Search

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 MKPOLST 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the mass occurrence of the salp Salpa fusiformis during spring in the southern waters of Korea and the northern East China Sea. Abundance of S. fusiformis and dominant taxonomic groups including copepods, ostracods, euphausiids, and appendicularian was examined along with environmental factors (e.g., temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll-a concentration). The abundance of S. fusiformis at 27 stations ranged from 0 to 183 inds m-3. Both aggregate and solitary forms of S. fusiformis occurred with a mean abundance of 62 inds m-3 and 4 inds m-3, and mean body length of 6.5 mm and 15.4 mm, respectively. Redundancy analysis showed that the abundance of S. fusiformis was negatively correlated with chlorophyll-a concentration, indicating the intensive grazing impact of S. fusiformis on phytoplankton. While the abundance of S. fusiformis increased, the species diversity of zooplankton community decreased. The abundances of total copepods and the dominant copepod species (e.g., adults and/or copepodites of Paracalansus parvus s.l., Calanus sinicus, Oithona similis, and Corycaeus affinis) also decreased with the increase of S. fusiformis abundance. However, the abundance of ostracods, euphausiids, and appendicularians was not affected by the mass occurrence of the salps. These results suggest that the mass occurrence of S. fusiformis in spring could negatively affect ecosystem conditions by changing trophodynamics in the zooplankton community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opioid aberrant behavior is an emerging problem as strong opioid is increasingly used to alleviate cancer pain in patients with cancer. Although the treatment of opioid addiction and physical dependence for non-cancer pain is well known, few studies have been conducted with cancer patients, particularly in the Korean population. Presented here are ten cases of cancer patients who were physically dependent on strong opioid and successfully treated with a partial mu-opioid receptor agonist, buprenorphine. This is the first report showing the efficacy of transdermal buprenorphine as a treatment for physical dependence on opioid medication in cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Oral naloxone is combined with oxycodone to alleviate or prevent opioid-induced constipation in cancer pain patients. However, there is still concern that oral naloxone may precipitate opioid withdrawal symptoms in patients on opioids. We retrospectively investigated clinical characteristics of cancer patients who experienced opioid withdrawal symptoms. Methods: We reviewed medical records of all patients who were prescribed with oral oxycodone/naloxone at a tertiary cancer center from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2016. Eligible patients were screened based on demographics, opioid and naloxone dosages, clinical manifestation and pain intensity. Results: Among a total of 1,641 patients, 10 patients were selected. Seven patients were male, and the average age was 68.1 years. The median dose of naloxone that induced withdrawal symptoms was 20 mg. Most common withdrawal symptom was shivering (seven patients) followed by cold sweating (five), and muscle twitching (five). Other symptoms included restlessness, fever, dizziness, and yawning. Pain was exacerbated from the median intensity of numeric rating scale (NRS) 3 to NRS 6. Conclusion: Opioid withdrawal symptoms may occur when switching to oral oxycodone/naloxone for cancer patients who have been treated with other strong opioids. A prospective, multicenter study on this issue should be conducted in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Advanced cancer may accompany cold sweat as paraneoplastic symptom. Few studies have been performed on the efficacy of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) in advanced cancer patients who sweated without fever. Methods: To select study participants, medical records were retrospectively reviewed for patients who satisfied the following criteria: 1) incurable, advanced solid cancer; 2) Cold sweating of 4 or higher on the numeric rating scale (NRS) 4; 3) No evidence of infection or hypoglycemia; 4) No newly started opioid or anti-hormonal agents within one month; 5) NSAID prescription for the management of cold sweating and 6) Documented NRS information before and after NSAID administration. Results: A total of 13 patients were selected after excluding four patients due to lack of NRS information or fever. The mean age was 59 years old (range: 50∼71), and nine patients (69%) were male. Bile duct cancer was the most common primary tumor followed by pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer and prostate cancer. The mean NRS of cold sweating dropped from baseline 6.5 (min-max: 4∼10) to 1.9 at the follow-up assessment (min-max: 0∼5). The mean follow-up period was 9.1 days (range: 2∼30 days) from NSAID treatment to assessment. Conclusion: NSAID was effective medication for management of sweating without fever in patients with advanced cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the diet of chaetognaths, the gut content and fatty acid trophic makers (FATMs) of Sagitta crassa and S. nagae, which are the most predominant species of chaetognath in the Yellow Sea, were analyzed. Gut contents of the two species examined by microscopic analysis revealed that copepods are the major components of the diet (> 70% of gut contents) and there was no significant changes in the gut contents of two species collected in spring and summer season. Although 16:0, 20:5(n-3) (Eicosapentaenoic acid) and 22:6(n-3) (Docosahexanoic acid), which are known as phytoplankton FA markers, were the most dominant among the fatty acids in both chaetognath species, the detection of copepod FA markers, 20:1(n-9) (Gadoleic acid) and 22:1(n-11) (Cetoleic acid), provided evidence that their food sources include copepods. These results suggest that S. crassa and S. nagae are carnivores and mainly feed on copepods in the Yellow Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rice variety ‘Daebo’ is a japonica rice (Oryza sativa L.) with good eating quality, lodging tolerance, and resistance to rice stripe virus (RSV) and blight bacterial disease (BB). It is developed by the rice breeding team of Yeongdeog Substation, National Institute Crop Science, RDA in 2011. This variety derived from a cross between ‘YR21247-68-1' with good plant type and ‘Yeongdeog35' with good eating quality conducted in 2002 summer season. A promising line, YR23940-B-17-1-2, selected by bulk and pedigree breeding method was designated as the name of ‘Yeongdeog51' in 2008. After the local adaptability test was carried out at seven locations from 2009 to 2011, ‘Yeongdeog51' was released as the name of ‘Daebo’ in 2011. ‘Daebo’ is short culm length as 63 cm and medium-growth duration. This variety is resistant to races, K1, K2, and K3 of bacterial blight and stripe virus and moderately resistant to leaf blast disease resistance. ‘Daebo’ has translucent and clear milled rice kernel without white core and belly rice, and good eating quality as a result of panel test. The yield potential of ‘Daebo’ in milled rice is about 5.93 MT/ha at ordinary fertilizer level of local adaptability test. This cultivar would be adaptable to middle plain, south plain, mid-west costal area, and south mid-mountainous area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]