Effectiveness and safety of sarilumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A multicenter, retrospective, inverse probability of treatment-weighted analysis based on the FRAB-registry.

Objective: The efficacy and safety of sarilumab (SARI) were investigated in real-world clinical practice in Japan.

Method: Subjects were 121 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in 23 medical institutions in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, who started treatment with SARI between May 2018 and November 2021. Data on the SARI starting dose, patients' baseline characteristics, disease activity, and blood test data at the start of treatment, as well as follow-up data on the SARI dose, disease activity, and adverse events until Week 52.

Telovelar/Transcerebellomedullary Fissure Approach: Giant Distal Posterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery Aneurysm, Epidermoid Cyst, and Brainstem Cavernoma: 2-Dimensional Operative Video.

Indications Corridor And Limits Of Exposure: The telovelar or transcerebellomedullary fissure approach can provide wide exposure of the cerebellomedullary fissure and fourth ventricle by separating the natural plane between the medulla and cerebellum. 1-5.

Anatomic Essentials Need For Preoperative Planning And Assessment: The cerebellar tonsil is attached to the adjacent cerebellum only by the tonsillar peduncle at its superolateral edge.

Geriatric nutritional risk index as the prognostic factor in older patients with fragility hip fractures.

Unlabelled: This study investigated the long-term survival and incidence of secondary fractures after fragility hip fractures. The 5-year survival rate was 62%, and the mortality risk was seen in patients with GNRI < 92. The 5-year incidence of secondary fracture was 22%, which was significantly higher in patients with a BMI < 20.

Biological insights into systemic lupus erythematosus through an immune cell-specific transcriptome-wide association study.

Objective: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified >100 risk loci for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), but the disease genes at most loci remain unclear, hampering translation of these genetic discoveries. We aimed to prioritise genes underlying the 110 SLE loci that were identified in the latest East Asian GWAS meta-analysis.

Methods: We built gene expression predictive models in blood B cells, CD4 and CD8 T cells, monocytes, natural killer cells and peripheral blood cells of 105 Japanese individuals.

Survey of malignant pleural mesothelioma treatment in Japan: Patterns of practice and clinical outcomes in tomotherapy facilities.

We conducted a nationwide survey of tomotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) in Japan. Fifty-six facilities were surveyed and data on 31 patients treated curatively between 2008 and 2017 were collected from 14 facilities. Twenty patients received hemithorax irradiation after extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) (first group).

Meta-analysis of 208370 East Asians identifies 113 susceptibility loci for systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disorder, has been associated with nearly 100 susceptibility loci. Nevertheless, these loci only partially explain SLE heritability and their putative causal variants are rarely prioritised, which make challenging to elucidate disease biology. To detect new SLE loci and causal variants, we performed the largest genome-wide meta-analysis for SLE in East Asian populations.

Rheumatoid arthritis patients with low baseline Health Assessment Questionnaire scores have a risk of functional disability progression: a post hoc analysis of a nationwide longitudinal cohort in Japan.

Objectives: To determine prognostic factors for the Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index (HAQ-DI) progression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in clinical practice.

Methods: We evaluated 388 biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (bDMARD)-naïve Japanese patients with RA with moderate to high disease activity at study entry after being treated with conventional synthetic DMARDs. These patients were treated according to a treat-to-target (T2T) strategy for one year.

[Examination of Application to Radiation Protection Education by Four-dimensional Visualization of Scatter Distribution in Radiological Examination Using Virtual Reality].

Purpose: When working on fluoroscopy and patient assistance in a healthcare facility, workers need to understand how to properly protect scattered radiation. In this study, we examined a four-dimensional visualization method to make it easy to understand the spread of scattered radiation visually, and proposed its application to radiation protection education.

Methods: We constructed the X-ray room, X-ray CT room, and angiography room using Particle Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS), and calculated the scattered radiation distribution when the patient was irradiated with X-rays.

