Visualization of Reissner membrane and the spiral ganglion in human fetal cochlea by micro-computed tomography.

Purpose: Although visualization of fine structures in the cochlea such as Reissner membrane (vestibular membrane) is important for elucidation of the mechanism and the establishment of therapy for inner ear diseases, they cannot be visualized by even the most advanced high-resolution medical computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging. Visualization of Reissner membrane in dissected animals by micro-magnetic resonance imaging has been reported, but bone could not be visualized. We attempted to visualize human fetal Reissner membrane and the spiral ganglion by micro-focus x-ray CT (micro-CT), which has a spatial resolution several hundred times greater than the conventional medical CT.

Successful third kidney transplantation with intensive immunosuppression in a highly sensitized recipient.

HLA sensitization associated with previous kidney transplantation is a major drawback to retransplantation. Recently we successfully performed a third graft using intensive immunosuppression for a highly sensitized recipient. The patient was a 31-year-old man who had previously undergone a living donor graft from his father at our institute in 1999.

The breath ammonia measurement of the hemodialysis with a QCM-NH3 sensor.

Recently, expired gases are analyzed non-invasively for monitoring the substances in the blood. Breath ammonia has been shown to correlate with BUN (blood urea nitrogen) and Cr (creatinine), both of which are indicators of solute removal in hemodialysis. In this study, breath ammonia concentration was continuously measured using a crystal oscillator QCM (quartz crystal microbalance) during the expiration of patients undergoing dialysis treatment.

Incentive for a shift from modern scientific medicine to integrative medicine.

Medicine has been evaluated in recent years both quantitatively and qualitatively. Contemporary medicine has been assumed to be conceptually based on modern science. However, there is a problem that quantity and quality are hard to evaluate using only scientific parameters.

Evaluation of blood access dysfunction based on a wavelet transform analysis of shunt murmurs.

We investigated shunt murmurs based on wavelet transform analysis as a new method for assessing vascular access function. In the present study, in patients with venous stenosis near an arteriovenous fistula (A-V fistula), a sensor was placed at different positions around the stenosis and shunt murmur signals obtained using a measurement system were subjected to time-frequency analysis based on wavelet transforms. The shunt murmurs obtained from the stenotic region closely represented some features of murmurs that are often referred to as "high-pitch" murmurs in the clinical setting.

Effects of argatroban as an anticoagulant for haemodialysis in patients with antithrombin III deficiency.

Background: In congenital or acquired antithrombin III-deficient patients undergoing haemodialysis, coagulation or residual blood in the blood circuit and dialyser is commonly observed under anticoagulation with heparin. Argatroban, a synthetic thrombin antagonist, directly inhibits thrombin activity in a manner that is different from that of heparin, thereby displaying an anticoagulating effect without the activation of antithrombin III. For this reason, the anticoagulating effect of argatroban in haemodialysis patients with antithrombin III deficiency was investigated.

Birth of the concept and the development of extracorporeal immunomodulation.

Extracorporeal immunomodulation is a term that presents the concept and techniques of a group of therapeutic procedures by which immunological circumstances in a patient's body, suppression or activation, drastically are altered by applying extracorporeal circulation. This had been achieved only by administration of the pharmacological agents, such as immunosuppressive agents before the introduction of extracorporeal immunomodulation. From the view of removal of the pathogenic substances in the circulating blood, it is regarded as belonging to the blood purification procedures.

Short-term changes in cholesterol metabolism in 40 patients with liver transplants from living related donors.

After liver transplantation, there remains a need for precise markers for evaluation of grafts. We investigated whether serum cholesterol value can serve as a marker for evaluation of the transplanted liver during follow-up. The effect of liver transplantation involving living related donors was investigated in 40 recipients in terms of lipid metabolism as measured by serum cholesterol.

Effects of operating conditions on selectivity of a plasma fractionator in double filtration plasmapheresis.

In a typical double filtration plasmapheresis treatment, plasma fractionation between albumin and some immunoglobulins associated with toxins is limited because none of the currently available plasma fractionators has a strict cutoff property for these proteins. Selectivity of immunoglobulins over albumin depends not only on the cutoff properties of the membrane but on the operating conditions such as the flow rate of the supplied plasma (Q(P)) and retained plasma to be discarded (Q(D)) in the plasma fractionator. We carried out an in vitro study using human plasma harvested by single plasma exchange treatments to assess the selectivity of a plasma fractionator, Evaflux 2A-F (Kawasumi Laboratories, Inc.

Hemodialysis paradox: survey on the incidence rate of hepatocellular carcinoma in antihepatitis virus C-antibody-positive chronic hemodialysis patients.

The prevalence of antihepatitis virus C (HCV) antibodies in chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients is higher than in normal populations, and yet hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is infrequent in chronic HD patients who are HCV antibody positive. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of HCV-antibody-positive patients with HCC on chronic HD. A total of 6,366 cases of HCV-antibody-positive patients on chronic HD therapy was analyzed on the basis of answers to questionnaires on the incidence rate of HCC in 314 Japanese dialysis institutions.