Adjunctive effects of eltrombopag on immunosuppressive therapy for childhood aplastic anemia.

Eltrombopag is used with first-line immunosuppressive therapy for adult aplastic anemia, although its practical utility in childhood remains unclear. We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of pediatric patients who received eltrombopag in Japan. Of the 27 eligible patients, 23 (85%) were previously treated, and 15 (56%) had severe or very-severe disease.

Recurrence rate of cholecystitis after initial gallbladder stenting versus secondary gallbladder stenting: A propensity score matching study.

Objective: Limitations are sometimes encountered in the application of laparoscopic cholecystectomy to the treatment of acute cholecystitis. Endoscopic gallbladder stenting (EGBS) has emerged as an additional option. However, the long-term stent patency remains an issue.

Characterization of Diploid Wheat Flour and its Possible Practical Use.

The application of flour is determined by the composition of its starch and storage proteins. Previously isolated diploid wheat is known to be amylose-free and possesses the same amylopectin structure as the wild-type. To reveal its characteristics, starch, protein, lipid, fiber, gluten, and allergen contents and rheological properties were analyzed and compared to its parental wild-type diploid wheat and commercially available hexaploid wheats.

Multiple Abnormal Cutaneous Findings in a Patient With Hypomelanosis of Ito Undergoing General Anesthesia.

Hypomelanosis of Ito (HI), a neurocutaneous syndrome, is characterized by skin depigmentation and skeletal, muscular, central nervous system, cardiac, and renal manifestations. A wide variety of cutaneous manifestations besides depigmentation have been reported. Herein we describe a 23-year-old woman with HI whose extracutaneous symptoms included severe mental and motor impairment, convulsions, and deformity of the orofacial region.

Redox control in arsenic accumulation with organic matter derived from a varved lacustrine deposit in the Jurassic accretionary complexes.

Oxidation states and distribution of arsenic (As) in annually laminated (varved) lacustrine deposits were analyzed with a seasonal resolution. This deposit was formed in the mid-Holocene landslide-dammed paleolake in the upper reaches of the Ane River, central Japan and the paleolake watershed consists of the Jurassic accretionary complexes (Mino-Tamba belt) including sedimentary and igneous rocks. In the outcrop, centimeter-to-decimeter-scale silty clay layers alternating with laminated layers are well developed.

Trends in novel antiandrogen receptor signal inhibitor use and medical costs in prostate cancer.

Objective: We aimed to examine trends in novel antiandrogen receptor signal inhibitor (ARSI) usage and medical costs by collecting real-world big data included in The National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan (NDB) Open Data, covering most of the clinical practices throughout Japan.

Methods: Usage data for outpatient prescriptions from 2016 to 2021 were extracted from the NDB Open Data. Among the 459,610 million tablets/capsules prescribed, prostate cancer-specific agents (bicalutamide, estramustine phosphate, flutamide, abiraterone, enzalutamide, apalutamide, and darolutamide) were selected to investigate the trends of usage and medical costs.

Clinical efficacy of pancreas-preserving distal pancreatectomy for the treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Background: The long-term survival rate of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has improved alongside the development of multidisciplinary treatment, and there is now demand for less invasive surgery that maintains postoperative pancreatic function. We evaluated the efficacy of pancreas-preserving distal pancreatectomy in terms of oncologic parameters and postoperative pancreatic function.

Methods: The data of 98 consecutive patients who underwent distal pancreatectomy for the treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma between 2012 and 2022 in our institution were retrospectively analyzed.

Frequent copy number gain of MCL1 is a therapeutic target for osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a primary malignant bone tumor primarily affecting children and adolescents. The lack of progress in drug development for OS is partly due to unidentified actionable oncogenic drivers common to OS. In this study, we demonstrate that copy number gains of MCL1 frequently occur in OS, leading to vulnerability to therapies based on Mcl-1 inhibitors.

Combined quantitative analysis of the nigro-striata system in multiple system atrophy and Parkinson's disease.

Degeneration of the nigrostriatal system occurs in multiple system atrophy (MSA) and Parkinson's disease (PD) via distinct pathological mechanisms. Here, we investigated nigrostriatal degeneration in MSA and PD by combining a newly developed method for evaluating the regional accumulation of dopamine transporter single-photon emission computed tomography (DAT SPECT) and individual voxel-based morphometry adjusting covariates (iVAC). We recruited 17 MSA patients and 13 PD patients, and compared their clinical and imaging indices.

Possible negative impact of polypharmacy on surgical outcomes in older patients with lumbar spinal stenosis.

Aim: Older patients with lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) have a higher incidence of polypharmacy attributed to comorbidities and the use of pain relief medications. This study aimed to explore the effect of polypharmacy and hyperpolypharmacy on surgical outcomes in older patients with LSS based on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and locomotive syndrome.

Methods: Consecutive patients aged ≥65 years who underwent lumbar spinal surgery for LSS were retrospectively reviewed.

Enhanced Biodegradation of Silk Fibroin Hydrogel for Preventing Postoperative Adhesion.

An absorbable adhesion barrier is a medical device that prevents postoperative adhesion and matches its biodegradation time with the regeneration period of its target tissues, which is important for antiadhesion effects. Physical hydrogels of silk fibroin (SF) proteins are degradable . However, their biodegradation time is too long to exert antiadhesion effects.

A case of glenohumeral joint impingement caused by a giant secondary synovial osteochondromatosis.

