Renoprotective effects of docosahexaenoic acid in cats with early chronic kidney disease due to polycystic kidney disease: a pilot study.

Objectives: Lipids containing n-3 fatty acids have been reported to have protective effects on renal function, with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) expected to be particularly effective. However, no reports have demonstrated the renoprotective effects of DHA-enriched lipids in cats with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Therefore, the aim of this pilot study was to examine the renoprotective effects of DHA-enriched fish oil in cats.

Prognostic values of muscle mass assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and bioelectrical impedance analysis in older patients with heart failure.

Aim: This study aimed to compare bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in measuring skeletal muscle mass (MM), and its prognostic implications in old patients with heart failure.

Methods: We prospectively evaluated MM measured by both BIA and DEXA in 226 hospitalized elderly (≥65 years) patients with heart failure. The cut-off values proposed by the Asian Working Group in Sarcopenia were used to define low MM.

Detection and molecular characteristics of Rhytidodoides sp. (Digenea: Rhytidodidae) from the gall bladder of green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Ogasawara Islands, Japan.

Trematodes of the genus Rhytidodoides are parasitic in marine turtles. Of the already known species, Rhytidodoides similis Price, 1939, occurs especially in the gall bladder. In this study, we surveyed 73 green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Ogasawara Islands, Japan, and detected Rhytidodoides sp.

Cognitive impairment measured by Mini-Cog provides additive prognostic information in elderly patients with heart failure.

Background: There has been no study elucidating whether cognitive impairment (CI) can provide additive prognostic information besides that provided by preexisting prognostic factors in elderly patients with heart failure. This study examined whether CI can provide additive prognostic information in elderly patients with heart failure.

Methods: This multicenter retrospective study included 352 patients with heart failure aged ≥75 years.

Pharmacist-led intervention in the multidisciplinary team approach optimizes heart failure medication.

We evaluated the impact of pharmacist-led heart failure (HF) drug recommendations during hospitalization for hospitalized patients with HF. Hospitalized patients with HF were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were hospitalized before (n = 208, non-intervention group) or after (n = 170, intervention group) the launch of the HF multidisciplinary team (HFMDT) approach with pharmacist-led HF medication optimization.

A laboratory data-based evaluation of the efficacy and safety of generic pravastatin sodium for long-term use.

Background: Increasing the use of generic drugs may reduce the growing healthcare spending. Nevertheless, in Japan, the generic drug market share remains low compared to that of European countries and the United States, mainly because of the general distrust of generic drugs. To address this problem, we retrospectively evaluated the efficacy and safety of the long-term use of generic pravastatin sodium in a study from January 2008 to December 2011.

D3h -Symmetric Porphyrin-Based Rigid Macrocyclic Ligands for Multicofacial Multinuclear Complexes in a One-Nanometer-Sized Cavity.

The one-step synthesis of D3h -symmetric cyclic porphyrin trimers 1 composed of three 2,2'-[4,4'-bis(methoxycarbonyl)]bipyridyl moieties and three porphyrinatozinc moieties was achieved from a nickel-mediated reductive coupling of meso-5,15-bis(6-chloro-4-methoxycarbonylpyrid-2-yl)porphyrinatozinc. Although cyclic trimers 1 were obtained as a mixture that included other cyclic and acyclic porphyrin oligomers, an extremely specific separation was observed only for cyclic trimers 1 when using columns of silica gel modified with pyrenylethyl, cyanopropyl, and other groups. Structural analysis of cyclic trimers 1 was carried out by means of NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography.