• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.357-362
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• 2011

Objective : To report our experience with pyogenic spondylitis treated with anterior radical debridement and insertion of a titanium mesh cage and to demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of the use of a titanium mesh cage in the surgical management of pyogenic spondylitis. Methods : We retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics of 19 patients who underwent surgical treatment in our department between January 2004 and December 2008. The average follow-up period was 11.16 months (range, 6-64 months). We evaluated risk factors, cultured organisms, lab data, clinical outcomes, and radiographic results. Surgical techniques for patients with pyogenic spondylitis were anterior radical debridement and reconstruction with titanium mesh cage insertion and screw fixation. All patients received intravenous antibiotics for at least 6 weeks postoperatively, and some patients received oral antibiotics. Results : The infections resolved in all of the patients as noted by normalization of their erythrocyte sedimentation rates and C-reactive protein levels. The mean pain score on a Visual Analog Scale was 7.8 (range, 4-10) before surgery and 2.4 (range, 1-5) after surgery. The Frankel grade was improved by one grade in seven patients. After surgery, the average difference of the angle was improved about $6.96^{\circ}$ in all patients. At the last follow-up, the mean loss of correction was $4.86^{\circ}$. Conclusion : Anterior radical debridement followed by the placement of instrumentation with a titanium mesh cage may be a safe and effective treatment for selected patients with pyogenic spondylitis. This surgical therapy does not lead to recurrent pyogenic spondylitis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.121-126
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• 2009

Background: Pemetrexed has been prescribed newly as a second line chemotherapy in advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). The aim of study was to determine the efficacy and toxicity of pemetrexed in advanced NSCLC. Methods: Patients with histologically or cytologically confirmed NSCLC were evaluated from June 2006 to December 2008. The patients had relapsed or progressed after prior chemotherapy treatment. They were treated with intravenous pemetrexed $500mg/m^2$ for 10 min on Day 1 of each 21-day cycle. Results: A total of 89 patients were eligible for analysis. The response rate and disease control rate were 11% and 66%. Non-squamous cell carcinoma histology was significantly associated with a superior response rate (p=0.035) and disease control rate (p=0.009) than squamous cell carcinoma histology. The median survival time was 13 months and the median progression free survival time was 2.3 months. The median survival time of patients with ECOG PS 0~1 was 13.2 months, whereas median survival time was 11.6 months for patients with PS 2 (p=0.002). The median progression free survival time of patients with PS 0~1 were 3.8 months, but 2.1 months for patients with PS 2 (p=0.016). The median progression free survival time of smokers with non-squamous cell carcinoma was 3.4 months, which was significant (p=0.014). Grade 3~4 neutropenia were seen in 7.9% patients. Conclusion: Pemetrexed has efficacy in patients who had prior chemotherapy with advanced NSCLC and less hematologic toxicity.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.177-181
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• 2016

Purpose: The International Organization for Standardization-5fluorouracil (FU) 10 trial found that bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin was not inferior to S-1 in the treatment of gastric cancer (GC). Continuous 5-FU and the rapid injection of 5-FU have different anti-cancer effects. Thus, bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin treatment might be useful for oral FU-resistant GC. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of all patients with S-1 or capecitabine-resistant, unresectable, or recurrent GC treated with bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin between January 2010 and December 2015 at Hokkaido University Hospital. The bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin regimen consisted of intravenous l-leucovorin ($250mg/m^2/2h$) and bolus 5-FU ($600mg/m^2$) administered once weekly followed by a 2-week rest period; each cycle was repeated every 8 weeks. Results: A total of 14 patients were identified. The disease control rate was 35.7%. The median progression-free survival was 1.6 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3~2.0 months), and the median overall survival was 6.3 months (95% CI, 4.7~7.9 months). No patient died from treatment-related causes. The most common severe adverse event associated with bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin was neutropenia, which occurred in 21.4% of patients. Conclusions: Bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin treatment might be useful for oral FU-resistant GC. We are planning a multi-center prospective phase II trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of bolus 5-FU and l-leucovorin treatment for pre-treated unresectable or recurrent GC to confirm the results of this limited, retrospective study.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.39-51
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• 2012

