The effectiveness of weighted blankets on sleep quality in intensive care unit patients: A prospective randomised controlled trial.

Background: Sleep deprivation is frequently observed among critically ill patients, and sleep aids still lack robust evidence of efficacy. Thus, the present randomised controlled study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of weighted blankets as non-pharmacological sleep aids for patients in the intensive care unit.

Methods: Patients scheduled to be admitted to the intensive care unit after elective hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgery were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a weighted blanket group or a normal blanket group.

Skin inflammatory signatures, as measured by disordered spatial redness patterns, predict current and future skin ageing attributes.

Facial skin redness can be an indicator of skin inflammation, however the physiological connection between facial redness and inflammatory status, as well as its role in age-related skin changes, remains poorly understood. This study aims to investigate the association between the pattern of facial skin redness and biological inflammatory status, as well as age-related changes occurring in the skin. Four studies were conducted recruiting healthy Northern Asian females.

Identification of Yellow Advanced Glycation End Products in Human Skin.

Skin yellowness is a hallmark of dull or unhealthy skin, particularly among Asians. Previous research has indicated a link between skin glycation and skin yellowness. However, the specific glycated chemicals contributing to yellowish skin appearance have not been identified yet.

Integrated Assessment of Discrepancy Between Tracheal Tube and Tube Exchanger as Advancement: A Manikin Simulation Study.

Background: Advancing a tracheal tube over a tracheal tube exchanger into the trachea frequently causes difficulties because of the tube impingement on laryngeal structures. In the present study, we measured the resistance of tube advancement both objectively and subjectively with a variety of combinations of tube exchanger sizes and tracheal tubes using a manikin simulator.

Methods: Lubricated 7.

Brief Report: Clinical Outcomes by Infusion Timing of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Patients With Locally Advanced NSCLC.

Introduction: Previous studies reported an association between immune checkpoint inhibitor infusion timing and the treatment effect in metastatic NSCLC. The present study assessed the association between durvalumab infusion timing and survival outcomes in patients with locally advanced NSCLC.

Methods: Patients receiving durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced NSCLC at a single institution were retrospectively analyzed, and the association of the proportion of durvalumab infusions greater than or equal to 20% versus less than 20% after 3 PM with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival was assessed.

Role of interleukin-6 and endothelin-1 receptors in enhanced melanocyte dendricity of facial spots and suppression of their ligands by niacinamide and tranexamic acid.

Background: Hyperpigmented spots are common issues in all ethnicities with a hallmark characteristic of increased melanocyte dendricity.

Objectives: To determine (1) potential receptors and/or cytokines that are involved in increased melanocyte dendricity in multiple facial spot types; (2) treatment effects of skin-lightening compounds on identified cytokine release from keratinocytes and on dendricity in melanocytes.

Methods: Facial spots (melasma, solar lentigo, acne-induced post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation) and adjacent non-spot skin biopsies were collected from Chinese women (age 20-70).

Prognostic significance of initial tumor shrinkage in patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer treated with durvalumab following chemoradiotherapy.

Background: Baseline tumor size (BTS) is one of the prognostic factors of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with immunotherapy. However, its prognostic value in patients with locally advanced NSCLC receiving durvalumab maintenance therapy remains unclear.

Methods: The present study retrospectively reviewed 136 patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC who underwent CRT and durvalumab at two institutions in Japan.

The Gut Microbiome from a Biomarker to a Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Immunotherapy Response in Patients with Lung Cancer.

The gastrointestinal microbiome has been shown to play a key role in determining the responses to cancer immunotherapy, including immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy and CAR-T. In patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), increasing evidence suggests that a microbiome composition signature is associated with clinical response to ICIs as well as with the development of immune-related adverse events. In support of this, antibiotic (ATB)-related dysbiosis has been consistently linked with the deleterious impact of ICI response, shortening the overall survival (OS) among patients on ATBs prior to ICI initiation.

Comprehensive metabolic profiling of Geotrichum candidum and comparison with Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Geotrichum candidum is a dimorphic yeast used in cheese processing. To our knowledge, no major metabolites have been identified to date in G. candidum except for some amino acid and fatty acid metabolites.

Use of intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography and epiaortic ultrasound to diagnose false lumen enlargement of chronic aortic dissection.

In communicating aortic dissection, if only the entry or reentry is closed, residual blood flow may cause enlargement of the false lumen. In this case, surgeons were unable to occlude the entry with a stent graft due to the strong flexion of the bilateral common iliac arteries, so they closed only the reentry in the hope that blood flow from the reentry would be high. Unfortunately, due to the high blood flow from the entry, the false lumen was enlarged.

[A Case of Rectal Cancer with Hemorrhagic Shock with Bleeding Controlled via Stent Placement That Underwent Radical Resection after Preoperative CRT].

Colorectal stents are used mainly for the palliative treatment of colorectal obstruction or preoperative re-obstruction. However, the hemostatic effect of covered stents reportedly induced bleeding of esophageal cancer and varicosities. Here, we report a case of mildly obstructed rectal cancer with severe anemia and hemorrhagic shock that resulted in pulsatile tumor bleeding.

Sleep Deprivation Increases Facial Skin Yellowness.

Sleep shortage is a major concern in modern life and induces various psycho-physical disorders, including skin problems. In cosmeceutics, females are aware that sleep deprivation worsens their facial skin tone. Here, we measured the effects of sleep deprivation on facial skin yellowness and examined yellow chromophores, such as bilirubin and carotenoids, in blood serum as potential causes of yellowness.