Publications by authors named "Furukawa K"

The rs671 polymorphism, unique to East Asians, is well known to change the sensitivity to alcohol. Moreover, this polymorphism is associated not only with alcohol intake but also with several dietary behaviors (DBs), chronic diseases, and BMI, but the triadic association among the rs671 genotype, DBs, and BMI is unclear. This study included 12,271 Japanese subjects and aimed to observe this three-way association using the rs671 polymorphism, data of 56 DBs, and BMI.

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Background: The most common complication after tetralogy of Fallot repair is pulmonary valve regurgitation. However, concomitant surgery for tricuspid valve regurgitation and/or aortic dilatation is occasionally required.

Case Presentation: A 56-year-old woman who underwent surgery for tetralogy of Fallot at age 29 years was diagnosed with progressive tricuspid valve regurgitation, hepatosplenomegaly, and thrombocytopenia.

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Background: When a patient has multiple tumors in different organs, it is very important to identify whether the tumors are multiple cancers or metastasis from one tumor in order to establish an optimal treatment strategy. However, it is difficult to obtain an accurate diagnosis from conventional diagnostic strategies, including immunohistochemistry. We report two patients with multiple tumors in which a somatic mutation comparison using next-generation sequencing (NGS) was useful for the diagnosis of a metastatic tumor.

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Article Synopsis
  • π-Electronic ion pairs are important for creating electronic materials that utilize intermolecular interactions, particularly π-π interactions, for controlled assembly.
  • Charged porphyrins, which have a delocalized charge, can form organized arrangements through ion pairing, with their structures dependent on the types of electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups attached.
  • Experimental results showed that specific porphyrin ion pairs exhibit significant interaction characteristics, including a hetero-dimerization constant and the formation of radical pairs influenced by solvent and temperature conditions.
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Background: Cancer cachexia has been associated with unfavorable outcomes in several malignancies. The cachexia index (CXI), which consists of skeletal muscle, inflammation, and nutritional status, has been proposed as a novel biomarker of cachexia. Therefore, we here investigated prognostic value of the CXI in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after hepatic resection.

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Introduction: Fusobacterium and several bacteria are reported to be associated with colorectal cancer (CRC). However, their relationship and whether they cause CRC or are just adapted to the cancerous environment is not known. We approached this subject by investigating the correlation and distribution of the bacteria throughout the colon in patients with CRC and elucidated the relationship between microbiota and CRC.

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Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between preoperative cachexia index (CXI) and long-term outcomes in patients with colorectal liver metastases (CRLM) after hepatic resection.

Method: In all,118 patients who underwent hepatic resection for CRLM were analyzed retrospectively. The relationship between CXI and the long-term outcomes in patients after hepatic resection was investigated.

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Purpose: Few questionnaires evaluate daytime and nighttime symptoms separately, although these assessments could contribute to the improvement of disease control levels and prevention of future risks in asthma. The purpose of this retrospective study was to investigate whether daytime and nighttime visual analog scales (VAS) are useful in measuring the perception of symptoms, assessing disease control levels, and evaluating the treatment effects in asthma.

Patients And Methods: Self-reporting asthma control tests (ACT) before and after treatment are standardized tests used to determine disease control levels.

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Salvage surgery for recurrent oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) often leads to a poor quality of life (QOL). The present study described three cases that resulted in favorable locoregional control with cetuximab in combination with radiotherapy (Cmab + RT). Case 1 had regional recurrence of OSCC at the lower right mastoid area 4 months after primary surgery.

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BACKGROUND Leiomyosarcoma (LMS) of the inferior vena cava (IVC) is a rare malignancy, and complete resection may provide better patient survival. Hepatectomy for intrahepatic tumor recurrence has not been previously reported. CASE REPORT A 58-year-old woman underwent resection of an IVC-LMS with en bloc nephrectomy, adrenalectomy, and retroperitoneal soft tissue resection without IVC reconstruction 3 years 8 months ago.

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Horiuchi and colleagues assessed the benefits of adding the Pringle maneuver to laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis. Compared with laparoscopic cholecystectomy without the Pringle maneuver, including it reduced intraoperative bleeding. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy with the Pringle maneuver is a safe and feasible option that avoids conversion to open laparotomy and prevents serious complications.

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Background And Aims: Multiple biopsies are recommended for the diagnosis of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) because inflammatory changes are frequently patchy. Reports on EoE using endocytoscopy (ECS) are limited. This present study aimed to assess if diagnostic yield improves by adding ECS on conventional white light imaging (WLI) in patients with esophageal eosinophilia (EE).

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Objective: Pneumonia is a disease with high morbidity and mortality among older individuals in Japan. In practice, most older patients with pneumonia are not required ventilatory management and are not necessarily in critical respiratory condition. However, prolonged hospitalization itself is considered to be a serious problem even in these patients with non-critical pneumonia and have negative and critical consequences such as disuse syndrome in older patients.

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Sarcopenia is the decline in skeletal muscle mass, strength, and functions, which decreases the quality of life in elderly people. This study investigated the suppressive effect of turmeric (Curcuma longa) extract (TE) on muscle atrophy in dexamethasone (DEX)-treated mice and C2C12 myotubes. DEX treatment significantly decreased the muscle weight and significantly increased Fbxo32 and Murf1 expression in mice, and these changes were suppressed by the supplementation of an AIN-93 based diet with 2% TE.

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The oxysterol 27-hydroxycholesterol (27HC) promotes the proliferation of breast cancer cells as a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), but it is mostly produced by alveolar macrophages . The present study evaluated hypothesis that 27HC may also promote the proliferation of lung cancer cells. In the tumor and nontumor regions of lung tissue from 23 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who underwent lung cancer surgery, we compared the 27HC content and its synthetic and catabolic enzyme expressions ( and ), the expressions of the estrogen receptor (ER) gene and its target gene by using high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS), real-time RT-PCR, and immunohistochemical staining.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study evaluated the use of Endoscopic ultrasound elastography-guided fine needle biopsy (EUS-EG-FNB) for diagnosing pancreatic mass lesions by comparing images of tissue elasticity.
  • It involved 55 patients, distinguishing between heterogeneous (hard/soft) and homogeneous groups, finding that sampling from hard and soft areas yielded similar diagnostic accuracy and specimen quality.
  • The research concluded that while EUS-EG may reveal tissue composition in pancreatic tumors, it does not significantly improve the quality or quantity of biopsy samples.
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A 71-year-old man was diagnosed as having right primary lung squamous cell carcinoma, clinical stage IIIA, but he refused treatment. However, the right upper lobe nodule and lymph node (LN) #4R showed gradual shrinking without treatment. Four years after the diagnosis, a new nodule was detected in the left lung field.

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Background/aim: Thrombomodulin™ has cytoprotective and anti-inflammatory function by interacting with G-protein coupled receptor 15 (GPR15). Recombinant TM (rTM), which comprises the extracellular regions of TM, is approved for treatment of disseminated intravascular coagulation. We investigated the anti-tumor effect of rTM for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) through GPR15.

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Background: Frailty, represented by sarcopenia and osteopenia, has been associated with worse survival after hepatectomy in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Recently, the concept and term "osteosarcopenia" have been proposed, which has been associated with worse outcome in several malignancies.

Methods: This study included 227 patients who underwent elective hepatic resection for hepatocellular carcinoma.

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Background: Adjuvant chemotherapy is recommended for patients with pancreatic cancer after curative resection. However, there is limited evidence regarding the efficacy and prognostic factors for adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with stage I pancreatic cancer. This study aimed to identify patients in whom chemotherapy was effective and to detect prognostic factors for stage I pancreatic cancer based on guidelines of the 8 edition of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).

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Background: Pathological close margins are considered a significant factor for local recurrence in patients with oral cancer. However, the oral cavity has complicated anatomical features, and the appropriate margin distance for each site is unknown. This multicenter, retrospective study aimed to determine the appropriate resection margin for early tongue cancer and investigate the need for additional treatment for close margins and stump dysplasia.

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Background: To study exocrine function of the remnant pancreas after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD), we propose the use of an exocrine index (PEI) that combines the volume of the remnant pancreas and the intraoperative amylase activity of the pancreatic juice. Here, we aimed to determine whether the PEI can predict non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) following PD.

Methods: Fifty-seven patients for whom pancreatic juice amylase activity was measured during PD were enrolled.

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