Volume-Outcome Relationship in Cancer Survival Rates: Analysis of a Regional Population-Based Cancer Registry in Japan.

Background: There is limited data on the relationship between hospital volumes and outcomes with respect to cancer survival in Japan. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of hospital volume on cancer survival rate using a population-based cohort database.

Methods: Using the Kanagawa cancer registry, propensity score matching was employed to create a dataset for each cancer type by selecting 1:1 matches for cases from high- and other-volume hospitals.

The role of peroral video cholangioscopy in patients with IgG4-related sclerosing cholangitis.

Background: The cholangioscopic features of IgG4-related sclerosing cholangitis (IgG4-SC) remain undefined. The aim of this study was to clarify these endoscopic features using peroral video cholangioscopy (PVCS) in IgG4-SC patients.

Methods: PVCS was performed in 33 patients: IgG4-SC (n = 13); primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC; n = 5); and cholangiocarcinoma (n = 15), which included hilar cholangiocarcinoma (HCCA; n = 5) and distal cholangiocarcinoma (DCCA; n = 10).

Rapid development of central pontine myelinolysis after recovery from Wernicke encephalopathy: a non-alcoholic case without hyponatremia.

We describe a non-alcoholic diabetic patient with central pontine myelinolysis (CPM) and Wernicke encephalopathy (WE). A 69-year-old man developed consciousness disturbance after parenteral hyperalimentation for liver abscess and sepsis. Neurological examination revealed drowsiness and no articulation.

Myelodysplastic syndrome with central diabetes insipidus manifesting hypodipsic hypernatremia and dehydration.

Central diabetes insipidus (DI) is a rare but recognized complication of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that is caused by leukemic infiltration to the hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal system. In rare patients in whom a wide region of the hypothalamus is involved, central DI results in hypodipsic hypernatremia and dehydration. Typical DI symptoms such as polydipsia, polyuria, and marked thirst are concealed in these cases, because the hypothalamic "thirst center" cannot send thirst stimuli to the cerebral cortex.