Designing Sustainable Hydrophilic Interfaces via Feature Selection from Molecular Descriptors and Time-Domain Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Relaxation Curves.

Surface modification using hydrophilic polymer coatings is a sustainable approach for preventing membrane clogging due to foulant adhesion to water treatment membranes and reducing membrane-replacement frequency. Typically, both molecular descriptors and time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR) data, which reveal physicochemical properties and polymer-chain dynamics, respectively, are required to predict the properties and understand the mechanisms of hydrophilic polymer coatings. However, studies on the selection of essential components from high-dimensional data and their application to the prediction of surface properties are scarce.

Proof of concept testing of a positive reference material for in vivo and in vitro sensitization testing of medical devices.

In vivo skin sensitization tests are required to evaluate the biological safety of medical devices in contact with living organisms to provide safe medical care to patients. Negative and positive reference materials have been developed for biological tests of cytotoxicity, implantation, hemolysis, and in vitro skin irritation. However, skin sensitization tests are lacking.

[A Case of Multiple Brain Lesions Associated with Hydrophilic Polymer Allergy after Coil Embolization that Showed Repeated Progression and Regression].

A 41-year-old woman underwent coil embolization for subarachnoid hemorrhage associated with a ruptured anterior cerebral artery(A1)aneurysm. Approximately 3 weeks later, MRI revealed right cerebral white matter changes with extensive edema and enhancement lesions. Even though she was asymptomatic, we suspected an allergic reaction to the hydrophilic coating polymer and initiated steroid treatment.

[Surgical Results of Lumbar Degenerative Disease with Foot Drop].

Drop foot is associated with various diseases, such as peripheral nerve disease, lumbar degenerative disease, metabolic disease, and endocrine disease. Among lumbar degenerative diseases, lumbar disc herniation and lumbar canal stenosis are most commonly reported. We report the surgical outcomes of patients with drop foot caused by lumbar degenerative diseases.

[Pseudoaneurysm of Neck External Carotid Artery Related to Chiropractic Manipulation].

A 55-year-old man presented with progressive pain and expanding swelling in his right neck. He had no history of trauma or infectious disease. The patient had undergone chiropractic manipulations once in a month and the last manipulation was done one day before the admission to our hospital.

A high-flow nasal cannula system with relatively low flow effectively washes out CO from the anatomical dead space in a sophisticated respiratory model made by a 3D printer.

Background: Although clinical studies of the high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) and its effect on positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) have been done, the washout effect has not been well evaluated. Therefore, we made an experimental respiratory model to evaluate the respiratory physiological effect of HFNC.

Methods: An airway model was made by a 3D printer using the craniocervical 3D-CT data of a healthy 32-year-old male.

Dexmedetomidine sedation during the nighttime reduced the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation in cardiovascular surgery patients after tracheal extubation.

Background: Dexmedetomidine (Dex) provides sedation and analgesia by acting on central alpha-2 receptors and is suitable for use after extubation because it has little respiratory depression. Considering the sympathoinhibitory and anxiolytic action of Dex, there is the possibility that Dex might reduce the incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF), which is recognized as a common complication after cardiovascular surgery. We investigated whether the postoperative incidence of AF decreased in patients who received Dex only during the nighttime in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in a girl with Wilson's disease.

Wilson's disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive defect in cellular copper transportation. Although acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common form of childhood malignancy, only two cases of ALL associated with WD have been reported to date. One patient died of relapse and infection, and the other died of neutropenic sepsis during the treatment.

Superior recovery profiles of propofol-based regimen as compared to isoflurane-based regimen in patients undergoing craniotomy for primary brain tumor excision: a retrospective study.

Purpose: Studies comparing the recovery profiles of isoflurane- and propofol-based anesthesia for major intracranial surgery have reported contradictory results. The aim of our study was to clarify the emergence status in both regimens by investigating uniformly managed neuroanesthesia cases.

Methods: The anesthesia database at Yamagata University Hospital covering the period 2002-2005 was retrospectively investigated for adult patients who underwent craniotomy for primary brain tumor excision.

Fatigue in survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic and myeloid leukemia in Japan.

Background: Fatigue in cancer survivors is a serious problem in pediatric oncology, but reports on this issue are limited, especially in Asian countries.

Methods: Sixty-three patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and 18 patients with acute myeloid leukemia who attended a follow-up outpatient clinic were enrolled. Participants were required to be >8 years of age, in remission, and without any cancer treatment for at least the previous 1 year.

Low-dose but not high-dose prostaglandin E(1) improves the histological outcome of severe forebrain ischemia in rats.

Purpose: Prostaglandin E(1) (PGE(1)) has been shown to provide short-term neuroprotection against various types of brain ischemia in a dose-dependent manner in mice. However, these findings were obtained from experiments performed without any control over physiological parameters. We performed an outcome study where physiological parameters were controlled in an attempt to confirm the dose-dependant neuroprotective effects of PGE(1).

[Efficacy of remifentanil for anesthetic management of awake craniotomy].

