Intra-arterial Chemotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer.

Superselective intra-arterial chemoradiotherapy for head and neck cancer is a combination of intensive local delivery of anticancer drugs using microcatheters and external beam radiation. Unlike conventional chemoradiotherapy, it is highly effective in treating the primary tumor, but it cannot treat distant metastases. In the field of head and neck cancer, where quality of life is significantly impaired by curative surgery from a functional and cosmetic point of view, it is a useful treatment not only for unresectable cases but also for resectable advanced cancers, with the maxillary sinus being a particularly good indication.

Gait bradykinesia: difficulty in switching posture/gait measured by the anatomical y-axis vector of the sole in Parkinson's disease.

This study in Parkinson's disease examined how spatiotemporal parameters in gait bradykinesia link to difficulty in terminating posture and initiating gait locomotion. 41 idiopathic Parkinson's disease patients and 15 age-matched healthy subjects participated in this study. After the patients fixated on a visual-fixation-target, gait was triggered by visual or vocal cue-stimulus.

Short-term effects of postural control by standing on a tilting board in patients with Parkinson's disease.

: People with Parkinson's disease (PD) often have backward displacement of their center of pressure (COP) during quiet standing and reduced stability limits, as compared to healthy controls. These kinetic characteristics may induce postural instability in people with PD.: To investigate the short-term effects on COP displacements during quiet standing and forward leaning brought about by the post-incline leaning after-effects in people with PD.

[Facts and Cases of Diseases and Observations Are Described from My Own Experience].

Facts and cases of diseases and observations are described from my own experience. 1) Refer carefully with correct recognition of the levels of the vertebral body and cord segment. 2) The spinal nerve root is defined as the part of the peripheral nerves in the subarachnoid space.

Quantitative Analysis of Surface Electromyography for Pediatric Neuromuscular Disorders.

Introduction: Needle electromyography (EMG) has been an important diagnostic tool, although discomfort may limit its use in some children. We investigated the diagnostic utility of the clustering index (CI) method, a quantitative analysis for surface EMG (SEMG), in children.

Methods: SEMG was recorded from the tibialis anterior muscle.

[Sporadic adult-onset neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease with abnormal electroretinogram, nerve conduction studies and somatosensory evoked potential].

A 70-year-old man, a urinary retention of unknown origin from 10 years ago, decreased cognitive function from 4 years ago, vision impairment advanced a year ago. Brain MRI with DWI showed high intensity erea in the cortico-medullary junction. We diagnosed as intranuclear inclusion body disease (NIID) because of p62-positive intranuclear inclusion bodies by skin biopsy.

Low back pain due to superior cluneal nerve entrapment: A clinicopathologic study.

Introduction: We studied the clinical and nerve pathologic features in 6 patients whose low back pain (LBP) was relieved by superior cluneal nerve (SCN) neurectomy to determine whether nerve compression was the mechanism underlying this type of LBP.

Methods: All 6 patients (7 nerves) underwent SCN neurectomy for intractable LBP. Their clinical outcomes and the pathologic features of 7 nerves were reviewed.

Gait bradykinesia in Parkinson's disease: a change in the motor program which controls the synergy of gait.

This study examined how gait bradykinesia is changed by the motor programming in Parkinson's disease. Thirty-five idiopathic Parkinson's disease patients and nine age-matched healthy subjects participated in this study. After the patients fixated on a visual-fixation target (conditioning-stimulus), the voluntary-gait was triggered by a visual on-stimulus.

Cartilage quantification using contrast-enhanced MRI in the wrist of rheumatoid arthritis: cartilage loss is associated with bone marrow edema.

Objective: To quantify wrist cartilage using contrast MRI and compare with the extent of adjacent synovitis and bone marrow edema (BME) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: 18 patients with RA underwent post-contrast fat-suppressed Tweighted coronal imaging. Cartilage area at the centre of the scaphoid-capitate and radius-scaphoid joints was measured by in-house developed software.

The Steerable Microcatheter: A New Device for Selective Catheterisation.

The steerable microcatheter (SwiftNINJA, Sumitomo Bakelite, Tokyo, Japan), which has a remote-controlled flexible tip manipulated using a dial in the handgrip, was recently developed and delivered to the market. This device enables the user to change the angle of the microcatheter tip manually, and potentially makes selective catheterisation easier. We evaluated its unique characteristics and utility in selective catheterisation and coil embolization.

Clinical utility of the 6-min walk test for patients with moderate Parkinson's disease.

The aim of this study was to test the clinical utility of the 6-min walk test (6MWT) for patients with moderate Parkinson's disease (PD) through a determination of factors related to this test. This was a descriptive, observational study carried out at a General Hospital, in-patients. Twenty-four patients with moderate PD were studied.

[Frontal cortical dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD): Comparison of memory-based smooth-pursuit and anti-saccade tasks, and neuropsychological and motor symptom evaluations].

We reported recently that during a memory-based smooth-pursuit task, most Parkinson's disease (PD) patients exhibited normal cue-information memory but impaired smooth-pursuit preparation and execution. A minority of PD patients had abnormal cue-information memory or difficulty in understanding the task. To further examine differences between these two groups, we assigned an anti-saccade task and compared correct rates with various neuropsychological and motor symptom evaluations.