Purpose: Thisstudy was conducted with an aim to get a kind of prioritiesin developing the evidence-based nursing practice guidelines in fields. Methods: This study utilized a two-round Delphi surveys from November to December, 2010 with self-administered questionnaires which had a scale ranged from 0 to 9. A total of 95 head nurses working at the forty different general hospitals was asked to evaluate the priorities in four criteria; patient coverage, certainty, improvement in patient outcome and in nursing practice (first round) and 65 head nurses were asked to decide the importance of the criteria afterwards (second round). Results: The relative importance of 4 criteria was 22.3% in patient coverage, 26.5% in certainty, 23.5% in improvement of patient outcome, and 27.7% in improvement of nursing practice as the results of the 1st round and 20.6%, 26.6%, 24.8%, and 28.0% for the 2nd round, respectively. Top five nursing practices showed high scores after considering the relative importances of the 4 criteria were medication, intravenous therapy, checking vital sign, pain management, and diagnostic test or procedures care. Conclusion: It is recommended to take into account of the priorities that were found in this study when someone intends to develop a evidence-based nursing practice guideline.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.59 no.8
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• pp.335-340
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• 2016

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical course of childhood immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) and to assess the risk factors for developing chronic ITP Methods: The records of 64 children diagnosed with ITP from November 2005 and December 2014 at single center were retrospectively analyzed. Results: The median age at diagnosis and the median platelet count were 1 year (range, 1 month to 15 years) and $9{\times}10^9/L$ (range, $0-84{\times}10^9/L$), respectively. No patient experienced severe bleeding. Nineteen children (29.7%) spontaneously recovered their platelet count to ${\geq}100{\times}10^9/L$ at a median of 10 days. In total 45 patients (70.3%) received intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) as first-line therapy, and showed platelet recovery at 1 week. The final diagnosis of 55 (85.9%) and 9 patients (14.1%) was acute and chronic ITP, respectively. Older age, absence of prior infection and insidious onset of symptoms were significantly associated with the development of chronic ITP. Among the patients who received IVIG, those with platelet count <$45{\times}10^9/L$ at 1 month after IVIG showed a significantly higher incidence of chronic ITP compared to those with platelet count ${\geq}45{\times}10^9/L$ (88.8% vs. 44.4%, P<0.01). Conclusion: In most patients, ITP runs a benign course and approximately 86% of them recover within 1 year of their initial diagnosis. The potential impact of the risk factors of chronic ITP on clinical practice needs to be explored and further studies are warranted to determine whether IVIG influences the course of ITP.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.100-103
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• 2016

Patients with hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) can rapidly develop profound anemia as the disease progresses, as a consequence of red blood cell (RBC) hemolysis and inadequate erythropoietin synthesis. Therefore, RBC transfusion should be considered in HUS patients with severe anemia to avoid cardiac or pulmonary complications. Most patients who are Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusion, even in the face of life-threatening medical conditions due to their religious convictions. These patients require management alternatives to blood transfusions. Erythropoietin is a glycopeptide that enhances endogenous erythropoiesis in the bone marrow. With the availability of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO), several authors have reported its successful use in patients refusing blood transfusion. However, the optimal dose and duration of treatment with rHuEPO are not established. We report a case of a 2-year-old boy with diarrhea-associated HUS whose family members are Jehovah's Witnesses. He had severe anemia with acute kidney injury. His lowest hemoglobin level was 3.6 g/dL, but his parents refused treatment with packed RBC transfusion due to their religious beliefs. Therefore, we treated him with high-dose rHuEPO (300 IU/kg/day) as well as folic acid, vitamin B12, and intravenous iron. The hemoglobin level increased steadily to 7.4 g/dL after 10 days of treatment and his renal function improved without any complications. To our knowledge, this is the first case of successful rHuEPO treatment in a Jehovah's Witness child with severe anemia due to HUS.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.278-288
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• 2018

