Effects of substituting sedentary time with physical activity on body mass index in Japanese adults with Down syndrome: A cross-sectional study.

Objective: and Rationale: Obesity is a health challenge for adults with Down syndrome. Therefore, a physical activity promotion program is required to prevent or reduce obesity in adults with this condition. However, there is a lack of evidence of useful risk reduction initiatives.

The Amount of Light to Vigorous Physical Activity (Met's-Hours/Day) in Children with and without Down Syndrome Attending Elementary School in Japan.

Children with Down syndrome (DS) have physical characteristics such as hypotonus of the musculature. Therefore, their attainment rate of physical activity guidelines is low, and guidelines alone may not be sufficient in assessing the amount of physical activity in children with DS. Compared with normal children (NC) of the same grade, light physical activity (LPA) must be considered while assessing physical activity of children with DS, owing to muscle hypotonia.

Syntactic development and verbal short-term memory of children with autism spectrum disorders having intellectual disabilities and children with down syndrome.

Background And Aims: Previous studies suggest that syntactic development in children with intellectual disabilities (ID) is positively correlated with verbal short-term memory (VSTM). This study investigated the characteristics of syntactic development and their relationships of VSTM in children with ID based on type.

Methods: The participants were children with ID ( = 34), including 14 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), 20 with Down syndrome (DS), with chronological ages from 8 years 10 months to 18 years 4 months and nonverbal mental ages (MA) of over 4 years, and typically developing (TD) children ( = 21) with chronological ages from 5 years 0 months to 5 years 10 months.

Donepezil significantly improves abilities in daily lives of female Down syndrome patients with severe cognitive impairment: a 24-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Objective: Down syndrome (DS) patients share certain neuropathological features with Alzheimer disease patients. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was performed to investigate the efficacy and safety of donepezil, an Alzheimer disease drug, for DS patients.

Method: Twenty-one DS patients with severe cognitive impairment were assigned to take donepezil (3 mg daily) or a placebo for 24 weeks, and evaluated for activities in daily lives by concisely modified International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) scaling system.

Mechanism of apoptosis induced by doxorubicin through the generation of hydrogen peroxide.

The main anticancer action of doxorubicin (DOX) is believed to be due to topoisomerase II inhibition and free radical generation. Our previous study has demonstrated that TAS-103, a topoisomerase inhibitor, induces apoptosis through DNA cleavage and subsequent H(2)O(2) generation mediated by NAD(P)H oxidase activation [H. Mizutani et al.

Factors influencing the overestimation of plasma vancomycin concentrations measured by the Abbott TDx technique.

The Abbott TDx technique (TDx) has been reported to overestimate the plasma concentration of vancomycin (VCM) in patients with renal failure and also in those with normal renal function. The aim of this study was to investigate factors influencing the overestimation of plasma VCM concentrations measured by TDx compared with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as a reference technique. First, the precision and accuracy of TDx and HPLC were compared using 5 weighed-in concentrations of VCM.

Amplification of C1027-induced DNA cleavage and apoptosis by a quinacrine-netropsin hybrid molecule in tumor cell lines.

We examined the effect of a newly synthesized DNA-binding ligand, quinacrine-netropsin hybrid molecule (QN), on cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and DNA strand breaks induced by an enediyne antitumor antibiotic, C1027. QN significantly enhanced C1027-induced cellular DNA strand breaks, caspase-3 activation, and DNA ladder formation, characteristic of apoptosis, in human HL-60 cells. Flow cytometry revealed that C1027-induced intracellular H(2)O(2) generation was enhanced by QN, suggesting that QN enhances C1027-induced cytotoxic effect through H(2)O(2)-mediated apoptosis.

Comparison of cyclosporine concentrations in renal transplant recipients using ACMIA and mFPIA methods.

Objective: This study investigated the performance and data comparability of a new, relatively specific immunoassay method, affinity column mediated immunoassay (ACMIA) run on the Dimension Xpand-HM, and the established less specific monoclonal fluorescence polarization immunoassay (mFPIA) method on the TDx analyzer (mFPIA/TDx) in determining cyclosporine (CsA) concentrations.

Methods: Accuracy and within and between-run precision were tested. Then we measured CsA concentrations of 216 samples obtained from 51 patients and divided the 113 samples from 21 patients with renal transplants into two groups based on sampling time.

DNA intrastrand cross-link at the 5'-GA-3' sequence formed by busulfan and its role in the cytotoxic effect.

