[Impaired exercise-induced blood pressure control in patients with Parkinson's disease and related disorders].

An almost directly proportional increase in blood pressure (BP) and heart rate with exercise intensity has been reported in healthy subjects. In contrast, patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA) and pure autonomic failure (PAF) characterized by autonomic failure exhibit exercise-induced hypotension (EIH), prolonged hypotension following the cessation of exercise and exaggerated orthostatic hypotension after exercise. EIH, which can be the earliest symptom of PAF, provides a clue to the diagnosis of autonomic failure.

Acceleration of TDP43 and FUS/TLS protein expressions in the preconditioned hippocampus following repeated transient ischemia.

The 43-kDa transactivation response DNA binding protein (TDP43), fused in sarcoma/translocated in liposarcoma (FUS/TLS), heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), and β-amyloid (Aβ) are induced and involved in cerebral ischemia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Alzheimer's disease (AD), but their relationships in ischemic tolerance have never been examined, although they could be involved in endogenous neuroprotection under ischemic preconditioning. In the present study, Mongolian gerbils were subjected to one or three incidents of basically nonlethal 2-min transient common carotid arteries occlusion (tCCAO). Hippocampal CA1 neurons were lost only in the 2-min three times group at 3 and 7 days, which then gradually recovered from 1 to 6 months.

Reducing hemorrhagic complication by dabigatran via neurovascular protection after recanalization with tissue plasminogen activator in ischemic stroke of rat.

This study assesses the risks and benefits of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) treatment under oral anticoagulation with dabigatran compared with warfarin or vehicle control in transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO). After pretreatment with warfarin (0.2 mg/kg/day), dabigatran (20 mg/kg/day), or vehicle (0.

Dynamic breathing of CO2 by hydrotalcite.

The carbon cycle of carbonate solids (e.g., limestone) involves weathering and metamorphic events, which usually occur over millions of years.

Effect of hospital volume on long-term outcomes of laparoscopic gastrectomy for clinical stage I gastric cancer.

Background: This study aimed to examine the effect of hospital volume on long-term outcomes of patients who underwent laparoscopic gastrectomy for clinical stage I gastric cancer.

Patients And Methods: A total of 420 patients with clinical stage I gastric cancer who underwent laparoscopic gastrectomy at our university hospital (high-volume group) and affiliated hospitals (low-volume group) were included in this study. Overall survival (OS) and cause-specific survival (CSS) rates were analyzed.

Solid-state 13C NMR study of cholesteric liquid crystals.

We investigated the structural behavior of cholesteric liquid crystals of 4-(hexyloxy)-4'-cyanobiphenyl (6OCB) in an 11.7 T magnetic field by solid-state (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance. Five 6OCB cholesteric liquid crystal systems were prepared with 4-methoxyphenyl 3,4-O-isopropylidene-2,6-bis-O-(4-methylbenzoyl)-β-d-galactopyranoside (CR), in which 6OCB was doped with 0.

In vivo optical imaging correlates with improvement of cerebral ischemia treated by intravenous bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) and edaravone.

Objective: Recent studies show that modern In vivo optical imaging can detect matrix metallopeptidase (MMP) activation in the ischemic brain. In this study, we analyze the protective effects of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) and edaravone (EDA) against tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) risk in the ischemic brain with In vivo optical fluorescence MMP imaging.

Methods: At 48 hours after 60 minutes of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) with tPA, C57BL/6J mice were subjected to motor function analysis, In vivo and ex vivo optical imaging for MMP activation, gelatin zymography, and double immunofluorescent analyses with or without intravenous BMSC transplantation and the intravenous free radical scavenger EDA.

Synchronized Babinski and Chaddock signs preceded the MRI findings in a case of repetitive transient ischemic attack.

