Development and validation of an algorithm for identifying patients undergoing dialysis from patients with advanced chronic kidney disease.

Background: Identifying patients on dialysis among those with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 15 mL/min/1.73 m remains challenging. To facilitate clinical research in advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) using electronic health records, we aimed to develop algorithms to identify dialysis patients using laboratory data obtained in routine practice.

The AppCare-HF randomized clinical trial: a feasibility study of a novel self-care support mobile app for individuals with chronic heart failure.

Aims: We evaluated a self-care intervention with a novel mobile application (app) in chronic heart failure (HF) patients. To facilitate patient-centred care in HF management, we developed a self-care support mobile app to boost HF patients' optimal self-care.

Methods And Results: We conducted a multicentre, randomized, controlled study evaluating the feasibility of the self-care support mobile app designed for use by HF patients.

Topical Formulations of Propranolol for Infantile Hemangiomas: Characteristics of Formulations and Three Cases of Infants Administered Topical Propranolol Cream.

Propranolol is used as the first-line treatment for infantile hemangiomas (IHs). As oral formulations can cause systemic adverse drug reactions (ADRs), we prepared topical propranolol formulations and evaluated their pharmaceutical profiles. We also present three cases of pediatric patients with IHs who were treated with the propranolol formulations.

A Bayesian Network-Based Browsing Model for Patients Seeking Radiology-Related Information on Hospital Websites: Development and Usability Study.

Background: An increasing number of people are visiting hospital websites to seek better services and treatments compared to the past. It is therefore important for hospitals to develop websites to meet the needs of their patients. However, few studies have investigated whether and how the current hospital websites meet the patient's needs.

Effects of age and glucose levels on lactate levels in cerebrospinal fluid examination of neurodegenerative diseases.

Despite recent studies examining the association between neurodegenerative diseases and mitochondrial dysfunction, there are not sufficient data on factors that influence cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lactate levels. Thus, we investigated factors that affect CSF lactate levels in neurodegenerative diseases. We extracted laboratory findings, including CSF lactate, glucose, and protein levels, and demographic and background information, including age and gender, from the electronic medical records of patients with neurodegenerative diseases in order to explore factors that have an impact CSF lactate levels.

Inherited catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia due to RYR2 mutation.

We report the case of an 11-year-old boy who was diagnosed with catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT). The patient had a medical history of three episodes of syncope. The last episode was cardiac arrest while swimming.

Analysis of the Implementation of Blood Tests Specified in the Package Insert After Prescription of Thiamazole.

Objectives: The antithyroid drug thiamazole has long been known to cause the serious adverse effect of agranulocytosis, and performing regular blood tests is listed among the warnings on the package insert. We conducted a retrospective survey of how often doctors conducted blood tests in accordance with the package insert when thiamazole was prescribed at our hospital.

Methods: The subjects were patients to whom thiamazole was newly prescribed at our hospital between April 2004 and March 2012.

Skull involvement in a pediatric case of chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis.

An 11-year-old boy was diagnosed with chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis (CRMO) and presented with right sacro-femoral and occipital lesions. Initially, a tumor was suspected. However, the bone biopsy showed osteomyelitis with a negative bacterial culture.

Physicians' responses to computerized drug interaction alerts with password overrides.

Background: Although evidence has suggested that computerized drug-drug interaction alert systems may reduce the occurrence of drug-drug interactions, the numerous reminders and alerts generated by such systems could represent an excessive burden for clinicians, resulting in a high override rate of not only unimportant, but also important alerts.

Methods: We analyzed physicians' responses to alerts of relative contraindications and contraindications for coadministration in a computerized drug-drug interaction alert system at Hokkaido University Hospital. In this system, the physician must enter a password to override an alert and continue an order.

Time trend of injection drug errors before and after implementation of bar-code verification system.

Background: Bar-code technology, used for verification of patients and their medication, could prevent medication errors in clinical practice.

Objective: Retrospective analysis of electronically stored medical error reports was conducted in a university hospital.

Methods: The number of reported medication errors of injected drugs, including wrong drug administration and administration to the wrong patient, was compared before and after implementation of the bar-code verification system for inpatient care.

Transient renal dysfunction with reversible splenial lesion.

