Enhanced [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose accumulation in the right ventricular free wall predicts long-term prognosis of patients with pulmonary hypertension: a preliminary observational study.

Aims: We have previously demonstrated that [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) accumulation is increased in the right ventricular (RV) free wall of patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH), and that this accumulation is ameliorated after the treatment with epoprostenol associated with improvement of haemodynamic overload. The aim of this study was to examine whether enhanced RV FDG accumulation by gated positron emission tomography (PET) has a prognostic impact in patients with PH.

Methods And Results: We examined the prognostic impact of the RV standardized uptake value (SUV) of FDG-PET corrected for the partial volume effect (cRV-SUV) in 27 patients with PH who underwent gated FDG-PET from March 2001 to June 2004.

Adjustment of overestimated CT-based attenuation correction on bone SPECT/CT after hip-resurfacing arthroplasty.

Unlabelled: SPECT/CT has made it possible to perform attenuation correction easily. However, CT-based attenuation correction (CTAC) is overestimated when metal is inside the body. The aim of this investigation was to create and test a new attenuation correction formula for CTAC that decreases the overestimation caused by an artificial femoral head and hip joint.

Low incidence of sight-threatening retinopathy of prematurity in infants born before 28 weeks gestation at a neonatal intensive care unit in Japan.

Improvement in neonatal care has led to increased survival rates of very premature infants. Accordingly, there are now more extremely preterm infants who are at risk of developing retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). ROP is a disorder of low birth-weight preterm infants and may lead to blindness.

Symptomatic rotator cuff tears show higher radioisotope uptake on bone scintigraphy compared with asymptomatic tears.

Background: Some patients with rotator cuff tears complain of pain, whereas others are asymptomatic. Previous studies have pointed out the presence of active bone metabolism in the painful shoulder, identified with increased radioisotope uptake during bone scintigraphy.

Hypothesis: Shoulders with symptomatic rotator cuff tears will demonstrate higher radioisotope uptake than shoulders with asymptomatic tears with bone scintigraphy, reflecting active bone metabolism in symptomatic tears.

Medium-term result of Elite Plus hip arthroplasty: the second modular evolution of the original Charnley low-friction arthroplasty.

Background: The Elite Plus total hip arthroplasty (THA) system was introduced as the second modular evolution of the original Charnley low-friction arthroplasty. However, the results of the Elite Plus THA are currently considered to be inconsistent. The aim of this study was to clarify the medium-term results and the factors affecting the results of Elite Plus THA.

[New antiviral agents of influenza].

Influenza is a serious health threat for people all over the world and the new and more effective antiviral drugs such as peramivir, laninamivir, and favipiravir have been developed. In this article we review new drugs and drug candidates of newer compounds, which are currently undergoing testing, against influenza with an emphasis on the recent progress of targeting of pathogen replication system, as well as a comprehensive, state-of-the-art picture of drug therapy.

[The pathophysiological concept of nontuberculous mycobacterial diseases and pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex disease].

Although nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) were initially isolated shortly after Mycobacterium tuberculosis, it has not been confirmed as true human pathogens until the 1930s. Only around 30 NTMs among more than 150 identified can infect to human, and cause pulmonary, lymph node, skin, soft tissue, bone, and disseminated diseases. NTM diseases, especially pulmonary, appear to be increasing all over the world.

[Prevention of tuberculosis for the immunocompromised host with biological agents and corticosteroid].

Immunosuppressive drugs, such as corticosteroid and biological agents, inhibit the cell-mediated immunity and the granuloma formation against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The rate of infection increases in patients given a daily dose of > or = 10 mg or a cumulative dose of > or = 700 mg of prednisone, and those patients need for the prevention of tuberculosis. Active tuberculosis may also develop after the initiation of TNFalpha inhibitors among biological agents.

Shoulder surface temperature and bone scintigraphy findings in patients with rotator cuff tears.

Background: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is one of the serious complications after surgical treatment of a rotator cuff tear. Both a measurement of body surface temperature and bone scintigraphy have been used as diagnostic tools for the early phase of CRPS.Unfortunately, few studies have been carried out that applied these methods to the patients after rotator cuff repair.

