A Simple Prediction Model for Clostridioides difficile Infection: A Hospital-Based Administrative Database Study.

Background And Aim: Few prediction scores for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), a potentially life-threatening nosocomial diarrhea, combine high accuracy with simplicity. A simple prediction score for routine clinical practice is needed.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all inpatients aged ≥ 18 at a secondary care hospital in Japan.

Ulcerative Colitis Associated with Cardiometabolic Disease and Complicated with Autoimmune Pancreatitis.

Diet-related cardiometabolic diseases and inflammatory bowel disease, common previously in Western countries, are global problems. We hypothesized that inflammatory bowel disease is a lifestyle disease primarily mediated by the current Western diet. We report here the simultaneous onset of ulcerative colitis and autoimmune pancreatitis, a rare systemic complication of inflammatory bowel disease, 2 months after acute myocardial infarction in a patient with type 2 diabetes.

Effectiveness of Intravenous Cyclophosphamide in a Patient With Anti-amphiphysin Autoimmunity Presenting With Bulbar Palsy and Cerebellar Ataxia: A Case Report.

Anti-amphiphysin antibody is a rare paraneoplastic autoantibody. A case of a 74-year-old man with anti-amphiphysin antibody and multiple symptoms, including bulbar palsy along with cerebellar ataxia, who responded to treatment with intravenous cyclophosphamide is reported. The patient presented with progressive unsteady gait and difficulty in swallowing food and water for three months.

Successful Treatment of Bilocular Walled-off Necrosis with Transmural Naso-cyst Continuous Irrigation.

Recently, transmural naso-cyst continuous irrigation (TNCCI) has been reported as an effective and safe treatment for walled-off necrosis (WON). We herein report a case of bilocular WON that was successfully treated with TNCCI. The patient was a 60-year-old man.

Differences between Acute Embolic and Atherosclerotic Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion in Multiphase Arterial Spin-labeling Imaging.

Arterial spin-labeling magnetic resonance imaging (ASL-MRI) is widely used for evaluating collateral development in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). This study aimed to characterize the findings of multiphase ASL-MRI between embolic and atherosclerotic large vessel occlusion (LVO) to aid in the differential diagnosis. Among 982 patients with AIS, 44 who were diagnosed with acute, symptomatic, and unilateral occlusion of the horizontal segment of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) were selected and categorized into embolic stroke (ES) and atherosclerosis (AT) groups.

Impact of Functional Status on Development of Clostridioides difficile Infection and Increase in Inhospital Mortality among Antibiotic Users.

Introduction: Functional status is one of the surrogates of advanced age, an established risk factor for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). We aimed to investigate the usefulness of functional status in the clinical management of CDI.

Methods: We enrolled all hospitalized adult patients receiving antibiotics from a retrospective hospital-based cohort in Japan between 2016 and 2020.

Structure-based lead optimization to improve potency and selectivity of a novel tetrahydroimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-5-carboxylic acid series of heparanase-1 inhibitor.

Heparanase-1 (HPSE1) is an endo-β-d-glucuronidase that is the only mammalian enzyme known to cleave heparan sulfate (HS) of heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPG), a key component of the glycocalyx layer of the vascular endothelium matrix. Inhibition of HPSE1 has therapeutic potential for cancer and proteinuric kidney diseases. We previously reported that 2 showed a moderate potency as an HPSE1 inhibitor and an issue of selectivity against exo-β-d-glucuronidase (GUSβ) and glucocerebrosidase (GBA) remained.

Tissue Acceleration as a Novel Metric for Surgical Performance During Carotid Endarterectomy.

Background And Objectives: Gentle tissue handling to avoid excessive motion of affected fragile vessels during surgical dissection is essential for both surgeon proficiency and patient safety during carotid endarterectomy (CEA). However, a void remains in the quantification of these aspects during surgery. The video-based measurement of tissue acceleration is presented as a novel metric for the objective assessment of surgical performance.

Vonoprazan poses no additional risk of developing Clostridioides difficile infection compared to proton pump inhibitors.

Background And Aim: The use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) has been repeatedly reported as a trigger of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), a leading cause of nosocomial diarrhea. However, only a few studies have reported on the association between vonoprazan, a novel potassium-competitive acid blocker providing potent acid suppression, and CDI, with no studies having been conducted in a clinical setting. We therefore evaluated the association between various classes of acid suppressants and CDI with special attention paid to differences in the magnitudes of association between PPIs and vonoprazan.

SWI by 7T MR Imaging for the Microscopic Imaging Diagnosis of Astrocytic and Oligodendroglial Tumors.

Background And Purpose: Despite advances in molecular imaging, preoperative diagnosis of astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas can be challenging. In the present study, we assessed whether 7T SWI can be used to distinguish astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas and whether malignant grading of gliomas is possible.

Materials And Methods: 7T SWI was performed on 21 patients with gliomas before surgery with optimization for sharp visualization of the corticomedullary junction.

A Survey of Near-Miss Dispensing Errors in Hospital Pharmacies in Japan: DEPP-J Study-Multi-Center Prospective Observational Study-.

