• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.303-309
• /
• 2016

Purpose: Malignant ascites is a common complication in terminal cancer patients. Less-invasive pigtail catheter insertion is the most frequent procedure in patients who need repeated ascites drainage. This study investigated effects and adverse events associated with catheter insertion for ascites drainage and evaluated prognostic outcomes. Methods: We reviewed medical records between 2010 and 2013 of hospice and palliative care institutions in Seoul, South Korea. Among 2,608 inpatients, 67 patients received ascites pigtail catheter drainage. We reviewed demographic data, palliative performance scale, laboratory data, duration of catheter insertion, prevalence and type of complications, use and duration of antibiotics, and survival time. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression models were used to evaluate prognostic outcomes related with catheter insertion. Results: Ascites drainage was performed most commonly in hepatobiliary and gastric cancer patients. Ascites symptoms improved in 55 patients after the catheter drainage. Adverse events included pain (19.4%), leakage (14.9%), disconnection (7.5%), catheter occlusion (6%) and fever (4.5%). In Cox regression analysis, survival time from the catheter insertion was significantly associated with Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) (HR 0.73; P value 0.045) and serum sodium level (HR 2.77; P value 0.003) in a multivariate model. Conclusion: Patients' PPS and serum sodium level should be considered before making a decision of pigtail catheter insertion.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.51-57
• /
• 2018

Purpose: End-of-life (EoL) decisions are challenging and multifaceted for patients and physicians. This study was aimed to explore how EoL care is practiced for patients with a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed medical records of patients who died after agreeing to a DNR order in 2016 at a university hospital. Characteristics including cause of death, intensity of EoL care, and other factors were reviewed and statistically analyzed. Results: Of total 375 patients, 170 patients (45.3%) died with malignancies, and 205 patients (54.6%) with other causes involving the central nervous system (19.2%), pulmonary (14.7%), cardiologic (6.7%) and infectious (6.4%) conditions. Both the cancer and non-cancer patient groups showed a short duration from DNR to death (median 3 days vs 2 days, P=0.629). An intensive care group comprising patients who received one or more intensive treatments such as ventilator (n=205) showed a higher number of non-cancer patients and a shorter duration from DNR to death than a group that withheld treatment before DNR (P<0.05). Conclusion: EoL decisions were made very late by both cancer and non-cancer patients. About half of the patients did not have cancer, and two-thirds of them decided DNR during intensive treatment. To make a good EoL decision, a shared decision making with patients should be done at an earlier stage.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.75-83
• /
• 2018

Purpose: To provide effective palliative care, it is important to predict not only patients' life expectancy but their discharge status at a time of inpatient admission to a hospice care facility. This study was aimed to identify meaningful life expectancy indicators that can be used to predict patients' discharge status on admission to the facility. Methods: Among 568 patients who were admitted to the hospice ward of P hospital from April 1, 2016 through December 31, 2017, 377 terminal cancer patients were selected. This retrospective cohort study was performed by using performance status, symptoms and signs, socioeconomic status, laboratory findings on admission. Results: Alive discharge was associated with a good performance status that was measured with the Karnofsky and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) scales and the Global health and Mental status. Less anorexia, dyspnea, dysphagia and fatigue were also associated with symptoms and signs. Associated laboratory findings were close to normal Complete Blood Cell (CBC) count, Liver Function Test (LFT) and Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), ECOG, Global health, Mental status, anorexia, dyspnea, dysphagia, fatigue, CBC, LFT, BUN are meaningful indicators when predicting discharge status for inpatients. Further investigation is warranted.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.109-119
• /
• 2010

Purpose: This study was a part of a drive to develop a community health center-based hospice management model which is concerned with hospice care at a community health care setting and available resources of the local community. Methods: Development of a community health center-based hospice management model involved evaluation of existing hospice-related research, including literature review, and research on hospice facilities at the study site, as well as evaluation of model operation. The latter involved community health center-based hospice test operation, and evaluation of test operation by a research team, including of a nursing professor majoring in hospice care and staffs from a community health center in Busan metropolitan city, regional cancer center, and regional terminal cancer patient medical institute. The study was conducted in the 2008 calendar year. Results: The community health center-based hospice management model provides service linked with local community resources, focusing on the local community health center. Financial and administrative assistance is provided by the regional cancer center, with collaboration from academic health care professionals who guide the operation management. The community health center hospice nurse in consultation with a visiting nurse team registers terminally-ill cancer patients and, after assessment, the hospice team prioritize hospice care during team meeting. Care is delivered by staffs and volunteers. Conclusion: The developed community health center-based hospice operation management model maximally utilizes available community health resources to produce qualitative improvement of regional health and welfare policy through improving the lives of home-based cancer patients and their family who are in medical blind spot.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.175-182
• /
• 2013

