Impact of COVID-19 on paediatric care in Japan: Analysis of national health insurance claims data.

Aim: To quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on paediatric care use compared to adult care and identify affected subdomains.

Methods: Data from the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan (NDB) for six fiscal years (FY2016-2021) were analysed. Pre-pandemic (FY2016-FY2019) and pandemic years (FY2020, FY2021) were compared to delineate changes in medical services for paediatric and adult patients.

Opioids for procedural pain in neonates.

Background: Neonates might be exposed to numerous painful procedures due to diagnostic reasons, therapeutic interventions, or surgical procedures. Options for pain management include opioids, non-pharmacological interventions, and other drugs. Morphine, fentanyl, and remifentanil are the opioids most often used in neonates.

Opioids for procedural pain in neonates.

Background: Neonates might be exposed to numerous painful procedures due to diagnostic reasons, therapeutic interventions, or surgical procedures. Options for pain management include opioids, non-pharmacological interventions, and other drugs. Morphine, fentanyl, and remifentanil are the opioids most often used in neonates.

Systemic opioid regimens for postoperative pain in neonates.

Background: Postoperative pain clinical management in neonates has always been a challenging medical issue. Worldwide, several systemic opioid regimens are available for pediatricians, neonatologists, and general practitioners to control pain in neonates undergoing surgical procedures. However, the most effective and safe regimen is still unknown in the current body of literature.

Systemic opioids versus other analgesics and sedatives for postoperative pain in neonates.

Background: Neonates may undergo surgery because of malformations such as diaphragmatic hernia, gastroschisis, congenital heart disease, and hypertrophic pyloric stenosis, or complications of prematurity, such as necrotizing enterocolitis, spontaneous intestinal perforation, and retinopathy of prematurity that require surgical treatment. Options for treatment of postoperative pain include opioids, non-pharmacological interventions, and other drugs. Morphine, fentanyl, and remifentanil are the opioids most often used in neonates.

Systemic opioid regimens for postoperative pain in neonates.

Background: Postoperative pain clinical management in neonates has always been a challenging medical issue. Worldwide, several systemic opioid regimens are available for pediatricians, neonatologists, and general practitioners to control pain in neonates undergoing surgical procedures. However, the most effective and safe regimen is still unknown in the current body of literature.

Measuring Personal Damage in a Large-Scale Disaster: A Review of the Reports Published by the Japanese Fire and Disaster Management Agency on the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

Objective: The study's aim is to identify the challenges in estimating personal damages in the early stages of a disaster.

Methods: The study reviewed personal damage data in the reports on the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami published by Japanese public agencies from 2011 to 2020, including 159 situation reports by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency and 17 disaster-related indirect death reports by the Reconstruction Agency. The study compared the reported number of deaths, missing persons, and injuries with the latest statistics to evaluate how soon the disaster's real damages were estimated.

Prenatal interventions for fetal growth restriction in animal models: A systematic review.

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) in human pregnancy is associated with perinatal mortality, short- and long-term morbidities. No prenatal therapy is currently established despite decades of research. We aimed to review interventions in animal models for prenatal FGR treatment, and to seek the next steps for an effective clinical therapy.

Correlates of neutralizing/SARS-CoV-2-S1-binding antibody response with adverse effects and immune kinetics in BNT162b2-vaccinated individuals.

While mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are exceedingly effective in preventing symptomatic infection, their immune response features remain to be clarified. In the present prospective study, 225 healthy individuals in Japan, who received two BNT162b2 doses, were enrolled. Correlates of BNT162b2-elicited SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing activity (50% neutralization titer: NT; assessed using infectious virions) with various determinants were examined and the potency of sera against variants of concerns was determined.

Correlates of Neutralizing/SARS-CoV-2-S1-binding Antibody Response with Adverse Effects and Immune Kinetics in BNT162b2-Vaccinated Individuals.

Background: While mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 have been exceedingly effective in preventing symptomatic viral infection, the features of immune response remain to be clarified.

Methods: In the present prospective observational study, 225 healthy individuals in Kumamoto General Hospital, Japan, who received two BNT162b2 doses in February 2021, were enrolled. Correlates of BNT162b2-elicited SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing activity (50% neutralization titer: NT ; assessed using infectious virions and live target cells) with SARS-CoV-2-S1-binding-IgG and -IgM levels, adverse effects (AEs), ages, and genders were examined.