We report the case of a 6-month-old boy with transient renal dysfunction who had an intensified signal in the splenium of the corpus callosum on magnetic resonance imaging. He presented to hospital with fever and sudden disturbance of consciousness. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis did not show pleocytosis.

Hereditary spherocytosis diagnosed with the eosin-5'-maleimide binding test.

We describe three cases of hereditary spherocytosis (HS) diagnosed using the eosin-5'-maleimide (EMA) binding test and discuss the relevance of the EMA binding test. In Japan, this test is not widely used because the prevalence of HS is low. This test is a valuable screening test for the diagnosis of HS.

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in a rheumatoid arthritis patient treated with infliximab.

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a rare condition with high mortality. We report a case of a 74-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis who developed HLH secondary to pyelonephritis due to Escherichia coli infection following infliximab treatment. Bone marrow aspiration showed proliferation of histiocytes with hemophagocytosis.

[Three cases of patients in their eighties who received anti-EGFR antibody mono-therapy as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer].

We report three cases of patients in their eighties who received anti-EGFR antibody mono-therapy as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer. CASE 1: An 86-year-old woman who received cetuximab after a colostomy for unresectable rectal cancer with synchronous liver and lung metastases. Serum levels of CEA and CA19-9 showed a significant decrease at 2 months, after which they showed a gradual increase.

Retrospective comparison of clinical and angiographic outcomes after sirolimus-eluting and bare-metal stent implantation in 312 consecutive, nonrandomized severely calcified lesions using a rotablator.

In order to compare the long-term clinical and angiographic outcomes after sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) and bare-metal stent (BMS) placement in severely calcified lesions using a rotablator under the widespread indication of SES, a nonrandomized examination of 312 consecutive lesions after successful implantation of a BMS (99 lesions in 84 patients; from January 2003) or SES (213 in 167; from September 2004) using a rotablator was conducted. The lesion-based primary endpoints (cardiac death and nonfatal recurrent myocardial infarction) and the secondary endpoint [binary restenosis (BR) (diameter stenosis > 50%) at follow-up angiography] were retrospectively determined in August 2010. The incidence of primary endpoint in the SES group (2.

[A case of aggressive multiple myeloma].

A 64-year-old male consulted our clinic due to pancytopenia. Bone marrow appearance was consistent with multiple myeloma and an IgG-κ type M component was detected on electroimmuno-diffusion of urine. MP therapy (melphalan 2 mg/ day, prednisolone 10 mg/day) was started on an outpatient basis, but the pancytopenia worsened.

[The efficacy of cetuximab for metastatic colorectal cancer].

Cetuximab (Erbitux) is a targeted therapy that used to treat metastatic colorectal cancer. It is classified as a "monoclonal antibody" and "signal transduction inhibitor" by binding to epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR). We report 6 patients who responded well to cetuximab out of 8 patients with recurrent/advanced colorectal cancer who have received the drug at our hospital since November 2008.

Significantly lower incidence of early definite stent thrombosis of drug-eluting stents after unrestricted use in Japan using ticlopidine compared to western countries using clopidogrel: a retrospective comparison with western mega-studies.

Background And Objectives: The incidence of definite stent thrombosis (ST) after use of drug-eluting stents (DES), as defined by the Academic Research Consortium, is known to be lower in Japan than in western countries. However, a statistical difference in the incidence of early definite ST (EDST) associated with the unrestricted use of DES has not yet been documented. Therefore, the incidence of EDST in our Japanese institute after unrestricted use of DES was retrospectively compared with those reported in western mega-studies.

Extraction of specific nursing terms using corpora comparison.

The purpose of the study is to develop and evaluate a bottom-up approach to extract the specific nursing terms from textual nursing records using corpora comparison. A nursing records corpus was developed as the target corpus, and a newspaper corpus and a medical literature abstracts corpus were developed as the reference corpora. Two filters were established to extract the technical terms and the relative frequency ratio was used for corpora comparison.

An ontological approach to support the description of nursing practice in Japan with the ICNP.

Background: With increasing computerization of nursing records in Japan, standardization of nursing terminology is becoming imperative. Although some efforts have been made to formalize description of nursing practice in Japan with the International Classification of Nursing Practice (ICNP), lack of effective description tools has impacted negatively on the initiatives.

Purpose: To develop and evaluate an ontological approach that could be used to facilitate the description of nursing practice in Japan with the ICNP.