Publications by authors named "Seiki Y"

Objectives: Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) plays an important role in the diagnosis of pancreatobiliary diseases. However, an appropriate sedation method for EUS has not been established. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the safety and complications of sedation with pentazocine or pethidine hydrochloride for outpatient diagnostic EUS.

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Antiapoptotic protein, including Mcl-1, expression is frequently observed in pancreatic cancer. Gemcitabine plus nabpaclitaxel (GnP) is the standard chemotherapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer (MPC); however, predictive markers for its efficacy remain unestablished. This study evaluated the association between GnP's therapeutic effects and Mcl-1 expression in tissue samples obtained using endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) for pancreatic tumor or percutaneous ultrasound-guided biopsy for metastatic liver tumor.

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  • The study investigated the detection of gBRCA mutations in pancreatic cancer patients and the effectiveness of olaparib maintenance therapy for those mutations.
  • Out of 84 patients tested, 11.9% had gBRCA mutations, with a higher mutation rate found in individuals with a family history of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC).
  • Most patients who received olaparib after platinum-based chemotherapy showed positive responses, with a median treatment duration of 17.5 months for chemotherapy and 11 months for olaparib maintenance therapy.
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  • Patients with advanced pancreatic cancer often suffer from taste disturbances (dysgeusia) and zinc deficiency during chemotherapy, prompting a study on the effects of zinc supplementation.
  • A study involving 33 patients evaluated the impact of zinc acetate hydrate over 12 weeks, finding significant increases in serum zinc levels and gradual improvement in taste issues—a 42.4% improvement by the end of the study.
  • The results suggest that zinc supplementation not only enhances taste perception but may also help maintain nutritional status, as evidenced by stable serum albumin levels in patients who responded to treatment.
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  • Endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition (EUS-TA) is important for diagnosing pancreatic cancer and initiating targeted therapies, but sample insufficiency is a common issue that needs to be addressed.
  • A study conducted at the Osaka International Cancer Institute involved 42 patients, comparing the effectiveness of oil blotting paper versus filter paper for fixing EUS-TA samples for analysis.
  • Results showed that samples fixed with oil blotting paper had significantly larger tissue areas and a higher frequency of abundant tumor cells, suggesting it enhances sample adequacy for molecular testing.
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Introduction: Portal vein aneurysm (PVA) is a rare saccular or fusiform portal vein dilatation. The management and optimal treatment of PVA remain unknown.

Case Presentation: A 53-year-old man with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was diagnosed with PVA measuring 28 mm in diameter.

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  • The study investigates the effectiveness of chemotherapy for older adults (≥70 years) with metastatic biliary tract cancer (BTC), a common issue since most BTC patients are diagnosed in this age group.
  • Using data from a large Japanese cancer registry, researchers analyzed the outcomes of 207 older patients with metastatic BTC to determine how chemotherapy impacts their overall survival compared to best supportive care.
  • Results showed that chemotherapy significantly improved survival rates (6.4 months vs. 1.8 months) in patients under 80, while treatment types varied by age; younger patients often received combination therapy, whereas older patients tended to undergo monotherapy.
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Background: Nanoliposomal irinotecan (nal-IRI) plus 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)/levo-leucovorin (Levo-LV) was approved for unresectable pancreatic cancer (UR-PC) in March 2020 in Japan. Levo-LV is administered by intravenous infusion over 120 min following 90 min intravenous infusion of nal-IRI (conventional method), causing a significant burden on both patients and the outpatient chemotherapy room owing to the prolonged administration time. Thus, from July 2021, we introduced the simultaneous intravenous administration of nal-IRI and Levo-LV (parallel method) with the approval of the institutional regimen committee.

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  • Pancreatic cancer (PC) has a poor prognosis, and this study examines how hospital volume affects outcomes in patients with metastatic PC using a decade's worth of data from the Osaka Cancer Registry.
  • The research categorizes hospitals into high-volume, middle-volume, and low-volume based on the number of PC diagnoses, analyzing overall survival (OS) rates among these groups.
  • Findings show that patients treated at high-volume hospitals have significantly better OS compared to those at middle and low-volume hospitals, indicating that hospital volume is an important factor in treatment outcomes for metastatic PC.
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Given the safety issues associated with flammability characteristics of alternative environmentally-friendly refrigerants, it is vital to establish measurement systems to accurately analyse the flammability of these mildly flammable refrigerants. In this study, we used a customised Hartmann bomb analogue to measure the minimum ignition energy (MIE) and laminar burning velocity (BV) for refrigerant/air mixtures of pure ammonia (R717), R32, R1234yf and mixtures of R32 and R1234yf with non-flammable refrigerants of R134a, R125 and carbon dioxide (R744). The MIEs of R717, R32, and R1234yf were measured at an ambient temperature of 24 °C to be (18.

