Case of Human Infection with Anaplasma phagocytophilum in Inner Mongolia, China.

Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an obligate intracellular bacterium that causes febrile illness in humans and livestock. A 49-year-old woman was suffering from feverish symptoms, fatigue, arthralgia, general body pain, and anorexia for 2 weeks. Later, she visited the Bayannur Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Hospital in Inner Mongolia, China.

Platelet Counts in Insoluble Platelet-Rich Fibrin Clots: A Direct Method for Accurate Determination.

Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) clots have been used in regenerative dentistry most often, with the assumption that growth factor levels are concentrated in proportion to the platelet concentration. Platelet counts in PRF are generally determined indirectly by platelet counting in other liquid fractions. This study shows a method for direct estimation of platelet counts in PRF.

Sjögren's syndrome manifesting as clinicopathological features of TAFRO syndrome: A case report.

Rationale: TAFRO syndrome is a newly proposed disorder that manifests as thrombocytopenia, anasarca, fever, reticulin myelofibrosis, renal dysfunction, and organomegaly. In this report, we describe the development of severe TAFRO syndrome-like systemic symptoms during the clinical course of juvenile-onset Sjögren's syndrome in a 32-year-old woman.

Patient Concerns: The patient was admitted due to dyspnea, fever, polyarthralgia, and generalized edema.

Impact on disease-free survival of the duration of ovarian function suppression, as postoperative adjuvant therapy, in premenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer: a retrospective single-institution study.

Introduction: Although tamoxifen (TAM) plus ovarian function suppression (OFS) is considered as a standard adjuvant treatment for premenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, the optimal duration of OFS has not yet been established. This retrospective study was designed to assess the duration of OFS and the impact of the duration of OFS on the DFS in these patients.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data of premenopausal patients with breast cancer who received TAM + OFS (goserelin or leuprorelin) as adjuvant therapy between February 2004 and June 2015.

A relapsing fever group Borrelia sp. is widely distributed among wild deer in Japan.

A relapsing fever group Borrelia sp. was detected from the blood of wild deer (Cervus nippon) in Japan. The Borrelia sp.

Visual Feedback of Target Position Affects Accuracy of Sequential Movements at Even Spaces.

The role of visual feedback during movement is attributed to its accuracy, but findings regarding the utilization of this information are inconsistent. We developed a novel dot-placing task to investigate the role of vision in arm movements. Participants conducted pointing-like movements between two target stimuli at even spaces.

Five- and 10-Year Follow-Up of Nonvascularized Toe Phalanx Transfers.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate long-term outcomes of nonvascularized toe phalanx transfer.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 54 nonvascularized toe phalanx transfers in 29 children with symbrachydactyly. Forty-seven transfers in 24 children were evaluated at 5-year follow-up and 27 transfers in 14 children were evaluated at 10-year follow-up.

Impact of deformable image registration accuracy on thoracic images with different regularization weight parameter settings.

Purpose: We assessed the deformable image registration (DIR) accuracy of thoracic images under different regularization weights using commercially available DIR software.

Methods: The thoracic 4-dimensional (4D) CT images of 10 patients were used. The datasets for these patients were provided by DIR-lab (www.

A Soup Service for Advanced Digestive Cancer Patients with Severe Anorexia in Palliative Care.

Background/aims: The palliative care team (PCT), nutrition support team (NST), and department of nutrition in our hospital developed a special soup service for patients with terminal cancer. We evaluated the usefulness of this soup service for improving the mood in patients with advanced digestive cancer with severe anorexia.

Material And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of 18 patients with advanced cancer originating in digestive organs who received soup service at our institution between 2015 and 2016.

The mechanisms of systemic iron homeostasis and etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of hereditary hemochromatosis.

Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is a group of genetic iron overload disorders that manifest with various symptoms, including hepatic dysfunction, diabetes, and cardiomyopathy. Classic HH type 1, which is common in Caucasians, is caused by bi-allelic mutations of HFE. Severe types of HH are caused by either bi-allelic mutations of HFE2 that encodes hemojuvelin (type 2A) or HAMP that encodes hepcidin (type 2B).

Prevalence of Co-existing Autoimmune Disease in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction: Many autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), share common mechanisms; however, population-based studies of the magnitude of multiple autoimmune diseases in patients with RA have not been performed.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using a US administrative healthcare thcare claims database to screen for prevalence of multiple autoimmune diseases in patients with RA and osteoarthritis (OA). Each patient diagnosed with RA between January 1, 2006 and September 30, 2014 was age- and sex-matched with five patients with OA.

Establishing community-based integrated care for elderly patients through interprofessional teamwork: a qualitative analysis.

Background: Working in multidisciplinary teams is indispensable for ensuring high-quality care for elderly people in Japan's rapidly aging society. However, health professionals often experience difficulty collaborating in practice because of their different educational backgrounds, ideas, and the roles of each profession. In this qualitative descriptive study, we reveal how to build interdisciplinary collaboration in multidisciplinary teams.

[Progress in iron metabolism research].

Iron is essential for various cellular processes, but an excess of iron may cause organ damage through the production of reactive oxygen species. Therefore, the amount of iron in the body must be strictly controlled. The central regulator of systemic iron homeostasis is hepcidin, which is primarily produced in the liver.

Quality Assessment of Platelet-Rich Fibrin-Like Matrix Prepared from Whole Blood Samples after Extended Storage.

