Factors determining parenting stress in mothers of children with atopic dermatitis

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) influences a child's emotional and social well-being, as well as his or her physical health. The influence of AD on the daily lives of parents and caregivers has also been documented. This study examined how parenting stress is affected by demographic background, characteristics of children's AD, and their family systems. Methods: The participants were mothers of children, aged 2–6 years old, who had been diagnosed with AD. The predictive power of a model of parenting stress was examined using multiple regression analysis (stepwise), with parenting stress (PSI-SF) as the dependent variable, and children's demographics, including characteristics of AD; parents' demographics; QoL of families of children with AD (JCMV-CADIS); and family functioning (FAI) as independent variables. We handled missing values using a multiple imputation method. Results: The pooled coefficients obtained from the multiple regression analysis after multiple imputation indicated that “family cohesion,” “family system flexibility,” “emotions related to social factors” and “occupation of mother” determined parenting stress. Lower family cohesion and family system flexibility predicted higher parenting stress. The high impact of “emotions related to social factors” on families’ QoL predicted higher parenting stress. Full-time work by mothers predicted lower parenting stress. Conclusions: The current results reveal that “family cohesion,” “family system flexibility,” “emotions related to social factors” and “full-time work by mothers” predicted parenting stress of mothers who had children with AD. Keywords: Atopic dermatitis, Family, Multiple imputation, Multiple regression, Stres

CT evaluation of vascular invasion in pancreatic carcinoma

A new method of factor analysis has been devised as a dynamic study in nuclear medicine. Instead of whole sequence factor analysis of images, partially-sequenced images of Kr-81m pulmonary ventilation scintigrams, acquired with respiratory-gated signals, were analysed using this method. Incrementing the first and last frame number of the image sequence, the motion of the factor images, was obtained including diaphragmatic images, thoracic images and physiological pathological dead space, during one respiratory cycle. The varying form of the correlation between two factor images over time provided a distinguishable pattern of patients with pathological conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disese from normal subjects

Septal lines in pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis with typical Kerley's lines

A 64-year-old woman without any respiratory symptoms was diagnosed as having pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis from the characteristic finding of her chest radiograms. Diffuse fine nodular shadows of microliths were seen throughout both lungs. Linear shadows, which were considered to be typical Kerley's lines (A, B, and C), were also noted. Conventional tomography and high resolution, thin-slice CT disclosed the anatomical structures and the distribution of interlobular septa in vivo, which were responsible for Kerley's lines. Lateral chest radiograms revealed oblique short linear shadows just behind the sternum, which were caused by interlobular septa at the mediastinal side of the upper lung. These shadows seemed to represent new septal lines