Publications by authors named "Kaori Aoki"

In patients experiencing electrical storm, intensive care using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is an efficient treatment to overcome a hemodynamically unstable condition. The aim of this study was to examine the utility of ECMO in patients with circulatory collapse by electrical storm. We retrospectively examined 17 consecutive patients receiving veno-arterial ECMO for electrical storm between January 2016 and December 2018 in our institution.

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Objectives: Katakori is a Japanese term for non-specific symptoms including discomfort or dull pain caused by muscle stiffness around the neck through the shoulders and is one of the most frequently reported symptoms in Japan. However, there has been no standardized patient-reported outcome measure to evaluate Katakori severity. This study aimed to investigate the reporting level on validity and reliability of patient-reported outcome measures of Katakori severity.

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Tributyltin (TBT), which has been widely used as an antifouling agent in paints, is a common environmental pollutant. Although the toxicity of high-dose TBT has been extensively reported, the effects of low concentrations of TBT are relatively less well studied. We have previously reported that low-concentration TBT decreases α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA)-type glutamate receptor subunit 2 () expression in cortical neurons and enhances neuronal vulnerability to glutamate.

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Lead is known to induce neurotoxicity, particularly in young children, and GluR2, an AMPA-type glutamate receptor subunit, plays an important role in neuronal cell survival. Therefore, we hypothesized that altered GluR2 expression plays a role in lead-induced neuronal cell death. To test this idea, we investigated the effect of exposure to 5 and 20 µM lead for 1-9 days on the viability and GluR2 expression of primary-cultured rat cortical neurons.

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Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is widely used for circulatory support in pediatric cardiac patients with low cardiac output and hypoxemia. We retrospectively evaluated the efficacy of ECMO support for respiratory and heart failure in infants and children. From April 2002 to February 2011, 14 patients aged 19 days to 20 years old (average 44 months), with body weight 2.

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The outer-sphere one-electron oxidation reaction of the Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes of nonplanar 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethyl-5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin and planar porphycenes as well as those of 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethylporphyrin and 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin by Cu(2+) giving corresponding pi-cation radicals was investigated spectrophotometrically in acetonitrile. The electron self-exchange rate constants between the parent porphyrin and porphycene complexes and their pi-cation radicals were determined using the Marcus cross relation for the electron transfer reaction. The obtained rate constants are in the order of 10(9) to 10(11) M(-1) s(-1) for the planar porphyrin and porphycene complexes and 10(4) to 10(6) M(-1) s(-1) for the nonplanar OETPP complexes at T = 25.

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Microbial communities from a subseafloor sediment core from the southwestern Sea of Okhotsk were evaluated by performing both cultivation-dependent and cultivation-independent (molecular) analyses. The core, which extended 58.1 m below the seafloor, was composed of pelagic clays with several volcanic ash layers containing fine pumice grains.

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