[Establishment of Rapid Simultaneous Analysis Method for Plant Toxins by LC-TOF-MS].

Assuming food poisoning caused by toxic plants, an LC-TOF-MS-based method for the rapid and simultaneous analysis of 16 plant toxins was established. After adding water-methanol (1 : 9) and n-hexane, the samples were homogenized and extracted, and then subjected to centrifugal separation. Without any purification procedures, LC-TOF-MS measurements were performed, and qualitative and quantitative analyses using monoisotopic ion [M+H]+ (m/z) were conducted.

A Case of Post-cataract Surgery Endophthalmitis Successfully Treated with Conservative Therapy.

Background: Postoperative endophthalmitis after cataract surgery often requires emergency surgery if caused by an infection. However, early reoperation after the surgery put a heavy mental burden on the patient. Here we report a relatively mild case of postoperative endophthalmitis in which emergency surgery was avoided through careful observation including gram stain and culture test.

Vertebral Endplate Cyst Formation in Relation to Properties of Interbody Cages.

Objective: This retrospective study aimed to compare vertebral endplate cyst formation (VECF), an early predictor for pseudoarthrosis, in different types of interbody cages.

Methods: We reviewed 84 cases treated with single-level posterior/transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion. We utilized a polyetheretherketone cage in 20 cases (group P), a titanium cage in 16 cases (group Ti), a titanium-coating polyetheretherketone cage in 13 cases (group TiP) and a porous tantalum cage in 35 cases (group Tn).

Early Development of Syringomyelia after Spinal Cord Injury: Case Report and Review of the Literature.

We report a case of post-traumatic syringomyelia (PTS), which developed 2 months after spinal cord injury (SCI). A 20-year-old man who was involved in a motorcycle accident sustained a complete SCI resulting from a burst fracture of the T5 vertebral body. He underwent posterior fixation with decompression at another hospital 2 days after the injury.

[Analysis of Post-Recurrence Survival of Resected Lung Cancer with Brain Metastasis].

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the post-recurrence survival of 37 cases with brain metastases out of 439 consecutive resected cases of primary lung cancer between 2001 and 2017.

Findings: There was no difference in survival according to tumor size but survival was significantly shorter in patients with larger numbers of tumors. Patients initially treated with stereotactic radiosurgery(SRS)or surgical resection survived longer than those with whole-brain irradiation(WBI)(median survival: 23 months for SRS, 17 months for surgical resection, and 4 months for WBI: p<0.

Adult Case of Atlantoaxial Rotatory Fixation Treated with In Situ Fixation Using an Unusual Posterior Instrumentation Construct.

Atlantoaxial rotatory fixation (AARF) occurs commonly in children who have undergone trauma. It is usually corrected with conservative therapy. In this report, however, the patient was an adult with AARF who was treated surgically.

An estimation of the average residence times and onshore-offshore diffusivities of beached microplastics based on the population decay of tagged meso- and macrolitter.

Residence times of microplastics were estimated based on the dependence of meso- and macrolitter residence times on their upward terminal velocities (UTVs) in the ocean obtained by one- and two-year mark-recapture experiments conducted on Wadahama Beach, Nii-jima Island, Japan. A significant linear relationship between the residence time and UTV was found in the velocity range of about 0.3-0.

TwiMed: Twitter and PubMed Comparable Corpus of Drugs, Diseases, Symptoms, and Their Relations.

Background: Work on pharmacovigilance systems using texts from PubMed and Twitter typically target at different elements and use different annotation guidelines resulting in a scenario where there is no comparable set of documents from both Twitter and PubMed annotated in the same manner.

Objective: This study aimed to provide a comparable corpus of texts from PubMed and Twitter that can be used to study drug reports from these two sources of information, allowing researchers in the area of pharmacovigilance using natural language processing (NLP) to perform experiments to better understand the similarities and differences between drug reports in Twitter and PubMed.

Methods: We produced a corpus comprising 1000 tweets and 1000 PubMed sentences selected using the same strategy and annotated at entity level by the same experts (pharmacists) using the same set of guidelines.

Report of a familial case of proatlas segmentation abnormality with late clinical onset.

Although proatlas segmentation abnormalities as developmental remnants around the foramen magnum have been reported in postmortem studies, they are rarely documented in a clinical setting. This report details the clinical and radiological characteristics of a rare case of proatlas segmentation abnormalities with clinical onset during the seventh decade of life. This case was suspected to have a familial factor.

Clinical outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention for acute coronary syndrome between hospitals with and without onsite cardiac surgery backup.

Background: Based on the 2011 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) guideline, it is recommended that PCI should be performed at hospital with onsite cardiac surgery. But, data suggest that there is no significant difference in clinical outcomes following primary or elective PCI between the two groups. We examined the impact of with or without onsite cardiac surgery on clinical outcomes following PCI for acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

Fortnightly atmospheric tides forced by spring and neap tides in coastal waters.

The influence of sea surface temperature (SST) on atmospheric processes over the open ocean has been well documented. However, atmospheric responses to SST in coastal waters are poorly understood. Oceanic stratification (and consequently, SST) in coastal waters largely depends on the fortnightly spring-neap tidal cycle, because of variations in vertical tidal mixing.

Influence of weather conditions on the frequent onset of acute myocardial infarction.

Background: This study was conducted to clarify the influence of weather conditions on the onset of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Kumamoto.

Methods: We studied 642 consecutive patients (males 433, females 209; 71±13 years) who were admitted with AMI. Days of frequent onset (F-days) were defined as days on which ≥2 patients had been admitted for AMI, whereas days of non-frequent onset (N-days) indicated those with fewer than 2 admissions for AMI.

