Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Check-ups in 2021 and 2022: A Nationwide Follow-up Survey of Healthcare Facilities in Japan Society of Ningen Dock.

Introduction: Preventive programs, including screenings for cancer and diabetes, were disrupted globally due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. We previously conducted a nationwide survey to investigate the initial impact of the pandemic on health check-ups; however, the impact in the second and third years of the pandemic has not yet been elucidated. Here, we conducted a follow-up survey targeting healthcare facilities to evaluate the impact of the pandemic until the end of 2022.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Check-ups: A Nationwide Questionnaire Survey in 639 Healthcare Facilities in Japan Society of Ningen Dock.

Introduction: Health check-ups have been disrupted worldwide by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially at its beginning. In Japan, undergoing annual check-ups is mandatory for full-time employees of all ages, while those other than full-time employees are entitled to undergo nonmandatory cancer screenings and specific health check-ups. To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health check-ups, we conducted a nationwide questionnaire survey targeting healthcare facilities.

Effect of a Rehabilitation Program After Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Transplantation for Advanced Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head: A 10-Year Follow-Up Study.

Objective: To assess the status of 10 patients with advanced osteonecrosis of the femoral head who underwent mesenchymal stromal cell transplants and a 12-week rehabilitation program 10 years earlier.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: University clinical research laboratory.

Psychological Effects of Hands-On Training Using Public Transportation among Inpatients with Physical Disabilities: Analysis of the Self-Efficacy and Perception of Occupational Enablement Using a Multimethod Design.

Introduction: This study is aimed at understanding how practicing the use of public transportation can affect the self-efficacy and perceptions of occupational enablement among patients with physical disabilities in a recovery rehabilitation hospital.

Method: We recruited 21 inpatients with physical disabilities caused by stroke or orthopedic diseases from a recovery rehabilitation hospital in Japan and used a multimethod design including an intervention study and a follow-up survey. The intervention study utilized a before-after trial and provided hands-on training in the use of public transportation as the intervention.

Using Physical Function to Predict Hospital Readmission within 1 Year in Patients with Heart Failure.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate which method of evaluating physical function could predict 1-year readmission due to worsening of heart failure (HF) in newly diagnosed HF patients.

Methods: One hundred sixteen consecutive patients with HF who underwent cardiac rehabilitation at our hospital between May 2012 and September 2015 were retrospectively enrolled. Participants were divided into two groups based on whether they were readmitted for worsening HF within 1 year.

Contralateral Limb Effect on Gait Asymmetry and Ipsilateral Pain in a Patient with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Proof-of-Concept Case Report.

Case: A 77-year-old woman with knee osteoarthritis (OA) complained of right (ipsilateral) knee pain for more than 5 years with gait asymmetry. The OA and quadriceps muscle weakness were more severe in the left (contralateral) knee, but she had no pain. Bracing of the left knee led to decreased gait asymmetry, as determined with an inertial measurement unit, and reduced pain in the right knee.

A case of cerebellar ataxia associated with VZV infection.

The varicella zoster virus (VZV) is a neurotropic virus that becomes latent in the sensory ganglia, but later causes various neurologic complications such as meningitis, encephalitis, myelitis, meningoencephalitis, cranial neuropathy, and peripheral neuropathy [1]. While acute cerebellitis is one of the most frequent acute cerebellar diseases associated with VZV in childhood, VZV rarely causes cerebellitis in adults, with or without skin manifestations, and only a few isolated cases of adult VZV cerebellitis have been reported. We report a case of acute cerebellitis associated with VZV infection after a herpetic rash in an 80-year-old male.

Association of low back pain with muscle stiffness and muscle mass of the lumbar back muscles, and sagittal spinal alignment in young and middle-aged medical workers.

Background: Muscle stiffness of the lumbar back muscles in low back pain (LBP) patients has not been clearly elucidated because quantitative assessment of the stiffness of individual muscles was conventionally difficult. This study aimed to examine the association of LBP with muscle stiffness assessed using ultrasonic shear wave elastography (SWE) and muscle mass of the lumbar back muscle, and spinal alignment in young and middle-aged medical workers.

Methods: The study comprised 23 asymptomatic medical workers [control (CTR) group] and 9 medical workers with LBP (LBP group).

Retinal hemorrhages following fingolimod treatment for multiple sclerosis; a case report.

Background: Fingolimod is the first oral agent used for treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Macular edema, but not retinal hemorrhage, is a well-known adverse effect of fingolimod treatment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of extensive retinal hemorrhages following fingolimod treatment.

Rehabilitation program after mesenchymal stromal cell transplantation augmented by vascularized bone grafts for idiopathic osteonecrosis of the femoral head: a preliminary study.

Objective: To determine the feasibility and safety of implementing a 12-week rehabilitation program after mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) transplantation augmented by vascularized bone grafting for idiopathic osteonecrosis (ION) of the femoral head.

Design: A prospective case series.

Setting: University clinical research laboratory.

[Four-year changes in ganglion cell complex thickness in homonymous hemianopia].

