Impact of high blood pressure on the risk of mortality among Japanese people aged 65 years and older.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of abnormal blood pressure on the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in a large cohort of older Japanese people aged ≥65 years.

Methods: This cohort study enrolled 54 760 participants from Okayama City aged ≥65 years who underwent basic health checkups from April 2006 to March 2008. Based on blood pressure, the participants were divided into six categories, from C1 (lowest) to C6 (highest).

Strain-affected ferroelastic domain walls in RbMnFe charge-transfer materials undergoing collective Jahn-Teller distortion.

Many rubidium manganese hexacyanoferrate materials, with the general formula Rb Mn[Fe(CN)]·HO, exhibit diverse charge-transfer-based functionalities due to the bistability between a high temperature Mn( = 5/2)Fe( = 1/2) cubic phase and a low-temperature Mn( = 2)Fe( = 0) tetragonal phase. The collective Jahn-Teller distortion on the Mn sites is responsible for the cubic-to-tetragonal ferroelastic phase transition, which is associated with the appearance of ferroelastic domains. In this study, we use X-ray diffraction to reveal the coexistence of 3 types of ferroelastic tetragonal domains and estimate the spatial extension of the strain around the domain walls, which represents about 30% of the volume of the crystal.

Fenestrated GORE® CARDIOFORM ASD occluder for transcatheter atrial septal defect closure in a geriatric patient.

Unlabelled: An 82-year-old man with a secundum atrial septal defect (ASD) underwent transcatheter closure. The patient had a wide area of aortic and superior rim deficiency, with left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and moderate mitral regurgitation. These findings suggested the risk of both cardiac erosion and increased left atrial pressure after closure.

Characteristics of CYP3A4-related potential drug-drug interactions in outpatients receiving prescriptions from multiple clinical departments.

Background: Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) increase the incidence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). In a previous report, we revealed that the incidence of potential DDIs due to the same CYP molecular species in one prescription exceeds 90% among patients taking six or more drugs and that CYP3A4 markedly influences the increase in the number of potential DDIs in clinical practice. However, the factors contributing to an increased number of potential DDIs in prescriptions from multiple clinical departments remain poorly clarified.

From Ultrafast Photoinduced Small Polarons to Cooperative and Macroscopic Charge-Transfer Phase Transition.

We study by femtosecond infrared spectroscopy the ultrafast and persistent photoinduced phase transition of the RbMnCo[Fe(CN)] ⋅ 0.2HO material, induced at room temperature by a single laser shot. This system exhibits a charge-transfer based phase transition with a 75 K wide thermal hysteresis, centred at room temperature, from the low temperature Mn-N-C-Fe tetragonal phase to the high temperature Mn-N-C-Fe cubic phase.

Prognostic Implications of Insulin Resistance in Heart Failure in Japan.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major risk and prognostic factor for heart failure (HF). Insulin resistance (IR) is an important component of DM, but the relationship between IR and HF prognosis has not yet been established across a wide variety of HF populations. We retrospectively evaluated the relationship between IR and clinical outcomes of HF patients at our hospital between 2017 and 2021.

Excluding alanine from minimum essential medium (MEM) nonessential amino acid supplementation of the culture medium facilitates post-fertilization events and early cleavages of bovine oocytes fertilized in vitro.

Embryonic transfer of bovine blastocysts produced by in vitro fertilization is widely utilized-despite a compromised conception rate. It has been suggested that a set of four evaluation criteria for judging the quality of embryos, based on the timing of early cleavages and proper morphologies of embryos, can effectively predict pregnancy success. These blastocysts are hereafter referred to as four-criteria-compliant blastocysts.

Ultrafast and persistent photoinduced phase transition at room temperature monitored by streaming powder diffraction.

Ultrafast photoinduced phase transitions at room temperature, driven by a single laser shot and persisting long after stimuli, represent emerging routes for ultrafast control over materials' properties. Time-resolved studies provide fundamental mechanistic insight into far-from-equilibrium electronic and structural dynamics. Here we study the photoinduced phase transformation of the RbMnCo[Fe(CN)] material, designed to exhibit a 75 K wide thermal hysteresis around room temperature between MnFe tetragonal and MnFe cubic phases.

