Nurse's difficulty and their educational needs regarding pediatric cancer care in Japan.

Aim: Aiming at environmental arrangements for pediatric cancer patients and their families to receive appropriate medical care and support with a sense of security, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare designated 15 hub hospitals for childhood cancer. These hub hospitals have established networks with approximately 200 centers/hospitals treating pediatric cancer. In order to promote equal access to nursing, we investigated nurses' difficulties and needs at these treatment hospitals with limited experience in pediatric cancer nursing.

Prevalence of bloodstream isolates from patients in two hospitals in Vietnam.

Background And Objectives: Identification of yeasts provides helpful information for appropriate administration of anti-fungal treatments; however, few reports from the Vietnam have been published. This study has been performed to find the prevalence of blood stream isolates from patients in two hospitals in Vietnam.

Materials And Methods: spp.

Chemical synthesis of an indomethacin ester prodrug and its metabolic activation by human carboxylesterase 1.

It is necessary to consider the affinity of prodrugs for metabolic enzymes for efficient activation of the prodrugs in the body. Although many prodrugs have been synthesized with consideration of these chemical properties, there has been little study on the design of a structure with consideration of biological properties such as substrate recognition ability of metabolic enzymes. In this report, chemical synthesis and evaluation of indomethacin prodrugs metabolically activated by human carboxylesterase 1 (hCES1) are described.

Lack of predictive power of plasma lipids or lipoproteins for gestational diabetes mellitus in Japanese women.

Aims/introduction: To determine the diagnostic potential of plasma lipids and apolipoproteins in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), we carried out a retrospective cohort study of 1,161 Japanese women at 20-28 weeks of gestation who underwent a glucose challenge test (GCT).

Materials And Methods: A total of 1,161 Japanese women at 20-28 weeks of gestation underwent a GCT. Participants with a positive test (GCT[+]) underwent a subsequent oral glucose tolerance test.

Color-changing mutation in the E-F loop of proteorhodopsin.

It is usually assumed that only amino acids located near the retinal chromophore are responsible for color tuning of rhodopsins. However, we recently found that replacement of Ala178 with Arg in the E-F loop of proteorhodopsin (PR), an archaeal-type rhodopsin in marine bacteria, shifts the lambda(max) from 525 to 545 nm at neutral pH [Yoshitsugu, M., Shibata, M.

Halide binding by the D212N mutant of Bacteriorhodopsin affects hydrogen bonding of water in the active site.

Bacteriorhodopsin (BR), a membrane protein found in Halobacterium salinarum, functions as a light-driven proton pump. The Schiff base region has a quadrupolar structure with positive charges located at the protonated Schiff base and Arg82, and the counterbalancing negative charges located at Asp85 and Asp212. The quadropole inside the protein is stabilized by three water molecules, forming a roughly planar pentagonal cluster composed of these waters and two oxygens of Asp85 and Asp212 (one from each carboxylate side chain).

[A case of type 1 diabetes mellitus in an elderly patient with a history of idiopathic portal hypertension].

The patient is a 71-year-old woman who underwent splenectomy after the diagnosis of idiopathic portal hypertension (IPH) at the age of 51 years. Thirst and polyuria occurred in December 1995. In April 1996, she was hospitalized for assessment because of elevation of her blood glucose and HbA1c levels to 535 mg/dl and 14.

Close association between high serum alanine aminotransferase levels and multicentric hepatocarcinogenesis in patients with hepatitis C virus-associated cirrhosis.

Background: Multicentric development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a characteristic feature of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-associated cirrhosis (HCV-LC). In this study, the objective was to determine whether the persistent elevation of the serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level, which represents the inflammatory necrosis of hepatocytes, is correlated with the multicentric development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with early-stage HCV-LC.

Methods: Ninety-three consecutive patients with biopsy proven HCV-LC (Child Stage A) who had been followed for > 5 years for the development of HCC were studied.

[Emphysematous cystitis and neuropathy; a report of the case with diabetes mellitus].

A study was made of a 55 years old male, who suffered from emphysematous cystitis with diabetes mellitus. He had multiple complications due to diabetic neuropathy such as foot ulceration, oculomotor nerve palsy, peroneal nerve palsy and a neurogenic bladder. Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonous aeruginosa were cultured from urine specimens.

Significant increase in prostaglandin E-main urinary metabolite by laxative administration: comparison with ulcerative colitis.

Objective: To assess the production of prostaglandin E(2), an important chemical mediator in diarrhea induced by laxative administration, a prostaglandin E-main urinary metabolite (7alpha-hydroxy-5,11-diketotetranor-prosta-1,16-dioic acid, PGE-MUM) was measured in healthy volunteers and compared with the values of patients with ulcerative colitis.

