Publications by authors named "Arai R"

A 79-year-old man was found to have multiple nodules in the lung fields on chest computed tomography. Metastatic lung cancer was suspected; however, the primary site remained elusive. After 1 year of follow-up, both the nodules had enlarged.

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Osteocalcin is a useful biomarker for bone formation and bone-related diseases. KTM219 is an anti-osteocalcin C-terminal peptide antibody. The single-chain variable region (scFv) and antigen-binding fragment (Fab) of KTM219 are applicable to the Quenchbody (Q-body) immunoassay.

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Background: Hindfoot endoscopy is an effective treatment for posterior ankle impingement syndrome (PAIS) and flexor hallucis longus (FHL) tendon disorders. However, FHL tendoscopy, especially from the posteromedial portal, carries a risk of tibial nerve damage. A needle-arthroscopic system with a 1.

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In mammalian epithelial cells, cytoplasmic microtubules are mainly non-centrosomal, through the functions of the minus-end binding proteins CAMSAP2 and CAMSAP3. When cells enter mitosis, cytoplasmic microtubules are reorganized into the spindle composed of both centrosomal and non-centrosomal microtubules. The function of the CAMSAP proteins upon spindle assembly remains unknown, as these do not exhibit evident localization to spindle microtubules.

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This study developed a numerical simulation model for a marine ecosystem to determine accumulation levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in top predators (seabasses). The simulated results were used for calculating probabilities of exceeding tolerable daily intake (TDI) of seafoods enforced by the US and Japanese governments. The model was applied to Tokyo Bay, Japan.

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Background: Lugol chromoendoscopy has been shown to increase the sensitivity of detection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We aimed to develop a deep learning-based virtual lugol chromoendoscopy (V-LCE) method.

Methods: We developed still V-LCE images for superficial ESCC using a cycle-consistent generative adversarial network (CycleGAN).

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Article Synopsis
  • In April 2020, new guidelines by the Japanese Circulation Society recommended shorter dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) for high bleeding risk patients, prompting a study in June 2020 involving 1,136 patients who had undergone percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
  • The study found that 55.2% of patients received planned short DAPT (less than 3 months), resulting in a significantly shorter average DAPT duration compared to those on standard therapy, but similar rates of major adverse cardiovascular events and bleeding complications across both groups.
  • Key factors predicting adverse events included age 75 or older, certain health conditions like severe chronic kidney disease, and low hemoglobin levels, indicating that despite the shorter therapy,
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Modeling carbon accumulation in crop plants is key to evaluating the transfer of atmospheric 14C into the edible parts of the plants growing near nuclear facilities. Chinese yam 'Nagaimo' (Dioscorea polystachya Turcz.) is a major crop cultivated near a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori, Japan.

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  • The study investigates short-term mortality rates related to the ECPELLA treatment (veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation combined with the Impella device) in patients with acute myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock (AMI-CS).
  • Data from the Japanese Registry for Percutaneous Ventricular Assist Devices (J-PVAD) revealed a 30-day mortality rate of 46.1% among 922 AMI-CS patients, with age over 80 and specific health factors significantly increasing risk.
  • The J-PVAD score helps predict mortality risk, showing that higher scores correlate with higher mortality; for instance, the score of 0 had a 20% mortality rate, while a score of
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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the bacterial composition in the conjunctiva and to determine the relationship between fluoroquinolone resistance and mutations in the quinolone resistance-determining region (QRDR) in Corynebacterium macginleyi (C. macginleyi).

Methods: Bacteria isolated from conjunctival swabs of patients awaiting ophthalmic surgery or patients with presumed keratoconjunctivitis were included in this study.

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  • Rauvolfia serpentina roots are used in Southeast Asian herbal medicine for various ailments including snake bites, fever, hypertension, and dysentery.
  • The study evaluated the content of key active ingredients (reserpine, ajmaline, and ajmalicine) in the roots processed using different methods on plants cultivated in Japan.
  • Results showed that a 30-minute drum mixer washing method is efficient for root processing, and active ingredient content is consistent across different root sizes, indicating uniform quality of the crude drug.
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Stent fracture is one of the complications of drug-eluting stent implantation. An 84-year-old man underwent coronary angiography for unstable angina. He had diffuse severe stenosis and calcified plaque in the left anterior descending artery and underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the left anterior descending artery for severe stenosis with chest pain.