The platelet-rich fibrin-like matrix (PRFM) is usually prepared onsite and immediately used for regenerative therapy. Nonetheless, to meet the clinical necessity of preserving the PRFM without quality deterioration, we developed a method for preparation of PRFMs from short-term-stored whole blood (WB) samples. In this study, to evaluate the practical expiration date of storage, we extended the storage time of WB samples from 2 to 7 days and assessed the quality of the resulting PRFMs.

Intraductal Ultrasonography as a Local Assessment Before Magnetic Compression Anastomosis for Obstructed Choledochojejunostomy.

Magnetic compression anastomosis (MCA) has been developed as a non-surgical alternative treatment for biliary obstruction without serious complications. A 70-year-old woman who had undergone pancreaticoduodenectomy with modified Child reconstruction for pancreatic head cancer suffered from obstructed choledochojejunostomy with no recurrent findings 4 months after the operation. Cholangiography using the percutaneous transhepatic cholangiographic drainage (PTCD) and fluoroscopy revealed complete obstruction of the upper common bile duct, and the length of the obstruction was 7 mm.

A nationwide survey of hypoplastic myelodysplastic syndrome (a multicenter retrospective study).

Hypoplastic myelodysplastic syndrome (hMDS) is a distinct entity with bone marrow (BM) hypocellularity and the risk of death from BM failure (BMF). To elucidate the characteristics of hMDS, the data of 129 patients diagnosed between April 2003 and March 2012 were collected from 20 institutions and the central review team of the National Research Group on Idiopathic Bone Marrow Failure Syndromes, and compared with 115 non-hMDS patients. More RA and fewer CMMoL and RAEB-t in French-American-British (FAB) and more RCUD and MDS-U and fewer RCMD in World Health Organization (WHO) classifications were found in hMDS than non-hMDS with significant differences.

TRIM44 Is a Poor Prognostic Factor for Breast Cancer Patients as a Modulator of NF-κB Signaling.

Many of the tripartite motif (TRIM) proteins function as E3 ubiquitin ligases and are assumed to be involved in various events, including oncogenesis. In regard to tripartite motif-containing 44 (TRIM44), which is an atypical TRIM family protein lacking the RING finger domain, its pathophysiological significance in breast cancer remains unknown. We performed an immunohistochemical study of TRIM44 protein in clinical breast cancer tissues from 129 patients.

Tentative diagnostic criteria and disease severity classification for Castleman disease: A report of the research group on Castleman disease in Japan.

Objectives: To determine the tentative diagnostic criteria and disease severity classification for Castleman disease (CD) and describe the clinical and pathologic features among human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) negative idiopathic multicentric CD (iMCD) in the Japanese population.

Methods: We established the working groups for the research of CD in Japan and had meetings to discuss and define the tentative diagnostic criteria and disease severity classification for CD. We subsequently analyzed 142 patients classified into iMCD by using the nationwide Japanese patient registry.

Safe and effective administration of BCG for bladder carcinoma in situ after umbilical cord blood stem cell transplantation.

Although intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) instillation is the standard treatment for carcinoma in situ of the bladder, it is generally contraindicated in immunocompromised patients. Here we report the first case, to our knowledge, of BCG treatment for a bladder cancer patient who had received umbilical cord blood stem cell transplantation (UCBSCT). BCG can be given safely and effectively in select cases where reconstitution of the immune system has been achieved at least 2 years after UCBSCT.

Tick surveillance for Borrelia miyamotoi and phylogenetic analysis of isolates in Mongolia and Japan.

Borrelia miyamotoi, recently recognized as a human pathogenic spirochete, was isolated from Ixodes persulcatus and I. ovatus in northern Mongolia and Honshu Island, a major island in Japan. Although no human B.

Case Report: Clinical Features of a Case of Suspected Disease in Hokkaido, Japan.

We herein report a case of suspected disease in Hokkaido, Japan. The patient complained of lassitude, arthralgia, and high fever after a tick bite. Furthermore, at the time of consultation, the patient exhibited momentary loss of consciousness and low blood pressure.

Prioritized Identification of Attractive and Romantic Partner Faces in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation.

People are sensitive to facial attractiveness because it is an important biological and social signal. As such, our perceptual and attentional system seems biased toward attractive faces. We tested whether attractive faces capture attention and enhance memory access in an involuntary manner using a dual-task rapid serial visual presentation (dtRSVP) paradigm, wherein multiple faces were successively presented for 120 ms.

Discovery of Lysine Hydroxylases in the Clavaminic Acid Synthase-Like Superfamily for Efficient Hydroxylysine Bioproduction.

Hydroxylation via C-H bond activation in the absence of any harmful oxidizing reagents is technically difficult in modern chemistry. In this work, we attempted to generate pharmaceutically important hydroxylysine from readily available l-lysine with l-lysine hydroxylases from diverse microorganisms. Clavaminic acid synthase-like superfamily gene mining and phylogenetic analysis led to the discovery of six biocatalysts, namely two l-lysine 3-hydroxylases and four l-lysine 4-hydroxylases, the latter of which partially matched known hydroxylases.

Double duplex invasion of DNA induced by ultrafast photo-cross-linking using 3-cyanovinylcarbazole for antigene methods.

In the creation of double duplex formation with genomic DNA, the probe must be able to invade and hybridize to the duplex DNA. We designed new photoresponsive probes containing K and U; these probes have a high double-duplex invasion capability upon photoirradiation.

A Rare Case of Adult Autoimmune Neutropenia Successfully Treated with Prednisolone.

Autoimmune neutropenia (AIN) is a rare disorder that may cause life-threatening infections. In adults, most cases are secondary to other pathological conditions, and primary AIN is extremely rare. We herein report a case involving a 57-year-old woman diagnosed with AIN.