Publications by authors named "Kasuga K"

Background: Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a major atypical parkinsonism. Because diagnosis based on the cardinal clinical features is often difficult, misdiagnosis with Parkinson's disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) is common in PSP patients. Iron metabolism genes are reportedly involved in tau-accumulating neuronal cell death and ferroptosis in PSP, which is more severe than PD and MSA.

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Disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) are likely to be most beneficial when initiated in the presymptomatic phase. To track the benefit of such interventions, fluid biomarkers are of great importance, with neurofilament light chain protein (NfL) showing promise for monitoring neurodegeneration and predicting cognitive outcomes. Here, we update and complement previous findings from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network Observational Study by using matched cross-sectional and longitudinal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma samples from 567 individuals, allowing timely comparative analyses of CSF and blood trajectories across the entire disease spectrum.

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Background/objectives: Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder traditionally diagnosed based on the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria in 1998. Recently, Hermann et al. proposed updated diagnostic criteria incorporating advanced biomarkers to enhance early detection of sCJD.

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Introduction: This multicenter study aimed to determine whether the pretreatment prognostic nutrition index (PNI) or a change in the index after two treatment courses could be a biomarker for predicting treatment sensitivity in patients with unresectable advanced or recurrent gastric cancer treated using chemotherapy and nivolumab as the first-line treatment.

Methods: This multicenter retrospective study with 104 patients was conducted at 12 institutions. PNI was calculated before treatment and after two courses of treatment in each case.

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  • This study evaluates the effectiveness of AI-assisted computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems in identifying colorectal lesions, which is crucial for preventing colorectal cancer.
  • The research involved 380 lesions from 139 patients, comparing the diagnostic accuracy of AI using different imaging techniques, with results showing that AI performance was similar to expert endoscopists when using magnified imaging.
  • Findings suggest that while AI is a reliable tool for lesion differentiation, its accuracy can depend on both the imaging method used and the experience level of the endoscopist.
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Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathophysiology of bronchial asthma (BA), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and asthma-COPD overlap (ACO), but its relevance has not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to measure the levels of oxidative stress and investigate its clinical significance in patients with BA, COPD, or ACO. We recruited 214 patients between June 2020 and May 2023 (109 patients with BA, 63 with COPD, and 42 with ACO).

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  • The study investigates public and clinical specialists' perceptions regarding preparedness for administering disease-modifying treatments (DMT) for Alzheimer’s disease, focusing on the newly approved drug lecanemab.
  • Conducted through online and mail surveys, it gathered responses from over 2,000 participants, highlighting significant differences in views about treatment eligibility and efficacy between general public respondents and clinical specialists.
  • While both groups were generally supportive of prioritizing patients for treatment, the public expressed more restrictive views on who qualifies for DMT and appeared more optimistic about its effectiveness compared to specialists.
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Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) is the most common four-repeat tauopathy. PSP cases are typically characterized by vertical gaze palsy and postural instability; however, various phenotypes have been reported, making antemortem diagnosis based on clinical symptoms challenging. The development of biomarkers reflecting brain pathology and the ability to diagnose patients based on these biomarkers are essential for developing future intervention strategies, including disease-modifying therapies.

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  • The study focused on identifying biomarkers that can predict treatment outcomes and immune-related adverse events in patients with advanced recurrent gastric cancer receiving chemotherapy and nivolumab.
  • The research involved 104 patients, analyzing blood tests before and after treatment to assess changes in specific ratios like the lactate dehydrogenase/albumin ratio (LAR).
  • Results showed that 54.8% of patients had a positive response to treatment and that the LAR could serve as a potential biomarker for therapeutic response and efficacy.
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  • A multicenter study analyzed data from 104 patients with unresectable advanced or recurrent gastric cancer, focusing on conversion surgery (CS) after chemotherapy plus nivolumab as first-line treatment.
  • Out of the patients, 12 (11.5%) underwent CS, with significantly better Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG-PS) in those who did compared to those who did not.
  • The study found no high-risk Gustave Roussy Immune Score (GRIm-s) cases among those who had CS, suggesting that the GRIm-s might serve as a predictive biomarker for successful surgery outcomes.
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This study aimed to clarify associations of clinical and neuropsychological features and change in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) on I-IMP-SPECT in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who developed dementia. Sixty-one PD patients (mean age, 65.9 ± 8.

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This study explored the role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) in dominantly inherited Alzheimer's disease (DIAD) by examining changes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of UPS proteins along with disease progression, AD imaging biomarkers (PiB PET, tau PET), neurodegeneration imaging measures (MRI, FDG PET), and Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR). Using the SOMAscan assay, we detected subtle increases in specific ubiquitin enzymes associated with proteostasis in mutation carriers (MCs) up to two decades before the estimated symptom onset. This was followed by more pronounced elevations of UPS-activating enzymes, including E2 and E3 proteins, and ubiquitin-related modifiers.

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  • A 51-year-old Japanese woman experienced neck pain one week after recovering from COVID-19, raising concerns about potential vascular issues related to the virus.
  • Imaging tests, including CT and MRI, showed inflammation in her carotid and vertebral arteries, along with the presence of suspected thrombi.
  • While she did not suffer a cerebral infarction, her case highlights possible vascular damage and thrombus formation associated with COVID-19.
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Background: Positron emission tomography, which assesses the binding of translocator protein radiotracers, C-DPA-713, may be a sensitive method for determining glial-mediated neuroinflammation levels. This study investigated the relationship between regional C-DPA713 binding potential (BP) and anxiety in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) continuum.

Methods: Nineteen patients with AD continuum determined to be amyloid-/p-tau 181-positive via cerebrospinal fluid analysis were included in this cross-sectional study (mild cognitive impairment [MCI, n = 5] and AD [n = 14]).

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Background: Maximizing the efficiency to screen amyloid-positive individuals in asymptomatic and non-demented aged population using blood-based biomarkers is essential for future success of clinical trials in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we elucidate the utility of combination of plasma amyloid-β (Aβ)-related biomarkers and tau phosphorylated at threonine 217 (p-tau217) to predict abnormal Aβ-positron emission tomography (PET) in the preclinical and prodromal AD.

Methods: We designed the cross-sectional study including two ethnically distinct cohorts, the Japanese trial-ready cohort for preclinica and prodromal AD (J-TRC) and the Swedish BioFINDER study.

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  • Hip fractures often lead to osteoporosis-related risks and are treated with anti-osteoporotic drugs; however, the impact of strong drugs like denosumab on fracture healing is not well studied.
  • This prospective study compared early administration of denosumab with ibandronate in patients post-surgery for intertrochanteric femoral fractures to evaluate healing outcomes.
  • Results indicated no significant differences in pain levels or healing rates between the two groups, suggesting that denosumab does not delay fracture healing compared to ibandronate.
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Background: Polygenic effects have been proposed to account for some disease phenotypes; these effects are calculated as a polygenic risk score (PRS). This score is correlated with Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related phenotypes, such as biomarker abnormalities and brain atrophy, and is associated with conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to AD. However, the AD PRS has been examined mainly in Europeans, and owing to differences in genetic structure and lifestyle, it is unclear whether the same relationships between the PRS and AD-related phenotypes exist in non-European populations.

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We report the case of an 80-year-old man with Frey syndrome that developed 30 years postoperatively, which is an exceptionally long period before its occurrence. Sweating and flushing occurred on only the side of his face where the surgery was performed, and he had no other causative abnormalities. Following treatment with botulinum toxin, the patient's symptoms resolved.

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  • A new imaging technique called red dichromatic imaging (RDI) may improve the assessment of eosinophilic esophagitis severity compared to the traditional white-light imaging (WLI).
  • In a study of 21 patients, those with higher RDI grades showed significantly higher peak eosinophil counts and more frequent heartburn symptoms.
  • The findings suggest that RDI offers a more accurate way to evaluate the severity of eosinophilic infiltration in the esophagus.
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We extend Onsager's reciprocal relation to systems in a nonequilibrium steady state. While Onsager's reciprocal relation concerns the kinetic (Onsager) coefficient, the extended reciprocal relation concerns violation of the fluctuation response relation (FRR) for mechanical and thermal perturbations. This extended relation holds at each frequency when the extent of the FRR violation is expressed in a frequency domain.

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Background: Glial activation is central to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, researchers have not demonstrated its relationship to longitudinal cognitive deterioration. We aimed to compare the prognostic effects of baseline positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of glial activation and amyloid/tau pathology on the successive annual cognitive decline in patients with AD.

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