A 69-year-old woman had dysphagia, hoarseness, and asthma-like symptoms such as cough and wheeze. Inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting β₂ stimulants was not effective. Gastrointestinal endoscopy showed compression of the esophagus wall from outside. Enhanced computed tomography (CT) showed thoracic descending aortic aneurysm compressing esophagus and left lower lobe bronchus. Immediately thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) was performed. After surgery, significant improvement of hoarseness and asthma-like attack was obtained at the time of 1 month after surgery. This is the first reported case of TEVAR which improved compression symptoms of both esophagus and bronchus due to thoracic aortic aneurysm in Japan.

The purpose of this report is to clarify urologic problems in rural districts. The number of patients who visited our clinic for these 10 years were 7, 313 as new outpatient and 1802 as inpatient. Three main diseases of rural area were acute inflammation of lower urinary tract, benign prostatic hypertrophy and lithiasis of upper urinary tract. Infection of lower urinary tract and aggravation of malignant tumors might be influenced by rural works and bad circumstances. Monthly distribution of patients was also under the influence of rural works.

Osaka City has the highest tuberculosis (TB) notification rates in Japan. In the period 1999–2003, the TB control programme was strengthened, and the Stop TB Strategy was implemented to reduce the number of notified cases. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of these control activities in Osaka City, including the implementation of directly observed treatment (DOT), by analysing TB surveillance and routinely collected data. We reviewed the surveillance data of all sputum smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) cases registered in the Osaka City Public Health Office from 2001 to 2008 and data collected from the routine TB programme. The DOT implementation rate increased from 0% in 2001 to 68% in 2008 for smear-positive PTB cases of the general public and to 61% for all PTB cases of the homeless. The proportion of smear-positive PTB cases that had treatment failure and default combined, declined from 8.0% (52 of 650) in 2001 to 3.6% (20 of 548) in 2006. The proportion of cases among the homeless with previous treatment declined from 28% in 2001 to 15% in 2008. The proportion of cases with multidrug resistant-TB (MDR-TB) among those without previous treatment declined from 1.7% in 2001 to 0.9% in 2008. It is logical that reduction in the failure and default rate would lead to the reduction of cases with previous treatment and TB transmission, including resistant TB, therefore to the reduction of MDR-TB rates.

Objectives Left ventricular systolic dyssynchrony is the most important determinant of response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), playing a vital role to predict improvement of systolic function or LV reverse remodeling. CardioGRAF is a novel programmer based on the ECG gated single photon emission computed tomography (G-SPECT) imaging to detect LV systolic and diastolic dyssynchrony simultaneously. This study was to investigate the prevalence of systolic and diastolic left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony in patients with heart failure. Methods We retrospectively studied 69 patients with heart disease, including 31 patients who had symptoms of heart failure (NYHA class Ⅱ-Ⅲ), and 38 patients who had no symptoms of heart failure (NYHA class Ⅰ). G-SPECT data were analyzed by cardiaGRAF, and measurements included the time to end systole (TES), the time to peak ejection (TPE), the time to peak filling (TPF), TES+TPF and maximal difference (MD) of each parameters were obtained, using the 95th percentile of the control group as a cutoffof 150 ms for MD-TES, 139 ms for MD-TPE, 345 ms for MD-TPF and 315 ms for MD-TES+TPF. Results The prevalence of LV systolic dyssynchrony was significantly higher in heart failure patients with reduced LV ejection fraction (LVEF)<45% (72% for MD-TES; 64% for MD-TPE) compared with heart failure patients with preserved LVEF=45% (14% for both MD-TES and MD-TPE; P=0.002, P=0.005, respectively); The prevalence of MD-TES<150 ms was higher in NYHA class Ⅲ patients (64%) compared with NYHA class Ⅱ patients (27%, P=0.049). However, the prevalence of the LV diastolic dyssynchrony were high but not difference between NYHA class Ⅲ(47% for both MD-TPF and MD-TES+TPF) and class Ⅲ(63% for MD-TPF; 69% for MD-TES+TPF; P=NS) patients as well as between patients with preserved LVEF (43% for both MD-TPF and MD-TES+TPF) and patients with reduced LVEF(64% for MD-TPF; 72% for MD-TES+TPF; P=NS). Conclusions The prevalence of LV systolic dyssynchrony was high in heart failure patients with reduced LVEF. Diastolic dyssynchrony was common in patients with heart failure. CardioGRAF maybe a useful method to detect LV dyssynchrony.

