Using the Natural Language Processing System Medical Named Entity Recognition-Japanese to Analyze Pharmaceutical Care Records: Natural Language Processing Analysis.

Background: Large language models have propelled recent advances in artificial intelligence technology, facilitating the extraction of medical information from unstructured data such as medical records. Although named entity recognition (NER) is used to extract data from physicians' records, it has yet to be widely applied to pharmaceutical care records.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to investigate the feasibility of automatic extraction of the information regarding patients' diseases and symptoms from pharmaceutical care records.

A cross-sectional study clarifying profiles of patients with diabetes who discontinued pharmacotherapy: reasons and consequences.

Background: Although diabetes is one of the fastest increasing diseases in prevalence worldwide and demands significant medical resources, more than half of all patients with diabetes do not achieve the expected target level of blood glucose. As a potential cause of poor glycemic control, insufficient adherence to medication has long been discussed and variably studied. However, dropout from treatment as another plausible cause has not been fully examined.

Effect of a lever aid on hand strength required for using a handheld inhaler correctly.

In the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, using a lever aid to improve drug delivery from an inhaler is recommended for patients with poor muscle strength. However, no studies have investigated the effect on hand strength of using a lever aid. Here, we measured hand strength before and after operating a lever aid and tried to predict the required strength.

[Exploration of Education and Research on Drug Informatics].

I have been exploring methods for education and research on drug information for 43 years. There are various approaches to drug informatics research, which include collecting, evaluating, and analyzing information to solve drug related problems, sometimes producing new information from experiments and clinical research. All are based on information science.

Adverse event reports in patients taking psychiatric medication during pregnancy from spontaneous reports in Japan and the United States: an approach using latent class analysis.

Background: Little is known regarding the association between adverse events (AEs) and psychiatric medications administered to pregnant women in clinical trials during the pre-marketing period. This study analyzes reports of AE association with psychiatric medication administrated during pregnancy using post-marketing spontaneous reports of AE from the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report (JADER) database and Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System in the United States (FAERS-US).

Methods: We summarized AE reports of psychiatric medication administrated during pregnancy by comparing data obtained from JADER and FAERS-US databases with medication patterns determined as classes via latent class analysis.

Growth factors with enhanced syndecan binding generate tonic signalling and promote tissue healing.

Growth factors can stimulate tissue regeneration, but the side effects and low effectiveness associated with suboptimal delivery systems have impeded their use in translational regenerative medicine. Physiologically, growth factor interactions with the extracellular matrix control their bioavailability and spatiotemporal cellular signalling. Growth factor signalling is also controlled at the cell surface level via binding to heparan sulfate proteoglycans, such as syndecans.

Factors contributing to the systemic clearance of infliximab with long-term administration in Japanese patients with Crohn's disease: Analysis using population pharmacokinetics .

Objective: Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory gastrointestinal disease with repeated cycles of exacerbation and remission. Infliximab (IFX), a chimeric anti-TNF-α monoclonal antibody, has been widely used for the treatment of CD. However, no study in Japanese CD patients receiving continuous IFX for more than 1 year has been reported.

Long-term effect of NUDT15 R139C on hematologic indices in inflammatory bowel disease patients treated with thiopurine.

Background And Aim: A missense variant of the nucleoside diphosphate-linked moiety X-type motif 15 (NUDT15) gene (R139C) predisposes Asian patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) to thiopurine-induced leukopenia. This study evaluates the long-term effect of NUDT15 R139C heterozygosity on hematological parameters during thiopurine administration.

Methods: We enrolled 83 Japanese IBD patients who were on anti-tumor necrosis factor-α agents and had used thiopurine.

[The Report: Promotion of Social Contributions of Research on Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences].

The Science Council of Japan issued "The report: Promotion of Social Contributions of Research on Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences" on September 29, 2017. This report was prepared based on the analysis of current situation of the four-year doctoral course in the graduate school of pharmacy and the contents of the symposium of 137th annual meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (PSJ), "Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Future: The Bridge Linking between Basic and Clinical Research". The goal of the 4-year doctoral program is to nurture the pharmacist-scientist who has both researcher mind and professionalism as a clinical pharmacist.

Positive predictive value of ICD-10 codes for acute myocardial infarction in Japan: a validation study at a single center.

Background: In Japan, several large healthcare databases have become available for research since the early 2000's. However, validation studies to examine the accuracy of these databases remain scarce. We conducted a validation study in order to estimate the positive predictive value (PPV) of local or ICD-10 codes for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Japanese claims.

Factors predicting the therapeutic response to infliximab during maintenance therapy in Japanese patients with Crohn's disease.

Since anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α agents (TNF-α inhibitors) induce both clinical response and remission in patients with moderate to severe inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the use of anti-TNF therapies has fundamentally changed the approach to treatment for patients with IBD. Infliximab (IFX) is a TNF-α inhibitor approved for the induction and remission of Crohn's disease (CD). However, even among patients who initially demonstrate a clinical response to IFX therapy, secondary loss of response occurs, although the reason remains unknown.

Extraction and Standardization of Patient Complaints from Electronic Medication Histories for Pharmacovigilance: Natural Language Processing Analysis in Japanese.

Background: Despite the growing number of studies using natural language processing for pharmacovigilance, there are few reports on manipulating free text patient information in Japanese.

Objective: This study aimed to establish a method of extracting and standardizing patient complaints from electronic medication histories accumulated in a Japanese community pharmacy for the detection of possible adverse drug event (ADE) signals.

