• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.204-216
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• 2000

Background : There has been a concern that the quality of care provided to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients in the United States may not be as good as recommended. This paper illustrates a composite measure to assess, the quality of care received by ESRD patients undergoing in-center hemodialysis by incorporating outcomes for 4 major treatment areas. The 4 treatment areas are: dialysis treatments, anemia control, nutritional management, and blood pressure control. Methods : The major data source for the study was the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) Dialysis Morbidity and Mortality Study Wave 1 (DMMS-1) d Sixteen categories of a composite quality indicator were constructed by combining 4 dichotomous variables (16=2*2*2*2). representing the optimal vs. less than optimal level of outcome for each of the 4 treatment outcome measure respectively. Optimal outcome level for each treatment area was defined based on the recommendation from the National Kidney Foundation: (a) delivered dialysis doses (Kt/V) ${\geq}$ 1.2; (b) hematocrit level ${\geq}$ 30%; (c) serum albumin concentration ${\geq}$ 3.8g/dl ; and (d) blood pressure of <140 / <90mmHg. The 16 quality indicator were ranked according to their relative quality weights, which were estimated from its association with the relative risk of survival, adjusting for patient's baseline severity and dialysis facility characteristics. Results : Out of the entire sample of 2,179 patients, only 229 (10%) meet th recommended outcome levels for all 4 treatment areas. Overall, the study patients were distributed evenly over the 16 quality indicators, indicating a great variation in the quality of ESRD care. It appears that the rank of the 16 quality-indicators is driven by serum albumin concentration, suggesting that serum albumin concentration may be the most powerful predictor of ESRD patient survival among the 4 outcome measures. Conclusion : The developed quality indicator has the advantage of describin a range of care for dialysis patients and thus providing a more complete picture of care as compared to previous studies that have focused on only single or few components of the ESRD care.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.105-111
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• 2005

End-stage renal disease is a fatal and devastating disease that is caused by progressive and irreversible loss of functioning nephrons in the kidney. Dialysis and renal transplantation are the common treatments at present, but these treatments have severe limitations. The present study investigated the possibility of reconstructing renal tissues by transplantation of renal precursor cells to replace the current treatments for end-stage renal disease. Embryonic renal precursor cells, freshly isolated from metanephroi of rat fetus at day 15 post-gestation, were seeded on biodegradable polymer scaffolds and transplanted into peritoneal cavities of athymic mice for three weeks. Histologic sections stained with hematoxylin & eosin and periodic acid-Schiff revealed the formation of primitive glomeruli, tubules, and blood vessels, suggesting the potential of embryonic renal precursor cells to reconstitute renal tissues. Immunohistochemical staining for proliferating cell nuclear antigen, a marker of proliferating cells, showed intensive nuclear expression in the regenerated renal structures, suggesting renal tissue reconstitution by transplanted embryonic renal precursor cells. This study demonstrates the reconstitution of renal tissue in vivo by transplanting renal precursor cells with biodegradable polymer scaffolds, which could be utilized as a new method for partial or full restoration of renal structure and function in the treatment of end-stage renal disease.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.493-504
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was a qualitative study to explore and understand the adaptation experiences of hemodialysis among women with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) and to develop a substantive theory using the grounded theory method. Methods: Participants were 15 female patients who underwent hemodialysis for ESRD treatment from three general hospitals. The data were collected through in-depth individual interviews. Results: The adaptation experience of participants was emerged as a process of taking care and enduring. There were four adaptation stages as a negative, despair, receptive, and maintenance period in reference to hemodialysis. The causal conditions were a vague expectations of recovery and refusal to undergo hemodialysis. The core phenomenon was that of confinement to dialysis machine. The contextual conditions for this phenomenon were the loss of femininity. They used action/interaction strategies such as transition their life with a focus on hemodialysis, seeking information, and learning how to take care of their body. Through this process, they had a strong will to live or had sustained their life. Conclusion: These results indicate that there is a need for nurses to understand the different steps of adaptation experiences of the given patient population. It is necessary for nurses to support them to lead their life as much normal as possible and improve the adaptation experience of ESRD.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.638-646
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• 2005

In recent wireless communications, direct conversion transceiver or If sampling SDR-based receivers have being designed as an alternative to conventional transceiver topologies. In direct conversion receiver a.chitectu.e, the 1.equency/phase offset between the RF input signal and the local oscillator signal is a major impairment factor even though the conventional AFC/APC compensates the service deterioration due to the offset. To rover the limited tracking range of the conventional method and effectively aid compensation scheme in terms of I/Q channel imbalances, the frequency/phase offset compensation in RF-front end signal stage is proposed in this paper. In RF-front end, the varying phase offset besides the fixed large frequency/phase offset are corrected by using early-late phase compensator. A more simple frequency and phase tacking function in digital signal processing stage of direct conversion receiver is effectively available by an ingenious frequency/phase offset tracking method in RF front-end stage.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.40-45
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• 2009

