Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia at a university hospital in Japan.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become a leading cause of infections in hospitals, and mortality from MRSA bacteremia is high. In this study, we assessed the clinical characteristics and optimum management of 115 patients with MRSA bacteremia who were admitted to Osaka University Hospital between January 2006 and December 2010. Sixty-nine of the patients survived and 46 died of heart failure or renal failure.

Computed tomography values calculation and volume histogram analysis for various computed tomographic patterns of diffuse lung diseases.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the computed tomography (CT) values of various pulmonary abnormalities in cubic region of interest (ROI) and square ROI and evaluate the CT findings by histogram analysis in the ROI.

Methods: The study included 89 patients with the following 8 pulmonary CT patterns: normal lung, ground-glass attenuation, fine reticular opacity, coarse reticular opacity, honeycombing, airspace consolidation, nodular opacity, and emphysema. Cubic and square ROIs were selected in each CT pattern, and 5 values (contrast, variance, entropy, skewness, and kurtosis) were calculated.

Endothelial dysfunction in hyperglycemia as a trigger of atherosclerosis.

Type 2 diabetes is associated with a two to fourfold increased risk of both coronary heart disease and stroke. Dysfunction of endothelial cells (EC) is known to promote abnormal vascular growth such as that in atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis and has been postulated as an initial trigger of the progression of atherosclerosis in patients with diabetes mellitus, and hyperglycemia is an independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease. We and others have previously demonstrated that high D-glucose induced apoptosis through activation of the bax-caspase proteases pathway in human EC and the potential contribution of hepatocyte growth factor, as an anti-apoptotic factor, to the pathogenesis of endothelial dysfunction.

Computed tomography findings in pathological usual interstitial pneumonia: relationship to survival.

Rationale: Patients with a clinicopathological diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) may have typical findings of usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) on computed tomography (CT) or nonspecific or atypical findings, including those often seen in nonspecific interstitial pneumonia.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to revisit the high-resolution CT findings of IPF and to clarify the correlation between the CT findings and mortality.

Methods: The study included 98 patients with a histologic diagnosis of UIP and a clinical diagnosis of IPF.

Enhanced expression of intracellular heme oxygenase-1 in deactivated monocytes from patients with severe systemic inflammatory response syndrome.

Background: Monocyte deactivation is an important contributor to infectious susceptibility in critically ill patients. However, the mechanism of monocyte deactivation has not been fully elucidated. Recently, intracellular heme oxygenese-1 (HO-1), an anti-inflammatory heat-shock protein, was reported to be activated by Toll-like receptors (TLRs), and to inhibit inflammatory cytokine production such as that of TNF-alpha.

Pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis: CT and pathologic findings in 10 patients.

Background And Aim: To evaluate CT findings of pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis and correlate the CT with the pathologic findings.

Methods: The study included 10 patients with pathologically proven microlithiasis. Two independent observers evaluated the presence, extent and distribution of the CT findings.

Interferon treatment on glomerulonephritis associated with hepatitis C virus.

We report on a 10-year-old girl with glomerulonephritis associated with hepatitis C virus infection, who was treated with interferon-alpha. On the first renal biopsy at 8 years of age, mild mesangial hypercellularity in a segmental to semiglobal pattern was present in all glomeruli. After 6 months interferon-alpha therapy, proteinuria diminished completely.

Simultaneous detection of multiple STR loci on sex chromosomes for forensic testing of sex and identity.

The forensic usefulness of X and Y chromosomal STR loci has recently been demonstrated. One quadruplex-PCR, using 2 X- and 2 Y-STRs (STRX1/HPRTB and DYS390/ DYS393), and 2 duplex-PCRs, each using an X- and a Y-STR (ARA/DYS390 and ARA/DYS393), and detection of PCR products by using an automated DNA sequencer are reported herein. This approach allows us to determine not only the sex of the donor of a sample, but also the X- and/or Y-STR genotypes of the sample.