Background: Remifentanil has strong analgesic fore tried to use remifentanil for anesthetic management of awake craniotomy (AC) and assessed its efficacy.

Methods: The patients underwent AC with general anesthesia by propofol (P group, n = 17), or by propofol and remifentanil (PR group, n = 13), and were analyzed retrospectively. We investigated (1) systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart rate (HR) until first 60 minutes after starting the operation, (2) the time from cessation of anesthetics to awakening for brain mapping, and (3) anesthetic complications.

Characterization of chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura in Japanese children: a retrospective multi-center study.

The objectives of this study are to clarify (1) the difference in demographic and clinical variables at initial presentation between acute and chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), and (2) the prognostic factors of patients with chronic ITP. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 247 children with newly diagnosed ITP between April 1991 and March 2006 who visited one of the 12 hospitals belonging to the Kyoto University Pediatric Hematologic Study Group. 180 and 67 cases were classified as the acute type and as the chronic type, respectively.

[Airway and respiratory management for anesthesia in the patients with severe motor and intellectual disabilities].

Background: For the management of general anesthesia in the patients with severe motor and intellectual disabilities, airway and respiratory disorders are severe and may cause fatal events. We retrospectively examined these risk factors.

Methods: We assessed adverse airway and respiratory events associated with anesthesia from perioperative and anesthetic records of these patients retrospectively.

The dose-dependent effects of isoflurane on outcome from severe forebrain ischemia in the rat.

Isoflurane improves outcome against cerebral ischemia in the rat. However, the optimal neuroprotective concentration has not been defined. We examined the effects of different isoflurane concentrations on outcome from severe forebrain ischemia in the rat.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is related to necrosis-like programmed cell death induced by A23187 in CEM cells.

We have previously reported that calcium ionophore A23187 differentially induces necrosis in CEM cells, a T-lymphoblastic leukemia cell line, and apoptosis in HL60 cells, a promyelocytic leukemia cell line. Stimulation with VP16, however, induces typical apoptosis in both cell lines. Necrosis in CEM cells, characterized by cell shrinkage and clustering, began within 5 min of treatment.

Inhibition of leukemic cell growth by a novel anti-cancer drug (GUT-70) from calophyllum brasiliense that acts by induction of apoptosis.

During our search for cancer chemopreventing compounds derived from plant sources, we discovered that the natural product GUT-70, isolated from the stem bark of Calophyllum brasiliense collected in Brazil, significantly inhibits the growth of leukemic cells. GUT-70, characterized as a tricyclic coumarin, 5-methoxy-2,2-dimethyl-6-(2-methyl-1-oxo-2-butenyl) -10-propyl-2H,8H-benzo[1,2-b;3,4-b']dipyran-8-one (C(23)H(26)O(5)), inhibited all 6 human leukemic cell lines evaluated, including the P-glycoprotein overexpressing cell line, in a concentration and time-dependent manner with IC(50) values from 2-5 microM. Furthermore, GUT-70 did not inhibit colony formation by normal hematopoietic progenitors up to 30 microM and also did not inhibit the proliferation of normal human hepatocytes up to 30 microM.

Stem cell factor/c-kit signaling promotes the survival, migration, and capillary tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

c-kit receptor tyrosine kinase is a marker of progenitor cells, which differentiate into blood and/or vascular endothelial cells, and has an important role in the amplification/mobilization of progenitor cells. c-kit is expressed in mature endothelial cells, but its role there is unclear. Stem cell factor, a c-kit ligand, dose-dependently promoted survival, migration, and capillary tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

FR901228 induces tumor regression associated with induction of Fas ligand and activation of Fas signaling in human osteosarcoma cells.

We investigated the antitumor effects of FR901228, a HDAC inhibitor, on human osteosarcoma cells, in vitro and in vivo to explore its possible utility in the treatment of pediatric bone cancers. FR901228 caused marked growth inhibition with a 50% inhibitory concentration of 1.2-7.

A novel mechanism for imatinib mesylate-induced cell death of BCR-ABL-positive human leukemic cells: caspase-independent, necrosis-like programmed cell death mediated by serine protease activity.

Caspase-independent programmed cell death can exhibit either an apoptosis-like or a necrosis-like morphology. The ABL kinase inhibitor, imatinib mesylate, has been reported to induce apoptosis of BCR-ABL-positive cells in a caspase-dependent fashion. We investigated whether caspases alone were the mediators of imatinib mesylate-induced cell death.

Staurosporine stimulates insulin gene expression via CRE dependent manner.

We examined various compounds to stimulate the transcription of promoter-reporter construct in pancreatic HIT-T15 cells, that had been stably transfected with the rat insulin I promoter-PLAP reporter gene, and found staurosporine at dose of nanomole enhanced insulin promoter activity significantly. Northern blotting analysis and ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) showed that the promoter activity of insulin gene was well correlated with the endogenous level of insulin mRNA and protein in HIT-T15, indicating that staurosporine stimulated the biosynthesis of insulin at levels of transcription and translation. The deletion and point mutation of cAMP response element (CRE) in the promoter region of insulin gene lost the promoter activity of reporter gene induced by staurosporine.