Whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children for four consecutive years after the Fukushima NPP accident.

Comprehensive whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children have been conducted for four consecutive years, in 2011-2014. This represents the only long-term sampling-bias-free study of its type conducted after the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident. For the first time in 2014, a new device called the Babyscan, which has a low (134/137)Cs MDA of <50 Bq/body, was used to screen the children shorter than 130 cm.

Treatment of chronic mallet fractures using extension-block Kirschner wire.

Eleven patients with chronic mallet fractures that were seen later than four weeks after injury were treated by extension-block Kirschner wire technique. The average duration from injury to operative treatment was 56 days (range, 28-111). The follow-up evaluations took place after a mean of eight months.

Comprehensive whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children for three consecutive years after the Fukushima NPP accident.

Comprehensive whole-body counter surveys covering over 93% of the school children between the ages of 6 and 15 in Miharu town, Fukushima Prefecture, have been conducted for three consecutive years, in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Although the results of a questionnaire indicate that approximately 60% of the children have been regularly eating local or home-grown rice, in 2012 and 2013 no child was found to exceed the (137)Cs detection limit of 300 Bq/body.

Measurement of internal radiation exposure among decontamination workers in villages near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Decontamination workers may face a high risk of exposure to internal irradiation through inhalation during decontamination activities; there is, however, little previous research on the levels of internal contamination during decontamination procedures. The authors reviewed the medical records, including whole body counter measurements, of decontamination workers in villages near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to assess their levels of internal radiation exposure. In total, 83 decontamination workers were enrolled in this study.

Internal radiocesium contamination of adults and children in Fukushima 7 to 20 months after the Fukushima NPP accident as measured by extensive whole-body-counter surveys.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP accident contaminated the soil of densely-populated regions in Fukushima Prefecture with radioactive cesium, which poses significant risks of internal and external exposure to the residents. If we apply the knowledge of post-Chernobyl accident studies, internal exposures in excess of a few mSv/y would be expected to be frequent in Fukushima.Extensive whole-body-counter surveys (n = 32,811) carried out at the Hirata Central Hospital between October, 2011 and November, 2012, however show that the internal exposure levels of residents are much lower than estimated.

Reliability of Lichtman's classification for Kienböck's disease in 99 subjects.

Purpose: The objective of this research was to investigate the reliability of Lichtman's classification for Kienböck's disease.

Methods: Interobserver reliability and intraobserver reproducibility were investigated by interpreting both anteroposterior and lateral X-rays of the wrist joint twice in 99 patients with Kienböck's disease using the modified Lichtman's classification system. Observers comprised three orthopaedic surgeons, and no information was exchanged between observers either before or during the study.