Evaluation and simplification of the occupational slip, trip and fall risk-assessment test.

Objective: The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the efficacy of the occupational slip, trip and fall (STF) risk assessment test developed by the Japan Industrial Safety and Health Association (JISHA). We further intended to simplify the test to improve efficiency.

Methods: A previous cohort study was performed using 540 employees aged ≥50 years who took the JISHA's STF risk assessment test.

An industry-based cohort study of the association between weight gain and hypertension risk among rotating shift workers.

Objectives: We investigated whether the association between shift work and hypertension is independent of weight gain.

Methods: Subjects were 10,173 male employees (9209 daytime workers, 964 three-shift workers; mean follow-up period: 12.7 years).

A cross-sectional study of workplace social capital and blood pressure: a multilevel analysis at Japanese manufacturing companies.

Objectives: We examined the contextual effect of workplace social capital on systolic blood pressure (SBP).

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: A conglomerate from 58 workplaces in Japan.

Retrospective cohort study of the risk of impaired glucose tolerance among shift workers.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of shift working on the risk of developing impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).

Methods: This study comprised 6413 male employees (5608 daytime workers, 512 3-shift workers and 293 2-shift workers) whose work schedules remained constant during the follow-up period (mean follow-up period 9.9 years).

Diagnosis of fulminant pneumonia caused by Legionella pneumophila serogroup 8 with the sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene.

Pneumonia is the fourth leading cause of death in Japan. Accurate and rapid detection of the causative pathogen(s) is necessary and important for appropriate antimicrobial treatment, especially in patients with rapidly progressive pneumonia or immunocompromised patients. Conventional methods, such as cultivations, detection of urinary antigens or PCR amplification of specific genes, inevitably require the precise presumption of potential pathogens in each case, and pneumonia caused by unanticipated microorganisms might lead to inadequate antimicrobial treatments and unfortunate consequences.

Industry-based retrospective cohort study of the risk of prostate cancer among rotating-shift workers.

Objectives: The risk of prostate cancer among shift workers was examined in the present industry-based retrospective cohort study.

Methods: The study was established based on a health-care database from a Japanese manufacturing corporation. Work schedules of 4995 male workers (mean age = 55.

Retrospective cohort study of the risk of obesity among shift workers: findings from the Industry-based Shift Workers' Health study, Japan.

Objectives: The authors investigated the effect of shift working on the risk of obesity using data from the Industry-based Shift Workers' Health (IbSH) study, a retrospective cohort study based on a health care database system belonging to a manufacturing corporation in Japan.

Methods: The study database contains data on annual health check-ups and work schedules for every worker in the corporation in Japan since 1981. Study subjects consisted of 9912 male employees (8892 daytime workers and 920 rotating three-shift workers; mean age at first check-up was 23.

[A case of localized malignant pleural mesothelioma].

A 74-year-old man was referred to our hospital for examination of an abnormal chest shadow. A chest computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a 5-cm mass attached to the pleura involving the right upper lobe, and a nodule in the right middle lobe. Transbronchial lung biopsy was performed twice, but no definitive diagnosis was achieved.

[A case of rheumatoid arthritis with pneumothorax due to subpleural pulmonary rheumatoid nodules].

Pneumothorax secondary to nodular rheumatoid lung disease is a rare complication of rheumatoid arthritis. Here we report a case of rheumatoid arthritis with pneumothorax due to subpleural pulmonary rheumatoid nodule. A 74-year-old woman with a 14-year history of rheumatoid arthritis has admitted to our hospital due to dyspnea and right chest discomfort, and her chest X-ray film and computed tomography revealed right pneumothorax.

[Early case of idiopathic pulmonary alveolar proteinosis positive for serum anti-GM-CSF antibody].

An asymptomatic 56-year-old woman who had never smoked and had been healthy was admitted to our hospital because of abnormal shadows on a chest X-ray film taken on a medical check-up. Chest CT showed ground-glass opacities in the right upper lung field. No abnormality on chest X-ray had been pointed out on any annual medical check up until then.