Hemodialysis patients born with a low birth weight should have a different time course of kidney diseases than those born with a normal birth weight.

Low birth weight (LBW) is thought to be one of the risk factors for the progression of kidney diseases. This study hypothesized that the onset age of kidney disease, the rate of progression of kidney disease, or the age at the time of hemodialysis (HD) induction among HD patients that were born with LBW is different from those without a history of LBW. A questionnaire survey in nine dialysis units in Japan was performed and 427 answer sheets were collected.

p53AIP1 expression can be a prognostic marker in non-small cell lung cancer.

Aims: p53AIP1 is a potential mediator of p53-dependent apoptosis that is mutated in many kinds of carcinoma. To investigate the role of this gene for non-small cell lung cancer, we compared the relationship between p53AIP1 gene expression and clinicopathological status of lung cancer.

Materials And Methods: Seventy samples from non-small cell lung cancer patients were obtained between 1997 and 2003.

Down-regulation of the human PRL-3 gene is associated with the metastasis of primary non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Phosphatase of the regenerating liver (PRL)-3 protein tyrosine phosphatase gene is expressed in colon cancer metastasis. To investigate the role of this gene in metastatic lung cancer, we compared PRL-3 gene expression between primary cancers, metastatic lung cancer, and normal lung tissue.

Materials And Methods: Five metastatic tumor and normal samples from non-small cell lung cancer patients were obtained at the National Hospital Organization Kumamoto Medical Center (Kumamoto, Japan).

Survivin expression predicts early recurrence in early-stage breast cancer.

Background: The apoptosis inhibitor survivin is one of the most specific proteins in breast cancer patients. The role of this protein in predicting prognosis is still controversial.

Patients And Methods: Survivin mRNA was measured using quantitative TaqMan reverse transcription-PCR in 76 samples, including 48 early-stage breast cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues, from patients with operable tumors, and was tested for correlation with established clinicopathological factors, or disease-free survival (DFS).

[Mitral valve stenosis associated with a floating ball thrombus in the left atrium; report of a case].

A floating ball thrombus in the left atrium is relatively a rare case. A 70 year-old female patient who showed a symptom of heart failure was admitted to our hospital. By echocardiography, the mass in the dilated left atrium was appeared to be a floating ball thrombus, and the patient was diagnosed to be mitral valve stenosis.