It is well known that haloperidol is effective in the management of nausea and vomiting in cancer patients and that midazolam is used for inducing sedation in patients with delirium. Both the drugs are frequently used in a clinical setting, but there have been only few reports thus far on the concomitant administration of these 2 drugs. We report the case of a patient with massive ascites due to peritoneal carcinomatosis who had severe nausea and vomiting and went into a delirious state. This patient received a concomitant continuous infusion of haloperidol and midazolam for the management of these symptoms. Both haloperidol (up to 1.87mg/h) and midazolam (up to 1.87mg/h) were infused intravenously. For about 20 days, the nausea, vomiting and delirium were well under control without the development of any life threatening toxicities. Concomitant haloperidol and midazolam infusion was found to be a safe and effective therapy for the management of nausea and vomiting in the patient. Palliat Care Res 2009; 4(1): 312-316

Opioids are potent analgesics mostly used for severe cancer and chronic noncancer pain. However, their efficacy and safety in acute noncancer pain are debatable. We describe the case of an 82-year-old male with severe back pain due to bacteremic Staphylococcus aureus spondylitis and paravertebral abscess. Pain in such cases is usually controlled by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). However, this patient was administered morphine (oral, then intravenous; up to 23 mg/day) because acetaminophen and NSAIDs did not ameliorate pain. Considerable pain relief was achieved without toxicity, and the dose of morphine was tapered through 35 days. No symptoms of addiction or withdrawal were observed during or after this 35-day period. Thus, morphine appears to be safe and effective in the management of severe, acute noncancer pain in patients with bacterial spondylitis. Palliat Care Res 2010; 5(2): 327-331

The purpose of the present study was to examine the importance of the agonist muscle activity of the post-impact 30 ms phase during drop jump (DJ) for effective rebound performance by comparing those of sprint runners and swimmers. The eight sprint runners (SPRINT) and twelve swimmers (SWIM) were participated in this study. They performed DJ from a 0.3-m height box with maximal rebound efforts. Electromyograms (EMG) of the lower leg muscles (medial gastrocnemius [MG], soleus [SOL] and tibialis anterior [TA]), and vertical ground reaction force together with kinematic data were measured simultaneously during DJ. In addition, the onsets of fascicle stretching of the MG and SOL muscles were measured by using high-speed ultrasonography (521Hz) during DJ. The onsets of the fascicle stretching of SOL during DJ were not significantly different between SPRINT and SWIM (15 ± 7 ms and 16 ± 6 ms, respectively). During DJ, SPRINT showed onset of the SOL EMG before the ground contact (-26 ± 19 ms). Meanwhile, SWIM showed the onset of the SOL EMG after the ground contact of DJ (16 ± 19 ms). These results suggest that the SOL muscles for SWIM cannot be fully-activated during the braking phase. Consequently, the rate of force development during the braking phase of DJ and subsequently rebound height could be reduced in SWIM.

To assess coronary artery disease in arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO), the efficacy of a dipyridamole-loaded ECG was evaluated. Subjects consisted of 35 patients who underwent surgery for ASO between November 1988 and December 1989. A dose of 0.568mg/kg of dipyridamole was intravenously infused for over 4min. Changes of systemic blood pressure, heart rate and standard 12-lead ECG were accumulated. In eleven cases loaded ECG was considered to be positive and coronary arteriographies were performed. Stenotic lesions of 75% or over were observed in 10 cases, among them CABG was performed in one symptomatic case. In another positive but asymptomatic cases, only the existing ASO lesions were surgically treated. No intraoperative or postoperative ECG abnormality was observed and postoperative courses were uneventful. Negative cases (24 cases) underwent complete revascularization. These findings indicate that a dipyridamole-loaded ECG is a non-invasive preoperative means detecting coronary artery disease preoperatively is useful to decide operative procedure.

Objective: The aim of this study is to explore the factors associated with the burden of home care for doctors. Methods: In July 2013 a survey was mailed to a cross-section of clinics and hospitals in Kobe City. Results: Questionnaires were sent to 1,589 clinics and hospitals and 899 (57%) responded. Of these, data from 807 respondents were available for analysis. The burden of home care was felt to be considerable for 30% and slight for 31% of respondents. Determinants associated with the burden of home care were; 80 years and older doctors (P=0.05), particular medical measures (P=0.036), building links with other medical facility or care staff (P=0.002), and ensuring the sufficient time and staff (P<0.001). Conclusion: The majority of doctors reported a burden associated with home care.