Suppression of joint destruction with subcutaneous tocilizumab for Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis in clinical practice.

To investigate the efficacy of suppressing joint destruction with subcutaneous tocilizumab (TCZ-SC) for Japanese rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in the real-world clinical setting. This 1-year prospective, multicenter study included 110 RA patients in whom TCZ-SC was newly initiated. Primary endpoint was the change from baseline in vdH-modified total Sharp score (mTSS) at week 52.

Longitudinal monitoring of somatic genetic alterations in circulating cell-free DNA during treatment with epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of liquid biopsy for prediction of the efficacy of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment and for assessment of the changes in genetic alterations during such treatment.

Methods: Plasma samples were prospectively collected from non-small cell lung cancer patients with EGFR-activating mutations during EGFR-TKI treatment until disease progression and were analyzed for such mutations with droplet digital polymerase chain reaction and for other somatic alterations with next-generation sequencing.

Results: One hundred patients, including 87 who were EGFR-TKI naïve, were enrolled.

Gastric adenocarcinoma of fundic gland type with signet-ring cell carcinoma component: A case report and review of the literature.

A depressed lesion was found at a gastric angle of 76-year-old Japanese woman by esophagogastroduodenoscopy. Four years prior, she was diagnosed with a infection but no eradication was performed. The pathological diagnosis of biopsy specimens was signet-ring cell carcinoma.

The first multicenter, randomized, controlled trial of home telemonitoring for Japanese patients with heart failure: home telemonitoring study for patients with heart failure (HOMES-HF).

Home telemonitoring is becoming more important to home medical care for patients with heart failure. Since there are no data on home telemonitoring for Japanese patients with heart failure, we investigated its effect on cardiovascular outcomes. The HOMES-HF study was the first multicenter, open-label, randomized, controlled trial (RCT) to elucidate the effectiveness of home telemonitoring of physiological data, such as body weight, blood pressure, and pulse rate, for Japanese patients with heart failure (UMIN Clinical Trials Registry 000006839).

Characteristics of patients with fragility hip fractures in the northern Kyushu district in Japan: a multicenter prospective registry based on an electronic data capture system.

Osteoporosis has become a worldwide public health problem, in part due to the fact that it increases the risk of fragility hip fractures (FHFs). The epidemiological assessment of FHFs is critical for their prevention; however, datasets for FHFs in Japan remain scarce. This was a multicenter, prospective, observational study in the northern district of Kyushu Island.

Acquisition of the T790M resistance mutation during afatinib treatment in EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor-naïve patients with non-small cell lung cancer harboring mutations.

The T790M secondary mutation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene accounts for 50% to 60% of cases of resistance to the first-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) gefitinib and erlotinib. The prevalence of T790M in mutation-positive patients who acquire resistance to the irreversible, second-generation EGFR-TKI afatinib has remained unclear, however. We here determined the frequency of T790M acquisition at diagnosis of progressive disease in patients with -mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with afatinib as first-line EGFR-TKI.

Improved Ga-labeling method using ethanol addition: Application to the α-helical peptide DOTA-FAMP.

We examined the Ga labeling of the α-helical peptide, DOTA-FAMP, and evaluated conformational changes during radiolabeling. Ga-DOTA-FAMP is a positron emission tomography probe candidate for atherosclerotic plaques. The labeling yield achieved by Zhernosekov's method (using acetone for Ga purification) was compared with that achieved by the original and 2 modified Mueller's methods (using NaCl solution).

Clinical outcomes in the first year of remitting seronegative symmetrical synovitis with pitting edema (RS3PE) syndrome.

Objective: We investigated clinical outcomes in patients with remitting seronegative symmetrical synovitis with pitting edema (RS3PE) syndrome.

Methods: This is a retrospective multicenter study conducted in Nagasaki, Japan. We consecutively diagnosed a total of 41 patients with RS3PE syndrome between October 2003 and September 2012 and evaluated their outcomes from medical records from the first year of follow-up.