We herein report a 53-year-old female with repeated transient ischemic attack (TIA) symptoms including 13 instances of right hemiparesis that decreased in duration over 4 days. Two separate examinations using diffusion weighted image (DWI) in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed normal findings, but we observed that both Babinski and Chaddock signs were completely synchronized with her right hemiparesis. We were only able to diagnose this case of early stage TIA using clinical signs.

Cerebral embolic stroke after disappearing takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy can induce cerebral embolic stroke because of intracardiac thrombosis, but the timing of cardiogenic embolism relating to takotsubo cardiomyopathy has not been well described. We evaluated a 71-year-old woman with takotsubo cardiomyopathy, who developed cardiogenic cerebral embolism after recovery of cardiac wall motion. Nevertheless, we treated her with anticoagulation therapy.

Chylothorax after coronary artery bypass grafting using the right internal thoracic artery.

Chylothorax is a rare but serious complication of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) that results from disruption of the thoracic duct while harvesting the internal thoracic artery (ITA). A 78-year-old woman developed a large-volume milky pleural effusion 3 days after CABG. Biochemical analysis of the fluid resulted in a diagnosis of chylothorax.

Alpha2-macroglobulin as a promising biomarker for cerebral small vessel disease in acute ischemic stroke patients.

Alpha2-macroglobulin is a protease inhibitor that enhances procoagulant properties via the neutralization of plasmin, plasminogen activators and metalloproteinases. Additionally, alpha2-macroglobulin is thought to be involved in inflammatory reactions as a carrier protein for interleukin-6 (IL-6). The objective of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of alpha2-macroglobulin as a biomarker for cerebrovascular diseases.

Two Unique Cases with Anti-GluR Antibody-Positive Encephalitis.

We report two cases of anti-glutamic acid receptor (anti-GluR) antibody-positive encephalitis in males with symptoms such as Parkinsonism, urinary retention, and paralytic ileus. Although non-herpetic encephalitis typically shows magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) lesions in the limbic system during early stages, the present cases showed MRI lesions during later stages in the bilateral claustrum and pons. In both cases, anti-GluRɛ2 and δ2 antibodies were later shown to be positive in the cerebrospinal fluid but negative in the serum.

Catheter closure of patent foramen ovale in patients with cryptogenic cerebrovascular accidents: initial experiences in Japan.

Although numerous studies have shown an association between a patent foramen ovale (PFO) and cryptogenic cerebrovascular accidents (CVA), there has been no definitive control study that demonstrated the benefit of percutaneous device closure of a PFO compared to medical therapy in patients with CVA. Additionally, few clinical data exist for Japanese patients in this field. We demonstrate the initial experiences in catheter closure of a PFO as secondary prevention of CVA in Japan.

Roles of Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger type 1 and intracellular pH in angiotensin II-induced reactive oxygen species generation and podocyte apoptosis.

A growing body of evidence suggests that podocyte apoptosis is a major cause of decreased podocyte number, which leads to albuminuria and glomerular injury. The aim of this study was to clarify the molecular mechanisms of angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced apoptosis in cultured mouse podocytes. We examined the effects of Ang II (100 nmol/L) on apoptosis, superoxide anions, and cytosol pH in podocytes.

Naked-eye discrimination of methanol from ethanol using composite film of oxoporphyrinogen and layered double hydroxide.

Methanol is a highly toxic substance, but it is unfortunately very difficult to differentiate from other alcohols (especially ethanol) without performing chemical analyses. Here we report that a composite film prepared from oxoporphyrinogen (OxP) and a layered double hydroxide (LDH) undergoes a visible color change (from magenta to purple) when exposed to methanol, a change that does not occur upon exposure to ethanol. Interestingly, methanol-induced color variation of the OxP-LDH composite film is retained even after removal of methanol under reduced pressure, a condition that does not occur in the case of conventional solvatochromic dyes.

[Successful treatment of HIV-associated chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy by early initiation of highly active anti-retroviral therapy].