Serum-free spontaneously immortalized bovine oviduct epithelial cell conditioned medium promotes the early development of bovine in vitro fertilized embryos.

Embryonic transfer of bovine blastocysts produced using in vitro fertilization (IVF) is widely used, although the challenge of compromised conception rates remains. Using bovine oviduct epithelial cells (BOEC) to improve embryo culture conditions has attracted attention, particularly since the recent discovery of extracellular vesicles from BOEC. The selection of embryos for transfer has also been the subject of various studies, and a set of evaluation criteria to predict pregnancy success has been suggested, in which the embryos are judged by their kinetics and morphology at the early stages.

Impact of malnutrition on prognosis in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a life-threatening disease that coexists with right heart failure. We evaluated the relationship between malnutrition and prognosis in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, as malnutrition is known as a prognosis determinant in chronic heart failure. We retrospectively reviewed data of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension before treatment.

Prognostic impact of postoperative infection after resection of biliary malignancy: A multicenter retrospective cohort study.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic impact of postoperative infections in patients who underwent resection for biliary malignancy, including intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, perihilar cholangiocarcinoma, distal cholangiocarcinoma, gallbladder carcinoma, and carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater.

Methods: This study was conducted in an 11-center retrospective cohort study. Patients with biliary tract cancer who underwent curative resection between April 2013 and March 2015 at 11 institutions in Japan were enrolled.

Evidence for Hypoxia-Induced Shift in ATP Production from Glycolysis to Mitochondrial Respiration in Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cells in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Background: The metabolic state of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) from patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is not well understood. In this study, we examined the balance between glycolysis and mitochondrial respiration in non-PAH-PASMCs and PAH-PASMCs under normoxia and hypoxia.

Methods: We investigated the enzymes involved in glycolysis and mitochondrial respiration, and studied the two major energy-yielding pathways (glycolysis and mitochondrial respiration) by measuring extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) and cellular oxygen consumption rate (OCR) using the Seahorse extracellular flux technology.

Immunosuppressive Treatment for an anti-U Ribonucleoprotein Antibody-positive Patient with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

A 34-year-old woman with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) was admitted to the hospital. She had been diagnosed with PAH three years earlier and treated with triple vasodilator therapy. She was positive for anti-U ribonucleoprotein antibodies but did not show any other symptoms associated with autoimmune diseases.

Survival impact of surgical site infection in esophageal cancer surgery: A multicenter retrospective cohort study.

Aim: This study was performed to evaluate the oncological impact of surgical site infection (SSI) and pneumonia on long-term outcomes after esophagectomy.

Methods: The Japan Society for Surgical Infection conducted a multicenter retrospective cohort study involving 407 patients with curative stage I/II/III esophageal cancer at 11 centers from April 2013 to March 2015. We investigated the association of SSI and postoperative pneumonia with oncological outcomes in terms of relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS).

Sustained exercise load by young adult females while wearing surgical mask raises core body temperature measured with zero-heat-flux thermometer.

When a pandemic such as that caused by the novel coronavirus disease termed COVID-19 emerges, it is recommended to wear a mask when in public situations, with information regarding the impact on thermoregulation essential, especially during exercise or hard physical labor. The present study investigated changes in core body temperature (CBT) while wearing a surgical mask (SM) during exercise (T) using a non-invasive zero-heat-flux (ZHF) thermometer. Nine young adult females performed ergometer exercise for 30 min at 60 W with (mask group) and without (control) a SM under a non-hot condition, shown by wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) findings.

A successful bridge to recovery with Impella 5.0 and subsequent hybrid cardiac resynchronization therapy in systemic right ventricle failure: a case report.

Background: Impella 5.0 is currently used as a temporary mechanical circulatory support device in cardiogenic shock (CS). However, Impella 5.

Outcomes of solitary postoperative recurrence of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma diagnosed with FDG-PET/CT and treated with definitive radiation therapy.

Background: Surgical resection of esophageal cancer is frequently performed to achieve a complete cure. However, the postoperative recurrence rate is 36.8-42.