Development and Psychometric Verification of a Self-Administered Scale for Family Needs in Japanese Critical Care Settings.

Aim: We developed and evaluated the statistical reliability and validity of a family needs scale directly answerable by families in critical care settings.

Methods: In this qualitative study, 39 questions were drafted to capture family needs. These questions were then administered to the families of patients in emergency care settings.

A new method for estimating the true score of subjects in the assessment based on the binary checklist.

Assessments of subjects by multiple raters are completed in several health research and practice arenas. As observed in interrater comparisons of checklists during assessment, raters generally make mistakes in assessment. Despite these errors, the average scores on all the checklists have been historically used to represent the subjects' true scores.

Prospective non-randomized trial comparing esophagectomy-followed-by-chemoradiotherapy versus chemoradiotherapy-followed-by-esophagectomy for T4 esophageal cancers.

Background And Objectives: Multimodal treatment is commonly adopted for patients with a T4 esophageal cancer. This trial evaluated which therapy offered a better survival: preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) or postoperative CRT.

Methods: Forty-three patients with a T4 esophageal cancer were enrolled in a prospective study in which each patient decided for themselves a treatment arm, CRT-followed-by-esophagectomy or esophagectomy-followed-by-CRT.

Mina53 as a potential prognostic factor for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Purpose: We previously identified mina53, a novel Myc target gene. Here we investigated whether mina53 is related to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), a disease with poor prognosis.

Experimental Design: Mina53 expression was suppressed in ESCC cell lines by a RNA interference method to investigate whether Mina53 is involved in cell proliferation.