Renal and Endocrine Responses to Arm Exercise in Persons with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury.

The aim of this study was to assess renal functions and endocrine responses to arm exercise in persons with cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI) under euhydrated conditions (free drinking of water), and to determine the physiological effects of exercise on renal function in these subjects. Eleven CSCI individuals (spinal lesions between C6 and C8, American Spinal Injury Association impairment scale A) and nine able-bodied (AB) persons rested for 30 min before performing 30 min arm-crank ergometer exercises at 50% of their maximum oxygen consumption, followed by 60-min of rest/recovery. Urine and blood samples were collected before and immediately after the exercise and recovery period.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy for gangrenous cholecystitis in around nineties: Two case reports.

Background: Gangrenous cholecystitis is a form of acute cholecystitis which involves gangrenous alterations in the gallbladder wall and it often follows an acute and serious course. We herein report on two cases of very elderly people diagnosed early with gangrenous cholecystitis, who safely underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) and both demonstrated a good outcome.

Case Summary: Case 1: An 89-year-old female.

Tricellulin Expression and its Deletion Effects in the Endolymphatic Sac.

Objectives: Tricellulin is a tight junction (TJ)-forming protein that participates in the sealing function of tricellular TJs. Tricellulin-knockout (Tric-/-) mice show progressive hearing loss with degeneration of hair cells in the cochlea without physiological or physical disorders. In the present study, we investigated the tricellulin expression and its deletion effects in the endolymphatic sac (ES) using Tric-/- mice.

Energy dynamics of the intraventricular vortex after mitral valve surgery.

Mitral valve morphology after mitral valve surgery affects postoperative intraventricular flow patterns and long-term cardiac performance. We visualized ventricular flow by echocardiography vector flow mapping (VFM) to reveal the impact of different mitral valve procedures. Eleven cases of mechanical mitral valve replacement (nine in the anti-anatomical and two in the anatomical position), three bioprosthetic mitral valve replacements, and four mitral valve repairs were evaluated.

Retrospective Multicenter Comparison of S.M.A.R.T. CONTROL and MISAGO Stents in Treatment of Femoropopliteal Lesions.

Purpose: To compare primary patency between MISAGO (Terumo Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) and S.M.A.

Prospective study of the UGT1A1*27 gene polymorphism during irinotecan therapy in patients with lung cancer: Results of Lung Oncology Group in Kyusyu (LOGIK1004B).

Background: Uridine 5'-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 (UGT1A1*27) is known to impair the effect of UGT in basic research; however, little clinical investigation has been conducted. To evaluate the effect of the UGT1A1*27 polymorphism in irinotecan therapy, we conducted a prospective study.

Methods: Eligibility criteria included: lung cancer patients; scheduled irinotecan therapy doses of single ≥ 80, combination ≥ 50, radiation with single ≥ 50, or radiation with combination ≥ 40 mg/m(2); age ≥ 20; and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance score (PS) 0-2.

Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy with a Novel NOTCH3 Cys323Trp Mutation Presenting Border-Zone Infarcts: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a hereditary and progressive small-vessel disease caused by NOTCH3 mutations, pathologically characterized by the degeneration of vascular mural cells, white matter changes, and ischemic strokes. Recently, dysautoregulation has received increasing attention regarding the pathogenesis of stroke in CADASIL. Here, we report a CADASIL case with a novel Cys323Trp mutation in the NOTCH3 gene, which suggests a close relationship between hemodynamic factors and clustering of cerebral infarctions in CADASIL.

[A Case of Pneumococcal Pneumonia Early Diagnosed by Detection Kit RAPIRUN® in a Dialysis Patient].

A 65-year-old woman developed fever and dyspnea and visited the emergency department of our hospital. On arrival she was hypoxic, and chest CT showed bilateral centrilobular nodules, infiltrative shadows and bronchial wall thickening. Gram staining wasn't performed on admission, and the urinary antigen-detection test for Streptococcus pneumoniae couldn't be performed because the patient has suffered from anuria caused by renal failure.

[A pediatric wilms' tumor presenting with a right renal injury].

We report a case of a pediatric Wilms' tumor presenting after a right renal injury. A 6-year-old girl presented to a nearby hospital with right back pain after a fall. An abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a right renal injury with active hemorrhaging.

[Pathomechanisms and treatment of CADASIL].

The pathomechanisms of cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) are still under debate. Granular osmiophilic material (GOM), which accumulates around the basement membrane, and the extracellular domain of NOTCH3 (NECD) in the vessel are key molecules that contributes to the destruction of smooth muscle cells in CADASIL. In addition, GOM and NECD may be related to the dysfunction of cerebral small vessels in patients with CADASIL.

[Imaging of small brain infarctions].

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is now routinely used in clinical practice and is a well-known technique for assessing various brain diseases, especially brain infarctions. Diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) and fiber-tracking method are further extensions of DWI. In this review, I will try to explain these recent technical advances.

Increased intestinal expression of heme oxygenase-1 and its localization in patients with ulcerative colitis.

Background: Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is regarded as a sensitive and reliable indicator of cellular oxidative stress. Two end products of heme degradation, carbon monoxide (CO) and bilirubin, are involved in the protective role of HO-1 against oxidative injury. We have demonstrated enhanced expression of this enzyme and increased concentration of CO in experimental models of colitis, but the role of HO-1 in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) has not been extensively investigated.

The change of plasma endothelin-1 levels before and after surgery with or without Down syndrome.

Background: The present study aimed to elucidate the pathophysiological roles of endothelin (ET)-1 in patients with pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary vascular obstructive disease secondary to congenital heart disease and compare the plasma levels of ET-1 between children with and without Down syndrome.

Methods: Subjects comprised 32 children with congenital heart disease aged 0.5-14 months.

[Importance of anesthetic management for the patients with systolic anterior motion after mitral valve plasty].

Systolic anterior motion (SAM) after mitral valve plasty (MVP) occurs at an incidence of 1 to 4%. The management is related to this condition. Three patients developed SAM just after MVP.

Toborinone and olprinone, phosphodiesterase III inhibitors, inhibit human platelet aggregation due to the inhibition of both calcium release from intracellular stores and calcium entry.

Purpose: We investigated the inhibitory effects of toborinone and olprinone on human platelet aggregation and calcium mobilization.Abstract Copyright:

Methods: Washed human platelets were preincubated with toborinone or olprinone, then exposed to 0.015 U.

Identification of exercise-induced left ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction using gated SPECT in patients with coronary artery disease.

Background: We investigated whether poststress left ventricular dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease may be confirmed at 30 minutes after exercise using newly modified quantitative gated single photon emission computed tomography (QGS) software that can evaluate systolic and diastolic function.

Methods And Results: In this study 28 control subjects, 26 patients with angina pectoris (AP), and 27 patients with old myocardial infarction (MI) who had undergone revascularization were included. Same-day exercise/rest gated technetium 99m tetrofosmin single photon emission computed tomography was performed.

[A case of renal capsular liposarcoma].

A 70-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with microscopic hematuria. Abdominal echography, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed renal capsular tumor, and radical nephrectomy was performed. The tumor was diagnosed histopathologically as liposarcoma (well differentiated type).

[A case of intractable recurrent corneal erosion caused by Munchausen syndrome].

Object: We report a case of intractable recurrent corneal erosion that was unresponsive to any medication, but was cured by psychiatric care after diagnosis of Munchausen syndrome.

Case: The patient, a 35-year-old female, who developed pain in her left eye in July, 20 XX, was diagnosed with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis at the hospital where she worked as a nurse. Despite medication, the eye condition gradually worsened.

[Meta-analysis of pharmacotherapies for allergic rhinitis].

We performed meta-analysis using the data in literatures of the clinical study related to pharmacotherapies for allergic rhinitis in Japan as evidences. We extracted double-blind studies which used first-generation antihistamines, early-stage second-generation antihistamines, late-stage second-generation antihistamines and arachidonic acid metabolite-receptor antagonists as investigational drugs. In meta-analysis of first-generation antihistamines and early-stage second-generation antihistamines, significant differences between them were detected in final overall improvement and usefulness.

[The minimal residual disease (MRD) in hematological malignancies].

Molecular genetic and cytoimmunological markers have been applied for the detection of minimal residual disease (MRD) in hematological malignancies. These markers include surface markers or rearranged T-cell receptor and immunoglobulin genes in the lymphoid malignancies and fused genes associated with chromosomal translocations such as BCR-ABL in t(9;22) or PML-RAR alpha in t(15;17) in myeloid malignancies. The expression of the WT1 gene is recognized as the universal tumor marker for a wide variety of hematological malignancies.

Differences in the efficacy of ursodeoxycholic acid and bile acid metabolism between viral liver diseases and primary biliary cirrhosis.

Aim And Methods: The effects of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA, 600 mg/day) on liver function test values, and serum and urinary bile acids levels in hepatitis C virus-related chronic hepatitis (CH, n = 39) and liver cirrhosis (LC, n = 25), and in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC, n = 25) were compared.

Results: The percentages of improvement in alanine transaminase (ALT) and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (gamma-GTP) in CH were almost the same in LC. The rates of improvement in ALT in PBC were negatively correlated with histological stages in the liver.

[Evaluation by FDG-PET of arterial infusion chemotherapy for unresectable metastatic liver tumor].

We evaluated arterial infusion chemotherapy for unresectable metastatic liver tumor using FDG-PET and CT. A 72-year-old female patient with multiple metastatic liver tumors of rectal cancer was treated by arterial infusion chemotherapy. The tumor size decreased by chemotherapy, but there was a high uptake lesion of FDG.

PUVA-induced lichen planus pemphigoides.

A 72-year-old woman had suffered from parapsoriasis en plaque (large plaque type) controlled by topically applied psoralen ultraviolet A (PUVA) therapy. The parapsoriasis lesions gradually disappeared, but numerous tiny red papules with pruritus appeared over the forearms and lower legs 120 days after starting PUVA therapy. These papules developed to form violaceous plaques.