistula ; Heart Failure* ; Heart Ventricles ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Renal Dialysis*