Purpose: Aquired transsynaptic retrograde degeneration of the human visual system can be identified using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and optical coherence tomography (OCT), which can reveal optic tract atrophy, retinal nerve fiber layer loss, and ganglion cell complex (GCC) thinning. We investigated GCC changes in the first 4 years following post-geniculate lesions.

Methods: Nine patients with congruous homonymous hemianopia were scanned with OCT.

Elevating blood pressure as a strategy to increase tumor-targeted delivery of macromolecular drug SMANCS: cases of advanced solid tumors.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the improved method of arterial infusion therapy of SMANCS (SX) with lipiodol under the angiotensin-induced hypertensive state for various difficult-to-treat solid tumors. Most patients were unresectable with no other therapeutic options, recurrence after resection, or patients do not respond to common treatments. The new method utilizes angiotensin II (AT) to induce hypertension (e.

[Results of treatments for critical limb ischemia: effectiveness and indications].

The treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI), which is the end stage of arteriosclerosis obliterans and/or Buerger's disease, provides the ischemic tissue with oxygen, and arterial revascularization procedures such as bypass surgery and thromboendarterectomy, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA)/stent, sympathectomy, hyperbaric oxygenation, angiogenesis, medical treatment, etc. are performed. Successful bypass surgery on the crural and foot arteries is the most effective procedure, although it requires good skill and an autogenous vein of good quality.

Atrial fibrillation ablation with esophageal cooling with a cooled water-irrigated intraesophageal balloon: a pilot study.

Introduction: A left atrioesophageal fistula is an uncommon but devastating complication that may occur during atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation, and may be due to thermal injury occurring during the radiofrequency (RF) ablation. We examined the feasibility of an esophageal cooling (ECO) method using a cooled water-irrigated intraesophageal balloon (IB).

Methods And Results: Eight patients with drug-refractory AF underwent RF catheter ablation to encircle the ipsilateral pulmonary veins.

Transition from purkinje fiber-related rapid polymorphic ventricular tachycardia to sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia in a patient with a structurally normal heart: a case report.

We describe a 17-year-old woman with a structurally normal heart in which short-sustained rapid polymorphic ventricular tachycardias (VTs) were repetitively provoked by an antiarrhythmic agent, pilsicainide, and spontaneously changed into a sustained monomorphic VT. The latter was terminated by verapamil and was shown to be due to reentry by entrainment. Those two VTs originated from the Purkinje fibers in the left ventricular septum.

Reentrant ventricular tachycardia originating from the aortic sinus cusp: a case report.

We report a case of idiopathic reentrant ventricular tachycardia (VT) originating from the left aortic sinus cusp. A prepotential preceding the QRS complex by 58 ms was recorded from the posterior right ventricular (RV) outflow tract. During VT entrainment observed by pacing from the midseptal RV, it initially was orthodromically captured with a long conduction time but then antidromically captured as the pacing cycle rate was increased.

[Holmium laser enucleation for the large (220 ml) prostatic adenoma].

A 63-year-old male with symptomatic benign prostatic enlargement (220 ml as estimated by transrectal ultrasonography) was underwent transurethral holmium laser enucleation. Total operative time was 211 minutes and actual weight of tissue enucleated was 156 grams. There was no perioperative hyponatremia and a blood transfusion.

Inflammatory endobronchial stenosis.

We encountered a 71-year-old woman with inoperable bronchial stenosis of the right main bronchus, which was caused by inflammatory granulation infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa in posttuberculous bronchiectasis. Two months after placement of self-expanding nitinol stents, fiberoptic bronchoscopic examination to investigate hemosputum revealed endobronchial granuloma formation. Endobronchial granulation has disappeared with long-term oral administration of tranilast.

[Severe respiratory distress caused by dental foreign object].

A 77-year-old man hospitalized in a bedridden state for cerebral infarction and left hemiparesis experienced the sudden onset of dyspnea and cyanosis. Chest X-ray films detected a foreign object in the hilum of the left lung. Emergency bronchoscopy revealed a dental crown lodged in the second carina.

[A case of rupture of the diaphragm caused by the plication for diaphragm eventration].

A 71-year-old woman, in whom the herniation of right-sided diaphragm was diagnosed, was admitted to our hospital on ambulance car complaining of increasing right-sided chest pain and worsening of dyspnea. She was given emergency laparotomy. The transverse colon and omentum pushed the liver backward.

[Self-expanding nitinol stents for treatment of bilateral main bronchial stenosis caused by esophageal cancer].

A 68-year-old man was admitted because of dyspnea. Nine months earlier, he had undergone radiotherapy for esophageal carcinoma. Chest CT scan obtained on admission showed a tumor shadow behind the tracheal carina.

[Pulmonary aspergilloma with ring enhancement on chest CT scans].

A 77-year-old man with hemoptysis was admitted to our hospital. A coin lesion in the right middle lung field was observed on a chest X-ray film. Enhanced CT scans of the chest showed the coin lesion with clear ring enhancement.