Clinical features of germline BRCA1/2 or ATM pathogenic variant positive pancreatic cancer in Japan.

Background: There has been increasing interest into the role of germline BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants (gBRCA PV) and gATM PV and likely PV (PV and LPV; PV + LPV) in the carcinogenesis and treatment of pancreatic cancer (PC), but the clinical features have not been well described.

Methods: Patients with confirmed gBRCA PV and gATM PV + LPV PC treated at our hospital between April 2016 and December 2021, were retrospectively evaluated for clinical characteristics and outcomes.

Results: Twenty-two patients harbored gBRCA PV and three patients harbored gATM PV + LPV.

Pathologic complete response with pembrolizumab plus axitinib in metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Immunotherapy-based combinations have played a central role in the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma, and long-term survival of patients is expected. In this context, it is clear that a certain number of patients can achieve a complete response. However, the diagnosis of complete response is usually based on imaging, and there are few cases of pathological complete response.

Time to progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer after commencing combined androgen blockade for advanced hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.

Purpose: The aim of our retrospective study was to determine the time to progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in prostate cancer patients who undergo combined androgen blockade (CAB), as well as their prognoses.

Materials And Methods: We examined the overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival rates, as well as the time to CRPC development, in 387 patients who were treated with CAB for prostate cancer. The disease-specific survival rate and time to CRPC were stratified by prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, Gleason score (GS), and presence of metastasis at diagnosis.

The effect of ultrapure dialysate on improving renal anemia.

Background: Renal anemia is a very serious problem in hemodialysis patients. In this regard, the investigation was focused on whether ultrapure dialysate could improve renal anemia and the mechanism of renal anemia.

Methods: Ultrapure dialysate was used over a 2 years period for 61 patients on maintenance hemodialysis.

A study of innate immunity in patients with end-stage renal disease: special reference to toll-like receptor-2 and -4 expression in peripheral blood monocytes of hemodialysis patients.

It was recently shown that toll-like receptors (TLR) play a critical role in innate immunity. However, no study has been conducted on TLR expression in hemodialysis (HD) patients. The present study was undertaken to examine innate immunity and the roles played by endotoxins (ET) contained in dialysate in HD patients, by analysis of TLR expression and reactivity.

An impressive therapeutic result of class III compression stockings in a patient with longstanding, extensive, combined leg ulcers.

Background: Only a few publications are available in the literature concerning the treatment of venous leg ulcers by means of medical compression stockings.

Subject: A 59-year-old female patient with longstanding, extensive bilateral leg ulcers due to venous insufficiency, arteriolosclerosis and secondary lymphoedema, was treated successfully by flat-knitted medical compression stockings of compression-class III.

Conclusion: The great advantage of this treatment is the fact that it is comfortable and easy to carry out at home.

Familial primary cryofibrinogenemia.

Background: To our best knowledge this is the second case ever described of familial primary cryofibrinogenemia (CFG).

Patients: A 29-year-old Moroccan female and two of her three children suffered from painful purpura, slow healing small ulcerations and edema of both feet during the winter season. Laboratory investigations revealed the presence of cryofibrinogen in their blood plasma.

[Parasitic pruritus: bird mite zoonosis].

In three women with persistent pruritus, aged 49, 28 and 4 years, infestation with the bird or chicken mite (Dermanyssus gallinae) was demonstrated. These mites live in narrow openings and cracks close to the bird housing during the daytime. At night they attack the birds on whose blood they live.

Epidermal proliferation is not impaired in chronic venous ulcers.

In this study we have investigated epidermal growth and differentiation during wound healing in human skin. The studies were performed in excisional wounds in normal skin and in chronic venous ulcers. Tissues were analyzed by immunohistochemical staining for proliferation-associated nuclear antigens (PCNA and Ki-67 antigen) and cytokeratin 16.

Drug use and adverse drug reactions in 105 elderly patients admitted to a general medical ward.

Objective: To examine the influence of admission to hospital on the number of drugs used by the elderly and to study the occurrence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs), their contribution to the need for hospitalization and the relation to hospital stay.

Patients And Methods: Drug use and its sequelae were studied by one observer in 105 patients aged 65 years and older, successively admitted to a general medical ward. Naranjo's algorithm was used to estimate the probability of an ADR.

Obstructive jejunal adenocarcinoma in the Muir-Torre syndrome.

A young male patient was referred for endoscopic resection of a recto-sigmoid polyp and abdominal complaints. His medical history revealed a sebaceous adenoma resection from his back and a tubular adenoma excision from his right upper eyelid. After disclosure of a jejunal tumour on a small bowel enema and given the remarkable family history characterized by the frequent occurrence of bowel cancer, the diagnosis of Muir-Torre syndrome was established.

A double-blind trial of 1% ketoconazole shampoo versus placebo in the treatment of dandruff.

The efficacy of 1% ketoconazole shampoo in the treatment of dandruff was tested in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with 176 patients. The application of the shampoo twice weekly gave a good or excellent result in 74% of the patients treated with ketoconazole versus 20% of the patients treated with placebo after 2 weeks. After 4 weeks these results were 80% versus 23%.

The action of air ions on bacteria. I. Protective and lethal effects on suspensions of Staphylococci in droplets.

Techniques have been devised for studying quantitatively the effects of air ions on microorganisms suspended in small drops. In smog-contaminated atmospheres moderate concentrations of positive and negative air ions exerted a protective effect on staphylococci by delaying the drop in pH customarily observed and by diminishing the rate of evaporation. In clean air higher concentrations of positive and negative air ions accelerated the rate of death of staphylococci apparently by direct action on the cells and by increasing the rate of evaporation.