Differential Effects of Strong and Regular Statins on the Clinical Outcome of Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease Following Coronary Stent Implantation - The Kumamoto Intervention Conference Study (KICS) Registry.

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of different statins on the clinical outcomes of Japanese patients with coronary stent implants.

Methods And Results: This study included 5,801 consecutive patients (males, 4,160; age, 69.7±11.

Feasibility of virtual 3-Fr percutaneous coronary intervention using standard guiding catheters.

Introduction: Recent studies have reported the efficacy of sheathless percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using hydrophilic-coated 5-Fr guiding catheters that are one to two Fr sizes smaller in diameter than the corresponding introducer sheath (virtual 3-Fr PCI). However, the limited number of shapes of hydrophilic-coated guiding catheters occasionally makes them difficult to engage and control.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of virtual 3-Fr PCI using standard guiding catheters of various shapes.

Effects of ASKP1240 combined with tacrolimus or mycophenolate mofetil on renal allograft survival in Cynomolgus monkeys.

Background: Blocking the CD40-CD154 signal pathway has previously shown promise as a strategy to prevent allograft rejection. In this study, the efficacy of a novel fully human anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody-ASKP1240, administered as a monotherapy or combination therapy (subtherapeutic dose of tacrolimus or mycophenolate mofetil), on the prevention of renal allograft rejection was evaluated in Cynomolgus monkeys.

Methods: Heterotopic kidney transplants were performed in ABO-compatible, stimulation index 2.

Characterization of ASKP1240, a fully human antibody targeting human CD40 with potent immunosuppressive effects.

Blocking the CD40-CD154 interaction is reported to be effective for transplantation management and autoimmune disease models in rodents and nonhuman primates. However, clinical trials with anti-CD154 mAbs were halted because of high incidence of thromboembolic complications. Thus, we generated and characterized a fully human anti-CD40 mAb ASKP1240, as an alternative to anti-CD154 mAb.

Successful percutaneous coronary intervention using a 4-in-3 "Slender Mother and Child" PCI technique.

We report two cases of successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using a 4-in-3 "Slender Mother and Child" PCI technique. In both cases, coronary angiography revealed severe stenosis of the right coronary artery (RCA). In both cases, 5-Fr sheathless guiding catheters were inserted into the RCA (virtual 3-Fr PCI) but stents could not pass through because of stents previously implanted at the proximal site of the target lesions.

Potassium concentration on admission is an independent risk factor for target lesion revascularization in acute myocardial infarction.

Background: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is accompanied by excessive production of catecholamines, which is characterized by a hypokalemic dip. A polymorphism of the adrenergic receptor has also been reported to be associated with target lesion revascularization (TLR) after coronary intervention.

Subjects And Methods: We enrolled 276 consecutive patients with AMI within 24 hours of symptom onset, who underwent emergency coronary intervention using bare metal stents and had examinations over a 5-10-month follow-up period.

Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of ASKP1240, a fully human anti-CD40 antibody, in normal and renal transplanted Cynomolgus monkeys.

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the serum concentration of ASKP1240 (pharmacokinetics [PK]) and the CD40 occupancy of ASKP1240 (pharmacodynamics [PD]) in normal and renal transplanted Cynomolgus monkeys to clarify the PK/PD relationship.

Methods: In a 70-day study, two ASKP1240 doses (2 and 5 mg/kg) were evaluated in normal and transplanted monkeys. Full doses were administered during the induction phase, and half doses were administered during the maintenance phase.

Acute myocardial infarction caused by left anterior descending artery occlusion presenting as inferior ST elevation and anterior ST depression.

We report a case of acute myocardial infarction caused by left anterior descending artery occlusion presenting as ST elevation in the inferior leads and ST depression in the precordial leads, suggesting an involvement of the right coronary artery (RCA). However, coronary angiography (CAG) showed a complete occlusion of the proximal left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery and collaterals from the left circumflex coronary artery and the RCA. Although he underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), he had chest pain at four days after primary PCI.

Current cigarette smoking is an independent risk factor for subacute stent thrombosis in acute myocardial infarction patients.

Background: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is prevalent and has serious consequences including re-infarction and death. Cigarette smoking is a coronary risk factor for AMI, although a "smoker's paradox" for AMI has been reported in Western countries. On the other hand, some researchers have reported that smoking is associated with subacute stent thrombosis (SAST) after AMI.

A case of postpartum spontaneous coronary artery dissection.

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection is rare and usually affects younger women in the peripartum period. Here, we report an interesting case of a 34-year-old woman with spontaneous coronary artery dissection that occurred 1 month after childbirth. Emergency coronary angiography showed stenosis of the left anterior descending artery, but immediately afterwards, a new occlusion of the right coronary artery occurred.

Inhibition of antigen-induced airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness in guinea pigs by a selective antagonist of "chemoattractant receptor homologous molecule expressed on Th2 cells" (CRTH2).

Chemoattractant receptor homologous molecule expressed on T helper type 2 cells (CRTH2) is a PGD2 receptor found on eosinophils, basophils, and Th2 type T cells which exhibits chemotaxis and functions in activation cascades. However, while a number of CRTH2 antagonists, including ramatroban, are known to exert activity in certain animal models, activity in a guinea pig model of EA-induced airway hyperresponsiveness has not been demonstrated. The newly developed CRTH2 antagonist ASP5642 has shown antagonistic activity against human and guinea pig CRTH2 in previous studies and has also been found effective in treating guinea pig models of airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness.