Publications by authors named "Noriko Kinoshita"

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most common cause of endocrine hypertension. Unilateral PA can be cured using unilateral adrenalectomy (Adx). PA surgery outcome (PASO) criteria, which include clinical and biochemical outcomes, have been proposed to evaluate PA cure after Adx.

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  • COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and researchers studied the levels and effectiveness of antibodies in the plasma of 30 patients who had recovered from the disease.
  • They measured two types of antibodies (anti-spike and anti-nucleocapsid) and found varying levels, with some patients exhibiting significant neutralization activity against several variants of the virus.
  • The study revealed that while IgG antibodies were mostly effective against many variants, they showed reduced effectiveness against the beta and omicron variants, indicating a complex relationship between antibody presence and virus neutralization.
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Background: For addressing antibiotic overuse, Japan designed a health care policy in which eligible medical facilities could claim a financial reward when antibiotics were not prescribed for early-stage respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. The policy was introduced in a pilot manner in paediatric clinics in April 2018.

Methods: We conducted a quasi-experimental, propensity score-matched, difference-in-differences (DID) design to determine whether the nationwide financial incentives for appropriate non-prescribing of antibiotics as antimicrobial stewardship [800 JPY (≈7.

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  • The study aimed to establish simpler criteria for triaging COVID-19 patients by examining the relationship between COVID-19 severity and the presence of fatty liver using CT scans at a large hospital during the early pandemic.
  • Researchers analyzed data from 222 COVID-19 patients, categorizing their condition as severe or non-severe based on official guidelines, and noted varying levels of fatty liver in the participants.
  • Results indicated that the presence of fatty liver, along with age, was significantly linked to severe COVID-19 cases, suggesting that CT scans could be useful in quick patient triage in emergency situations.
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  • The study investigates the effectiveness of a new automated antigen test (QAT) for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in patients, particularly focusing on its ability to differentiate between early and late infection stages.
  • Researchers analyzed specimens from 68 COVID-19 patients, finding that the QAT had high sensitivity and specificity, especially in early stages of infection, with an ideal cutoff value established at 6.93 pg/mL.
  • The findings suggest that QAT is reliable for diagnosing early COVID-19 and could aid in quickly identifying patients who are no longer contagious.
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Background: In 2016, the Japanese government set the National Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance to reduce antibiotic prescriptions. However, the trends and variations of antibiotic prescription patterns in a routine healthcare setting during the fiscal year 2013-2018 across different clinics at a national level are unclear.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included all clinics with >100 pediatric outpatients with infectious diseases per month during the fiscal year 2013-2018 using a national database in Japan.

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Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to spread around the world. In addition to community-acquired infections, nosocomial infections are also a major social concern. The likelihood of environmental contamination and transmission of the virus based on disease severity is unknown.

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Introduction: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has spready globally. This report describes the person-to-person transmission of the virus in a hospital setting.

Presentation Of Case: A 63-year-old man with pneumonia and a 70-year-old man without symptoms were admitted to a tertiary hospital with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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The subclinical severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection rate in hospitals during the pandemic remains unclear. To evaluate the effectiveness of our hospital's current nosocomial infection control measures, we conducted a serological survey of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (immunoglobulin [Ig] G) among the staff of our hospital, which is treating coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.The study design was cross-sectional.

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can be detected in the stool samples of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and this virus can be transmitted via the oral-fecal route. However, there are only few reports on the viral load in the stool samples. In this pilot study, we aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics and viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in the stool samples of 13 patients with confirmed COVID-19 using pepper mild mottle virus as a control, which has been proposed as a potential marker of human feces contamination in the environmental water bodies.

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Rapid antigen tests (RATs) for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have advantages over viral culture in terms of cost and rapidity of testing, but they have low sensitivity. In addition, RATs tend to be negative from approximately 11 days after symptom onset. To determine whether the antigen-negative state indicates a lack of infectiousness, we assessed the association between viral culture and RAT results.

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was announced as an outbreak by the World Health Organization (WHO) in January 2020 and as a pandemic in March 2020. The majority of infected individuals have experienced no or only mild symptoms, ranging from fully asymptomatic cases to mild pneumonic disease. However, a minority of infected individuals develop severe respiratory symptoms.

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Introduction: "Re-infection" with COVID-19 is a growing concern; re-infection cases have reported worldwide. However, the clinical characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 re-infection, including the levels and role of anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein IgG antibodies and the half-maximal concentration (IC) of neutralizing antibodies remain unknown.

Methods: Both the epidemiological and clinical information has been collected during two episodes of COVID-19 in a patient.

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  • - Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a tick-borne illness caused by a virus, previously known as SFTSV.
  • - A case study reports a patient experiencing various symptoms like fatigue, hair loss, and insomnia during recovery from SFTS, suggesting similarities with symptoms in other viral hemorrhagic fevers.
  • - The findings indicate that ongoing monitoring of SFTS patients during the recovery phase may be crucial due to the potential for persistent symptoms.
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HLA-A, -C, -B, and -DRB1 genotypes were analyzed in 178 Japanese COVID-19 patients to investigate the association of HLA with severe COVID-19. Analysis of 32 common HLA alleles at four loci revealed a significant association between HLA-DRB1*09:01 and severe COVID-19 (odds ratio [OR], 3.62; 95% CI, 1.

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While there are various attempts to administer COVID-19-convalescent plasmas to SARS-CoV-2-infected patients, neither appropriate approach nor clinical utility has been established. We examined the presence and temporal changes of the neutralizing activity of IgG fractions from 43 COVID-19-convalescent plasmas using cell-based assays with multiple endpoints. IgG fractions from 27 cases (62.

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Despite the increase in COVID-19 cases globally, the number of cases in Japan has been relatively low, and an explosive surge in the prevalence has not occurred. In March 2020, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) in Japan recommended the original criteria for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, although there was a lack of evidence for appropriate targets for COVID-19 testing. This study aimed to evaluate the COVID-19 positive ratio and pre-screening criteria in Tokyo immediately after the insurance-covered SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing became available in Japan.

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  • An increase in myeloid cells is a key feature of severe COVID-19, but previous research focused mainly on Europe, where the mortality rates are higher compared to Japan.
  • A study of blood samples from Japanese COVID-19 patients showed that polymorphonuclear myeloid-derived suppressor cells (PMN-MDSCs) increased in severe cases but not in milder cases, and this expansion was seen in survivors but not in those who did not survive.
  • The findings suggest that the presence of PMN-MDSCs correlates with higher levels of IL-8 and is linked to better clinical outcomes, indicating that this cell type may serve as a potential predictor for recovery in severe COVID-19 patients in Japan.
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Introduction: Among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the factors that affect anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibody production remain unclear. This study aimed to identify such factors among patients convalescing from COVID-19.

Methods: This study comprised patients who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 between January 1 and June 30, 2020 and gave consent for anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibody measurement using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay during their acute and/or convalescent phases.

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Tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine is generally used for booster vaccination of infants in Europe and the United States to avoid increased reactogenicity after diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccination. However, Japan has extended the use of additional DTaP vaccination without reducing the antigen dose for diphtheria and pertussis in adolescents and adults, despite limited reports on its safety in adults. This prospective, observational, questionnaire-based study investigated the occurrence of adverse events (AEs) following DTaP vaccination between June 2018 and June 2019 in participants aged 10 years or older.

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