Assessing the Effect of a Pandemic on Emergency Medical Service Response Times and Interventions for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly disrupted emergency medical service (EMS) prehospital care for patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), necessitating a thorough assessment of its effects on prehospital time and emergency interventions. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the changes in EMS operations before and after the onset of the pandemic and their potential effects on patient care.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed OHCA cases between January 2017 and December 2022, categorizing them into pre-pandemic and pandemic phases.

Risk of pneumonia-related hospitalization after initiating angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors compared with angiotensin II receptor blockers: a retrospective cohort study using LIFE Study data.

There is insufficient evidence that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) can reduce pneumonia by inducing a dry cough that confers a protective effect on the airway. To increase the evidence base on the clinical use of ACEIs for pneumonia prevention, this retrospective cohort study aimed to comparatively examine the risk of pneumonia-related hospitalization between ACEI initiators and angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) initiators using claims data from two Japanese municipalities. We identified persons who were newly prescribed any ACEI or ARB as their first antihypertensive agent between April 2016 and March 2020.

Sepsis-Associated Delirium: A Narrative Review.

Delirium is characterized by an acutely altered mental status accompanied by reductions in cognitive function and attention. Delirium in septic patients, termed sepsis-associated delirium (SAD), differs in several specific aspects from the other types of delirium that are typically encountered in intensive care units. Since sepsis and delirium are both closely associated with increased morbidity and mortality, it is important to not only prevent but also promptly diagnose and treat SAD.

[A Case of Solitary Liver Metastasis of Low-Grade Endometrial Stromal Sarcoma 31 Years after Resection of Primary Lesion].

A 73-year-old woman was referred to our hospital after a liver tumor was discovered during an abdominal ultrasonography. Thirty-one years ago, she underwent a total hysterectomy for uterine myoma and was diagnosed with a leiomyoma. Twenty years ago, she underwent a bilateral oophorectomy for an ovarian tumor and was diagnosed with a luteinized theca cell tumor accompanied by sclerosing peritonitis.

Prediction of Postoperative Cerebral Infarction after Cardiovascular Surgery Using Quantitative Measurement of Cerebral Blood Flow with Brain Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography.

Prediction of postoperative cerebral infarction after cardiovascular surgery is difficult. The present study investigated whether quantitative evaluation of preoperative cerebral blood flow used in the Japanese EC-IC Bypass Trial (JET) study is useful for the prediction of postoperative cerebral infarction after cardiovascular surgery. First, patients were divided into two groups based on preoperative cerebral blood flow.

Ex vivo magnifying endoscopic observation of bile duct mucosa using narrowband imaging.

Background: Detailed endoscopic findings of the bile duct mucosa have not been fully established. This fundamental ex vivo study assesses the relationship between magnified endoscopic findings and pathological findings of the bile duct mucosa.

Methods: Forty-one surgically resected common bile duct mucosae were investigated.

Effect of age on the incidence of aseptic meningitis following immunization with monovalent mumps vaccine.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the risk of aseptic meningitis after mumps vaccination in younger children compared with older children.

Methods: This prospective cohort study included a total of 21,465 children under 18 years of age who had received the first dose of three of the Japanese mumps monovalent vaccine. We compared the cumulative incidence of aseptic meningitis for 30 days after vaccination among the following age groups: ≤ 1, 2, 3-4, and ≥ 5 years old.

Late intravenous immunoglobulin treatment in patients with Kawasaki disease.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment of Kawasaki disease ≥10 days after illness onset.

Methods: We selected patients initially treated with IVIG on days 11 to 20 in the database of the 20th nationwide survey in Japan. We then selected pair-matched control subjects of the same gender and age, who were initially treated with IVIG on days 4 to 8 with the same dose at the same institutions.