[Visual tracking with/without passive whole-body rotation in Parkinson's disease (PD): Dissociation of smooth-pursuit and cancellation of vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR)].

Although impaired smooth-pursuit in Parkinson's disease (PD) is well known, reports are conflicting on the ability to cancel vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) when the target moves with head, requiring gaze-pursuit. To compare visual tracking performance with or without passive whole-body rotation, we examined eye movements of 10 PD patients and 6 age-matched controls during sinusoidal horizontal smooth-pursuit and passive whole-body rotation (0.3 Hz, ± 10°).

Insights from the ganglionic acetylcholine receptor autoantibodies in patients with Sjögren's syndrome.

Objective: It is not known whether autonomic neuropathy is a feature of Sjögren's syndrome (SS) or whether it is related to circulating antiganglionic acetylcholine receptor (gAChR) antibodies. The goal of the present study was to investigate the autonomic dysfunction in patients with SS and the associations between autonomic dysfunction, anti-gAChR antibodies, and clinical features of SS.

Methods: (1) The first observational study tested for the presence of gAChR antibodies in the serum samples from 39 patients with SS (absent information regarding autonomic symptoms) and healthy volunteers.

Treatment of low back pain in patients with vertebral compression fractures and superior cluneal nerve entrapment neuropathies.

Background: Superior cluneal nerve entrapment neuropathy (SCN-EN) may contribute to low back pain (LBP). However, it is often misdiagnosed as lumbar spine disorder and poorly understood.

Methods: Between April 2012 and September 2013, we treated 27 patients (3 men, 24 women; mean age 75.

Impaired smooth-pursuit in Parkinson's disease: normal cue-information memory, but dysfunction of extra-retinal mechanisms for pursuit preparation and execution.

While retinal image motion is the primary input for smooth-pursuit, its efficiency depends on cognitive processes including prediction. Reports are conflicting on impaired prediction during pursuit in Parkinson's disease. By separating two major components of prediction (image motion direction memory and movement preparation) using a memory-based pursuit task, and by comparing tracking eye movements with those during a simple ramp-pursuit task that did not require visual memory, we examined smooth-pursuit in 25 patients with Parkinson's disease and compared the results with 14 age-matched controls.

Normal aging affects movement execution but not visual motion working memory and decision-making delay during cue-dependent memory-based smooth-pursuit.

Aging affects virtually all functions including sensory/motor and cognitive activities. While retinal image motion is the primary input for smooth-pursuit, its efficiency/accuracy depends on cognitive processes. Elderly subjects exhibit gain decrease during initial and steady-state pursuit, but reports on latencies are conflicting.

Cue-dependent memory-based smooth-pursuit in normal human subjects: importance of extra-retinal mechanisms for initial pursuit.

Using a cue-dependent memory-based smooth-pursuit task previously applied to monkeys, we examined the effects of visual motion-memory on smooth-pursuit eye movements in normal human subjects and compared the results with those of the trained monkeys. These results were also compared with those during simple ramp-pursuit that did not require visual motion-memory. During memory-based pursuit, all subjects exhibited virtually no errors in either pursuit-direction or go/no-go selection.

Cognitive processes involved in smooth pursuit eye movements: behavioral evidence, neural substrate and clinical correlation.

Smooth-pursuit eye movements allow primates to track moving objects. Efficient pursuit requires appropriate target selection and predictive compensation for inherent processing delays. Prediction depends on expectation of future object motion, storage of motion information and use of extra-retinal mechanisms in addition to visual feedback.

[Cerebellum and eye movement control -- neuronal mechanisms of memory-based smooth-pursuit and their early clinical application].

Recent studies implicate the cerebellum in cognitive functions in addition to its well-established roles in motor control and learning. Using a memory-based smooth-pursuit task that separates visual working memory from motor preparation and execution, monkeys were trained to pursue (i.e.

Difficulty in terminating the preceding movement/posture explains the impaired initiation of new movements in Parkinson's disease.

To determine whether the difficulty of initiating volitional movements in Parkinson's disease is primarily due to impaired termination of preceding movement/posture or to impaired initiation of new movement, patients with Parkinson's disease and age-matched controls were first asked to visually fixate a stationary spot and simultaneously align wrist position accurately with it. They were then requested to make rapid movements of eyes and wrist to a test stimulus presented in the peripheral visual field. We analyzed latencies of ocular and manual movements to the test stimulus in two conditions; in the overlap task the stationary spot remained on during illumination of the test stimulus requiring subjects to terminate fixation and wrist positioning themselves to initiate new movements.

Effects of stroke-induced damage to swallow-related areas in the brain on swallowing mechanics of elderly patients.

Aim: Our objective was to determine the relationship between defective swallowing mechanics and the location of brain lesions in stroke patients.

Methods: We evaluated swallowing mechanics in 37 stroke patients and 10 age-matched control subjects by videofluoroscopy. Subjects were asked to swallow 10 successive 1.

A case of interstitial pneumonia caused by bucillamine: a study using serological markers.

The patient was a 61-year-old man diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in 2001. He initially received treatment at a nearby clinic, but his condition could not be satisfactorily controlled. He subsequently consulted our hospital during the same year.