The aim of this study was to determine the proportion of near-miss dispensing errors in hospital pharmacies in Japan. A prospective multi-center observational study was conducted between December 2018 and March 2019. The primary objective was to determine the proportion of near-miss dispensing errors in hospital pharmacy departments.

[The Study of a Relaxed Patient Position in Whole Lower Limb Radiography].

Purpose: In whole lower limb radiography, a position of the patella is the center of the knee with a leg slight internal rotation (a knee frontal position). However, we revised the positioning to stand naturally so that we can evaluate the lower limb alignment while standing more naturally (a relaxed patient position). In this study, we compared a lower limb alignment of a relaxed patient position and a knee frontal position.

Pterostilbene downregulates BCR/ABL and induces apoptosis of T315I-mutated BCR/ABL-positive leukemic cells.

In this study, we examined the antileukemic effects of pterostilbene, a natural methylated polyphenol analog of resveratrol that is predominantly found in berries and nuts, using various human and murine leukemic cells, as well as bone marrow samples obtained from patients with leukemia. Pterostilbene administration significantly induced apoptosis of leukemic cells, but not of non-malignant hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. Interestingly, pterostilbene was highly effective in inducing apoptosis of leukemic cells harboring the BCR/ABL fusion gene, including ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-resistant cells with the T315I mutation.

Deep learning-based diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy associated with hippocampal sclerosis: An MRI study.

Purpose: The currently available indicators-sensitivity and specificity of expert radiological evaluation of MRIs-to identify mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) associated with hippocampal sclerosis (HS) are deficient, as they cannot be easily assessed. We developed and investigated the use of a novel convolutional neural network trained on preoperative MRIs to aid diagnosis of these conditions.

Subjects And Methods: We enrolled 141 individuals: 85 with clinically diagnosed mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and hippocampal sclerosis International League Against Epilepsy (HS ILAE) type 1 who had undergone anterior temporal lobe hippocampectomy were assigned to the MTLE-HS group, and 56 epilepsy clinic outpatients diagnosed as nonepileptic were assigned to the normal group.

Analysis of ileostomy stool samples reveals dysbiosis in patients with high-output stomas.

Construction of a diverting stoma can significantly reduce the onset of severe anastomotic leakage in patients with rectal cancer. High-output stoma is one of the most important potential surgical complications after anal function-preserving surgery with ileostomy. Culture-independent techniques have revealed the interaction of the complex intestinal bacterial ecology with various diseases.

Development of retake support system for lateral knee radiographs by using deep convolutional neural network.

Introduction: Lateral radiography of the knee joint is frequently performed; however, the retake rate is high owing to positioning errors. Therefore, in this study, to reduce the required number and time of image retakes, we developed a system that can classify the tilting directions of lateral knee radiographs and evaluated the accuracy of the proposed method.

Methods: Using our system, the tilting directions of a lateral knee radiographs were classified into four direction categories.

Analysis of appendectomy samples identified dysbiosis in acute appendicitis.

Appendicitis is the most common cause of sudden-onset abdominal pain requiring surgery. Culture-independent techniques have revealed that the complex intestinal bacterial ecology is associated with various diseases. To evaluate differences in patient characteristics and gut microbiota distribution in patients with appendicitis, we enrolled 12 patients who underwent appendectomy for appendicitis (appendicitis group) and 13 patients who underwent ileocecal resection or right hemicolectomy for colon cancer (control group).

Interleukin-6 as an enhancer of anti-angiogenic therapy for ovarian clear cell carcinoma.

Ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC) is a subtype of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) that is associated with elevated interleukin-6 (IL-6) expression, resistance to chemotherapy, and increased mortality. Although bevacizumab (Bev) is a widely used anti-angiogenic agent for EOC, the efficacy of Bev and the role of IL-6 in modulating angiogenesis in OCCC are unknown. We performed tube formation assays using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) cultured in OCCC cell-conditioned medium and using cells directly co-cultured with OCCC cells.

Association of early antibiotic therapy and in-hospital mortality in adult mild-to-moderate acute aspiration pneumonitis: a cohort study.

Background: Patients with aspiration pneumonitis often receive empiric antibiotic therapy despite it being due to a non-infectious, inflammatory response.

Objective: To study the benefits of early antibiotic therapy in patients with suspected aspiration pneumonitis in an acute care hospital.

Design: Retrospective cohort study using electronic medical records from Teine Keijinkai Hospital.

Recent progress in production of amino acid-derived chemicals using Corynebacterium glutamicum.

Green chemical production by microbial processes is critical for the development of a sustainable society in the twenty-first century. Among the important industrial microorganisms, the gram-positive bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum has been utilized for amino acid fermentation, which is one of the largest microbial-based industries. To date, several amino acids, including L-glutamic acid, L-lysine, and L-threonine, have been produced by C.

[Utility of core-needle biopsy as a primary diagnostic method for detecting aggressive B-cell lymphoma in the intensive care unit].

A 68-year-old male presented with appetite loss and abdominal distention. The whole-body computed tomography scan revealed an ileocecal mass with a large amount of ascites, which was consistent with malignant lymphoma. Due to the worsening of his general condition following admission, he was intubated and admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).