Publications by authors named "Kozaki K"

Article Synopsis
  • The concept of oral frailty was introduced in Japan in 2014 to raise awareness about declining oral function among older adults, which can lead to eating and communication difficulties.
  • Oral frailty can be identified using a simple 5-item checklist (OF-5) without needing a dental professional, and is defined by having at least two specific oral health issues, such as fewer teeth or difficulty swallowing.
  • Approximately 40% of older adults living in the community experience oral frailty, which is linked to poor nutrition, social isolation, and increased risks of disability and mortality.
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Monomorphic epitheliotropic intestinal T-cell lymphoma(MEITL)is very rare and aggressive subtype of lymphoma with poor prognosis. A 60-year-old man complaining of abdominal pain was underwent partial resection of the jejunum for panperitonitis with a small intestinal perforation. The histopathological and immunohistochemical findings led to the diagnosis of MEITL.

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Aim: Since the declaration of an emergency following the spread of COVID-19, the number of elderly patients complaining of delusions has increased. Therefore, we investigated the characteristics of patients diagnosed with delusional disorders in our clinic.

Methods: A total of 1,884 patients ≥ 65 years old who visited the Center for Comprehensive Care on Memory Disorders at Kyorin University Hospital from January 2017 to December 2021 were included in the study.

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In current clinical practice, when a fall occurs in a long-term care facility, it is often treated as an accident. Falls are classified as one of the most commonly prevalent geriatric syndromes. As their causes are extremely diverse and complex, their occurrence rate depends on individual susceptibility, even if appropriate fall prevention measures are taken.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Results showed that patients with AD, VaD, and MIX exhibited higher arterial stiffness (as measured by baPWV) than those with MCI and the control group, while MCI patients also had higher stiffness than controls.
  • * Though arterial stiffness was linked to dementia presence, cognitive function (assessed with the MMSE) appeared similar between MCI patients and control residents, indicating that while dementia patients had stiffer arteries, their global cognitive performance may not differ from some
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Introduction: Sarcopenia is a complication of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) that negatively affects physical activity and quality of life. However, the underlying mechanism by which COPD affects skeletal muscles remains to be elucidated. Therefore, we investigated the association between oxidative stress and structural alterations in muscles in elastase-induced emphysema mouse models.

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Aim: With the spread of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and the resulting declaration of a state of emergency, many medical institutions refrained from providing medical care, and patients themselves refrained from visiting hospitals. We also stopped accepting new patients to our outpatient memory loss clinic. We examined whether or not there was any change in the patients who visited our clinic after the state of emergency was lifted.

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To treat older patients with hypertension, it is important to detect cognitive impairment at an early stage because of its potential influence on treatment efficacy and functional prognosis. In this study, we aimed to identify the incidence and determinants of cognitive impairment in hypertensive patients aged 65 years and above who visited our outpatient clinic and were not previously diagnosed with cognitive impairment. Among 312 patients with hypertension, we found that 35% (n = 109) and 7.

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Geriatric syndromes are symptoms and signs, such as falls, incontinence, delirium, pressure ulcers, dysphagia and so on, that often threaten the independence of older adults, rather than the disease itself. Although the syndromes are very common in older people, it is difficult to treat those by modern medicine due to their complexity. To mitigate the intractable geriatric symptoms, we review the efficacy of aromatherapy, especially for dysphagia, dyspnea, cognitive dysfunction and falls in geriatric syndrome.

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Unlabelled: Evidence has been accumulating to indicate that extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, released by cancer cells can foster tumour progression. The molecular chaperones - CDC37, HSP90α and HSP90β play key roles in cancer progression including epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), although their contribution to EVs-mediated cell-cell communication in tumour microenvironment has not been thoroughly examined. Here we show that triple depletion of the chaperone trio attenuates numerous cancer malignancy events exerted through EV release.

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Since the end of 2019, a life-threatening infectious disease (coronavirus disease 2019: COVID-19) has spread globally, and numerous victims have been reported. In particular, older persons tend to suffer more severely when infected with a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and have higher case mortality rates; additionally, outbreaks frequently occur in hospitals and long-term care facilities where most of the residents are older persons. Unfortunately, it has been stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a medical collapse in some countries, resulting in the depletion of medical resources, such as ventilators, and triage based on chronological age.

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Background: Baloxavir marboxil (baloxavir) is a new anti-influenza virus agent that is comparable to oseltamivir phosphate (oseltamivir). Since the efficacy of baloxavir in preventing household transmission of influenza is not well established, we compared the secondary household influenza virus transmission rates between patients on baloxavir vs oseltamivir.

Methods: Between October 2018 and March 2019, we enrolled index patients (diagnosed with influenza and treated with baloxavir or oseltamivir) and household members.

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Aim: The Quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment, and confusion, urea, respiratory rate, blood pressure and age (CURB-65) scores have been used as prognostic factors of mortality related to healthcare-associated pneumonia. However, aspiration pneumonia remains unclear.

Methods: A cross-sectional, prospective cohort study was carried out with 130 inpatients aged ≥75 years at a Geriatric ward of Kyorin University Hospital, Japan.

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study aimed to identify cancer drugs that require monitoring for cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD) and developed a clinical protocol for early detection.
  • - Adverse event data from the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report database were analyzed to select tyrosine kinase inhibitors that, despite lacking serious side-effect descriptions, showed signs of CTRCD.
  • - The results demonstrated that applying the developed protocol led to early detection of CTRCD in 24% of patients using Osimertinib, highlighting the effectiveness of the drug identification method in clinical practice.
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  • The 2015 BioHackathon brought together scientists and developers to create tools for sharing and reusing biological data.
  • They talked about problems with how to represent and use different kinds of biological information, like DNA and proteins.
  • The group shared their progress in fixing these issues and discussed future goals to improve how researchers can use biological data in their work.
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Matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3) plays multiple roles in extracellular proteolysis as well as intracellular transcription, prompting a new definition of moonlighting metalloproteinase (MMP), according to a definition of protein moonlighting (or gene sharing), a phenomenon by which a protein can perform more than one function. Indeed, connective tissue growth factor (CTGF, aka cellular communication network factor 2 (CCN2)) is transcriptionally induced as well as cleaved by MMP3. Moreover, several members of the MMP family have been found within tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs).

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Cough, an important respiratory symptom, predominantly involves the brainstem and the urge-to-cough (UTC) is modulated by the cerebral cortex. Lewy body disease is associated with decreased cough reflex sensitivity and central respiratory chemosensitivity. Additionally, the insula, associated with the UTC, shows decreased activation and atrophy in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB).

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Tumor growth, progression, and therapy resistance are crucial factors in the prognosis of cancer. The properties of three-dimensional (3D) tumor-like organoids (tumoroids) more closely resemble in vivo tumors compared to two-dimensionally cultured cells and are therefore effectively used for assays and drug screening. We here established a repurposed drug for novel anticancer research and therapeutics using a 3D tumoroid-based screening system.

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Aim: To investigate the characteristics of adverse drug reactions (ADR) and their risk factors among very old patients in five geriatric wards in Japan.

Methods: A retrospective observational multicenter study was carried out to investigate factors related to ADR in older inpatients from geriatric wards of five university hospitals in Japan. Data including drugs profile and short-form comprehensive geriatric assessment were obtained from medical charts.

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Background: According to the Clinical Practice Guidelines for , oral vancomycin is to be used in vancomycin tapered and pulsed regimen (VCM-TP) for recurrent infection (CDI). However, data on the efficacy of VCM-TP in Japanese patients with recurrent CDI are scarce. To address this gap, we investigated the efficacy of VCM-TP and performed a case-controlled study to assess the risk factors associated with treatment failure in these patients.

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