Inquiry Into Physicians' Scope of Practice in Japanese Rural Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction Physicians' scope of practice (SoP) depends on clinical settings and is related to how motivated they feel. The clarification and differences in the SoP in each clinical setting are necessary for physicians' careers. This study aimed to investigate how coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affected physicians' SoP.

Persistent tachycardia within isolated pulmonary veins during atrial fibrillation ablation.

During circumferential pulmonary vein (PV) isolation for ongoing atrial fibrillation (AF), distinguishing passive conduction to the pulmonary vein (PV) from rapid PV arrhythmia in the isolated PV is difficult. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate both the feasibility of distinguishing the PV tachycardia after circumferential PV isolation and the electrophysiological characteristics of these tachycardia. Among 178 consecutive patients who underwent circumferential PV isolation during ongoing AF, fibrillatory PV converted to a regular cycle length PV tachycardia independent of the atrial rhythm (=independent PV tachycardia) in 13 PVs among 12 (7%) patients.

Mobile and accurate detection system for infection by the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus with a pocket-warmer reverse-transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification.

The 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza A virus spread quickly worldwide in 2009. Since most of the fatal cases were reported in developing countries, rapid and accurate diagnosis methods that are usable in poorly equipped laboratories are necessary. In this study, a mobile detection system for the 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus was developed using a reverse-transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) kit with a disposable pocket-warmer as a heating device (designated as pwRT-LAMP).

LAMP using a disposable pocket warmer for anthrax detection, a highly mobile and reliable method for anti-bioterrorism.

A quick, reliable detection system is necessary to deal with bioterrorism. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is a DNA amplification method that can amplify specific DNA fragments in isothermal conditions. We developed a new highly mobile and practical LAMP anthrax detection system that uses a disposable pocket warmer without the need for electricity (pocket-warmer LAMP).