Purpose: Dehydration is a paediatric medical emergency but there is no single standard parameter to evaluate it at the emergency department. Our aim was to evaluate the reliability and validity of capillary refilling time as a triage parameter to assess dehydration in children. Methods: This was a prospective pilot cohort study of children who presented to two paediatric emergency departments in Italy, with symptoms of dehydration. Reliability was assessed by comparing the triage nurse's measurements with those obtained by the physician. Validity was demonstrated by using 6 parameters suggestive of dehydration. Comparison between refilling time (RT) and a validated Clinical Dehydration Score (CDS) was also considered. The scale's discriminative ability was evaluated for the outcome of starting intravenous rehydration therapy by using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: Participants were 242 children. All nurses found easy to elicit the RT after being trained. Interobserver reliability was fair, with a Cohen's kappa of 0.56 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.41 to 0.70). There was a significant correlation between RT and weight loss percentage (r-squared=-0.27; 95% CI, -0.47 to -0.04). The scale's discriminative ability yielded an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.65 (95% CI, 0.57 to 0.73). We found a similarity between RT AUC and CDS-scale AUC matching the two ROC curves. Conclusion: The study showed that RT represents a fast and handy tool to recognize dehydrated children who need a prompt rehydration and may be introduced in the triage line-up.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1597-1602
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether whole-liver radiotherapy plus a tumor-boost dose with concurrent chemotherapy is beneficial for colorectal cancer patients with massive and multiple liver metastases. From January 2007 to December 2012, 19 patients who exhibited massive (with a longest diameter > 5 cm) and invasive liver metastases and multiple metastases were treated with radiotherapy and concurrent chemotherapy. The total radiation dose was 53.4 Gy (range 38.8 Gy-66.3 Gy). All of the patients received a continuous intravenous dose of 5 fluorouracil (5-FU) 225 mg/m2 concurrently with radiation. The median survival time was 19 months. The 1- and 2- year overall survival rates were 78.3% and 14.3%, respectively. Of all of the patients who presented with abdominal pain, 100% experienced a decrease in pain. Decreases in the rates of ascites and jaundice were confirmed by ultrasound and bilirubin levels. No cases of Grade 4 or 5 acute or late toxicity were recorded. There were only two cases of Grade 3 toxicity (elevated bilirubin). These data provide evidence that whole-liver radiotherapy plus a tumor-boost dose with concurrent chemotherapy is beneficial for colorectal cancer patients with massive and multiple liver metastases.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.283-291
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• 2005

This study was penonned to provide basic data that predict the usefulness of Gastrodiae rhizoma as food materials for oriental medicinal cuisine(YakSun). We measured the changes of regional cerebral blood flow(rCBF) and blood pressure(BP) in rats, following the intravenous injection of Gastrodiae rhizoma water extract The measurement was continually monitored by laser-doppler flowmeter and pressure transducer in anesthetized adult Sprague-Dawley rats for about two to two and half hours through the data acquisition system composed of MacLab and Macintosh computer. The results of this experiment were as follows. Gastrodiae rhizoma increased the changes of rCBF in rats significantly. The rCBF of Gastrodiae rhizoma did not change by pretreated propranolol, atropin, methylene blue and indomethacin. But the rCBF of Gastrodiae rhizoma was increased by pretreated L-NNA. Gastrodiae rhizaoma decreased the changes of BP significantly. The BP of Gastrodiae rhizoma did not change by pretreated propranolol, atropin, methylene blue and indomethacin. But the BP of Gastrodiae rhizoma was decreased by pretreated L-NNA. These results indicated that Gastrodiae rhizoma might increase the rCBF and the BP which related to nitric oxide synthesis. Also these results indicate that Gastrodiae rhizoma can be used as a safe and clinically applicable to diet therapy of cerebral cardiovascular disease.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.55-59
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate the toxicity of hematoporphyrin-coated magnetic ferrofluid (HP-MF) through intravenous administration in Sprague-Dawley rats. Each group was treated with either saline, or the HP-MF at 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 4 ml/kg body weight (b.w.) for the observation of survival rate, clinical symptoms, laboratory values and histopathological findings. In this study, HP-MF was evaluated for the survival rates, symptoms, laboratory values and histopathological examination after treatments. The result revealed that the animals in the group of HP-MF at 2 and 4 ml/kg b.w. showed some lethality. In serum biochemistry, the levels of AST, ALT and ALP were increased in the MF and HP-MF treated groups. However, histopathological examination for the suspected organs showed no evidence of hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity of typical iron poisoning. Though the toxicity of HP-MF was higher than that of HP, long retention of hematoporphyrin via HP-MF provides additional benefit over conventional hematoporphyrin. HP-MF could be utilized as a potential photodynamic agent in cancer therapy. It is suggested to develop an efficient external magnetic device to attract hematoporphyrin in the target site, thereby enabling to administering a small amount of HP-MF.