Strategies for intra-amniotic administration of fetal therapy in a rabbit model of intrauterine growth restriction.

Intrauterine growth restriction affects up to 10% of all pregnancies, leading to fetal programming with detrimental consequences for lifelong health. However, no therapeutic strategies have so far been effective to ameliorate these consequences. Our previous study has demonstrated that a single dose of nutrients administered into the amniotic cavity, bypassing the often dysfunctional placenta via intra-amniotic administration, improved survival at birth but not birthweight in an intrauterine growth restriction rabbit model.

Opioids and alpha-2-agonists for analgesia and sedation in newborn infants: protocol of a systematic review.

Background: Hospitalized newborn infants may require analgesia and sedation either for the management of procedural pain, during or after surgery, and other painful conditions. The benefits and harms of opioids administered at different doses and routes of administration have been reported in numerous trials and systematic reviews. The use of alpha-2-agonists such as clonidine and dexmedetomidine in newborn infants is more recent, and they might be prescribed to reduce the total amount of opioids which are thought to have more side effects.

Bevacizumab suppresses the growth of established non-small-cell lung cancer brain metastases in a hematogenous brain metastasis model.

Brain metastases are common in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The efficacy of bevacizumab, an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) humanized antibody, has been demonstrated in patients with nonsquamous NSCLC. We established a transplantable NSCLC cell line (Nluc-H1915) that stably expresses NanoLuc® reporter and confirmed the correlation between total Nluc activity in tumor and tumor volume in vivo.

A neonate with intestinal volvulus without malrotation exhibiting early jaundice with a suspected fetal onset.

Intestinal volvulus without malrotation is a rare disease that causes volvulus of the small intestine despite normal intestinal rotation and fixation. We encountered a neonate with this disease who developed early jaundice and was suspected to have a fetal onset. This patient was characterized by early jaundice complicating intestinal volvulus without malrotation and is considered to have exhibited reduced fetal movement and early jaundice as a result of volvulus, necrosis, and hemorrhage of the small intestine in the fetal period.

Community spread of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing bacteria detected in social insurance hospitals throughout Japan.

We surveyed the status of community-acquired infections involving four extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing bacteria (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca, Proteus mirabilis) isolated from clinical specimens from 11 social insurance hospitals in Japan in 2012. These are member hospitals of the Japan Community Healthcare Organization, an independent administrative hospital organization. The isolation rates for E.

Estimating Post-Emergency Fertility Among Disaster-Affected Adolescents: Findings From a Case-Control Study in Aceh Province, Indonesia.

Objective: We aimed to retrospectively estimate adolescent fertility rates before and after a large-scale natural disaster.

Methods: A case-control study was conducted in Aceh Province, Indonesia, 2 years after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. The age-specific fertility rates of 15-19-year-old-women (ASFR 15-19) was estimated each year from 2004 to 2006 by creating hypothetical age cohorts.

[One-year surveillance study of antimicrobial resistance in major bacteria except for MRSA isolated in eight medical facilities in Kumamoto prefecture].

To investigate the current status of drug-resistant bacteria (except MRSA) in Kumamoto prefecture, a study was conducted to determine the isolation numbers and ratios of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-Escherichia coli, ESBL-Klebsiella species, ESBL-Proteus mirabilis, two-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, (resistant to two drugs either carbapenems, quinolones and aminoglycosides) multi-drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, multi-drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, and vancomyacin-resistant Enterococcii in eight general hospitals from May in 2009 to April in 2010. ESBL-E. coli was mostly isolated, and two-drug resistant P.

Developing institutional capacity of health service system management at the district level in rural Cambodia.

The implementation of decentralization policies in the health sector of many developing countries has been a major issue in international health. The objectives were to focus on health sector reform, health financing system, and human resource development. However, less attention has been paid to the institutional capacity development of health systems.

Tolerance induction by the blockade of CD40/CD154 interaction in pemphigus vulgaris mouse model.

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is an autoimmune blistering disease caused by IgG autoantibodies against desmoglein 3 (Dsg3). We have recently developed an active disease mouse model for PV by adoptive transfer of splenocytes from Dsg3(-/-) mice. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of CD40/CD154 interaction in the pathogenic antibody production and development of the disease in PV model mice.