Efficacy and safety of the combination of estetrol 15 mg/drospirenone 3 mg in a cyclic regimen for the treatment of endometriosis-associated pain and objective gynecological findings: a multicenter, placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized study.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of 24-week cyclic administration of estetrol (E4) (15 mg)/drospirenone (DRSP) (3 mg) in Japanese patients with endometriosis.

Design: A 24-week, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study.

Setting: Twenty-five study centers in Japan.

BMP Signaling Is a Prognostic Marker in Patients With Colorectal Cancer and Associates With Frailty.

Background/aim: Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are members of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily of ligands and have been shown to promote or suppress colorectal cancer (CRC) growth. Developing treatments that target BMPs is challenging due to their multiple roles, including involvement in the inflammatory response and nutritional status. The present study evaluated the prognostic value of BMP-4, which is believed to be highly expressed in CRC, and its correlation with inflammatory and nutrition statuses in patients with CRC.

New surgery technique combining robotics and laparoscopy using the Hugo™ RAS system.

Introduction: Hybrid total laparoscopic hysterectomy combines conventional laparoscopic surgery and robot-assisted devices: the camera and assistant forceps are operated by a robotic device, whereas the surgeon performs laparoscopic procedures, enabling surgery with a completely fixed field of view and significantly reducing errors in forceps grasping and needle misalignment. Here, we examined whether using two arms of the Hugo™ robot-assisted surgery system, one for the camera and one for the assistant, would improve surgical accuracy compared with conventional total laparoscopic hysterectomy.

Materials And Surgical Technique: The surgical system reduced surgeon errors in grasping the forceps during training and stabilized forceps operation.

Azelnidipine protects HL-1 cardiomyocytes from hypoxia/reoxygenation injury by enhancement of NO production independently of effects on gene expression.

It remains to be elucidated whether Ca antagonists induce pharmacological preconditioning to protect the heart against ischemia/reperfusion injury. The aim of this study was to determine whether and how pretreatment with a Ca antagonist, azelnidipine, could protect cardiomyocytes against hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) injury in vitro. Using HL-1 cardiomyocytes, we studied effects of azelnidipine on NO synthase (NOS) expression, NO production, cell death and apoptosis during H/R.

Cytokine Profile in Predicting the Effectiveness of Advanced Therapy for Ulcerative Colitis: A Narrative Review.

Cytokine-targeted therapies have shown efficacy in treating patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), but responses to these advanced therapies can vary. This variability may be due to differences in cytokine profiles among patients with UC. While the etiology of UC is not fully understood, abnormalities of the cytokine profiles are deeply involved in its pathophysiology.

Exosomal miR-493 suppresses MAD2L1 and induces chemoresistance to intraperitoneal paclitaxel therapy in gastric cancer patients with peritoneal metastasis.

Intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy with paclitaxel (PTX) for gastric cancer (GC) with peritoneal metastasis (PM) is considered a promising treatment approach, however, there are no useful biomarkers to predict the efficacy of IP therapy. We examined the association between intra-peritoneal exosomes, particularly exosomal micro-RNAs (exo-miRNAs), and IP-chemo sensitivity. MKN45 cells that were cultured with intra-peritoneal exosomes from patients who did not respond to IP therapy with PTX (IP group) exhibited resistance to PTX compared with exosomes from responding patients (IP group) (p = 0.

Using the geriatric nutritional risk index to predict outcomes in older patients with remnant gastric cancer after gastrectomy: a retrospective multicenter study in Japan.

Purpose: This study investigated the prognostic value of the geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) in patients undergoing curative gastrectomy for remnant gastric cancer (RGC).

Methods: This multicenter retrospective study included 105 patients with RGC of ≥ 65 years of age who underwent curative gastrectomy at 10 institutions in Japan between January 2000 and December 2016. Postoperative complications, overall survival (OS), and disease-specific survival (DSS) were analyzed.

