Feasibility study of direct fentanyl patch introduction without prior opioid titration.

Background: Opioids are key drugs for cancer pain relief, but some patients, especially those who have gastroenterological cancers, suffer from severe opioid-induced bowel dysfunction (OBD), which reduces their quality of life. In order to achieve better pain relief, efforts to minimize OBD are required.

Methods: Between September 2006 and December 2007, 18 patients were enrolled in this feasibility study.

Detection of elevated proteins in peritoneal dissemination of gastric cancer by analyzing mass spectra data of serum proteins.

Background: Recently, several authors reported on the Protein Chip approach to analyze serum. They used SELDI-TOF-MS (surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry) to identify patients with cancers of various origins in a highly sensitive and specific manner. In the current study, a similar approach was employed to analyze the serum of patients with various stages of gastric cancer.

Analysis of long-term survivors after surgical resection for invasive pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer remains a lethal disease. Although there are many reports on the survival rates of pancreatic cancer patients after surgical resection, the clinicopathological characteristics that influence long-term survival over 5 years remain controversial. Here, we clarify the favourable prognostic factors for long-term survival.

The feasibility of Makuuchi criterion for resection of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background/aims: The Makuuchi criterion was proposed to select for the appropriate hepatectomy in an impaired liver. However, there are no comparative analyses concerning this criterion. Our purpose is to evaluate the efficacy of it.

Intrahepatic venous anastomosis formation of the right liver in living donor liver transplantation: evaluations by Doppler ultrasonography and pulse-inversion ultrasonography with Levovist.

Background: Our aim was to investigate the development of intrahepatic venous anastomoses between the middle hepatic vein (MHV) and the right hepatic vein (RHV) in adult-to-adult, living donor, liver transplantation.

Methods: Using Doppler ultrasonography, we studied the formation of venous anastomoses between the MHV tributaries for segments 5 and 8 (V5, V8) and the RHV in the liver remnants of 7 donors of a left liver, including the MHV, and in the liver grafts of 8 recipients of a right liver, without including the MHV. In 1 donor and 5 recipients, we performed pulse-inversion ultrasonography with a microbubble contrast agent to evaluate hepatic parenchymal perfusion in the drainage region of the MHV.

Intrahepatic circulatory time analysis of an ultrasound contrast agent in liver cirrhosis.

Objective: To assess the diagnostic accuracy and advantages of intrahepatic circulatory time analysis of an ultrasound contrast agent using pulse-inversion imaging as compared with recently reported noninvasive diagnostic tests for cirrhosis.

Methods: Forty patients divided into noncirrhotic (nonLC) (n = 20) and compensated cirrhotic (LC) (n = 20) groups were studied prospectively. After intravenous administration of a contrast agent, the arrival times at the hepatic artery (HA), portal vein (PV), and hepatic vein (HV) were measured by pulse-inversion imaging.