Busulfan (1,4-butanediol dimethanesulfonate) has been used widely for the treatment of patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia. Busulfan is bifunctional and thus may effectively induce DNA damage, which may play an important role in the cytotoxicity. In this study, we compared the cytotoxicity of bifunctional busulfan with that of monofunctional ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) in human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells.

Steroid-induced diabetes mellitus and related risk factors in patients with neurologic diseases.

Study Objective: To determine the frequency of steroid-induced diabetes mellitus (SDM) and the related risk factors in patients with neurologic diseases who receive high doses of steroids.

Design: Retrospective chart review.

Setting: Neurology ward of a university-affiliated hospital.

[Successful treatment by tacrolimus in two patients with Osserman's grade III intractable myasthenia gravis and elderly IIb].

Tacrolimus, a potent immunosuppressive agent, has recently become available for the treatment of myasthenia gravis (MG). However, few reports have evaluated the usefulness of tacrolimus in the elderly and in intractable MG classified as Osserman's grade IIb or higher. In this study, we examined the effects of tacrolimus in two patients with postthymectomy Osserman's grade III and IIb MG.

Fever as a risk factor causing delayed elimination of methotrexate in pediatric patients receiving high doses of cancer chemotherapy.

Purpose: Delayed elimination of methotrexate (MTX) has been reported to be caused by a number of factors. In order to identify these causes, we retrospectively investigated the risk factors for delayed elimination in pediatric patients who received high doses of MTX.

Subjects And Methods: The study included 69 courses of therapy involving 22 patients who received more than 1000 mg/m(2) of MTX.

Comparative evaluation of digoxin concentrations determined by three assay systems: TDx, IMx and OPUS.

Digoxin concentrations measured by three automated immunoassay systems, i.e. OPUS, TDx and IMx assays, were compared in order to evaluate precision and accuracy performance, and data compatibility.

Relationship between development of nephrotoxicity and blood concentration of cyclosporine A in bone-marrow transplanted recipients who received the continuous intravenous infusion.

This study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between blood concentration of cyclosporine A (CsA), administered intravenously by a 24-h continuous infusion, and drug-induced nephrotoxicity or hepatotoxicity. It was investigated retrospectively in 8 patients who had received an allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT). The correlation between daily doses and blood concentration of CsA was not significant.

Distinct mechanisms of site-specific oxidative DNA damage by doxorubicin in the presence of copper(II) and NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase.

The anticancer mechanism of doxorubicin (DOX), an anthracycline antibiotic, is believed to involve DNA damage through topoisomerase II inhibition and free radical generation. The free radical generation may also participate in genotoxicity, as well as cardiotoxicity, in normal human cells. The present study showed that DOX generates 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG), an indicator of oxidative DNA damage, in HL-60 cells, but not in H(2)O(2)-resistant HP100 cells, suggesting the involvement of H(2)O(2) in cellular DNA damage.

Oxidative DNA damage induced by photodegradation products of 3(')-azido-3(')-deoxythymidine.

3(')-Azido-3(')-deoxythymidine (AZT) is carcinogenic to experimental animals and can cause the formation of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2(')-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG) in humans and animals. To clarify the mechanism of carcinogenesis by AZT, we investigated DNA damage induced by its photodegradation products, using 32P-5(')-end-labeled DNA fragments obtained from human genes. Following exposure to UVB, AZT induced DNA damage in the presence of Cu(II).

Clinical efficacy of therapeutic drug monitoring in patients receiving vancomycin.

Efficacy of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of vancomycin (VCM) was retrospectively investigated in 184 patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. The incidence of nephrotoxicity was compared between the patients who received TDM practice (TDM group, n=73) and did not (non-TDM group, n=111). Creatinine clearance (CLcr) values decreased significantly after the VCM therapy in the non-TDM group (p<0.

Mechanism of apoptosis induced by a new topoisomerase inhibitor through the generation of hydrogen peroxide.

TAS-103, a new anticancer drug, induces DNA cleavage by inhibiting the activities of topoisomerases I and II. We investigated the mechanism of TAS-103-induced apoptosis in human cell lines. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis revealed that in the leukemia cell line HL-60 and the H(2)O(2)-resistant subclone, HP100, TAS-103 induced DNA cleavage to form 1-2-Mb fragments at 1 h to a similar extent, indicating that the DNA cleavage was induced independently of H(2)O(2).