CCL28: A Promising Biomarker for Assessing Salivary Gland Functionality and Maintaining Healthy Oral Environments.

The oral cavity serves as the primary path through which substances from the outside world enter our body. Therefore, it functions as a critical component of host defense. Saliva is essential for maintaining a stable oral environment by catching harmful agents, including pathogens, allergens, and chemicals, in the air or food.

Simultaneous leaching of arsenite, arsenate, selenite and selenate, and their migration in tunnel-excavated sedimentary rocks: II. Kinetic and reactive transport modeling.

Predicting the fates of arsenic (As) and selenium (Se) in natural geologic media like rocks and soils necessitates the understanding of how their various oxyanionic species behave and migrate under dynamic conditions. In this study, geochemical factors and processes crucial in the leaching and transport of arsenite (As), arsenate (As), selenite (Se) and selenate (Se) in tunnel-excavated rocks of marine origin were investigated using microscopic/extraction techniques, column experiments, dissolution-precipitation kinetics and one-dimensional reactive transport modeling. The results showed that evaporite salts were important because aside from containing As and Se, they played crucial roles in the evolution of pH and concentrations of coexisting ions, both of which had strong effects on adsorption-desorption reactions of As and Se species with iron oxyhydroxide minerals/phases.

Simultaneous leaching of arsenite, arsenate, selenite and selenate, and their migration in tunnel-excavated sedimentary rocks: I. Column experiments under intermittent and unsaturated flow.

Rocks excavated in tunnel construction projects for roads and railways throughout Japan often leached out hazardous trace elements like arsenic (As) and selenium (Se) upon their exposure to the environment. In nature, the various oxyanionic species of As and Se not only coexist but also exhibit contrasting adsorption-desorption behaviors, so speciation is a crucial factor in their migration through natural geologic media. In this study, the leaching and transport of arsenite (As), arsenate (As), selenite (Se) and selenate (Se) in four tunnel-excavated rocks from the Cretaceous-Paleocene Yezo forearc basin were investigated using laboratory column experiments supplemented by batch leaching experiments.

Reproducibility of up-flow column percolation tests for contaminated soils.

Up-flow column percolation tests are used at laboratory scale to assess the leaching behavior of hazardous substance from contaminated soils in a specific condition as a function of time. Monitoring the quality of these test results inter or within laboratory is crucial, especially if used for Environment-related legal policy or for routine testing purposes. We tested three different sandy loam type soils (Soils I, II and III) to determine the reproducibility (variability inter laboratory) of test results and to evaluate the difference in the test results within laboratory.

Massive deep vein thrombosis after cesarean section treated with a temporary inferior vena cava filter: a case report.

A 25-year-old woman suffered a massive deep vein thrombus in her left common iliac vein extending to the inferior vena cava after an abdominal cesarean section. The massive and floating inferior vena cava thrombus was considered to pose a high risk of pulmonary thromboembolism. After placement of a temporary inferior vena cava filter via the left brachial vein, thrombolytic therapy and anticoagulation therapy were instituted.

A new nonamyloid transthyretin variant, G101S, detected by electrospray ionization/mass spectrometry. Mutations in brief no. 201. Online.

Familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy is caused by transthyretin (TTR) variants. The identification of new variants with and without amyloidosis may help to clarify the mechanism of amyloid fibril formation. We detected several variant TTRs from patients with and without symptoms of amyloidosis using mass spectrometry (MS).

[Usefulness of 99mTc-tetrofosmin myocardial scintigraphy before and after coronary intervention].

Dipyridamole-loading 99mTc-tetrofosmin myocardial scintigraphy was performed for patients with coronary artery disease who underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in order to examine whether SPECT imaging prior to treatment is useful for the determination of prognosis after coronary intervention. Thirty-six patients including 9 with angina pectoris (AP), 22 with old myocardial infarction (OMI) and 5 OMI with AP were underwent dipyridamole-loading 99mTc-tetrofosmin myocardial SPECT before and after coronary intervention. The length of follow-up was 185 +/- 107 days after PTCA.

[Two cases of breast cancer detected by 99mTc-tetrofosmin myocardial scintigraphy].

Breast cancer ranks the second position among the cancer of women in Japan. We report two cases of breast cancer detected by 99mTc-tetrofosmin. First case was 51 years old female with breast cancer (invasive papillotubular carcinoma) and dextrocardia.

Attenuation of acetylcholine-induced vasoconstriction by L-arginine is related to the progression of atherosclerosis.

To determine if L-arginine, a precursor of the endothelium-derived relaxing factor, restores endothelium-dependent dilation in human coronary arteries, we studied 21 patients in whom the lumina of the coronary arteries were angiographically smooth or slightly irregular and in whom there was a constrictor response to acetylcholine (ACh) in the left anterior descending coronary artery or the circumflex coronary artery. We examined the response to intracoronary ACh before and after infusion of L-arginine by measuring coronary diameter with quantitative angiography. Intracoronary injection of ACh produced vasoconstriction in the majority of patients with coronary risk factors.

Assessment of the severity of coronary artery disease by thallium-201 washout rate after dipyridamole infusion--a coronary hemodynamic and metabolic study.

This study examined the relationship between the myocardial washout rate (WR) of thallium-201 (201Tl) in dipyridamole scintigraphy and both coronary flow reserve (CFR) and myocardial lactate extraction rate (LER) after dipyridamole infusion in 31 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) without myocardial infarction and 16 control patients. Patients with CAD demonstrated significantly lower WR (21 +/- 17 vs 43 +/- 10%, p < 0.001), lower CFR (128 +/- 82 vs 242 +/- 89%, p < 0.

Effects of exercise and pacing loads on myocardial amino acid balance in patients with normal and stenotic coronary arteries, with special reference to branched chain amino acids.

Arterial and coronary sinus differences (A-S) of alanine, glutamate, isoleucine, leucine, valine and phenylalanine were measured in 7 control subjects and 12 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) at rest and during exercise, and in 8 controls and 21 CAD patients at rest and during pacing. Lactate, great cardiac vein flow and oxygen were also measured. However, none of these parameters distinguished CAD from controls.

[Effect of L-carnitine in patients with ischemic heart disease].

To assess the protective effects of L-carnitine (LC) infusion on ischemic heart disease, 30 patients who had angina and ischemic ECG changes during exercise were evaluated by bicycle ergometry. They were categorized in LC and non-treatment (NT) groups. There were no significant differences in age and sex between the 2 groups.

[Coronary reserve of the hypertensive heart: relationship to left ventricular hypertrophy].

We investigated the relationship between electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy with ST-changes, and coronary circulation and myocardial metabolism in 25 patients with essential hypertension (systolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 160 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 95 mmHg). No patients had abnormal coronary arteriograms. They were categorized in two groups: non-hypertrophy group; cases with no hypertrophy on echocardiograms (interventricular septum and posterior wall thickness less than or equal to 11 mm), and hypertrophy group; cases with hypertrophy (wall thickness greater than or equal to 12 mm).

[Coronary circulation, myocardial metabolism and cardiac catecholamine flux in patients with syndrome X].

To clarify the pathogenesis of syndrome X (Sx), hemodynamics, coronary circulation, myocardial lactate metabolism and cardiac catecholamine flux were studied before and during bicycle ergometry in 25 patients (pts) and these data were compared with those in 15 with effort angina (EA) and in eight controls. The results were as follows: 1. The cardiac index during exercise decreased in EA pts probably due to their coronary lesions, while those in the controls and Sx were well preserved.