Changes with time in skin temperature of the shoulders in healthy controls and a patient with shoulder-hand syndrome.

Background: Abnormal skin temperature in the shoulder is caused by various diseases. A thermography is unable to capture temperature changes over time. In contrast, a Thermocron is an effective measuring device to monitor temperature changes over time.

[A case of sertoli cell tumor with arteriovenous malformation].

A 56-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with a chief complaint of pain in the right scrotum. On examination, the patient showed neither gynecomastia nor superficial lymphadenopathy. The serum levels of alpha-fetoprotein, human chorionic gonadotropin-beta, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were not elevated.

Poor results of the cementless total hip arthroplasty with a nonporous coated acetabular component: AcSys Shearer Cup.

Background: This study followed patients for a minimum of 7 years after primary total hip arthroplasty using cementless acetabular components and evaluated their outcomes.

Methods: We followed 73 patients (75 hips), who had undergone total hip arthroplasty with cementless nonporous coated acetabular components (3M AcSys Shearer Cup) for a mean of 9.8 years (range 7-13 years).

Severe postnatal cytomegalovirus infection in a very premature infant.

Several studies have reported that postnatally acquired cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection can cause sepsis-like syndrome in premature infants. We here report a 622-gram birth weight male infant of 23 weeks' gestation who had sepsis-like syndrome and pneumonia. Substantial CMV loads were detected in peripheral blood cells, plasma, and urine when the patient was in crisis, but was decreased in parallel to clinical improvement without using ganciclovir.

[Case of pulmonary Mycobacterium mageritense infection: the difficulty of differential diagnosis of granulomatous lung diseases].

A 36 year-old female was pointed out of pulmonary abnormal shadows in the annual chest survey. Chest radiograph and computed tomography (CT) disclosed bilateral diffuse infiltrative shadows and tree-in-bud appearance in the right upper lung field and the left lingula. A sputum smear for acid-fast bacilli was negative.

[Guidelines for the management of atherosclerotic diseases in diabetes mellitus].

Diabetes mellitus is associated with a greater risk of developing atherosclerosis and its complications: myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral vascular disease. In patients with diabetes, atherosclerosis represents a complex multifactorial disease with increased lesion progression and severity compared to the nondiabetic population. Several risk factors have been proposed to explain the increased risk of cardiovascular disease with diabetes.

An outbreak of histamine poisoning after ingestion of the ground saury paste in eight patients taking isoniazid in tuberculous ward.

Objective: To determine the cause of outbreak mimicking food poisoning, we studied the toxic polyamine contents of the food and analyzed the clinical characteristics of the affected eight patients.

Patients And Methods: Eight cases of histamine poisoning which occurred in tuberculous patients after dinner in our hospital were analyzed by clinical and biochemical methods. We examined the contents of four representative toxic polyamines, histamine, putrescine, cadaverine and tyramine, of the each food of the dinner and their serum concentrations of the monoamine oxidase (MAO), one of histaminases, using radioimmunoassay.

Risk factors for cerebral palsy in preterm infants.

Objective: To identify crucial factors that precipitate cerebral palsy by controlling confounding factors in logistic regression analyses.

Design And Patients: We retrospectively investigated a cohort of all 922 infants with gestational ages of less than 34 weeks (22-33 weeks), who were admitted to our neonatal intensive care unit between 1990 and 1998. Thirty (3.

[Diabetic angiopathy and the progression of vascular calcification].

The frequency of atherosclerotic diseases in diabetes is very high. In the occurrence of atherosclerosis the severity of diabetes is not so important. The mild diabetic condition with obesity will be a strong factor to relate with atherogenesis.

Evaluation of calcaneal malposition by magnetic resonance imaging in the infantile clubfoot.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can clearly visualize both the ossification centers and surrounding cartilage of growing bones and enable a three-dimensional analysis of their positional relationships by using overlapping images. The calcaneal position was evaluated based on five newly proposed parameters of magnetic resonance images in 30 clubfeet of 18 infants with the bimalleolar and lower leg axes as reference lines. Sixteen unaffected feet in the unilateral cases were analyzed as normal feet.