Validation of sleep-staging accuracy for an in-home sleep electroencephalography device compared with simultaneous polysomnography in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Efforts to simplify standard polysomnography (PSG) in laboratories, especially for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and assess its agreement with portable electroencephalogram (EEG) devices are limited. We aimed to evaluate the agreement between a portable EEG device and type I PSG in patients with OSA and examine the EEG-based arousal index's ability to estimate apnea severity. We enrolled 77 Japanese patients with OSA who underwent simultaneous type I PSG and portable EEG monitoring.

Multimodal Telemonitoring for Weight Reduction in Patients With Sleep Apnea: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Telemonitoring the use of CPAP devices and remote feedback on device data effectively optimizes CPAP adherence in patients with OSA.

Research Question: Can expanding the scope of telemonitoring and remote feedback to body weight (BW), BP, and physical activity enhance efforts for BW reduction in Patients with OSA receiving CPAP?

Study Design And Methods: Participants were recruited from patients at 16 sleep centers in Japan with OSA and obesity who were receiving CPAP therapy. Obesity was defined as a BMI of ≥ 25 kg/m, based on Japanese obesity guidelines.

Short stature is an inflammatory disadvantage among middle-aged Japanese men.

Objectives: A positive association between white blood cell count and carotid atherosclerosis has been reported. Our previous study also found an inverse association between height and carotid atherosclerosis in overweight but not non-overweight men. However, no studies have reported on the association between high white blood cell (WBC) count and height accounting for body mass index (BMI) status.

Serum triglyceride levels in relation to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG-HDL) ratios as an efficient tool to estimate the risk of sleep apnea syndrome in non-overweight Japanese men.

Objectives: Several studies have reported the association between sleep apnea syndrome and insulin resistance. Being overweight is known risk factor both for sleep apnea syndrome and insulin resistance. However, no studies have reported on the association between serum triglyceride levels in relation to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG-HDL) ratios (a marker of insulin resistance) and sleep apnea syndrome accounting for body mass index (BMI) status.

Vaccine effectiveness against medically attended laboratory-confirmed influenza in Japan, 2011-2012 Season.

The objective of this study was to estimate influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) against medically attended, laboratory-confirmed influenza during the 2011-2012 season in Japan using a test-negative case-control study design. The effect of co-circulating non-influenza respiratory viruses (NIRVs) on VE estimates was also explored. Nasopharyngeal swab samples were collected from outpatients with influenza-like illnesses (ILIs) in a community hospital in Nagasaki, Japan.

Estimating the influenza vaccine effectiveness against medically attended influenza in clinical settings: a hospital-based case-control study with a rapid diagnostic test in Japan.

Background: Influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) studies are usually conducted by specialized agencies and require time and resources. The objective of this study was to estimate the influenza VE against medically attended influenza using a test-negative case-control design with rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDT) in a clinical setting.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted at a community hospital in Nagasaki, western Japan during the 2010/11 influenza season.

Adult community-acquired pneumonia caused by macrolide resistant Mycoplasma pneumoniae.

A 28-year-old woman with community-acquired pneumonia was treated with sulbactam/ampicillin and clarithromycin, but failed to show any improvement after 4 days. The antibiotic regimen was changed to pazufloxacin and rapid clinical improvement was seen. Mycoplasma pneumoniae was identified as the causative agent, and adenine (A) to guanine (G) mutation at position 2063 in domain V of the 23S rRNA was noted in the isolate.

Induction of opsonophagocytic killing activity with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in human immunodeficiency virus-infected Ugandan adults.

The levels of IgG determined by ELISA may have limited relevance in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults because of non-functional antibodies. 58 HIV-1-infected and 29 HIV-uninfected Ugandan adults were immunized with conjugate vaccine (CV) followed by polysaccharide vaccine (PV) after a 2-month interval, and the opsonophagocytic killing (OPK) titers against serotype 4 or 14 pneumococcal strains as well as the levels of serotype-specific IgG in sera were determined. Significant increases were found in the OPK titers and IgG levels for both serotypes after CV vaccination irrespective of HIV status.

Feasibility trial of adjuvant chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin after surgical resection in Japanese patients with non-small cell lung cancer: report of the Lung Oncology Group in Kyushu (LOGIK) protocol 0501.

Objectives: The present study was designed to determine whether adjuvant chemotherapy with paclitaxel (TXL) and carboplatin (CBDCA) after surgical resection is feasible in Japanese patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in a multiinstitutional trial.

Methods: From August 2005 to March 2006, 34 patients received the following regimen: TXL (175 mg/m2) and CBDCA (AUC = 5) on day 1, every 3 weeks. The primary endpoint of this trial was the completion rate of four cycles.

Drug-resistant genes and serotypes of pneumococcal strains of community-acquired pneumonia among adults in Japan.

Background: A high frequency of drug-resistant pneumococci has been reported in Asian countries. Few data on the drug-resistance or serotype of pneumococcal strains responsible for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), however, are available for the past two decades in Japan.

Methodology: Susceptibility to antibiotics and the genotype of antibiotic-resistant genes and serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from 114 adult patients with CAP were examined in a nationwide study in Japan between 2001 and 2003.

Significant reduction of nosocomial pneumonia after introduction of disinfection of upper airways using povidone-iodine in geriatric wards.

We investigated the efficacy of disinfection of the upper airway using povidone-iodine against nosocomial pneumonia in geriatric wards. Cases of nosocomial pneumonia were retrospectively analyzed between January 1991 and March 1995 in geriatric wards (190 beds). Moreover, the relationship concerning methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates between patient and environment was investigated using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) with the SmaI restriction enzyme.

Norepinephrine inhibits human immunodeficiency virus type-1 infection through the NF-kappaB inactivation.

Exercise or acute stress can exert significant effects on immune system as well as cardiovascular and respiratory systems through catecholamines. In this study, we investigated effects of norepinephrine (NE), a catecholamine neurotransmitter on human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) infection. NE inhibited in vitro HIV-1 infection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy donors and ex vivo HIV-1 replication in patients' PBMC.

Essential contribution of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1/C-C chemokine ligand-2 to resolution and repair processes in acute bacterial pneumonia.

Neutrophil infiltration is the first step in eradication of bacterial infection, but neutrophils rapidly die after killing bacteria. Subsequent accumulation of macrophage lineage cells, such as alveolar macrophages (AMs), is essential to remove dying neutrophils, which are a source of injurious substances. Macrophage lineage cells can promote tissue repair, by producing potential growth factors including hepatocyte growth factor (HGF).

Decreased serum opsonic activity against Streptococcus pneumoniae in human immunodeficiency virus-infected Ugandan adults.

Type-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) to pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide (CPS) and opsonic activity against Streptococcus pneumoniae were evaluated in serum samples from 36 Ugandan adults with community-acquired pneumonia and 58 asymptomatic Ugandan adults with or without human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection. The levels of serum IgG to CPS were significantly higher in HIV-1-infected subjects than in HIV-uninfected subjects. Serum samples from HIV-1-infected subjects that had lower IgG titers demonstrated higher opsonic activity against type 3 (titers of 7) and type 9 (titers of 7-11) pneumococcal strains.

Fourteen-member macrolides suppress interleukin-8 production but do not promote apoptosis of activated neutrophils.

A 14-member macrolide was found to inhibit interleukin-8 (IL-8) synthesis in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated neutrophils but did not accelerate apoptosis in activated neutrophils. These data suggest that 14-member macrolides achieve clinical efficacy for chronic airway diseases partly by suppressing IL-8 production by activated neutrophils, but not by enhancing apoptosis in these cells.