A 47-year-old man with HIV infection presented with lower leg dominant dysesthesia, muscle weakness and sensory ataxia of 3 month's duration. Nerve conduction studies (NCS) showed demyelination change in the median and tibial nerves and sensory nerve action potential (SNAP) in the sural nerve was not evoked. Somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) showed the delayed N9 latency.

Mitochondrial fusion and fission proteins expression dynamically change in a murine model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Mitochondria dynamically change their shape through frequent fusion and fission to continuously perform their function in the cell. Although a change in mitochondrial morphology was reported in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), detailed changes of mitochondrial fusion and fission proteins have not been reported in ALS model mice. In transgenic (Tg) mice with the G93A human SOD1 mutation (G93ASOD1), both mitochondrial fusion proteins (Mfn1 and Opal) and fission proteins (Drp1 and Fis1) showed a significant increase in the anterior half of the lumbar spinal cord.

Fully nonlinear mode competitions of nearly bicritical spiral or Taylor vortices in Taylor-Couette flow.

Interactions between nearly bicritical modes in Taylor-Couette flow, which have been concerned with the framework of weakly nonlinear theory, are extended to fully nonlinear Navier-Stokes computation. For this purpose, a standard Newton solver for axially periodic flows is generalized to compute any mixed solutions having up to two phases, which typically arise from interactions of two spiral or Taylor vortex modes. Also, a simple theory is developed in order to classify the mixed solutions.

Structural analysis of a banana-liquid crystal in the B4 phase by solid-state NMR.

In this paper, we present a structural investigation of 1,3-phenylene bis[4-((4-10-decyloxyphenyl)iminomethyl)-benzoate], known as a banana-liquid crystal, in the B4 phase, which was performed by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methodology combined with quantum chemical calculations. The present solid-state NMR measurements including (13)C CPMAS, 2D TOSS-deTOSS, dipole-dephase, 1D and 2D EXSY, and MAS-j-HMQC provided accurate spectral assignments and unambiguous NMR parameters such as (13)C chemical shift tensors, which were used for construction of the three-dimensional structure with the aid of density functional theory calculations. In the obtained molecular structure, two arms of the bent-core molecule are asymmetrically expanded such that the direction of the dipole moment is off alignment with respect to the middle line of the center benzene ring.

Synthesis of polyaniline with low polydispersity by using a supramolecular ionic assembly as the reaction medium.

A supramolecular ionic assembly comprised of an anionic oligo(phenylene ethynylene) and anilinium cations provides a unique reaction medium in which anilinum cations are concentrated and aligned. The oxidative polymerization (see figure) of aniline using the supramolecular ionic assembly (gray) yielded polyaniline (green/blue) with a number-average molar mass of 20,500 and polydispersity of 1.3.

Intravenous thrombolysis with neuroprotective therapy by edaravone for ischemic stroke patients older than 80 years of age.

Background: Alteplase, a recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), was approved for patients with acute ischemic stroke within 3 hours of stroke onset in Japan in October 2005 at a dose of 0.6 mg/kg. The aim of this study was to assess the safety and efficacy of alteplase in elderly patients in Japan.

Hydrogen-bond-driven 'homogeneous intercalation' for rapid, reversible, and ultra-precise actuation of layered clay nanosheets.

The use of hydrogen bonds permits a fluidic motion of differently sized alcohol molecules across the interlayer gap in LDH, which enables rapid and reversible tuning of interlayer spacing of the LDH at sub-Ångström precision by changing the mole ratio of the different alcohols.

Combination benefit of amlodipine plus atorvastatin treatment on carotid atherosclerosis in Zucker metabolic rats.

Objectives: Obesity is the major risk factor for metabolic syndrome and atherosclerotic cardiocerebrovascular diseases.

Methods: We studied effects of amlodipine, atorvastatin, and their combination on carotid arteriosclerotic processes in a metabolic syndrome model of Zucker fatty rats. Zucker fatty rats were treated with vehicle, amlodipine, atorvastatin, or combination amlodipine plus atorvastatin for 28 days.