Publications by authors named "Yu Higaki"

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is widely used for long-term enteral nutrition in patients unable to maintain adequate oral intake. Despite advancements in PEG techniques, complications remain a concern. We report a case of a 94-year-old bedridden man who developed significant complications after PEG placement using the pull method.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A 43-year-old woman experienced acute nausea, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, leading her to our hospital. No relevant medical history or physical abnormalities were noted. Symptoms persisted for a month, causing weight loss and abdominal bloating.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Aim: Obesity is a well-known risk factor for the development and severity of acute pancreatitis (AP), but the relationship between the abdominal visceral fat area (VFA) and mortality is unclear. We evaluated the effect of the VFA on mortality in severe AP (SAP).

Methods: This retrospective, single-center cohort study examined 119 consecutive patients with SAP from April 2009 to March 2019.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study examined the connection between acute colonic diverticulitis and colorectal cancer (CRC) to understand if colonoscopy is necessary to rule out cancer in patients with diverticulitis.
  • Researchers compared the rates of colorectal neoplasia between patients with diverticulitis and asymptomatic patients who had positive fecal immunochemical tests (FITs), analyzing data from 282 diverticulitis patients and 1819 FIT-positive patients.
  • Results showed that while the CRC rates were low and similar after matching the groups by age and sex, the adenoma detection rate (ADR) and polyp detection rate (PDR) were significantly higher in the FIT-positive group, indicating that diverticulitis patients may have fewer adenomas and polyps.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fluoroscopy-guided gastrointestinal procedures (FGPs) are increasingly common. However, the radiation exposure (RE) to patients undergoing FGPs is still unclear. We examined the actual RE of FGPs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: A blister-packaged drug might be useful to enhance the eradication of Helicobacter pylori. We investigated the effect of a blister-packaged drug for H. pylori eradication.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: It is unclear whether treatment delay affects the clinical outcomes of chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer (A-GC).

Aim: To assess whether treatment delay affects the clinical outcomes of chemotherapy in A-GC.

Methods: This single-center retrospective study examined consecutive patients with A-GC between April 2012 and July 2018.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A 42-year-old man was diagnosed with cStage IIIb malignant melanoma and underwent resection. After interferon-beta therapy, 18-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (F-FDG PET/CT) showed multiple lung metastases, and he received nivolumab (2 mg/kg) every 3 weeks, resulting in a total of 17 cycles. After treatment, F-FDG PET/CT showed a significant decrease in the size of the metastases, but he had a Grade 4 alanine aminotransferase (ALT) elevation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Japanese monkey liver contains multiple forms of dihydrodiol dehydrogenase with 3(20)alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activity. Here we have purified the major and minor forms (DD1 and DD4) of the enzyme from Cynomolgus monkey liver, and isolated cDNA species for the two enzyme forms by reverse transcription-PCR. The cDNAs encoded proteins comprising of 323 amino acids, in which the sequence identity between DD1 and DD4 was 83%.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Neuroactive steroids, such as 3alpha,5alpha-tetrahydroprogesterone (3alpha,5alpha-THP) and 3alpha,5alpha-tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone have been shown to be synthesized from progesterone in animal brains. Comparison of kinetic constants for the neuroactive steroids and their precursors among four human 3(20)alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (AKR1C1-AKR1C4) suggests that AKR1C1 and AKR1C2 are involved in the catabolism and synthesis, respectively, of the neuroactive steroids in the human brain. In our efforts to identify agents that would specifically inhibit the two enzymes, benzbromarone and 3',3",5',5"-tetrabromophenolphthalein were found to be relatively selective and potent inhibitors of AKR1C1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this report, we compared kinetic constants and products in the reduction of the neurosteroids, 3alpha,5alpha-tetrahydroprogesterone (3alpha,5alpha THP) and 3alpha,5alpha-tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone (3alpha,5alpha-THDOC), and their precursors, 5alpha-dihydroprogesterone (5alpha-DHP), 5alpha-dihydrodeoxycorticosterone (5alpha-DHDOC) and progesterone, by three isoenzymes (AKR1C1, AKR1C2 and AKR1C3) of human 3alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase. AKR1C1 efficiently reduced 3alpha,5alpha-THP, 5alpha-DHP and progesterone to their 20alpha-hydroxy metabolites, and slowly converted 5alpha-DHDOC to 3alpha,5alpha-THDOC. AKR1C2 exhibited low 20-ketoreductase activity for 3alpha,5alpha-THP and moderate 3-ketoreductase activity for 5alpha-DHP and 5alpha-DHDOC.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF