The safety and feasibility of robotic pancreaticoduodenectomy: A multicenter retrospective assessment of 425 patients in Japan.

Background/purpose: The Japanese public health insurance system has recently covered robotic pancreaticoduodenectomy (RPD). This study aimed to review the results of RPD during the introductory period and elucidate its safety and feasibility in Japan.

Methods: Consecutive data of 425 patients who underwent RPD were retrospectively collected from 10 high-volume centers in Japan between April 2020 and September 2022.

Thick silk fibroin vascular graft: A promising tissue-engineered scaffold material for abdominal vein grafts in middle-sized mammals.

Abdominal vein replacement with synthetic tissue-engineered vascular grafts constructed from silk-based scaffold material has not been reported in middle-sized mammals. Fourteen canines that underwent caudal vena cava replacement with a silk fibroin (SF) vascular graft (15 mm long and 8 mm diameter) prepared with natural silk biocompatible thread were allocated to two groups, thin and thick SF groups, based on the graft wall thickness. The short-term patency rate and histologic reactions were compared.

Unique Biology of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Accompanied by Rapidly Impaired Diabetes: A Favorable Long-Term Survival Following Curative Resection.

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs) are sometimes diagnosed accompanied by rapidly impaired diabetes (PDAC-RID). Although this type of PDAC may have unusual biological features, these features have not been explained.

Methods: Patients with PDAC who underwent upfront pancreatectomy between 2010 and 2018 were retrospectively reviewed.

Jejunum Patch Technique During Robot-Assisted Central Pancreatectomy: A Lesson from Open Procedure Experience.

Background: Central pancreatectomy (CP) has been established as the most common type of parenchyma-sparing pancreatectomy; however, CP is associated with higher morbidity and a higher pancreatic fistula (PF) rate than distal pancreatectomy or pancreaticoduodenectomy. The jejunum patch technique (JPT) for distal pancreatectomy has recently been applied, which efficiently decreases the incidence of PF. We have adapted this technique to CP as well as distal pancreatectomy with celiac axis resection.

Transient loss of consciousness immediately after total pancreatectomy for pancreatic metastases from renal cell carcinoma: a case report.

Background: Total pancreatectomy (TP) is often selected for treatment of various pancreatic diseases. However, the resultant lack of autoregulation of glycometabolism necessitates careful postoperative management.

Case Presentation: A 77-year-old man who had undergone right nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma 11 years previously presented with multiple histologically diagnosed pancreatic metastases.

New Diagnostic Modality Combining Mass Spectrometry and Machine Learning for the Discrimination of Malignant Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms.

Background: An intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) is a pancreatic tumor with malignant potential. Although we anticipate a sensitive method to diagnose the malignant conversion of IPMN, an effective strategy has not yet been established. The combination of probe electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (PESI-MS) and machine learning provides a promising solution for this purpose.

Diabetogenic liver metastasis from pancreatic cancer: a case report.

Background: Although new-onset diabetes has been described in up to 20% of patients with newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer, reports regarding new-onset diabetes associated with newly developed liver metastasis from pancreatic cancer are limited.

Case Presentation: A 60-year-old man was diagnosed with pancreatic tail cancer without impaired glycemic control. A curative-intent distal pancreatectomy with adjuvant S-1 chemotherapy was performed.

Venous invasion and lymphatic invasion are correlated with the postoperative prognosis of pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasm.

Background: To determine treatment strategies corresponding to a wide range of pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms staging, easier-to-use and detailed prognostic classification is required.

Methods: Patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms who underwent curative-intent surgery at the University of Tokyo Hospital between 2000 and 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. The presence or absence of venous and lymphatic invasion was assessed.

Probe electrospray ionization mass spectrometry-based rapid diagnosis of liver tumors.

Background And Aim: Prompt differential diagnosis of liver tumors is clinically important and sometimes difficult. A new diagnostic device that combines probe electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (PESI-MS) and machine learning may help provide the differential diagnosis of liver tumors.

Methods: We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of this new PESI-MS device using tissues obtained and stored from previous surgically resected specimens.

Radical Antegrade Modular Pancreatosplenectomy for Left-Sided Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma May Reduce the Local Recurrence Rate.

Introduction: Although several clinical applications have reported the usefulness of the radical antegrade modular pancreatosplenectomy (RAMPS) procedure for left-sided pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, few studies have reported the advantages of RAMPS with respect to the local recurrence (LR) rate.

Methods: As of 2018, 68 and 62 patients underwent RAMPS and standard retrograde pancreatosplenectomy (SRPS). The first recurrence and all subsequent recurrence sites observed on images during a follow-up period and/or chemotherapy.

High-performance Collective Biomarker from Liquid Biopsy for Diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer Based on Mass Spectrometry and Machine Learning.

Most pancreatic cancers are found at progressive stages when they cannot be surgically removed. Therefore, a highly accurate early detection method is urgently needed. This study analyzed serum from Japanese patients who suffered from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and aimed to establish a PDAC-diagnostic system with metabolites in serum.

