Postoperative Changes in Body Composition After Pancreaticoduodenectomy Using Multifrequency Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis.

Background: Nutritional status is one of the most important clinical determinants of outcome after surgery. The aim of this study was to compare changes in the body composition of patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD), distal gastrectomy (DG), or total gastrectomy (TG).

Methods: The parameters of body composition were measured using multifrequency bioelectrical impedance analysis with an inBody 720 (Biospace Inc.

Characteristics and trends of emergency patients with drug overdose in Osaka.

Aim: Drug overdose is an important issue in emergency medicine. However, studies covering overdose patients transported by ambulance have not been sufficiently carried out. We attempted to clarify problems of suspected drug overdose patients transported by ambulance.

Aryl hydrocarbon receptor and kynurenine: recent advances in autoimmune disease research.

Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is thought to be a crucial factor in the regulation of immune responses. Many AHR-mediated immunoregulatory mechanisms have been discovered, and this knowledge may enhance our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of autoimmune inflammatory syndromes such as collagen-induced arthritis, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, and experimental colitis. Recent findings have elucidated the critical link between AHR and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) in the development of regulatory T cells and Th17 cells, which are key factors in a variety of human autoimmune diseases.

LeuO enhances butyrate-induced virulence expression through a positive regulatory loop in enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli.

Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) causes bloody diarrhoea and other severe symptoms such as haemorrhagic uraemic syndrome. The expression of virulence genes on the locus for enterocyte effacement (LEE) and associated genes is regulated by a variety of factors, including transcriptional regulators and environmental signals. Butyrate, one of the major short-chain fatty acids present in the intestine, enhances expression of LEE genes and flagella biosynthesis genes in EHEC O157:H7, resulting in increased bacterial adherence and motility.

[CONs].

In 2012, USA Preventive Services Task Force revised the guidelines for prostate cancer screening and recommended against prostate specific antigen(PSA)-based screening for prostate cancer for all age groups. This revision had a great impact worldwide. Immediately after the announcement, many expert societies expressed disagreement with this revision, but some of these have gradually come to accept it.

Usefulness of the insulin tolerance test in patients with type 2 diabetes receiving insulin therapy.

Aims/introduction: To establish the validity of the plasma glucose disappearance rate (KITT), derived from an insulin-tolerance test (ITT), for evaluating the insulin sensitivity of patients with type 2 diabetes after insulin therapy.

Materials And Methods: In the first arm of the study, 19 patients with poorly controlled diabetes were treated with insulin and underwent an ITT and a euglycemic clamp test (clamp-IR). The relationship between the insulin resistance index, as assessed by both the clamp-IR and KITT tests, was examined.

Diagnostic criteria for acute-onset type 1 diabetes mellitus (2012): Report of the Committee of Japan Diabetes Society on the Research of Fulminant and Acute-onset Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus.

Type 1 diabetes is a disease characterized by destruction of pancreatic β-cells, which leads to absolute deficiency of insulin secretion. Depending on the manner of onset and progression, it is classified as fulminant, acute-onset or slowly progressive type 1 diabetes. Here, we propose the diagnostic criteria for acute-onset type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Assessment of vibratory sensation with a tuning fork at different sites in Japanese patients with diabetes mellitus.

The current study compared the vibratory sensations at different sites, using a retrospective database of 547 Japanese diabetic patients. The vibratory sensation was assessed with a 128-Hz tuning fork at the medial malleolus, the great toe and the fifth toe. The vibratory sensations at different sites were significantly associated with one another (all P < 0.

Effects of soybean product intake on fasting and postload hyperglycemia and type 2 diabetes in Japanese men with high body mass index: The Saku Study.

Aims/introduction: The inverse association between soybean intake and type 2 diabetes mellitus has been reported. We investigated the effects of soybean product intake on the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus considering fasting and postload hyperglycemia.

Materials And Methods: The present 4-year, cohort study included 1,738 men and 1,301 women, aged 30-69 years, without diabetes mellitus at baseline who underwent comprehensive medical check-ups between April 2006 and March 2007 at Saku Central Hospital.

Weight reduction is associated with improvement of glycemic control in Japanese men, whose hemoglobin A1C is 5.6-6.4%, with visceral fat accumulation, but not without visceral fat accumulation.

Aims/introduction: The aim of the present study was to determine whether weight reduction is associated with improvement of glycemic control in non-obese and obese subjects with or without visceral fat accumulation, whose hemoglobin A1c (A1C) is 5.6-6.4%.

Impact of cigarette smoking on impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance in Japanese men: The Saku Study.

Aims/introduction: To assess the impact of smoking on impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance in Japanese men.