Introduction And Importance: Synovial osteochondromatosis of the shoulder joint is predominantly primary, characterized by multiple osteochondral fragments, with reports of secondary synovial osteochondromatosis being rare.

Case Presentation: The patient, a 48-year-old male, presented to our hospital with right shoulder pain persisting for several months. While there was no significant restriction in the range of motion, pain was noted during horizontal adduction and external rotation in the dependent position.

A Monte Carlo study comparing dead-time losses of a gamma camera between tungsten functional paper and lead sheet for dosimetry in targeted radionuclide therapy with Lu-177.

Objective: Dead-time loss is reported to be non-negligible for some patients with a high tumor burden in Lu-177 radionuclide therapy, even if the administered activity is 7.4 GBq. Hence, we proposed a simple method to shorten the apparent dead time and reduce dead-time loss using a thin lead sheet in previous work.

Combination treatment with histone deacetylase and carbonic anhydrase 9 inhibitors shows therapeutic potential in experimental diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.

Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) remains a significant therapeutic challenge due to the lack of effective and safe treatment options. This study explores the potential of combining histone deacetylase (HDAC) and carbonic anhydrase 9 (CA9) inhibitors in treating DIPG. Analysis of RNA sequencing data and tumor tissue from patient samples for the expression of the carbonic anhydrase family and hypoxia signaling pathway activity revealed clinical relevance for targeting CA9 in DIPG.

Comparison of Analgesic Effect of Local Anesthetic Injection for Pain Relief During Peripheral Venous Insertion in Adult Surgical Patients: A Prospective Observational Study.

Purpose: Intradermal injection of local anesthetic has been reported to have greater analgesic effect for peripheral venous catheter (PVC) insertion than topical application in adult surgical patients. However, the injection of local anesthetic itself is a painful procedure compared to topical application. We compared the analgesic effect of a lidocaine-prilocaine patch with intradermal injection of 2 % lidocaine on pain intensity at the time of analgesia and PVC insertion as assessed by a visual analog scale (VAS) in adult patients.

Mutations in starch BRANCHING ENZYME 2a suppress the traits caused by the loss of ISOAMYLASE1 in barley.

The hvbe2a mutations restore the starch-deficient phenotype caused by the hvisa1 and hvflo6 mutations in barley endosperm. The genetic interactions among starch biosynthesis genes can be exploited to alter starch properties, but they remain poorly understood due to the various combinations of mutations to be tested. Here, we isolated two novel barley mutants defective in starch BRANCHING ENZYME 2a (hvbe2a-1 and hvbe2a-2) based on the starch granule (SG) morphology.

The Fine-Tuned Large Language Model for Extracting the Progressive Bone Metastasis from Unstructured Radiology Reports.

Early detection of patients with impending bone metastasis is crucial for prognosis improvement. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of a fine-tuned, locally run large language model (LLM) in extracting patients with bone metastasis in unstructured Japanese radiology report and to compare its performance with manual annotation. This retrospective study included patients with "metastasis" in radiological reports (April 2018-January 2019, August-May 2022, and April-December 2023 for training, validation, and test datasets of 9559, 1498, and 7399 patients, respectively).

[A case of Parkinson's disease with marked head drop after administration of donepezil hydrochloride].

A 76-year-old woman with a 2-year history of Parkinson's disease presented with dropped head, which had developed rapidly after she had been prescribed donepezil hydrochloride (DNP) at 3 ‍mg/day. After one month of medication, the extent of the head drop reached 90°. Examination revealed hypertrophy of the left sternocleidomastoid muscle, but no weakness of the extensor muscles in the cervical region.

DNA methylation of bone morphogenetic protein 7 in leukocytes as a possible biomarker for hand osteoarthritis: A pilot study.

Hand osteoarthritis (HOA), characterized by an earlier onset age and reduced susceptibility to mechanical stress compared with knee and hip osteoarthritis, is considered a suitable disease for identifying predictive biomarkers of osteoarthritis. In particular, DNA methylation variants, expected to contribute to HOA susceptibility, hold potential as osteoarthritis biomarkers. In this study, leukocyte DNA methylation patterns were analyzed in blood samples from patients with HOA, aiming to identify disease-specific biomarkers for osteoarthritis.

A Comparison and Evaluation of Two Commercially Available Metal Artifact Reduction Applications.

Objective: The angiography systems A (A) and B (B), both incorporated at our hospital, are equipped with metal artifact reduction (MAR) applications. In clinical practice, it is crucial to understand the characteristics of MAR in both systems given that endovascular treatments are occasionally administered with both. In this study, we compared the artifact reduction effects of MAR on equipment A and B and clarified the differences between the two systems.

Value of gadoxetic acid-enhanced MR imaging for preoperative prediction of future liver regeneration after hemihepatectomy.

Purpose: Liver resection is currently considered the most effective treatment for patients with liver cancer. To the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated the association between gadoxetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings and liver regeneration in patients who underwent hemihepatectomy. We aimed to clarify the relationship between the signal intensity (SI) of the liver parenchyma on gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI and the degree of liver regeneration in patients who underwent hemihepatectomy.

Medication-based profiling of older orthopedic patients: a multicenter cross-sectional study.

Background: Managing medication use in older orthopedic patients is imperative to extend their healthy life expectancy in an aging society. However, the actual situation regarding polypharmacy, the intake of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs), and fall risk-increasing drugs (FRIDs) among older orthopedic patients is not well characterized. This study aimed to investigate the medication-based profiles of older orthopedic patients to highlight the critical points of concern.