"Real-time" risk models of postoperative morbidity and mortality for liver transplants.

Aim: A comprehensive description of morbidity and mortality risk factors for post liver transplant has not been available to date. In this study, we established real-time risk models of postoperative morbidities and mortality in liver transplant recipients using two Japanese nationwide databases.

Methods: Data from two Japanese nationwide databases were combined and used for this study.

Effect of impaired renal function on the maintenance dose of warfarin in Japanese patients.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) alters dose-effect relationship not only of drugs eliminated by the kidney but also of some drugs metabolized by the liver and not renally excreted. It is not known whether impaired renal function alters dose-effect relationship of warfarin in Asian patients. It is also unknown whether the maintenance dose of warfarin can be predicted more accurately by incorporating renal function in Asians.

Impaired nitric oxide production and increased blood pressure in systemic heterozygous ATP2B1 null mice.

Background: In the 'Millennium Genome Project', we identified ATP2B1 as a gene responsible for hypertension through single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis. The ATP2B1 gene encodes the plasma membrane calcium ATPase isoform 1, which contributes to the maintenance of intracellular calcium homeostasis by removing calcium ions.

Method: Since ATP2B1 knockout mice are reported to be embryo-lethal, we generated systemic heterozygous ATP2B1 null (ATP2B1(+/-)) mice, and evaluated the implication of ATP2B1 in blood pressure.

Mice lacking hypertension candidate gene ATP2B1 in vascular smooth muscle cells show significant blood pressure elevation.

We reported previously that ATP2B1 was one of the genes for hypertension receptivity in a large-scale Japanese population, which has been replicated recently in Europeans and Koreans. ATP2B1 encodes the plasma membrane calcium ATPase isoform 1, which plays a critical role in intracellular calcium homeostasis. In addition, it is suggested that ATP2B1 plays a major role in vascular smooth muscle contraction.

Cardiac-specific activation of angiotensin II type 1 receptor-associated protein completely suppresses cardiac hypertrophy in chronic angiotensin II-infused mice.

We cloned a novel molecule interacting with angiotensin II type 1 receptor, which we named ATRAP (for angiotensin II type 1 receptor-associated protein). Previous in vitro studies showed that ATRAP significantly promotes constitutive internalization of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor and further attenuates angiotensin II-mediated hypertrophic responses in cardiomyocytes. The present study was designed to investigate the putative functional role of ATRAP in cardiac hypertrophy by angiotensin II infusion in vivo.

[Interstitial pneumonitis followed by syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion induced by amiodarone therapy for dilated cardiomyopathy: a case report].

An 87-year-old man had been treated under a diagnosis of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy and sick sinus syndrome since 1996. His heart failure was worsened by atrial fibrillation in August 2004. He received amiodarone from October 2004.