Nationwide surveillance of bacterial respiratory pathogens conducted by the surveillance committee of japanese society of chemotherapy, the japanese association for infectious diseases, and the japanese society for clinical microbiology in 2016: General view of the pathogens' antibacterial susceptibility.

The nationwide surveillance on antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial respiratory pathogens from the patients in Japan was conducted by the Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases, and the Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology in 2016. The isolates were collected from clinical specimens obtained from well-diagnosed adult patients with respiratory tract infections during the period between February 2016 and August 2016 by three societies. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was conducted at the central reference laboratory according to the method recommended by Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute.

Moxifloxacin resistance and genotyping of Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare isolates in Japan.

Background: Although fluoroquinolones are considered as alternative therapies of pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) disease, the association between fluoroquinolone resistance and MAC genotypes in clinical isolates from individuals not previously treated for MAC infection is not fully clear.

Methods: Totals of 154 M. avium isolates and 35 Mycobacterium intracellulare isolates were obtained from treatment-naïve patients with pulmonary MAC disease at the diagnosis of MAC infection at 8 hospitals in Japan.

Selection of Oral Antifungals for Initial Maintenance Therapy in Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis: A Longitudinal Analysis.

Background: There are limited data for direct comparisons of the efficacy of oral itraconazole (ITCZ) and oral voriconazole (VRCZ) therapy in the treatment of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, follow-up, observational study of CPA patients enrolled in 2 previous multicenter trials.

Results: Of the 273 CPA patients, 59 and 101 patients started maintenance therapy with oral ITCZ and oral VRCZ, respectively, just after the end of acute intravenous therapy in each trial.

Successful alectinib treatment after crizotinib-induced interstitial lung disease.

A 70-year-old woman with lung adenocarcinoma, harbouring anaplastic lymphoma kinase gene rearrangement, was treated with crizotinib as third-line chemotherapy. After 2 months, crizotinib was discontinued because of the development of crizotinib-induced interstitial lung disease (ILD). Steroid treatment was then introduced and tapered off.

Evaluation of a Quantitative Serological Assay for Diagnosing Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical utility of a quantitative Aspergillus IgG assay for diagnosing chronic pulmonary aspergillosis. We examined Aspergillus-specific IgG levels in patients who met the following criteria: (i) chronic (duration of >3 months) pulmonary or systemic symptoms, (ii) radiological evidence of a progressive (over months or years) pulmonary lesion with surrounding inflammation, and (iii) no major discernible immunocompromising factors. Anti-Aspergillus IgG serum levels were retrospectively analyzed according to defined classifications.

[Expression of bone morphogenetic protein 2 in lung adenocarcinoma with ossification].

We report a case of primary lung cancer with ossification. A 69-year-old woman was referred to our hospital due to an abnormal shadow on a chest roentgenogram. Chest computed tomography demonstrated an irregular mass with scattered high-density areas in the left lower lung.

Phase II trial of carboplatin and pemetrexed as first-line chemotherapy for non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer, and correlation between the efficacy/toxicity and genetic polymorphisms associated with pemetrexed metabolism: Hokkaido Lung Cancer Clinical Study Group Trial (HOT) 0902.

Purpose: This phase II study evaluated the response rate (RR) and safety of combination therapy with carboplatin (CBDCA) and pemetrexed (PEM) in Japanese patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (non-sq NSCLC). Further, the relationship between therapy efficacy/toxicity and genetic polymorphisms associated with PEM metabolism was analyzed.

Methods: Forty-one patients received CBDCA at a dose targeting an area under the concentration-time curve of 5 mg/mL × min and PEM of 500 mg/m(2) on day 1 every 3 weeks.

Relationship between cytokine single nucleotide polymorphisms and sarcoidosis among Japanese subjects.

Several susceptibility genes for sarcoidosis have been identified, but their relationship to the clinical state and prognosis remains to be elucidated. The aim of this study was to elucidate the relationship between sarcoidosis and five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of three cytokines expected to play an important role in the inflammatory response. A case-control study was performed with 208 unrelated patients who met the diagnostic criteria for sarcoidosis used in Japan since 2006, and 328 control subjects.

Efficacy and safety of voriconazole in the treatment of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis: experience in Japan.

Background: Though various clinical conditions of aspergillosis can occur, depending essentially on the host's immunological status, the focus of research in North American and European countries has mainly been on invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients. There are, however, also many problems to overcome in chronic forms of aspergillosis. One of those problems is that there are no codified treatment guidelines for chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA).

Pharmacokinetics of garenoxacin in elderly patients with respiratory tract infections.

The pharmacokinetics of the new oral des-fluoroquinolone antimicrobial garenoxacin (GRNX) was investigated in elderly patients with respiratory tract infections. Patients were treated with GRNX (200 mg or 400 mg) once daily for 7 days. Plasma GRNX concentrations were determined and pharmacokinetic parameters were estimated by Bayesian predictions using reported population pharmacokinetic parameters.

[Evaluation of galactomannan antigen and beta-D-glucan value for diagnosis of chronic necrotizing pulmomary aspergillosis].

In order to establish the reliable cut-off value of galactomannan (GM) antigen as well as that for beta-D-glucan for CNPA diagnosis, we conducted the following study. From 2001 to 2008, in a total of 1511 patients we measured GM and anti-aspergillus antibody simultaneously. These patients had chronic pulmonary disease including old tuberculosis, nontuberculous mycobacteriosis, COPD, and had bullous lung, interstitial lung disease or were suspected to have suspected to have interstitial lung disease.

[Analysis of chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis (CNPA) cases complicated with non-tuberculous mycobacteriosis (NTM)].

Objective: To clarify the clinical feature of chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis (CNPA) complicated with non-tuberculous mycobacteriosis (NTM).

Subjects And Methods: Forty-one CNPA cases underlying NTM were analyzed according to their clinical backgrounds.

Results: Concerning the radiological type of prior NTM, CNPA cases were classified into two groups; 1) resembling pulmonary tuberculosis that usually shows cavitary lesion and 2) micronodule and bronchiectasis pattern, and more than half of cases (61.

Resistin is closely related to systemic inflammation in obstructive sleep apnea.

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is closely related to systemic inflammation. Resistin is an adipocyte-derived cytokine (adipokine) that may link obesity with inflammation.

Objective: We aimed to investigate whether incremental changes in OSA severity, from normal to severe, primarily affect the levels of resistin and other adipokines.

[Primary lung cancer with myocardial metastasis mimicking acute myocardial infarction].

A 78-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of chest and back pain. Fourteen months previously his chest X-ray showed a tumor shadow with cavitation in the left middle field. On admission cardiomegaly was found.

Increased serum level of vascular endothelial growth factor in Mycobacterium avium complex infection.

Objective: Pulmonary infection caused by Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) is one of the granulomatous diseases which are associated with the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The aim of the present study was to clarify the association of VEGF with the pathogenesis of MAC infection.

Methodology: The serum VEGF levels in 46 patients with pulmonary MAC infection were compared with those in 16 normal control subjects.

Efficacy and outcomes of clarithromycin treatment for pulmonary MAC disease.

Setting: Retrospective review of patients with pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) disease treated with clarithromycin.

Objectives: To investigate whether the short-term response to treatment predicts long-term outcomes, and to analyse what explanatory variables are associated with the efficacy and outcome of treatment.

Design: Sputum conversion rates in short- and long-term outcomes were evaluated for 111 patients.

[The improvement of the enforcement rate of the standard regimen (A) of tuberculosis chemotherapy by the introduction of common database system for tuberculosis].

Objective: The purpose of this study was to improve the enforcement rate of the standard regimen (A) of tuberculosis chemotherapy. SUBJECTIVE AND METHODS: We introduced the common database system for tuberculosis in three national hospitals in Hokkaido. From January 2002 to December 2003, we collected the anonymous informations of the patients with tuberculosis at the start of treatment, at the discharge and at the end of treatment.

[Validity of measuring time to detect growth of M. tbc by BACTEC MGIT960 system for quantitation and prediction of mycobacterial growth].

Study Design: Time to detect growth of M. tbc by BACTEC MGIT960 system was examined in sputum specimens collected from 114 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis before and during antituberculosis therapy. By measuring TTD under chemotherapy, we tried to quantify mycobacterial growth and determine the sensitivity of MGIT system.

[Clinical analyses of Aspergillus infections in patients with underlying pulmonary disease].

To elucidate the clinical features of Aspergillus infections with underlying pulmonary disease, we analyzed 79 cases with positive results for anti-aspergillus antibody. The patients were 69 men and 10 women. Mean age at diagnosis was 68.

Molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis in the north Hokkaido district of Japan.

Setting: The incidence of tuberculosis in Japan has fallen rapidly in the past 50 years, to 27.9 cases per 100,000 population in 2001.

Objective: To assess the molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis in the north Hokkaido district, Japan.

[A case of pulmonary cryptococcosis with multiple nodular shadows under treatment of bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia (BOOP)].

A 66 year-old man was introduced to our hospital because of multiple infiltrative pulmonary shadows on February, 2001. We diagnosed bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia (BOOP) from the clinical and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) findings, and initiated oral steroid therapy. Since the abnormal chest shadows disappeared, the dose of steroid was decreased and maintained at 10 mg/day.