The effect of GnRH-a on the angiogenesis of endometriosis.

Purpose: Neoangiogenesis is necessary for adhesion and invasiveness of endometriotic lesions in women affected by endometriosis. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the main components of angiogenesis and is part of the major pathway tissue factor (TF)-protease activated receptor-2 (PAR-2)-VEGF that leads to neoangiogenesis. Specificity protein 1 (SP1) is a transcriptional factor that has recently been studied for its crucial role in angiogenesis via a specific pathway.

Impact of clinical clerkship integrated with clinical ladder on attending physicians' teaching self-efficacy.

Background: Self-efficacy plays an important role in enhancing the teaching capabilities of attending physicians (APs). The clinical ladder (CL) is an educational approach developed in the field of nursing education that increases difficulty in an incremental manner. However, no previous study has confirmed the effectiveness of CL in medical education.

Orexinergic neurons contribute to autonomic cardiovascular regulation for locomotor exercise.

While the hypothalamic orexinergic nervous system is established as having a pivotal role in the long-term regulation of various organismic functions, including wakefulness, metabolism and hypertensive states, whether this system contributes to the rapid autonomic cardiovascular regulation during physical activity remains elusive. This study aimed to elucidate the role of the orexinergic nervous system in transmitting volitional motor signals, i.e.

An Intrahepatic Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET/CT False-Positive Tumor Secondary to Foreign Body Granuloma Masquerading as Colon Cancer Liver Metastasis: A Case Report.

A suture placed next to a dissected liver section during the initial hepatectomy may become an unlikely intrahepatic foreign body granuloma. In this report, we describe a case where a silk suture in the liver section plane placed during initial hepatectomy for synchronous colon cancer metastasis became an intrahepatic foreign body granuloma that exhibited fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) accumulation on positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). The granuloma was resected as the second metachronous liver metastatic lesion.

Hypothalamic Orexinergic Neurons Projecting to the Mesencephalic Locomotor Region Are Activated by Voluntary Wheel Running Exercise in Rats.

Background: Cardiovascular changes during exercise are regulated by a motor volitional signal, called central command, which originates in the rostral portions of the brain and simultaneously regulates somatomotor and autonomic nervous systems. Whereas we recently elucidated mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) neurons projecting to the rostral ventrolateral medulla as a crucial component of the central circuit responsible for transmitting central command signals, upstream circuits that regulate the MLR neurons remain unknown. Orexinergic neurons, which primarily originate from the perifornical area (PeFA) of the hypothalamus and reportedly play roles in eliciting locomotion and elevating sympathetic activity, send axonal projection to the MLR.

Prognostic impact of histological discordance between transurethral resection and radical cystectomy.

Objective: To analyse the impact of histological discordance of subtypes (subtypes or divergent differentiation [DD]) in specimens from transurethral resection (TUR) and radical cystectomy (RC) on the outcome of the patients with bladder cancer receiving RC.

Patients And Methods: We analysed data for 2570 patients from a Japanese nationwide cohort with bladder cancer treated with RC between January 2013 and December 2019 at 36 institutions. The non-urinary tract recurrence-free survival (NUTR-FS) and overall survival (OS) stratified by TUR or RC specimen histology were determined.

Thyroid hormone may predict treatment failure in Kawasaki disease.

Background: In systemic inflammatory conditions, inflammatory cytokines can cause low thyroid hormone levels. There are no reports discussing the relation between thyroid hormone levels and response to treatment for Kawasaki disease.

Methods: We investigated 67 patients who underwent treatment in the acute phase of Kawasaki disease.

Serum Activin A Is a Novel Biomarker of Endoscopic Activity in Ulcerative Colitis.

Background: Endoscopic healing (EH) is the long-term therapeutic goal for ulcerative colitis (UC). Since repeated colonoscopies are inconvenient and invasive, a surrogate biomarker for endoscopic activity is needed. Activin A is one of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily of proteins and has been shown to be associated with intestinal inflammation.