A new rapid diagnostic system with ambient mass spectrometry and machine learning for colorectal liver metastasis.

Background: Probe electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (PESI-MS) can rapidly visualize mass spectra of small, surgically obtained tissue samples, and is a promising novel diagnostic tool when combined with machine learning which discriminates malignant spectrum patterns from others. The present study was performed to evaluate the utility of this device for rapid diagnosis of colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM).

Methods: A prospectively planned study using retrospectively obtained tissues was performed.

Silk fibroin vascular graft: a promising tissue-engineered scaffold material for abdominal venous system replacement.

No alternative tissue-engineered vascular grafts for the abdominal venous system are reported. The present study focused on the development of new tissue-engineered vascular graft using a silk-based scaffold material for abdominal venous system replacement. A rat vein, the inferior vena cava, was replaced by a silk fibroin (SF, a biocompatible natural insoluble protein present in silk thread), tissue-engineered vascular graft (10 mm long, 3 mm diameter, n = 19, SF group).

Repeat hepatectomy for patients with recurrent neuroendocrine liver metastasis: Comparison with first hepatectomy.

Background: The value of repeat hepatectomy for intrahepatic recurrence after curative resection of neuroendocrine liver metastasis (NELM) remains unclear. The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to determine the significance of repeat hepatectomy for recurrent NELM.

Methods: Patients who underwent hepatectomy for NELM between 1994 and 2016 were identified.

A selective oral vasopressin V2-receptor antagonist for patients with end-stage liver disease awaiting liver transplantation: a preliminary study.

Administration of the selective arginine vasopressin V2 receptor antagonist tolvaptan to cirrhotic patients is controversial. There are no reports of tolvaptan use for patients with far-advanced end-stage liver disease (ESLD) and refractory ascites awaiting liver transplantation. Between 2013 and 2016, 64 patients awaiting adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) were screened for enrollment.

Multi-center clinical evaluation of streptozocin-based chemotherapy for advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors in Japan: focus on weekly regimens and monotherapy.

Purpose: Streptozocin (STZ) is a key agent for treating advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNET). Most STZ regimens for pNET are daily and also include 5-fluorouracil (5FU), whereas STZ monotherapy and weekly regimens have also been applied in daily practice in Japan. The present study aimed to evaluate responses to weekly regimens and to STZ monotherapy, and to identify a predictive marker of a response to STZ.

Near-infrared photothermal/photodynamic therapy with indocyanine green induces apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells through oxidative stress.

Indocyanine green (ICG) is a photothermal agent, photosensitizer, and fluorescence imaging probe which shows specific accumulation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. We recently developed a photodynamic therapy (PDT) using ICG and near-infrared (NIR) laser as a new anti-cancer treatment for HCC. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this effect needs to be elucidated.

Multiple splenic nodules with fever: a case of splenic abscess due to Propionibacterium acnes.

A 64-year-old man with a history of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) presented in the hematology department due to remarkable leukocytosis and progressing anemia. Ultrasound confirmed splenomegaly and plain computed tomography revealed multiple hypoattenuating areas in the large spleen. Following a clinical diagnosis of relapse of CLL, he underwent treatment with fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab (FC-R).

Infants show a facilitation effect for native language phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months.

Patterns of developmental change in phonetic perception are critical to theory development. Many previous studies document a decline in nonnative phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months of age. However, much less experimental attention has been paid to developmental change in native-language phonetic perception over the same time period.

Differences in glottal opening pattern between Tokyo and Osaka dialect speakers: factors contributing to vowel devoicing.

In Japanese, high vowels /i/ and /u/ are often devoiced when they are preceded and followed by voiceless consonants. The phenomenon is called vowel devoicing. The frequency of its occurrence is high in dialects of eastern Japan including standard (Tokyo) Japanese and low in dialects of western Japan including Osaka dialect.

Developmental change in auditory preferences for speech stimuli in Japanese infants.

The developmental change in auditory preferences for speech stimuli was investigated for Japanese infants aged 4-14 months old. We conducted three experiments using two speech pairs in the head-turn preference procedure. Infant-directed (ID) speech and adult-directed (AD) speech stimuli were used in a longitudinal study (Experiment 1) and a cross-sectional study (Experiment 2).

Elicitation of N400m in sentence comprehension due to lexical prosody incongruity.

The role of lexical prosody in the semantic integration of spoken sentences consisting of a quiz stem and an answer word was investigated analyzing the event-related magnetic response, N400m. Three conditions regarding the relations between the quiz and the answer word were prepared: pitch-accent violation, phonemic violation and no violation. Both the pitch-accent and phonemic violations elicited significant N400m without any significant differences in the peak latency and magnitude of the equivalent current dipoles, suggesting that the role of pitch-accent in semantic integration is equivalent to that of phonemes.