Purpose: Spirituality is an important domain and is related with physical and psychological symptoms in terminal cancer patient. The aim of this study is to examine how patients' spirituality is associated with their physical and psychological symptoms as it has been explored by few studies. Methods: In this cross sectional study, 50 patients in the palliative ward of a tertiary hospital were interviewed. Spiritual well-being, depression, anxiety and pain is measured by Functional Assessment of Chronic-Illness Therapy-Spirituality (FACIT-Sp), hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) and the Korean version of the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI-K). The correlations between patients' spiritual well-being and anxiety, depression and pain were analysed. The association between spiritual well-being and age, gender, palliative performance scale (PPS), religion, mean pain intensity, anxiety, depression were assessed by univariate and multivariate regression analyses. Results: Spiritual well-being was negatively correlated with the mean pain intensity (r=-0.283, P<0.05), anxiety (r=-0.613, P<0.05) and depression (r=-0.526, P<0.05). In multivariate regression analysis, spiritual well-being showed negative association with anxiety (OR=-1.03, 95% CI=-1.657~-0.403, P=0.002) and positive association with the existence of religion (OR=9.193, 95% CI=4.158~14.229, P<0.001). Conclusion: In this study, patients' anxiety and existence of religion were significantly associated with spiritual well-being after adjusting age, gender, PPS, mean pain intensity, depression. Prospective studies are warranted.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.201-210
• /
• 2016

Delirium is a common symptom in patients with terminal cancer. The prevalence increases in the dying phase. Delirium causes negative effects on quality of life for both patients and their families, and is associated with higher mortality. However, some studies reported that it tends to remain unrecognized in palliative care setting. That may be related with difficulties to distinguish the symptom from others with overlapping characteristics such as depression and dementia, and a lack of knowledge regarding assessment and diagnostic tools. We suggest that accurate recognition with validated tools and early diagnosis of the symptom should be highly prioritized in delirium management in palliative care setting. After diagnosing delirium, it is important to identify and address reversible precipitants such as medication, dehydration, and infection. Non-pharmacological interventions including comfortable environment for the patient and family education are also essential in the management strategy. If such interventions prove ineffective or insufficient to control hyperactive symptoms, pharmacologic interventions with antipsychotics and benzodiazepine can be considered. Until now, low levels of haloperidol remains the standard treatment despite a lack of evidence. Atypical antipsychotics such as olanzapine, quetiapine and risperidone reportedly have similar efficacy with a stronger sedating property and less adverse effect compared to haloperidol. Currently, delirium medications that can be used in palliative care setting require more clinical trials, and thus, clinical guidelines are not sufficiently available. We suggest that it is warranted to develop clinical guidelines based on well-designed clinical studies for palliative care patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.324-335
• /
• 1979

During the period of 4 years from August 1975 to August 1979 one hundred and forty seven cases of lung cancer were seen at Paik Foundation Hospital in Seoul, Korea. Among these 147 cases, 104 patients had primary carcinoma of the lung and the remainder was metastatic carcinoma to the lung. Among these 104 primary carcinoma patients, 73 cases were proven histologically as primary carcinoma of the lung. There were three cases of alveolar cell carcinoma [Table 1 ]. This clinical observation is based on those 73 cases including three case reports of the alveolar cell carcinoma. 1. Peak incidence was observed in the 5th decade of life. Male to female ratio was 2 to 1 [Fig. 1]. 2. Pathological classifications were as follows: epidermoid carcinoma, 24 cases [32.9%]; undifferentiated carcinoma, 20 cases [27.4%]; adenocarcinoma, 15 cases [20.5%]; bronchioloalveolar carcinoma [5.5%] and positive cytology, 10 cases [13.7%] [Fig. 2]. 3. Evidence of inoperability was observed in 55 patients [75% of the 73 cases] [Table 3]. 4. Among those 73 cases, operability was evaluated in 18 patients or 25%. One patient refused operation and 17 patients [23.6%] were explored. In 11 [15%] out of 17 patients, thoracotomies were performed. Six cases were pneumonectomies and 5 cases were lobectomies or bilobectomies [Fig. 3]. 5. First case of alveolar cell carcinoma was a 46 year-old housewife complaining of cough and hemoptysis for one year. The plain chest X-ray and bronchogram showed characteristic pictures as Figures 4 and 5. A pneumonectomy was carried out. Histologically, a beautiful alveolar carcinoma consisted of the characteristic tall columnar epithelial cells, which were lining the alveolar spaces as seen in Figures 6, 7, 8, and 20. 6. In the second case of 41 year old male, predominant clinical feature was single, well defined mass in the right lower lobe [Fig. 10 and 11] on chest X-ray. Bilobectomized specimen showed fragile, soft and hard tissue containing mucoid secretions and focal yellowish necrosis with pigmentation on cut surface [Fig. 12]. Slides showed tumor cells lined up along the alveolar septa with papillary projections [Fig. 13 and 14]. 7. Third case of alveolar cell carcinoma was a 50-year-old housewife with hemoptysis. An outstanding clinical picture was a round to lobulated mass in the right upper lobe [Fig. 16]. She is living now, 2 years and 1 month post-operatively, but has arrived at terminal stage with military nodular disseminations to the contralateral lung [Fig. 19].

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.198-206
• /
• 2019

Purpose: The Act on Hospice and Palliative Care and Decisions on Life-sustaining Treatment for Patients at the End of Life was enacted in 2016 and has taken effect since 2018 February. The content of this act was based on Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) in the United States and we modified it for terminal cancer patients registering hospice. The object of this study is to investigate preference and implementation rate for modified Korean POLST (MMK-POLST) items in hospice ward. Methods: From February 1, 2017 to April 30, 2019, medical records regarding MMK-POLST were retrospectively analyzed for all patients hospitalized in the hospice ward of Gyeongsang National University Hospital. Results: Of the eligible 387 total cohorts, 295 patients filled out MK-POLST. MK-POLST has been completed in 133 cases (44.1%) by the patient themselves, 84 cases (28.5%) by the spouse, and 75 cases (25.4%) by their children, respectively. While only 13 (4.4%) out of 295 MK-POLST completed patients refused the parenteral nutrition and 5 patients (1.7%) for palliative sedation, the absolute majority of 288 (97.6%) patients did not want cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and ventilators and 226 people (76.9%) for pressor medications. Kappa values for the matched strength of MK-POLST implementation were poor for all items except CPR, ventilators and palliative sedation. Conclusion: Hospice patients refused to conduct cardiopulmonary resuscitation, ventilators and pressor agents. In contrast, antibiotics, parenteral nutrition and palliative sedation were favored in the majority of patients.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.855-861
• /
• 1995

Background: Parathyroid hormone-related protein(PTHrp) was first identified as the cause of hypercalcemia in malignancy. Hypercalcemia can be found in malignancy, especially in the epidermoid carcinoma of the lung, even without extensive metastases to the bones. The application of sensitive assays for PTHrp may help in the early diagnosis of lung cancer, in the monitoring of treatment and in the detection of recurrence. Method: Serum PTHrp was measured by radioimmunoassay detecting the N-terminal 1~34 peptide of human PTHrp(PTHrp 1-34) in 63 histologically confirmed lung cancer patients and 22 healthy controls. Result: Serum PTHrp(mean$\pm$S.E.) was $312{\pm}68.9pg/ml$ in 63 lung cancer patients and $158{\pm}38.2pg/ml$ in 22 controls(p>0.05). PTHrp was $356{\pm}103.9pg/ml$ in 34 epidermoid carcinoma patients, $281{\pm}148.7pg/ml$ in 15 adenocarcinoma patients and $316{\pm}140.8pg/ml$ in 9 small cell carcinoma patients. In epidermoid carcinoma patients, PTHrp was $570{\pm}472.3pg/ml$ in stage II(n=3; p<0.05 vs controls), $166{\pm}22.4pg/ml$ in stage IIIa(n=9), $282{\pm}113.3pg/ml$ in stage IIIb(n=12) and $668{\pm}367.9pg/ml$ in stage IV(n=9; p<0.05 vs controls). PTHrp was significantly increased in 8 epidermoid carcinoma patients with bone metastases($1526{\pm}811.2\;pg/ml$; p<0.0005 vs controls). Hypercalcemia was observed in an epidermoid carcinoma patient whose PTHrp value was 244 pg/ml. Conclusion: The serum PTHrp was increased in advanced epidermoid carcinoma patients even without hypercalcemia. The measurement of PTHrp may be not helpful in the early diagnosis of lung cancer. But the lung cancer should be suspected in the marked elevation of PTHrp. It may be of value in detecting patients of advanced diseases with bone metastases or patients who might develop the malignancy associated hypercalcemia.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartC
• /
• v.10C no.6
• /
• pp.747-754
• /
• 2003

Thia paper suggests a milti user-authentication system comprises that DNA biometric informatiom, owner's RFID(Radio Frequency Identification) smartcard of hardware token, and PKI digital signqture of software. This system improved items proposed in [1] as follows : this mechanism provides one RFID smartcard instead of two user-authentication smartcard(the biometric registered seal card and the DNA personal ID card), and solbers user information exposure as RFID of low proce when the card is lost. In addition, this can be perfect multi user-autentication system to enable identification even in cases such as identical twins, the DNA collected from the blood of patient who has undergone a medical procedure involving blood replacement and the DNA of the blood donor, mutation in the DNA base of cancer cells and other cells. Therefore, the proposed system is applied to terminal log-on with RFID smart card that stores accurate digital DNA biometric information instead of present biometric user-authentication system with the card is lost, which doesn't expose any personal DNA information. The security of PKI digital signature private key can be improved because secure pseudo random number generator can generate infinite one-time pseudo randon number corresponding to a user ID to keep private key of PKI digital signature securely whenever authenticated users access a system. Un addition, this user-authentication system can be used in credit card, resident card, passport, etc. acceletating the use of biometric RFID smart' card. The security of proposed system is shown by statistical anaysis.