BackgroundDiabetes self-management education and reinforcement are important for effective management of the disease. We investigated the effectiveness of interactive small-group education on glycemic, blood pressure, and lipid levels.MethodsFor this study, 207 type 2 diabetes patients with suboptimal glycemic control (HbA1c levels >6.5%) were enrolled. The conventional education group received an existing education program from April to November in 2006, and the interactive education group received a new small-group education program from December 2006 to July 2007. The two groups were comparatively analyzed for changes in blood sugar, glycated hemoglobin, lipid, and blood pressure at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months and the proportion of patients achieving target goals at 12 months.ResultsAfter 12 months of follow-up, HbA1c levels in the interactive education group were significantly lower than in the conventional education group (6.7% vs. 6.4%, P<0.001). Fasting and 2 hour postprandial glucose concentrations, total cholesterol, and low density lipoprotein cholesterol were significantly lower in the interactive education group than in the conventional education group. The proportion of patients that achieved target goals was significantly higher in the interactive education group.ConclusionThe small-group educational method improved and re-established the existing group educational method. This finding suggests that the importance of education appears to be related to the method by which it is received rather than the education itself. Thus, the use of small-group educational methods to supplement existing educational methods established for diverse age levels should be considered in the future.

A pathologic splenic rupture is rare, occurring primarily in a spleen affected by infective, hematological, and neoplastic disease. To the best of our knowledge, no prior reports of a pathologic splenic rupture due to scrub typhus exist. Intrasplenic pseudoaneurysms and focal infarctions are visible on an initial CT scan. Moreover, the spontaneous splenic rupture occurred a week later. We report a case of nontraumatic-splenic rupture in a patient with scrub typhus.

A tailgut cyst, also known as retrorectal cystic hamartoma, is a rare congenital lesion which develops in the retrorectal or presacral space. For the most part, tailgut cysts are found in adult females, but also occur extremely rarely in neonates. To the best of our knowledge, only three cases have been reported to date (1 3). We report the radiologic findings of a tailgut cyst in a neonate, including the MR, CT and ultrasound results. Case Report A 23-day-old female infant was referred for an evaluation due to a palpable coccygeal mass which was present since birth. The infant developed to full-term and was delivered by a cesarean section without birth injury. Upon a physical examination, a movable, non-tender, round mass, measuring 1 2 cm, was palpable cephalad to the anus. An MRI of the spine showed a well-defined, multiloculated cystic mass between the rectum and coccyx, measuring 12 23 mm. The lesion was markedly hyperintense on T2-weighted images (Fig. 1A) and hypointense on T1-weighted images (Fig.

No abstract