Methods: Subjective information included in electronic medication history data provided by a Japanese pharmacy operating in Hiroshima, Japan from September 1, 2015 to August 31, 2016, was used as patients' complaints.

Factors Predicting the Therapeutic Response to Methotrexate in Japanese Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Hospital-Based Cohort Study.

Methotrexate (MTX) is used widely as a first-line drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) worldwide. There are large interindividual differences in the therapeutic response to MTX, but it is not known which factors influence them. We therefore investigated predictive factors associated with the therapeutic response to MTX in a hospital-based cohort study.

Possible associations of personality traits representing harm avoidance and self-directedness with medication adherence in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes.

Background: Insufficient medication adherence in diabetes patients, of which numbers continue to increase globally, remains a critical issue. Medication adherence is multifactorial and determined by interactions among factors including socioeconomic status, health care team and system, condition, therapy, and patient-specific factors. On the other hand, personality traits have been studied in adherence other than to medication.

Risk factors for rhabdomyolysis with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors identified using a postmarketing surveillance database in Japan .

Objective: To investigate quantitatively the risk factors for rhabdomyolysis or related symptoms associated with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins), we used the lipid-lowering drug database (32,157 patients) developed by the RAD-AR Council, Japan, based on the postmarketing surveillance (PMS) data of pharmaceutical companies to perform a nested case-control study.

Materials And Methods: Of 26,849 patients taking statins, the case group was composed of 51 patients who experienced rhabdomyolysis or related symptoms while taking statins, and the control group was 1,020 patients randomly selected from patients who did not experience rhabdomyolysis or related symptoms while taking statins. Relevant factors that can be extracted from the database were: sex, age, body mass index (BMI), statin use duration, complications, concomitant medication, and clinical laboratory test values.

Risk factors for abnormal hepatic enzyme elevation by methotrexate treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A hospital based-cohort study.

Objectives: Methotrexate (MTX) is used as first-line treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) worldwide. Large interindividual differences in MTX effectiveness and safety occur, and the most frequent adverse reaction is hepatotoxicity, although the main cause remains unknown. We investigated factors associated with MTX-induced hepatic enzyme elevation in a hospital-based cohort study.

Development and evaluation of an overseas clinical rotation program for undergraduate pharmacy students in Japan.

Background And Purpose: Internationalization of pharmacists, as well as pharmacy students, in terms of both the knowledge to care for international patients and to have medical information literacy, is a current concern in Japan.

Educational Activity And Setting: Keio University Faculty of Pharmacy has developed an elective course for pharmacy students, based on written agreements with the United States and Thailand that establish a student clinical rotation exchange program. The exchange program lasts for four to six weeks and involves clinical rotations in hospitals abroad during the students' sixth year.

Effect of everolimus on the glucose metabolic pathway in mouse skeletal muscle cells (C2C12).

Introduction: Everolimus selectively inhibits mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) and exerts an antineoplastic effect. Metabolic disturbance has emerged as a common and unique side effect of everolimus.

Objectives: We used targeted metabolomic analysis to investigate the effects of everolimus on the intracellular glycometabolic pathway.

Genetic polymorphisms of enzyme proteins and transporters related to methotrexate response and pharmacokinetics in a Japanese population.

Background: Methotrexate (MTX) is currently the anchor drug widely used worldwide in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the therapeutic response to MTX has been shown to vary widely among individuals, genders and ethnic groups. The reason for this has been not clarified but it is considered to be partially due to several mechanisms in the cellular pathway of MTX including single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

Possible involvement of distinct phylogenetic clusters of HIV-1 variants in the discrepancies between coreceptor tropism predictions based on viral RNA and proviral DNA.

Background: The coreceptor tropism testing should be conducted prior to commencing a regimen containing a CCR5 antagonist for treatment of HIV-1 infection. For aviremic patients on long antiretroviral therapy, proviral DNA is often used instead of viral RNA in genotypic tropism testing. However, the tropism predictions from RNA and DNA are sometimes different.

Preliminary study for predicting better methotrexate efficacy in Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by systemic inflammatory status, joint destruction, disability, and pain. Methotrexate (MTX) has been confirmed to reduce disease activity and delay or stabilize the development of bone erosions. However, major drawbacks are that patients show great interindividual variability in response to MTX and the unpredictable occurrence of side effects.

Sex Differences in mRNA Expression of Reduced Folate Carrier-1, Folypolyformyl Glutamate Synthase, and γ-Glutamyl Hydrolase in a Healthy Japanese Population.

Sex differences in the prevalence of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are well known, but little is known about those differences in relation to therapeutic response. Reduced folate carrier-1 (RFC-1), folypolyformyl glutamate synthase (FPGS), and γ-glutamyl hydrolase (GGH) are important transporters and enzymes that convert methotrexate (MTX) in the body. This study investigated the sex differences in mRNA expression of RFC-1, FPGS, and GGH in 190 unrelated healthy Japanese people.

Pregnancy outcomes after exposure to tocilizumab: A retrospective analysis of 61 patients in Japan.

Objectives: To assess the effects of tocilizumab on pregnancy outcomes in Japanese patients with rheumatic disease.

Methods: Data from Chugai's tocilizumab safety database (April 2005 to October 2014) were retrospectively analyzed to identify pregnancy outcomes in patients exposed to tocilizumab.

Results: Data were available for 61 pregnancies exposed to tocilizumab, and outcomes were reported for 50 of those pregnancies.