Prediction of a sustained viral response in chronic hepatitis C patients who undergo induction therapy with double filtration plasmapheresis plus interferon-β/ribavirin.

The aim of the present study was to determine predictors of a sustained virological response (SVR) with a regimen of double filtration plasmapheresis (DFPP) combined with interferon-β plus ribavirin (IFN-β/RBV) induction therapy prior to pegylated (PEG-IFN/RBV) standard of care (SOC) therapy for patients with chronic hepatitis C who had experienced SOC treatment failure. Predictors of a SVR were analyzed in chronic hepatitis C patients with genotype 1b hepatitis C virus (HCV), who had a high viral load. The patients had been unresponsive to previous IFN therapy and underwent induction therapy with IFN-β/RBV plus DFPP, which was performed five times during the same period, followed by PEG-IFN/RBV.

Advanced thymic cancer treated with carboplatin and paclitaxel in a patient undergoing hemodialysis.

A 53-year-old man with an asymptomatic anterior mediastinal tumor undergoing hemodialysis was referred to our institution. He was diagnosed with thymic basaloid carcinoma based on the findings of a chest tomography-guided biopsy and successfully treated with carboplatin (300 mg/m(2)/day) and paclitaxel (200 mg/m(2)/day) on day 1 for six three-week cycles. To our knowledge, this is the first report regarding the efficiency of a carboplatin dose-definition method based on the body surface area with paclitaxel in a hemodialysis patient.

Procalcitonin is a specific marker for detecting bacterial infection in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease accompanied by many complications, and serious infections are associated with many of the advanced therapeutics used to treat it. We assessed serum procalcitonin (PCT) levels to distinguish bacterial infection from other complications in patients with RA.

Methods: One hundred eighteen patients experiencing an RA flare, noninfectious complication of RA or its treatment, nonbacterial infection, or bacterial infection were studied.

Effective anti-TNF-alpha therapy can induce rapid resolution and sustained decrease of gastroduodenal mucosal amyloid deposits in reactive amyloidosis associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To examine the effect of anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha (anti-TNF) therapy in patients with reactive AA amyloidosis associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Fourteen patients with reactive AA amyloidosis associated with RA were prospectively evaluated. Four patients were treated with infliximab and 10 with etanercept.

Tocilizumab dramatically ameliorated life-threatening diarrhea due to secondary amyloidosis associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

Severe diarrhea improved dramatically with administration of the humanized anti-interleukin-6 receptor antibody tocilizumab (TCZ) in a patient with secondary reactive amyloidosis, which was associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A 53-year-old woman with RA went into hypovolemic shock because of severe watery diarrhea associated with gastrointestinal amyloidosis. The high-dose prednisolone therapy and glucocorticoid pulse therapy did not improve her intractable diarrhea.

The patient-based outcome of upper-extremity surgeries using the DASH questionnaire and the effect of disease activity of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

The Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) is a standardized patient-based outcome measure, which assesses integrated upper-extremity disorders. The objectives of this study were to investigate subjective outcome after upper-extremity surgeries for the patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using the DASH questionnaire (Japanese version) and to investigate the influence of disease activity on the surgical outcome using the Disease Activity Score (DAS) 28-CRP(4). Approximately 127 surgical procedures for the upper extremities in 127 patients with RA were recruited in this study.

Systematic expression profiling of the mouse transcriptome using RIKEN cDNA microarrays.

The number of known mRNA transcripts in the mouse has been greatly expanded by the RIKEN Mouse Gene Encyclopedia project. Validation of their reproducible expression in a tissue is an important contribution to the study of functional genomics. In this report, we determine the expression profile of 57,931 clones on 20 mouse tissues using cDNA microarrays.

Identification of genes regulating colorectal carcinogenesis by using the algorithm for diagnosing malignant state method.

We studied the expression profiles of various stages of colorectal tumors (adenoma (AD), seven samples; carcinoma (CA), 16 samples) by using cDNA microarrays and developed ADMS (algorithm for diagnosing malignant state) method, selecting 335 clones characteristic of CA state. We, then, applied ADMS to 12 additional samples (five from primary lesions with metastasis and seven metastases); all 16 CAs and 12 metastatic tumors were diagnosed correctly as cancerous states. Although three of the seven ADs were diagnosed as "cancerous," the large size of two of these tumors suggested their potential malignancy.