Methods: PGE-MUM was determined by a simplified immunoassay of bicyclic PGE-MUM and analyzed for the influence of laxative administration and active/remission phases of ulcerative colitis.

Results: Administration of laxatives induced a significant increase in PGE-MUM in healthy volunteers.

[Endocrine disturbances in liver cirrhosis--focused on sex hormones].

Various endocrine disturbances are often observed in the patients with liver cirrhosis. We focused this paper on the sex hormones. Clinical features of male cirrhotic subjects are feminization(gynecomastia etc) and hypogonadism(testicular atrophy, reduced fertility, loss of libido, impotence etc).

Reduced sialylation of glycoproteins in nasal glands of patients with chronic sinusitis.

This study was conducted to investigate the sialylations of glycoproteins in the nasal glands of patients with chronic sinusitis. Sialic acids were detected using lectin histochemistry, and the mRNA of sialyltransferase was evaluated by in situ hybridization histochemistry. Sambucus nigra agglutinin (SNA), which recognizes terminal sialic acids, strongly stained the glandular mucous cells of normal subjects, but not those of patients with chronic sinusitis.

Results of dacryocystorhinostomy in 96 patients.

Between years 1895 and 1995, 112 patients underwent dacryocystorhinostomy in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at Tampere University Hospital. A questionnaire considering the recent symptoms of patients was sent to 108 patients. Four of the patients have died.

Effects of oxygen radicals on ciliary motility in cultured human respiratory epithelial cells.

There are few reports about direct effects of specific oxygen products on ciliary function because of their instability and reactivity. We investigated the direct effects of superoxide anion (O2-) and of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on the ciliary function of human respiratory epithelial cells, using monolayer cell cultures, high speed video analysis of frequency (CBF), amplitude (CBA), and coordination of ciliary beats and evaluating the surface structural changes of ciliated cells at the same time. 10(-2) M H2O2 decreased ciliary beat activity.

Effect of exogenous ATP and physical stimulation on ciliary function impaired by bacterial endotoxin.

The effects of exogenous ATP and physical stimulation on ciliary beat depressed by lipopolysaccharide from Pseudomonas aeruginosa were studied in cell culture. Both the ciliary beat frequency (CBF) and the amplitude (CBA) of human respiratory cells in monolayer cell cultures were studied by using a differential interference microscope equipped with a high speed video. Both the ATP and the physiol stimulation stimulated temporarily the depressed CBF and CBA.

Ciliary motility and surface morphology of cultured human respiratory epithelial cells during ciliogenesis.

We used human respiratory epithelial cells in floating culture to study the motility and surface morphology of the cilia during ciliogenesis. Ciliary motility and surface morphology was examined by a high-speed video system and electron microscopy, respectively. On day 8 of floating culture, but rarely before, cells with numerous moving short cilia with mean ciliary beat frequency (CBF) of 17.

Effect of exogenous ATP on ciliary beat of human ciliated cells studied with differential interference microscope equipped with high speed video.

To study the detailed effects of exogenous adenosine triphosphate (ATP) on ciliary function, we used the differential interference microscope equipped with high speed video and evaluated ciliated cells from the human sinus mucosa in monolayer culture. With this system it was possible to evaluate all parts of ciliary motility with a minimum of interference from the mucous membrane, secretory cells and the autonomic nervous system. The best direct ciliostimulative effect of exogenous ATP on ciliary beat frequency (CBF) and ciliary beat amplitude (CBA) was observed at concentrations of ATP ranging from 10(-5) M to 10(-3) M.

Degeneration of human respiratory cell ciliary beat in monolayer cell cultures.

The degeneration of ciliary beat of human respiratory cells was studied in monolayer cell cultures by using a differential interference microscope equipped with a high speed video system. This method for studying ciliary beat in cell cultures on collagen-coated cover glasses is quite advantageous, because it allows for detailed study of all parts of ciliary function and not just ciliary beat frequency (CBF). In the present study both CBF and ciliary beat amplitude (CBA) were found to decrease continuously from the 1st day after plating but the wave form of ciliary beat did not change.

[A chronic alcoholic patient with the development of frank diabetes after heavy drinking and perfect improvement following abstinence from alcohol].

We experienced a chronic alcoholic patient in whom a large intake of alcohol led to the development of frank clinical diabetes, and glucose intolerance and insulin deficiency improved perfectly following abstinence from alcohol. The patient was a 31-year-old male with no diabetes among his relatives. He was a heavy drinker since 12 years, and especially had a large intake of alcohol from Dec.