Effects of Vojta Therapy on the Forced Vital Capacity and Forced Expiratory Volume at One Second in Young Male Smokers: A Single-Subject Design

PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of Vojta therapy on the respiratory function in young male smokers.METHODS: Three subjects were tested using the ABA design for Single-subject Experimental Research Design. This study was conducted with the baseline, intervention, and follow-up phase. Intervention was conducted three to four times a week for 20 minutes per times and a total of 25 sessions. The respiratory function was measured using a Spirometer.RESULTS: The results of Forced Vital Capacity and Forced Expiratory Volume at one second for all subjects showed improvements in the intervention phase over the baseline phase. In the follow-up phase, the improved ability was still maintained or slightly reduced.CONCLUSION: Vojta therapy used on young male smokers was effective in both FVC and FEV1. In other words, the Vojta therapy worked effectively in improving the respiratory function. In future studies, it is necessary to have a control group and increase the number of trials in order to generalize the effect of Vojta therapy.

Development and Evaluation of an Infection Prevention Self-care Application for Cancer Patients with Chemotherapy

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate an infection prevention self-care application for cancer patients who have been discharged from hospital after receiving chemotherapy. METHODS: The app was developed through five stages: analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. The app's contents included infection prevention education, checking daily self-management, checking daily inquiry and information about the app. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy were asked to use the app and then a nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design was conducted to analyze the effect of the app on infection prevention self-care knowledge, self-care performance, infection occurrence and temperature. Twenty-two patients in the experimental group and twenty-four patients in the control group participated in this study. RESULTS: The self-care knowledge score (t=6.74, p<.001) and self-care performance score (t=13.44, p<.001) were statistically higher in the experimental group compared with the control group respectively. The infection occurrence was not different between the experimental and control groups. But temperature in the control group was statistically higher than in the experimental group (t=-2.39, p=.021). CONCLUSION: The infection prevention self-care application for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy was an effective intervention to decrease infections during home care.

The Effect of Low-Dose Atropine on Hypertensive and Hypotensive Stimuli / 대한마취과학회지

BACKGROUND: Vagal cardiac function plays an important role in cardiovascular homeostasis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between vagal cardiac function and changes in blood pressure induced by phenylephrine and by thigh cuff deflation after low-dose atropine (LDA)(2microgram/kg) administration. METHODS: Beat-to-beat changes in R-R intervals (RRI) and systolic blood pressures (SBP) were measured in 33 healthy volunteers during spontaneous and controlled (15 min-1) breathing before and after LDA administration. The RMSSD (root mean square of successive differences of RRI), pNN50 (proportion of successive RRI > 50 ms in relation to the total RRI), standard deviation 1 (SD1) from Poincare plots, power spectral densities of heart rate variability (HRV) and SBP variability, and spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) by transfer function analysis were assessed. Acute hypertension was induced by phenylephrine (2 microgram/kg), whereas acute hypotension was induced by thigh cuff deflation. RESULTS: RMSSD, pNN50, SD1 of Poincare plots, and the high frequency (HF) power of HRV increased after LDA administration as did spontaneous BRS. Moreover, acute hypertension induced by phenylephrine was significantly attenuated (15.9 +/- 1.9 to 10.8 +/- 3.1 mmHg, P = 0.004) after LDA administration. However, acute hypotension induced by thigh cuff deflation was not significantly changed (13.4 +/- 3.9 to 11.9 +/- 4.2 mmHg, P = 0.62) after LDA administration. Changes in SBP during acute hypertension induced by phenylephrine were significantly correlated with changes in the HF power of HRV (r = -0.60, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Increasing vagal cardiac function induced by LDA attenuated increased SBP during acute hypertension induced by phenylephrine, but not decreased SBP during acute hypotension induced by thigh cuff deflation in healthy awake subjects.

Anesthesia for Living Related Liver Transplantation in Classic Citrullinemia: A case report / 대한마취과학회지

Citrullinemia is an autosomal recessive disorder resulting in a deficiency of the urea cycle enzyme, argininosuccinate synthetase, which is mainly found in the liver. Despite the improvement in a dietary therapy during the past 20 years for the treatment of urea cycle disorders with the systematic adjunction of sodium benzoate, sodium phenylbutyrate and arginine, the overall outcome of severe forms of hyperammonemia often remains disappointing. As the liver is the only organ in which ammonia is transformed into urea, liver transplantation has been considered as an elegant and radical alternative therapy to classical dietetic and medical therapy. A child with classical citrullinemia was treated at age 34 months by a living related liver transplantation. The levels of plasma and urinary citrulline decreased slightly after transplantation, but serum ammonia levels and amino acid concentrations returned to the normal range without protein restriction. We describe this case and include a brief review of the literature.