Population-based study of a free rubella-specific antibody testing and immunization campaign in Chiba city in response to the 2018-2019 nationwide rubella outbreak in Japan.

Japan has not been able to eliminate rubella; as a result, the large rubella epidemic has occurred. Considering the complicated history of the vaccine policy in Japan, some susceptible populations became infected with rubella, resulting in an outbreak. We conducted a large serosurveillance against rubella in Chiba city after initiating free rubella-specific antibody testing and an immunization campaign during 2018-2019.

Drinking hydrogen water enhances endurance and relieves psychometric fatigue: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study .

Acute physical exercise increases reactive oxygen species in skeletal muscle, leading to tissue damage and fatigue. Molecular hydrogen (H) acts as a therapeutic antioxidant directly or indirectly by inducing antioxidative enzymes. Here, we examined the effects of drinking H water (H-infused water) on psychometric fatigue and endurance capacity in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled fashion.

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-producing lung cancer and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-producing lung cancers are known to cause extreme leukocytosis. However, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by G-CSF-producing lung cancer is extremely rare. We present a case of G-CSF-producing lung cancer with marked leukocytosis, which rapidly led to severe ARDS after the patient developed pneumonia.

Response of meningeal carcinomatosis from breast cancer to capecitabine monotherapy: a case report.

A 62-year-old woman with breast cancer received neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by breast-conserving surgery and sentinel node biopsy. During adjuvant endocrine therapy with aromatase inhibitor, she developed multiple bone metastases. Thereafter, she received tamoxifen and zoledronate therapy.

Postoperative tetanus after laparoscopic obturator hernia repair for strangulated ileus: report of a case.

This report presents the case of an 84-year-old woman who developed tetanus 3 days after the resection of a gangrenous small intestine caused by obturator hernia incarceration. The diagnosis of tetanus was clinically made after the appearance of generalized spastic contractions with opisthotonus. Clostridium tetani organisms residing in the gastrointestinal tract were presumed to have been endogenously inoculated into the strangulated intestine, where it produced tetanospasmin, causing tetanus.

Epidermal growth factor receptor mutations are associated with docetaxel sensitivity in lung cancer.

Introduction: A recent large randomized controlled trial revealed that patients with lung cancer with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations had better prognoses when treated with the EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor, gefitinib, than with cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents. Lung cancer with EGFR mutations is highly sensitive to EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The previous trial implied that EGFR mutations might be predictive of the response to cytotoxic chemotherapy.

Histoculture drug response assay for gefitinib in non-small-cell lung cancer.

Objective: There are many predictive factors for gefitinib sensitivity, including epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutation, EGFR copy number, and k-ras mutation. To investigate all of them is too expensive. We evaluated the chemosensitivity for gefitinib in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using a histoculture drug response assay (HDRA).

[Safety and efficacy of weekly paclitaxel followed by FEC100 as primary systemic therapy for breast cancer].

The efficacy and safety of primary systemic therapy with weekly paclitaxel (wPTX; 80 mg/m2) followed by FEC100 (cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m2, epirubicin 100 mg/m2, 5-fluorouracil 500 mg/m2)were investigated in 52 patients with stage I-III A locally advanced breast cancer. Clinical response was complete in 30 patients (58%) and partial in 19 patients (37%). Pathological complete response was found in 23 primary lesions and 17 sentinel and/or sampling lymph nodes.

UTGB/medaka: genomic resource database for medaka biology.

Medaka (Oryzias latipes) is a small egg-laying freshwater teleost native to East Asia that has become an excellent model system for developmental genetics and evolutionary biology. The draft medaka genome sequence (700 Mb) was reported in June 2007, and its substantial genomic resources have been opened to the public through the University of Tokyo Genome Browser Medaka (UTGB/medaka) database. This database provides basic genomic information, such as predicted genes, expressed sequence tags (ESTs), guanine/cytosine (GC) content, repeats and comparative genomics, as well as unique data resources including (i) 2473 genetic markers and experimentally confirmed PCR primers that amplify these markers, (ii) 142,414 bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) and 217,344 fosmid end sequences that amount to 15.

The medaka draft genome and insights into vertebrate genome evolution.

Teleosts comprise more than half of all vertebrate species and have adapted to a variety of marine and freshwater habitats. Their genome evolution and diversification are important subjects for the understanding of vertebrate evolution. Although draft genome sequences of two pufferfishes have been published, analysis of more fish genomes is desirable.

Data acquisition for the histoculture drug response assay in lung cancer.

Objective: Application of the histoculture drug response assay for lung cancer was investigated by using data acquired from lung cancer specimens.