Materials And Methods: This study included 1,199 men aged 30-79 years without diabetes, impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance at baseline who underwent a comprehensive medical check-up between April 2006 and March 2007 at Saku Central Hospital. Smoking status was categorized as current, ex-smoker and never-smoker.

Abdominal multi-organ CT segmentation using organ correlation graph and prediction-based shape and location priors.

The paper addresses the automated segmentation of multiple organs in upper abdominal CT data. We propose a framework of multi-organ segmentation which is adaptable to any imaging conditions without using intensity information in manually traced training data. The features of the framework are as follows: (1) the organ correlation graph (OCG) is introduced, which encodes the spatial correlations among organs inherent in human anatomy; (2) the patient-specific organ shape and location priors obtained using OCG enable the estimation of intensity priors from only target data and optionally a number of untraced CT data of the same imaging condition as the target data.

Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors are effective in Japanese type 2 diabetic patients with sustained endogenous insulin-secreting capacity, a higher body mass index and insulin resistance.

Aims/introduction: Recently, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors have become available in Japan. It has not yet been clarified what clinical parameters could discriminate DPP-4 inhibitor-effective patients from DPP-4 inhibitor-ineffective patients.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed 33 consecutive patients with type 2 diabetes admitted to Osaka University Hospital for glycemic control.

Gab docking proteins in cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammation.

The docking proteins of the Grb2-associated binder (Gab) family have emerged as crucial signaling compartments in metazoans. In mammals, the Gab proteins, consisting of Gab1, Gab2, and Gab3, are involved in the amplification and integration of signal transduction evoked by a variety of extracellular stimuli, including growth factors, cytokines, antigens, and other molecules. Gab proteins lack the enzymatic activity themselves; however, when phosphorylated on tyrosine residues, they provide binding sites for multiple Src homology-2 (SH2) domain-containing proteins, such as SH2-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 (SHP2), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase regulatory subunit p85, phospholipase Cγ, Crk, and GC-GAP.

Multi-organ segmentation in abdominal CT images.

Automated segmentation of multiple organs in CT data of the upper abdomen is addressed. In order to explicitly incorporate the spatial interrelations among organs, we propose a method for finding and representing the interrelations based on canonical correlation analysis. Furthermore, methods are developed for constructing and utilizing the statistical atlas in which inter-organ constraints are explicitly incorporated to improve accuracy of multi-organ segmentation.

Four cases of atopic dermatitis complicated by Sjögren's syndrome: link between dry skin and autoimmune anhidrosis.

We report four adult cases of atopic dermatitis (AD) complicated by Sjögren's syndrome (SS). The patients fulfilled diagnostic criteria for AD and SS. All cases showed persistent itchy dry skin and eczematous lesions complicated by sicca symptoms including dry eyes and dry mouth with moderate joint pain.

Surround suppression by high spatial frequency stimuli in the cat primary visual cortex.

Surround suppression is a phenomenon whereby stimulation of the extraclassical receptive field suppressively modulates the visual responses of neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) (also known as area 17). It is known that surround suppression tunes to spatial frequencies (SFs) that are much lower and broader than the frequencies to which the classical receptive field tunes. In this study, we tested the effects of varying SFs on surround suppression by using a circular sinusoidal grating patch that covered both the classical receptive field and the extraclassical receptive field.

A case of disseminated DLE complicated by atopic dermatitis and Sjögren's syndrome: link between hypohidrosis and skin manifestations.

We report an unusual case of disseminated discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) complicated by pre-existing atopic dermatitis (AD) and late-onset Sjögren's syndrome (SS). Disseminated DLE lesions were sparse on the expected sites for AD, such as the medial region of the extremities or v-neck area. The patient fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for AD and SS but not for systemic lupus erythematosus.

Role of the liver in determining alloimmune response in vitro following donor-specific spleen cell injection.

The aim of our study was to investigate the allogeneic influence inside and outside the liver in vitro following donor-specific cell injection (DSI). DA rats (RT1a) were used as donors and WS rats (RT1k) as recipients. WS were sensitized with DA spleen cells, followed 24h later by total hepatectomy.

Successful treatment with regimen of intravenous gamma globulin and cyclophosphamide for dermatomyositis accompanied by interstitial pneumonia, opportunistic infection and steroid psychosis.

Background: A 47-year-old Japanese woman was suffering from dermatomyositis with progressive interstitial pneumonia, which was resistant to treatment with prednisolone (Pred) and cyclosporine A (CsA). Unfortunately, the opportunistic infection and steroid psychosis made therapeutic intervention using additional immunosuppressive drugs problematic. To overcome these difficulties, we created a regimen of intravenous gammaglobulin (IVIG) and cyclophosphamide (CPM) for the treatment of this patient.