Impact of the lipase inhibitor orlistat on the human gut microbiota.

Orlistat, an anti-obesity agent, inhibits the metabolism and absorption of dietary fat by inactivating pancreatic lipase in the gut. The effect of orlistat on the gut microbiota of Japanese individuals with obesity is unknown. This study aimed to explore the effects of orlistat on the gut microbiota and fatty acid metabolism of Japanese individuals with obesity.

Efficacy and Safety of Lipase Inhibitor Orlistat in Japanese with Excessive Visceral Fat Accumulation: 24-Week, Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study.

Introduction: Orlistat is an inhibitor of pancreatic lipase and is used as an anti-obesity drug in many countries. However, there are no data available regarding the effects of orlistat on visceral fat accumulation in Japanese subjects. Therefore, this comparative, placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of orlistat in Japanese participants with excessive visceral fat accumulation and without dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension ("metabolic diseases").

Reduction of Excessive Visceral Fat and Safety with 52-Week Administration of Lipase Inhibitor Orlistat in Japanese: Long-Term Clinical Study.

Introduction: Orlistat is an inhibitor of pancreatic lipase and is used as an anti-obesity drug in many countries. However, there are no data available regarding the effects of orlistat on visceral fat (VF) accumulation in Japanese individuals. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the efficacy and safety of 52 weeks of orlistat administration in Japanese individuals.

The (oxalato)aluminate complex as an antimicrobial substance protecting the "shiro" of Tricholoma matsutake from soil micro-organisms.

Tricholoma matsutake, a basidiomycete, forms ectomycorrhizas with Pinus densiflora as the host tree. Its fruiting body, "matsutake" in Japanese, is an edible and highly prized mushroom, and it grows in a circle called a fairy ring. Beneath the fairy ring of T.

A qPCR assay that specifically quantifies Tricholoma matsutake biomass in natural soil.

Tricholoma matsutake is an ectomycorrhizal basidiomycete that produces prized, yet uncultivable, "matsutake" mushrooms along densely developed mycelia, called "shiro," in the rhizosphere of coniferous forests. Pinus densiflora is a major host of this fungus in Japan. Measuring T.

Diagnostic accuracy of bone metastases detection in cancer patients: comparison between bone scintigraphy and whole-body FDG-PET.

Unlabelled: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) has become widely available and an important oncological technique. To evaluate the influence of PET on detection of bone metastasis, we compared the diagnostic accuracy of PET and conventional bone scintigraphy (BS) in a variety of cancer patients.

Methods: Consecutive ninety-five patients with various cancers, who received both PET and BS within one month, were retrospectively analyzed.

What is the most appropriate scan timing for intraoperative detection of malignancy using 18F-FDG-sensitive gamma probe? Preliminary phantom and preoperative patient study.

Purpose: To evaluate the appropriate post-injection timing for hand-held-gamma-ray-detecting probe (GDP) scanning for the intraoperative detection of malignancy after preoperative F-18 FDG (FDG) injection.

Methods: Patient study with superficially located cancer was performed on three patients before operation by dual-phase whole-body PET at 2 and 6-7 hr post-injection of FDG (370 MBq), and by probe scanning from the skin at several points at 1, 3, 5, and 7 hr after FDG injection. TNRa (tumor-adjacent-normal ratio) and TNRc (tumor-contralateral-normal ratio) were calculated.

[Reduction of reconstruction time and data volume of sinogram by angular compression for clinical three-dimensional whole body FDG-PET].

In positron emission tomography (PET), the large number of lines of responses in three-dimensional (3D) acquisition mode creates a high volume of sinogram data and increases reconstruction time in iterative reconstruction. We tried to decrease sinogram data volume by reducing the number of views using angular compression and then evaluated the accuracy of this mashed mode. Three methods were compared, conventional mode (CONV), X2 mashed mode (X2: two adjacent projection angles are added together), and X4 mashed mode (X4: four adjacent angles added).

Clinical value of FDG-PET in the follow up of post-operative patients with endometrial cancer.

Objective: The clinical usefulness of FDG-PET in the follow up of post-operative patients with endometrial cancer was retrospectively evaluated.

Methods: Twenty-one post-operative patients with endometrial cancer received 30 FDG-PET examinations to evaluate recurrence or response to treatment. The findings of FDG-PET were compared with their serum levels of tumor markers, CT and/or MRI findings, and the final outcome.

Determination of D- and L-pipecolic acid in food samples including processed foods.

Background: Pipecolic acid, a metabolite of lysine, is found in human physiological fluids and is thought to play an important role in the central inhibitory gamma-aminobutyric acid system. However, it is unclear whether plasma D- and L-pipecolic acid originate from oral food intake or intestinal bacterial metabolites.

Methods: We analyzed the contents of D- and L-pipecolic acid in several processed foods including dairy products (cow's milk, cheese and yogurt), fermented beverages (beer and wine) and heated samples (beef, bovine liver, bread and tofu) to clarify the relationship between plasma D- and L-pipecolic acid and dietary foods.

[Evaluation of median filtering after reconstruction with maximum likelihood expectation maximization (ML-EM) by real space and frequency space].

Maximum likelihood expectation maximization (ML-EM) image quality is sensitive to the number of iterations, because a large number of iterations leads to images with checkerboard noise. The use of median filtering in the reconstruction process allows both noise reduction and edge preservation. We examined the value of median filtering after reconstruction with ML-EM by comparing filtered back projection (FBP) with a ramp filter or ML-EM without filtering.

Causes of appearance of scintigraphic hot areas on thyroid scintigraphy analyzed with clinical features and comparative ultrasonographic findings.

This study was done retrospectively to analyze the ultrasonographic (US) findings in thyroid scintigraphic hot areas (HA). Three-thousand, eight-hundred and thirty-nine consecutive patients who underwent 99mTc-pertechnetate (n = 3435) or 123I (n = 457) scintigraphy were analyzed. HA were regarded as present when the tracer concentration was greater than the remaining thyroid tissue, or when hemilobar uptake was observed.