Two-dimensional constrained chaos and industrial revolution cycles.

Since the 1760s, at least three industrial revolutions have occurred. To explain this phenomenon, we introduce two-dimensional (2D) constrained chaos. Using a model of innovation dynamics, we show that an industrial-revolution-like technology burst, driven by investment/saving motives for R&D activities, recurs about every one hundred years if the monopolistic use of a new technology lasts about 8 y.

Serum Globulin Is Associated with Endoscopic Findings and Mucosal Healing in Japanese Patients with Ulcerative Colitis.

Background: Serum globulin is an inflammation marker. To date, no evidence regarding the association between serum globulin and disease activity in patients with ulcerative colitis has been reported.

Aims: We evaluated the association between serum globulin and endoscopic activity in patients with ulcerative colitis.

Plasma hepatocyte growth factor elevation may be associated with early metastatic disease in primary lung cancer patients.

Purpose: Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), a ligand of the c-met proto-oncogene, exhibits activating effects on human lung cancer both in vitro and in vivo. However, few studies have reported the correlations between concentration changes of blood HGF and postsurgical prognosis.

Methods: We evaluated whether surgery-related blood HGF elevation has prognostic significance in patients with surgically resected non-small cell lung cancer.

[A case of rectal cancer successfully treated by multidisciplinary strategy for liver and pulmonary metastases].

We report a case of rectal cancer with distant metastases, which was successfully treated with multidisciplinary treatments. The 60s female underwent an abdomino-perineal resection (APR) for low rectal cancer. One year after the APR, two hepatic metastases were found and initially treated by radiofrequency ablation and later by hepatectomy.

Risk factors for death in 224 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization.

Background/aims: Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) has been reported as effective therapy for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), however, few have described methods for predicting prognosis, especially in patients treated by repeated TACE. To determine risk factors for death and try to predict the prognosis, we evaluated clinical data.

Methodology: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical parameters of 224 patients with unresectable HCC treated with repeated TACE from January 1997 to December 2007.

Efficacy of radiofrequency ablation therapy compared to surgical resection in 164 patients in Japan with single hepatocellular carcinoma smaller than 3 cm, along with report of complications.

Background/aims: Radiofrequency ablation therapy (RFA) has become widely used against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), mainly because of its ease of use, lower level of invasiveness, and high level of effectiveness. To compare the efficacy and safety of RFA with surgery, we retrospectively investigated relevant patient clinical data.

Methodology: The patients with a single HCC (3 cm > or =, Child-Pugh A or B) who were treated with RFA (RFA-group: n=105) or surgery (Surgery-group: n=59) from January 2000 to June 2007 were enrolled.

Primary hepatic marginal zone B cell lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue type: case report and review of the literature.

A primary hepatic marginal zone B cell lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) is very rare. We found a solitary mass 27 mm in size in the left lobe of the liver of a 58-year-old Japanese man with a history of hepatitis-C infection. Based on the results of imaging studies, the tumor was diagnosed as a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Three cases of liver abscesses complicated with colon cancer without liver metastasis: importance of screening for digestive disease.

We treated 3 patients complicated with colon cancer without liver metastasis, who were admitted to our hospital because of a high fever and diagnosed with liver abscesses. In a general screening after performing percutaneous transhepatic abscess drainage, colon cancer was detected in each, though hepatobiliary diseases were not found. Hepatobiliary diseases were the most common etiology of hepatic abscesses in our hospital in the past 41 cases from 1990 to 2005, 3 of which were due to colon cancer.

Characteristics of lamivudine-resistant hepatitis B virus (HBV) strains with and without breakthrough hepatitis in patients with chronic hepatitis B evaluated by serial HBV full-genome sequences.

Lamivudine therapy often causes breakthrough of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA and breakthrough hepatitis. The aim of this study was to determine the viral factors that relate to HBV-DNA breakthrough with and without breakthrough hepatitis. Among 82 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) who received lamivudine at a dose of 100 mg daily for more than 24 months, 23 patients had HBV-DNA breakthrough induced by a lamivudine-resistant mutant.

[Pulmonary empyema 48 years after Lucite-ball Plomb implantation for tuberculosis].

A 68-year-old woman was diagnosed as having empyema on the left side. She had a history of pulmonary tuberculosis and tuberculous pleurisy in 1949. She was treated with artificial pneumothorax and implantation of 7 Lucite-ball plombs in the left upper thorax.