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Background: Monitoring of intracranial pressure (ICP) is considered to be fundamental for the care of patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and is routinely used to direct medical and surgical therapy. Accordingly, some guidelines for the management of severe TBI recommend that treatment be initiated for ICP values >20 mmHg. However, it remained to be accounted whether there is a scientific basis to this instruction.

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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is widely known to cause dynamic changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF). Ischemia is a common and deleterious secondary injury following TBI. Detecting early ischemia in TBI patients is important to prevent further advancement and deterioration of the brain tissue.

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  • - Trisomy 8 (+8) is a common chromosomal abnormality linked to myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and can also appear in aplastic anemia (AA), suggesting varied underlying issues.
  • - A study of 53 patients revealed that 26% had higher levels of GPI-AP(-) cells, which are associated with immune dysfunction, and those patients showed better responses to immunosuppressive therapy (IST).
  • - Both overall and event-free survival rates were high at 5 years for +8 patients, and assessing GPI-AP(-) cells in blood could guide treatment decisions for those with AA or low-risk MDS.
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Laparoscopic duodeno-jejunal bypass with sleeve gastrectomy (DJB-SG) has been introduced as a novel metabolic surgery from Asia recently. It provides benefits of avoiding the risk of remnant gastric cancer, minimization of malnutrition from duodenal switch. Here, we introduce the technique of single-loop anastomosis duodeno-jejunal bypass with sleeve gastrectomy (SADJB-SG) and compare with other gastric bypass surgeries.

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Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is widely known to cause dynamic changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF). In particular, secondary brain insults have been reported to decrease CBF. The purpose of this study was to clarify the cerebral circulation in different types of TBI.

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Although myelodysplastic syndromes are heterogeneous disorders comprising a benign subset of bone marrow failure similar to aplastic anemia, no laboratory test has been established to distinguish it from bone marrow failures that can evolve into acute myeloid leukemia. Plasma thrombopoietin levels were measured in 120 patients who had myelodysplastic syndrome with thrombocytopenia (< 100 × 10(9)/L) to determine any correlation to markers associated with immune pathophysiology and outcome. Thrombopoietin levels were consistently low for patients with refractory anemia with excess of blasts, while patients with other myelodysplatic syndrome subsets had more variable results.

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Mutation of the phosphatidylinositol N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase subunit A (PIG-A) gene in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) results in the loss of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) on HSCs, but minimally affects their development, and thus can be used as a clonal maker of HSCs. We analyzed GPI-APs expression on six major lineage cells in a total of 574 patients with bone marrow (BM) failure in which microenvironment itself is thought to be unaffected, including aplastic anemia (AA) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). GPI-APs-deficient (GPI-APs(-) ) cells were detected in 250 patients.

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Aims: Neurointensive care has reduced the mortality and improved the outcome of patients for severe brain damage, over recent decades, and made it possible to perform this therapy in safety. However, we have to understand the complications of this therapy well. The purpose of our study was to determine the systemic circulation disturbance during the initiation of therapeutic hypothermia by using this continuous neurointensive monitoring system.

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Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) causes dynamic changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF), and results in delayed ischemia due to vasospasm, and early perfusion deficits before delayed cerebral vasospasm (CVS). The present study examined the severity of cerebral circulatory disturbance during the early phase before delayed CVS and whether it can be used to predict patient outcome. A total of 94 patients with SAH underwent simultaneous xenon computed tomography (CT) and perfusion CT to evaluate cerebral circulation on Days 1-3.

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  • A study of 22 patients with bone marrow failure and deletion of chromosome 13q (del(13q)) found that all were diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome-unclassified due to the lack of obvious dysplasia.
  • Patients with del(13q) alone showed elevated levels of a specific type of deficient blood cells, and 100% of them responded positively to immunosuppressive therapy, resulting in a 10-year survival rate of 83%.
  • The research concluded that myelodysplastic syndrome-unclassified with del(13q) is primarily benign, with a low risk of progression to acute myeloid leukemia, suggesting that del(13q) should not
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Purpose: Small but repeated head trauma, as represented by boxing-related punch-drunk syndrome and dementia pugilistica, occasionally cause dyskinesia and marked brain dysfunction following long-term post-traumatic follow-up, despite the absence of intracranial lesions, such as cerebral contusion and intracranial hemorrhage. We defined this condition as "cumulative head injury." To clarify its mechanism, we conducted an experiment involving appliciation of continuous head trauma of Tokai High Avoider (THA) rats, and examined subsequent marked function/histopathological changes.

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Protein phosphorylation plays a key regulatory role in a variety of cellular processes. To better understand the function of protein phosphorylation in seed maturation, a PCR-based cloning method was employed and five cDNA clones (pvcipk1-5) for protein kinases were isolated from a cDNA library prepared from immature seeds of kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.).

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Background And Purpose: Hyponatremia is common after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). It is caused by natriuresis, which induces osmotic diuresis and decreases blood volume, contributing to symptomatic cerebral vasospasm (SCV). Hypervolemic therapy to prevent SCV will not be efficient under this condition.

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