Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors influence skeletal muscle pathology in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction.

Aims: Patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) exhibit skeletal muscle pathology, which contributes to symptoms and decreased quality of life. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) improve clinical outcomes in HFrEF but their mechanism of action remains poorly understood. We aimed, therefore, to determine whether SGLT2i influence skeletal muscle pathology in patients with HFrEF.

The combination of isomalto-oligosaccharides (IMO)-based dietary fiber and hypocaloric high-protein diet could improve the anthropometric profile and fasting plasma glucose of healthy adults: A repeated single-arm clinical trial.

Background And Aims: Meals with high protein and fiber could reduce weight and improve diabetes risk factors. Isomalto-oligosaccharide (IMO), a form of dietary fiber, could induce the afferent signal that causes appetite suppression. However, the direct effect of fiber supplementation in the form of IMO combined with a high-protein diet (HPF) on those parameters is still unknown.

A Piezo1/KLF15/IL-6 axis mediates immobilization-induced muscle atrophy.

Although immobility is a common cause of muscle atrophy, the mechanism underlying this causality is unclear. We here show that Krüppel-like factor 15 (KLF15) and IL-6 are upregulated in skeletal muscle of limb-immobilized mice and that mice with KLF15 deficiency in skeletal muscle or with systemic IL-6 deficiency are protected from immobility-induced muscle atrophy. A newly developed Ca2+ bioimaging revealed that the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) of skeletal muscle is reduced to below the basal level by immobilization, which is associated with the downregulation of Piezo1.

Prognostic significance of diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia in men receiving androgen-deprivation therapy for metastatic prostate cancer.

Objective: The outcome of the androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) may be affected by metabolic diseases such as diabetes mellitus (DM) and dyslipidemia and/or by their treatments. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic impact of these disorders and corresponding medications in Japanese men treated with ADT for prostate cancer.

Methods: This study retrospectively included 121 patients with metastatic prostate cancer who were treated with primary ADT at our hospital between 2001 and 2013.

Serum Prognostic Factors of Androgen-deprivation Therapy Among Japanese Men With Metastatic Prostate Cancer.

Background/aim: To date, several serum prognostic factors have been reported in metastatic prostate cancer. In this study, we examined the prognostic value of these serum markers in Japanese men.

Patients And Methods: This study included 104 patients with metastatic prostate cancer who were treated with primary androgen-deprivation therapy from 2001 to 2013.

Hyperglycemia induces skeletal muscle atrophy via a WWP1/KLF15 axis.

Diabetes mellitus is associated with various disorders of the locomotor system including the decline in mass and function of skeletal muscle. The mechanism underlying this association has remained ambiguous, however. We now show that the abundance of the transcription factor KLF15 as well as the expression of genes related to muscle atrophy are increased in skeletal muscle of diabetic model mice, and that mice with muscle-specific KLF15 deficiency are protected from the diabetes-induced decline of skeletal muscle mass.

Portable negative-pressure wound therapy for pyoderma gangrenosum: Report of two cases.

Pyoderma gangrenosum is a chronic non-infectious neutrophilic dermatosis that causes undermining ulcers. Topical therapies for the deep ulcers of pyoderma gangrenosum have not been established. To investigate whether negative-pressure wound therapy is effective for a pyoderma gangrenosum ulcer, we used the PICO single use negative-pressure wound therapy system (Smith & Nephew, London, UK) for two pyoderma gangrenosum patients.

Median-lower normal levels of serum thyroxine are associated with low triiodothyronine levels and body temperature in patients with central hypothyroidism.

Objective: Although it has been recommended that serum free thyroxine (FT4) levels should be targeted to middle-upper normal levels during levothyroxine (l-T4) replacement therapy in patients with central hypothyroidism (CeH), the rationale has not been clarified.

Methods: A retrospective single-center study enrolled 116 patients with hypothyroidism (CeH, n=32; total thyroidectomy (Tx), n=22; primary hypothyroidism (PH), n=33; and control benign thyroid nodule (C), n=29). The patients had received L-T4 therapy at the Kobe University Hospital between 2003 and 2013.

Positive resection margins may not reflect the true margin in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the hypothesis that a positive resection margin (RM1) of an excised specimen may not reflect the true margin in patients that have undergone radical prostatectomy (RP). Between September 2003 and March 2011, 370 Japanese patients underwent an antegrade RP at the National Kyushu Cancer Center (Fukuoka, Japan), however, 95 of these patients were excluded from the study due to a history of receiving hormonal therapy or insufficient preoperative clinical data. The incidence of biochemical failure (BCF) was evaluated using multivariate analysis, which revealed that the preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, pathological tumor stage, RP Gleason score and a PSA nadir <0.

Usefulness of ultra-sensitive prostate-specific antigen following radical prostatectomy.

This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of ultra-sensitive prostate-specific antigen (PSA) following radical prostatectomy (RP). Between September, 2003 and March, 2009, a total of 311 prostate cancer patients underwent antegrade RP; following the exclusion of 111 patients due to prior hormonal therapy, 200 patients were finally included in this study. The results of the multivariate analysis identified RP Gleason score, extraprostatic extension, lymph node metastasis and PSA nadir as significant predictors of biochemical failure (P=0.

Acute acalculous cholecystitis in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma treated with sunitinib: report of two cases.

Although sunitinib is associated with a variety of adverse events, cases of sunitinib-related acute cholecystitis have rarely been reported. We herein report two cases of sunitinib-related acute acalculous cholecystitis in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma. In both cases, the gallbladder was surgically removed because it was difficult to improve the patient's condition with the cessation of sunitinib and non-surgical treatment only.

Association of hyperglycemia on admission and during hospitalization with mortality in diabetic patients admitted for pneumonia.

Objective: Information available on the clinical features and outcomes of pneumonia in diabetic patients is limited. There are no data on the association between glycemic control during hospitalization and mortality in this population. The objective of this study is to examine whether the presence of hyperglycemia on admission and during hospitalization is associated with mortality in diabetic patients admitted to the hospital for pneumonia.

Linear congenital molluscum contagiosum on the coccygeal region.

Congenital molluscum contagiosum is rare but has been reported previously. We present a unique case of linear congenital molluscum on the coccygeal region. To make a correct diagnosis, avoid unnecessary examination, and start appropriate treatment as soon as possible, it is beneficial for dermatologists to be aware that molluscum contagiosum can present at birth and can be linear.

A spectrophotometric biochemical oxygen demand determination method using 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol as the redox color indicator and the eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A method to determine the spectrophotometric biochemical oxygen demand (BOD(sp)) was studied with high sensitivity and reproducibility by employing 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol (DCIP) as a redox color indicator, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and a temperature-controlling system providing a three-consecutive-stir unit. The absorbance of DCIP decreased due to the metabolism of organic substances in aqueous samples by S. cerevisiae.