Publications by authors named "Fukazawa R"

Kawasaki disease (KD) causes vascular injury and lifelong remodeling. Excessive intimal proliferation has been observed, resulting in coronary artery lesions (CALs). However, the mechanisms underlying vascular remodeling in CAL and statin treatment have not been comprehensively elucidated.

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  • The study aimed to evaluate if angiotensin type 1 receptor blockers (ARBs) or ACE inhibitors (ACEis) can help reduce the size of coronary artery aneurysms (CAA) in Kawasaki disease (KD) patients.
  • Conducted in Japan, the research involved 209 patients diagnosed with KD and medium to large CAAs, with a significant portion also using ARBs/ACEis.
  • Although both groups had similar overall CAA regression rates, those taking ARBs/ACEis showed a higher regression rate for giant CAAs, suggesting potential benefits of these medications, especially in more severe cases.
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Coronary artery lesions (CALs) after Kawasaki disease present complex coronary hemodynamics. We investigated the relationship between coronary fractional flow reserve (FFR), myocardial flow reserve (MFR), and myocardial blood flow volume fraction (MBF) and their clinical usefulness in CALs after Kawasaki disease. Nineteen patients (18 men, 1 woman) who underwent cardiac catheterization and N-ammonia positron emission tomography, with 24 coronary artery branches, were included.

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Background: The standard treatment for Kawasaki disease is immunoglobulin therapy, but the high frequency of coronary sequelae in immunoglobulin-refractory cases indicates a need for further improvement in treatment.

Methods: Kawasaki disease-like vasculitis was induced in 5-week-old DBA/2 mice by intraperitoneal administration of 0.5 mg Candida albicans water-soluble fraction (CAWS) daily for 5 days followed by daily administration of candesartan, an angiotensin receptor blocker.

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Background: Although occlusion of the right coronary artery (RCA) is common in the remote stages of Kawasaki disease, revascularization of the RCA is challenging in children and is usually managed by observation without intervention.

Methods: Using adenosine-stress N-ammonia myocardial perfusion positron emission tomography, we evaluated coronary circulation in 14 patients (12 males) with RCA occlusion to identify ischemia (myocardial flow ratio < 2.0) in the RCA region and examined hemodynamics, cardiac function, and coronary aneurysm diameter.

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Background: Real-world data on the effectiveness and safety of lasmiditan, a new medication for acute migraine attacks, is necessary.

Methods: We performed a prospective, observational, multi-center, real-world study. A total of 48 patients with migraine (44 females, 44.

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  • Adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) are being studied for their potential to treat Kawasaki disease, a serious condition affecting children that causes inflammation of blood vessels.* -
  • In a mouse model of Kawasaki disease, mice treated with human ADSCs showed a significant reduction in inflammation-related cytokines and improved heart tissue conditions compared to the control group.* -
  • The findings suggest that hADSCs may provide an early anti-inflammatory effect, potentially through the involvement of Galectin-1, and improve survival in mice with Kawasaki disease.*
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Notably, certain nutrients are effective in preventing migraine. Nonetheless, zinc replacement therapy for migraine treatment has yet to be explored. We herein report four patients with migraine who were refractory to prophylactic therapy and whose headache frequency and severity improved with zinc supplementation.

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Unlabelled: Three patients, aged 2 years 0 months, 2 years 2 months, and 6 years 1 month at the time of plain old balloon angioplasty (POBA), developed an aneurysm in the left anterior descending coronary branch after suffering from Kawasaki disease. POBA was subsequently performed due to 99 % stenosis proximal to the aneurysm. There was no restenosis within a few years after percutaneous coronary intervention, and there was no evidence of ischemia, although 75 % restenosis occurred in two patients after 7 years.

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Current treatments for patients with coronary aneurysms caused by Kawasaki disease (KD) are based primarily on aneurysm size. This ignores hemodynamic factors influencing myocardial ischemic risk. We performed patient-specific computational hemodynamics simulations for 15 KD patients, with parameters tuned to patients' arterial pressure and cardiac function.

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  • The study examines coronary arterial aneurysms (CAAs) in patients with Kawasaki disease (KD), highlighting their impact on patient prognosis and the factors influencing CAA regression.
  • Analyzing data from over 1,000 KD patients across 44 institutions in Japan, the research shows that smaller CAAs are more likely to regress over a 10-year period compared to larger ones.
  • Key findings indicate that early diagnosis (under age 1), more recent onset of KD (2010-2012), and female sex are linked to higher regression rates for CAAs, which can inform better long-term management strategies for these patients.
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Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute inflammatory syndrome of unknown etiology that is complicated by cardiovascular sequelae. Chronic inflammation (vasculitis) due to KD might cause vascular cellular senescence and vascular endothelial cell damage, and is a potential cause of atherosclerosis in young adults. This study examined the effect of KD and HMG-CoA inhibitors (statins) on vascular cellular senescence and vascular endothelial cells.

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  • The study examines long-term outcomes for Kawasaki disease patients who develop coronary artery aneurysms (CAA), aiming to identify risk factors for coronary events (CE) and management strategies.
  • A total of 179 patients were followed for about 501 days, revealing that 7% experienced CEs, predominantly within the first two years after KD onset, with larger CAAs correlating with higher risks.
  • The research highlights that patients with larger CAAs are at significantly greater risk for CEs, suggesting that current antithrombotic treatments, like warfarin, may not adequately mitigate these risks, indicating a need for improved therapies.
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Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) is sometimes complicated by congenital heart disease; however, comorbid type I diabetes mellitus and diseases involving autoantibodies, such as Hashimoto disease and Graves disease, are not uncommon. Autoinflammatory diseases such as Kawasaki disease and systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis are rare. We report a rare case of trisomy 21 with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis that responded well to the initial course of methylprednisolone pulse therapy but flared up and was complicated by macrophage activation syndrome (MAS).

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In paediatric primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS), the initial symptoms manifest systemically, such as fever, general fatigue, and lymphadenopathy, rather than sicca symptoms. Most children with primary SS have autoantibodies, such as antinuclear, anti-Ro/SS-A, and/or anti-La/SS-B antibodies; however, some patients are seronegative. Similar to paediatric patients with primary SS, those with Takayasu arteritis (TAK) initially only present constitutional symptoms, making it difficult to suspect, unless characteristic features are present.

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Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute form of systemic vasculitis that may promote atherosclerosis in adulthood. This study examined the relationships between KD, atherosclerosis, and the long-term effects of HMG-CoA inhibitors (statins). Candida albicans water-soluble fraction (CAWS) was injected intraperitoneally into 5-week-old male apolipoprotein-E-deficient (Apo E-/-) mice to create KD-like vasculitis.

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Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for severe cardiac sequelae of Kawasaki disease (KD) complicated by myocardial ischemia is feasible even in childhood. However, no report has summarized the prognosis of CABG in preschool-aged children. Therefore, we evaluated the outcomes of seven preschool-aged children who underwent CABG for the cardiac sequelae of KD in our hospital.

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Coronary peripheral circulatory disturbances in the remote stage of Kawasaki disease have been reported. In this study, of the 50 patients in the remote stage of Kawasaki disease who underwent coronary perfusion evaluation using adenosine-loaded N-ammonia positron emission tomography, 28 patients who did not have stenosis of ≥75% in the left coronary artery underwent an evaluation for myocardial flow reserve (MFR) of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) and left circumflex artery (LCx). Clinical findings were compared between patients with normal (≥2.

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Background: Residual shunt after closure of an inferior sinus venosus defect (ISVD) is a rare complication with a high rate of reintervention.

Case Presentation: Here, we report a rare case of a recurrent defect identified 22 years after closure of an ISVD. The defect (25 × 10 mm) was located at the inferior vena cava-right atrial junction and was closed directly when the patient was 5 years of age.

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Background: Tenascin-C (TN-C) is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein related to tissue inflammation. Our previous retrospective study conducted in 2016 revealed that the serum tenascin-C level was higher in patients with Kawasaki disease (KD) who were resistant to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and developed coronary artery lesions (CALs). The present study is a prospective cohort study to assess if the serum level of tenascin-C could be used as a novel biomarker to predict the risk of resistance to initial treatment for high-risk patients.

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All three patients were men in their 70s. All cases were solitary onset and the chief complaint was gait disturbance. All patients had miosis and limb and trunk ataxia, MMSE score was declined in two patients, and FAB score was declined in all patients.

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A set of C43(DE3) and BL21(DE3) Escherichia coli host strains that are auxotrophic for various amino acids is briefly reviewed. These strains require the addition of a defined set of one or more amino acids in the growth medium, and have been specifically designed for overproduction of membrane or water-soluble proteins selectively labelled with stable isotopes, such as 2H, 13C and 15N. The strains described here are available for use and have been deposited into public strain banks.

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Article Synopsis
  • Krabbe disease is caused by a deficiency of the galactocerebrosidase enzyme, leading to harmful metabolite buildup and nerve damage, causing symptoms like spastic paraplegia.
  • A 14-year-old girl with symptoms resembling Guillain-Barré syndrome was treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), resulting in improvement of her limb weakness.
  • Further tests at age 16 indicated adult Krabbe disease, suggesting that IVIg might be a promising treatment option for managing symptoms of this condition.
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