Detection of airflow limitation using the 11-Q and pulmonary function tests.

Objective: To investigate whether chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) screening that combines screening with questionnaires and pulmonary function testing is a useful method for the early detection of COPD.

Methods: A total of 3,367 subjects over 50 years of age underwent COPD screening. Two thousand five hundred and seventy-two of these subjects underwent "Ningen Dock" (a Japanese-English term for annual health checkup) examinations, regularly-scheduled checkups or screenings in outpatient clinics.

Impact of high coronary artery calcification score (CACS) on survival in patients on chronic hemodialysis.

Background: Electron-beam computed tomography (EBCT) is a noninvasive measure of coronary artery calcification and, therefore, could be a marker of developing cardiovascular disease. Whether the coronary artery calcification score (CACS) is a prognostic marker in chronic dialysis patients is not known.

Methods: In the present study, the mortality rate was observed in relation to the baseline CACS.