Search

Background: The objective of this pilot study was to assess the effects of maintaining web-based diaries by the caregivers of preschoolers with asthma on the adherence to asthma care regimens, the recognition of asthma symptoms, and their perceived levels of parenting stress, quality of life, and family functioning., Design and Methods: The caregivers of preschoolers with asthma completed a 4-week web-based diary and received weekly emails that depicted their children's asthma symptoms. We compared asthma symptoms from before and after the intervention. We analyzed demographic data, such as the caregivers' age and education, and assessment scores from the Japanese Pediatric Asthma Control program (JPAC), Adherence with Asthma Management for Caregivers of Preschoolers (AAMCP), General Functioning subscale of the Family Assessment Device (GF-FAD), Parenting Stress Index Short Form (PSI-SF), and Quality of Life assessment scale for Caregivers of Asthmatic Children 24 (QOLCA-24)., Results: A total of 45 participants were included in the analyses. The mean scores depicting asthma control were significantly improved postintervention (pre: 12.29 ± 2.65; post: 13.02 ± 2.01; t = -2.15, p = .037). Mean AAMCP scores postintervention (52.13 ± 6.25) were significantly greater than before (49.78 ± 7.20; t = -3.07; p = .004)., Practice Implications: Adherence to asthma care and the recognition of asthma symptoms improved following the use of a web-based diary, making it a potential cost-effective intervention for asthma patients and their families., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Home care programs for older people have been developed around the world. Nurses are key to these programs. The aim of this study is to explore details of the nursing activities used in group homes to provide a basis for describing effective nursing practices in such facilities. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to 240 randomly selected facilities throughout Japan in 2013. Responses indicated that the activities of nurses in managing the health of older people included determining the need for medical consultations, dealing with emergencies, and making arrangements for the use of flexible care services. Nursing activities were directly related to the percentage of older people in each facility with diagnoses such as dementia or heart disease. Nurses reported low general self-efficacy for some of the more specialized nursing activities they performed. Nursing activities are performed with the aim of supporting older people with high health care needs to continue living at home; are tailored to the characteristics of residents and contribute to the provision of timely health examinations and flexible arrangement of services. Findings indicate that it might be advantageous to increase the nursing staffing at these facilities, to provide care guidelines and training opportunities to increase nurse self-efficacy., (© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Background: To the authors' knowledge, an association between adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has been reported only in four patients. The authors identified five additional patients with both neoplasms., Methods: A review of the clinical records of patients with AML, ATL, or lymphoid neoplasms other than ATL diagnosed between 1986 and 1995 was performed. Cytokine levels were assayed in selected patients. The authors searched for reports from other institutions using MEDLINE and the proceedings of two Japanese hematology societies., Results: ATL was diagnosed in 134 patients, whereas 180 had AML. Five patients with both neoplasms were identified (3.7% of ATL patients and 2.8% of AML patients). In seven of the nine patients (including four patients in the literature) with ATL and AML, the ATL was diagnosed prior to the AML, whereas in the remaining two patients both neoplasms were diagnosed simultaneously. Six of the nine cases were therapy-related (t)-AML, which developed after chemotherapy for ATL. Monoclonal integration of proviral human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 was detected in ATL cells but not in AML cells in the six patients examined. The plasma levels of macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), granulocyte-colony stimulating factor, and granulocyte-macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) were elevated in 3, 1, and 1, respectively, of the 4 patients examined at AML onset who had active ATL. In one case, the levels of several cytokines, including GM-CSF and M-CSF, in the supernatant fluid of short term cultured ATL cells were elevated. Three patients with de novo ATL and AML received remission induction therapy, and two achieved a complete remission (CR) of both diseases. Among the four patients who received chemotherapy for t-AML, two achieved CR., Conclusions: ATL patients also can develop AML, irrespective of treatment with chemotherapy for ATL. This association does not indicate exclusive chemoresistance of both neoplasms. Cytokines produced by ATL cells may support the growth of AML cells.

Cases of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) display several peculiar clinical features, including skin rash, hypercalcemia, and an increase in the absolute neutrophil count. The patients rarely have pronounced eosinophilia. In this study, the eosinophilia observed in lymphoproliferative disorders of 62 patients with ATLL, 27 with T-cell lymphoma (TL), and 19 with B-cell lymphoma (BL) was investigated. The incidence of eosinophilia (greater than or equal to 570/microliters) was higher in patients with ATLL than in patients with TL or BL. Thirteen patients with ATLL (21.0%), 3 with TL (11.1%), and 2 with BL (10.5%) had eosinophilia. Of these patients, three with ATLL and one with TL who had a pathologic diagnosis of immunoblastic lymphadenopathy (IBL) showed pronounced eosinophilia up to 10,934/microliters. Because the number of eosinophils in the peripheral blood of these patients correlated both with the number of ATLL cells and the degree of lymphadenopathy and because this fluctuated with chemotherapy, it seems likely that the secretion of some lymphokines by the lymphoma cells is responsible for the eosinophilia.

The authors examined peripheral blood samples from patients with adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) using the monoclonal antibody Ki-67 which detects a nuclear antigen present in actively proliferating cells. In patients with chronic ATL, the percentage of Ki-67-positive cells was significantly lower than in acute ATL patients (median values, 3.3% versus 18.9%, P less than 0.001). Furthermore, there was a significant inverse correlation between the percentage of Ki-67-positive cells and the length of survival (P less than 0.001). Serum lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) levels also showed a significant inverse correlation with survival, but this was less strong than that for Ki-67 (0.01 less than P less than 0.02). Thus, Ki-67 positivity appears to indicate the aggressiveness of ATL, and can possibly be used for the clinical classification of ATL patients as well as for the prediction of prognosis.