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With the expansion of nanomaterials (NMs) usage, concerns about their toxicity are increasing, and the wide variety of NMs makes it difficult to assess their toxicity. Therefore, the development of a high-throughput, accurate, and certified method to evaluate the immunotoxicity of NMs is required. In this study, we assessed the immunotoxicity potential of various NMs, such as nanoparticles of silver, silica, and titanium dioxide, using the human Cell Line Activation Test (h-CLAT) at the cellular level.

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Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate whether thin-slice 2D fat-saturated proton density-weighted images of the shoulder joint in three imaging planes combined with parallel imaging, partial Fourier technique, and denoising approach with deep learning-based reconstruction (dDLR) are more useful than 3D fat-saturated proton density multi-planar voxel images.

Methods: Eighteen patients who underwent MRI of the shoulder joint at 3T were enrolled. The denoising effect of dDLR in 2D was evaluated using coefficient of variation (CV).

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Clinical research is the cornerstone of improvements in cancer care. However, it has been conducted predominantly in high-income countries with few clinical trials available in Brazil and other low-and-middle-income countries (LMIC). Of note, less than one-third of registered clinical trials addressing some of the most commonly diagnosed cancers (breast, lung and cervical) recruited patients from LMIC in the last years.

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A 60-year-old man was noted to have an elevated lesion in the right mainstem bronchus on chest computed tomography (CT) during his annual medical checkup 3 years previously. The lesion had gradually increased in size. FDG-PET showed no accumulation.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examined the timing of electrical cardioversion (ECV) in patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) and atrial arrhythmias, comparing early ECV (within 8 days) to delayed ECV (9 days or more).
  • Out of 73 patients, ECV successfully restored sinus rhythm in 85%, but there was no significant difference in short-term failure rates between early and delayed ECV groups.
  • Early ECV was linked to a shorter hospital stay (14 vs. 17 days) and a notable increase in left ventricular ejection fraction (from 38% to 51%), suggesting better outcomes with earlier intervention.
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A split-protein system is a simple approach to introduce new termini which are useful as modification sites in protein engineering, but has been adapted mainly for monomeric proteins. Here we demonstrate the design of split subunits of the 60-mer artificial fusion-protein nanocage TIP60. The subunit fragments successfully reformed the cage structure in the same manner as prior to splitting.

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Self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) are potential candidates for photoelectric and photovoltaic devices, because of their discrete energy levels. The characterization of QDs at the atomic level using a multimodal approach is crucial to improving device performance because QDs are nanostructures with highly correlated structural parameters. In this study, scanning transmission electron microscopy, geometric phase analysis, and atom probe tomography were employed to characterize structural parameters such as the shape, strain, and composition of self-assembled InAs-QDs with InGaAlAs spacer layers.

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Background: Nonobstructive general angioscopy (NOGA) can identify vulnerable plaques in the aortic lumen that serve as potential risk factors for cardiovascular events such as embolism. However, the association between computed tomography (CT) images and vulnerable plaques detected on NOGA remains unknown.

Methods And Results: We investigated 101 patients (67±11 years; women, 13.

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  • * The study analyzed 346 adult I. ovatus and 243 H. flava using nested PCR and explored population genetics with the mitochondrial cox1 marker, revealing significant genetic differentiation in I. ovatus populations compared to the non-significant differences observed in H. flava.
  • * Results indicate a link between the low gene flow of I. ovatus and
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Oligomeric protein nanocages often disassemble into their subunits and reassemble by external stimuli. Thus, using these nanocages as cross-linkers for hydrogel network structures is a promising approach to allow hydrogels to undergo stimuli-responsive gel-sol transitions or self-healing. Here, we report hydrogels that show a reversible gel-sol transition resulting from the heat-induced dissociation and reassociation of protein nanocages.

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Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the current use and impact of pulmonary artery catheters (PACs) in patients with cardiogenic shock (CS) who underwent Impella support.

Design: This was a prospective multicenter observational study between January 2020 and December 2021 that registered all patients with drug-refractory acute heart failure and in whom the placement of an Impella 2.5, CP, or 5.

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Backgrounds: Cycle-consistent generative adversarial network (CycleGAN) is a deep neural network model that performs image-to-image translations. We generated virtual indigo carmine (IC) chromoendoscopy images of gastric neoplasms using CycleGAN and compared their diagnostic performance with that of white light endoscopy (WLE).

Methods: WLE and IC images of 176 patients with gastric neoplasms who underwent endoscopic resection were obtained.

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