Investigation of annexin A5 as a biomarker for Alzheimer's disease using neuronal cell culture and mouse model.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) differs from other forms of dementia in its relation to amyloid beta peptide (Abeta). Abeta, a proteolytic product of amyloid precursor proteins (APP), has a toxic effect on neuronal cells, which involves perturbation of their Ca(2+) homeostasis. This effect implies that changes of protein expression in neuronal cells with calcium stress should provide a molecular marker for this disease.

[Lymph nodes mapping for detection of sentinel nodes in patients with papillary thyroid cancer].

We examined the feasibility of sentinel lymph node biopsy for papillary thyroid cancer. In the dye injection method, 1% of isosulfan blue dye was injected around the tumor of 32 patients intra-operatively, and in the radioisotope (RI) colloid injection method, 99mTc-tin colloid was injected in 23 patients 1 day preoperatively. Lymph node mapping for detection of sentinel nodes was performed after thyroidectomy and central and modified lateral neck lymph node dissections.

Preoperative assessment of multicentric occurrence in synchronous small and multiple hepatocellular carcinoma based on image-patterns and histological grading of non-cancerous region.

Recent studies have shown that the prognosis of patients with multicentric occurrence (MO) of hepatocellullar carcinoma (HCC) after curative resection, whether synchronous or metachronous, is significantly better than that of patients with intrahepatic metastasis (IM). We attempted to elucidate a group with high probability of MO of HCC by comparing the preoperative ultrasonography (US), computed tomography during arterial portography (CTAP) and CT arteriography (CTA) images with the histological grading of the non-cancerous region of the liver. The imaging and pathological characteristics of 97 nodules in 45 patients diagnosed as having small (<5cm) and oligonodular HCCs preoperatively were investigated.