Methods: From May 1994 through February 2005, histoculture drug response assay data were obtained from 359 lung cancer specimens held in our institute. We examined chemosensitivities of the tissues to cisplatin, doxorubicin, mitomycin C, 5-fluorouracil, docetaxel, paclitaxel, etoposide, irinotecan, and gemcitabine.

Radiofrequency ablation therapy in patients with breast cancers two centimeters or less in size.

Background: Non-surgical ablation is an attractive approach as a local control method for breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the complications and efficacy of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) therapy for breast cancer.

Methods: A total of 52 patients with breast cancer were enrolled.

Low-dose L-arginine administration increases microperfusion of hindlimb muscle without affecting blood pressure in rats.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of exogenous L-arginine on the capillary blood flow of peripheral tissues of normotensive subjects. Rats were anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital, and the blood flow of femoral, dorsal, and ventral skin and gastrocnemius and soleus muscle was measured by laser Doppler flow and microsphere methods to compare the blood flow before and after the L-arginine infusion. L-arginine lowered the mean blood pressure in a dose-dependent manner, but a statistically significant reduction in mean blood pressure was detected only at a high dose of 500 mg/kg of body weight.

The key to improving prognosis for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage remains in the pre-hospitalization period.

Background: Despite advances in neurosurgical management, aneurismal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) still has high mortality and morbidity. This study aimed to clarify how delaying hospital admission after aSAH contributes to worse prognosis even today and to find the possibility for an improvement of its prognosis by early admission.

Methods: Four hundred twenty-one consecutive patients are the basis for this study.

Approach to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome at Tokyo Dental College, Ichikawa General Hospital.

In this communication, we report the current status of OSAS (Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome) in the southern region of Higashikatsushika around Ichikawa City, our effort to improve patient QOL as well as to establish diagnostic and therapeutic methods, and the results of a comparison of therapeutic options with the focus on improvement of compliance by using nCPAP (nasal continuous positive airway pressure). We examined 112 patients who visited the Otolaryngology Department at Tokyo Dental College, Ichikawa General Hospital, with the chief complaint of nocturnal snoring or sleep apnea from January 2001 to April 2003 and underwent all-night PSG (polysomnography). Based upon the results of these all-night PSGs, 89 and 23 patients were diagnosed as having OSAS and simple snoring, respectively.

A case of unknown origin subarachnoid hemorrhage immediately following drainage for chronic subdural hematoma.

A 56-year-old man treated with anticoagulants complained of a gradually worsening headache. A left chronic subdural hematoma (CSH) was shown by head computed tomographic (CT) scans and the operation, one burr hole surgery under local anesthesia, itself was performed uneventfully. However, immediately after we began draining the hematoma at the patient's bedside, the patient complained of a sudden headache.

Extracranial vertebral artery aneurysm ruptured into the thoracic cavity with neurofibromatosis type 1: case report.

Objective And Importance: We are sometimes involved in the care of patients with neurofibromatosis Type 1 because of the associated disorders of cervicocerebral vessels. However, extracranial vertebral artery aneurysm in neurofibromatosis Type 1 is very rare. We present the first reported case of a rupture of an extracranial vertebral artery aneurysm into the thoracic cavity in a patient with neurofibromatosis Type 1.

Genome sequence of the ultrasmall unicellular red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae 10D.

Small, compact genomes of ultrasmall unicellular algae provide information on the basic and essential genes that support the lives of photosynthetic eukaryotes, including higher plants. Here we report the 16,520,305-base-pair sequence of the 20 chromosomes of the unicellular red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae 10D as the first complete algal genome. We identified 5,331 genes in total, of which at least 86.

Dose-dependent effect of capsaicin on endurance capacity in rats.

The present study was designed to determine the effects of various levels of capsaicin (CAP) on endurance capacity in forty-nine male Sprague-Dawley rats, aged 4 weeks, which were assigned to four groups. Rats were given orally either control (0) or 6, 10 or 15 mg CAP/kg body weight 2 h before exercise by stomach intubations using a round-ended needle. The rats in each group were divided into two subgroups for resting or swimming exercise.

Capsaicin increases endurance capacity and spares tissue glycogen through lipolytic function in swimming rats.

The influences of various doses of capsaicin on endurance capacity remain to be clarified. The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not capsaicin delays stored tissue glycogen depletion. Rats were orally given either a vehicle or a dose of capsaicin, 6, 10, or 15 mg/kg of body weight, 2 h before exercise.

Immobilization on the day 14th does not disrupts the basic diurnal rhythm of bone resorption.

Weight bearing and physical activity are important mechanical stimuli to bone growth and metabolism, and microgravity, such a space flight and/or bed rest, induces bone resorption and bone loss. An increased excretion of urinary Ca, an increased bone resorption and a decreased bone mineral density (BMD) have been observed in bed rest experiment of healthy subjects. Bone resorption markers show the specific circadian rhythms in human.