Purpose: End-stage ankle arthritis is frequently combined with ankle-hindfoot deformity or ankle instability and therefore additional surgical procedures are often required when performing total ankle arthroplasty. We report the short term clinical and radiographic results of the total ankle arthroplasty with/without the combined adjunctive surgical procedures. Materials and Methods: The study is based on the 17 ankles (16 patients) of end-stage ankle arthritis that were treated with $HINTEGRA^{(R)}$ Total ankle prosthesis (Newdeal, Lyons, France) total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) from 2004 to 2007 with at least 12 months follow-up. The combined adjunctive procedures as well as the VAS pain score, AOFAS score, radiographic measurements and patient satisfactions were evaluated. Results: Average follow-up period was 29 months (13${\sim}$55 months), and the age was average 62 years (39${\sim}$75 years) old. Among total of 17 ankles, varus deformity and lateral ankle instability were found in 4 cases and 3 cases respectively. Twenty additional procedures such as Achilles triple hemisection (9), calcaneal displacement osteotomy (4) and lateral ankle ligament reconstruction (3) were performed in adjunct to TAA in 13 ankles. VAS pain score improved from preoperative average 8.4 (7${\sim}$10) to 2.0 (0${\sim}$5) and the AOFAS functional score improved from 41.8 points (13${\sim}$71 points) to 90.6 (77${\sim}$100 points) at final follow-up. Ninety-four percent of the patients were satisfied with the surgery. Conclusion: We confirmed that many adjunctive combined surgical procedures are often necessary in addressing the end-stage ankle arthritis (74%) with total ankle arthroplasty. We also achieved quite good clinical and radiographic short term results, although the long term follow-up study with larger number of cases are needed in the future.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.501-506
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• 1998

In the goby Micropercops swinhonis, the development of its egg's enveloping layers could be divided into 4 stages. In the earliest developmental period, stage I, there is a simple oocyte surrounded by a layer of squamous follicular cells. Stage II corresponds to the yolk vesicle stage of vitellogenesis. Here the initial follicular layer has become bilaminar with the retention of its outer squamous cell layer and the acquisition of an inner cuboidal cell layer just over the zona radiata. The number and size of the cuboidal cells increases throughout this stage. Stage III corresponds to the yolk granule stage of true vitellogenesis. Here the cuboidal cells begin to be replaced by columnar cells. As the oocyte grows, the columnar cells increase in size. The columnar cells produce cytoplasmic neutral mucins and by the end of this stage their cytoplasm has been filled with this mucin. In stage IV a single layer of squamous cells still remained as the outer follicular layer of the oocyte. The secretory activity of the inner follicular layers' columnar cells has ceased and they had lost their cell wall integrity and ended as a series of bullet-shaped, neutral mucin deposits.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.791-794
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• 2012

A retrospective cohort study was carried out with 340 female breast cancer at a teaching university in northeast of Thailand recruited and followed-up until the end of 2006. Survival probabilities were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. 161 cases were alive after five years and 58 patients were lost to follow-up. The overall observed survival rates at 1, 3 and 5 years were 83.3%, 59.9% and 42.9%, respectively. When analysis was conducted for stage combined into 2 groups, early (stage I, II and unknown) and late (stage III and IV), the 5-year survival rate for early stage (60%; 95%CI: 0.51-0.67), was higher than for late stage (27%; 95%CI: 0.19-0.34) with high statistical significance (p<0.001). The hazard ratio of patients with stage IV was 11.6 times greater than for stage I (p=0.03). The findings indicate that the different stages of breast cancer markedly effect the overall survival rate.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.189-194
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• 1997

Oligomeganephronia is a rare congenital form of bilateral renal hypoplasia histologically characterized by reduction in number and hypertrophy of nephrons. Clinically, this condition is presented in early infancy with vomiting, polyuria, polydipsia and dehydration. The problems are readily corrected, but slowly progressive renal failure follows accompanied by failure to thrive, short stature, and renal osteodystrophy. We experienced three cases of oligomeganephronia. Case 1. : A 3 2/12 years old female child was incidentally diagnosed as renal failure at age of 2 months when she was hospitalized due to pneumonia. She had open renal biopsy and was diagnosed as bilateral dysplastic kidney. On OPD follow-up, she progressed to end-stage renal failure (BUN/Cr 114/4.6 mg/dl) and had renal transplantation. The specimen was shrunk remarkably and light microscopy showed oligomeganephronia. Case 2. : A 14 8/12 years old female child with proteinuria was detected in an annual urine screening program for school children, she was diagnosed as renal failure (BUN/Cr 33.9/4.1 mg/dl), and had $5{\times}4{\times}3\;cm$ sized mass on abdominal CT scan. She had renal biopsy, and the specimen showed oligomeganephronia. She had hemodialysis for six months, and renal transplantation along with bilateral nephrectomy was performed. Case 3. : A 14 8/12 years old male child was diagnosed having chronic nephritis and chronic renal failure at 3 years old, progressed to end-stage renal failure (BUN/Cr 87/9.6 mg/dl) on OPD follow-up, and had a rephrectomy and renal transplantation. The biopsy specimen showed oligomeganephronic hypoplasia, secondary focal segmental glomerolosclerosis, and chronic interstitial nephritis. We report 3 cases of oligomeganephronia that progressed to end-stage renal failure and had successful renal transplantation with a brief review of related literatures.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.194-197
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• 2021

End-of-life assessments aim to help dying patients and their families plan clinical interventions in advance and prepare them for a peaceful end of life, in which the patient accepts life and death, and the family accepts the patient's departure. It is important to assess whether death is imminent within a few days, because critical hospice care is provided intensively during that period. The following five changes constitute objective evidence of the end of life: diminished daily living performance, decreased food intake, changes in consciousness and increased sleep quantity, worsening of respiratory distress, and end-stage delirium. As subjective evidence, it is suggested that sensitive perceptions of experienced nurses and the feelings of family members caring for patients should also be considered. When notifying a patient or family members that the end of life is approaching, the members of the multidisciplinary hospice team must communicate with each other, share accurate information, and provide consistent explanations. They must also listen to non-verbal communication in an empathic and supportive manner.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2005

This study investigated the reading ability of Korean second-graders and the relationship between reading and phonological awareness and RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming) ability. A language-based reading assessment battery was used. Children at the end of the Korean second-grade were still at the developmental stage of decoding skill and seemed to be at Chall's stage 1. Findings indicated significant correlations between reading ability and phonological awareness and between reading ability and RAN ability. Therefore, the importance of phonological processing could be extended to syllable-based alphabetic languages.