We performed a retrospective study on the clinical data of 13 remission failure cases in 53 patients who had received remission induction therapy for acute leukemia (AL) in our hospital over the past seven years.
The outstanding clinical manifestations of the remission failure cases, as compared with the successful cases, included (a) disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) syndrome (b) complex chromosomal abnormalities (c) leukocytosis over 100, 000/μl and (d) markedly elevated seum LDH level and thymidine kinase activitis at the time of initial admission.
The greater majority of these cases (10 out of 13) resulted in death within 90 days after the start of induction therapy.
The causes of death were predominantly hemorrhagic events associated with DIC syndrome, cerebral hemorrhage and severe infectious diseases such as sepsis and pneumonia.
Earlier death within 14 days after therapy was caused from hemorrhagic events and later one was severe infections.
In the G-CSF treated group, the febril term of over 38°C was shorter and the number of days taken for the neutrophil counts to be restored to the 1, 000/μl level was fewer than in the non G-CSF treated group.
Thus, it was suggested that G-CSF was expected to be one of the useful supporting agents to prevent infections in remission induction therapy for acute leukemia.

Thigh muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) and maximum voluntary isometric strength of knee extensor and flexor muscles were measured in 97 men (2065 years) and 162 women (2069 years) in sedentary Japanese adults. Each subject was assigned to one of five age groups (3^rd 4^th 5^th 6^th and 7^th decade) . Thigh muscle CSA was estimated by our developmental measuring system using an ultrasonographic device, which was connected to a PC for graphical processing. Muscle CSA for the 7^th decade in men was significantly smaller than that for the 3^rd decade. For women, muscle CSA were no significant from the 3^rd to the 7^th decade. The isometric knee extensor strength showed a significant decline with age from the 7^th decade in men, whereas there was no significant change with age in women. Isometric strength of knee flexors in men showed a gradual decline from the 5_th decade. The aging-associated reduction of muscle strength per muscle CSA in the extensors and flexors started from the 6_th decade in men. It was concluded that the size and strength of the thigh muscles begin to decrease simultaneously by approximately the 6_th decade in men, whereas there are no change until the 7^th decade in women.

We performed a retrospective study of the effects of steroids and the factors that deteriorate renal function in 30 patients with primary focal segmental glomerular sclerosis. The mean observation periods from the onset of proteinuria and from the histological diagnosis by renal biopsy were 6.1 ± 5.0 years and 3.9 ± 3.01 respectively. 87% of the patients had been recerving steroid therapy with or without other drugs. In this study, the patients were divided into 3 groups by the initial dose of steroids. A multivariate analysis was performed on the laboratory findings of the 3 groups. In a short-term observation, there were no significant defferences among the groups. However, in a long-term observation (more than one year) it was clarified that the patients who had been given high doses of steroids tend to maintain their renal functoin. We also found that the patients responding to steroids showed a significantly better prognosis than steroid-resistant patients upon examination their nephrotic status and renal functoin.
This statistical analysis confirmed that the factors deteriorating the renal function are hypertension and hyperlipidemia.
In addition, it was revealed that hyperuricemia, is responsible for the renal dissease, failure?

Recently, a long-term health concern has been identified in young Japanese women. These women have a high percentage of body fat despite a normal shape index indicator such as BMI. This condition is called marked obesity, and shows relative low lean body mass. Using an analogous determination, we investigated low percentage of muscle quantity (LM) in the extremities of young Japanese women (n=156) . The cross-sectional areas of muscle, subcutaneous fat, and bone were measured in the upper arm and thigh using ultrasonography. Extremity shape index (CSA_t/L) was defined as the total extremity cross-sectional area (CSA_t) divided by the length of the limb (L), Percent muscle in each extremity (% MA) was calculated from the ratio of muscle CSA to whole limb CSA. LM was defined as the percentage of muscle in the upper arm or thigh less than 1 SD below average and the limb shape index less than 1 SD above average. Nine of 91 subjects displayed LM for the upper arm. A similar proportion of subjects showed LM for the thigh (15/156) . The muscle mass and strength in the upper arm or thigh were compared between the subjects with LM and non-LM subjects with a similar shape index of extremity. There was a tendency towards lower muscle mass and muscle strength in the subjects with LM. From the same comparison, the subjects with LM showed a greater load on extremity muscles to sustain the body weight (i.e., body weight per unit of upper arm or thigh muscle CSA) . To mitigate the deleterious health consequences of low percent muscle quantity it is recommended that young Japanese women who display such a condition should participate in a resistance-training program.

The number of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) in Japan is increasing. Progression of DM leads to the development of diabetic peripheral neuropathy, which causes foot sensory disturbances. This study examined the effect of DM on plantar tactile point pressure sensitivity (TPPS) and identified the site with the highest threshold of plantar TPPS. The subjects were 42 DM patients (aged 71.7±8.2 years) and 122 local elderly residents (aged 72.6±4.8 years). TPPS of eight sites, including the right and left halluces, hallux and fifth toe metatarsal heads, and heels was measured using the Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test. The measurement was performed three times at each site. The results were adopted when all repeated measurements were valid. The Friedman test was used for comparison among the four sites within the same group. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of sites between groups. A significance level of 5% was adopted. The ages of the DM patients were not significantly different, but the patients had significantly higher TPPS threshold for halluces, and hallux and fifth toe metatarsal heads, compared to the local elderly residents. The TPPS threshold was highest in the heels in both the DM patients and local elderly residents. The threshold of plantar TPPS increases in DM. It is important to evaluate both the forefoot and the heels.

AIMTo evaluate the occurrence and prevalence of microdeletions in the gamma chromosome of patients with azoospermia.

METHODSDNA from 29 men with idiopathic azoospermia was screened by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis with a set of gamma chromosome specific sequence-tagged sites (STSs) to determine microdeletions in the gamma chromosome.

RESULTSDeletions in the DAZ (deleted in azoospermia) loci sgamma254 and sgamma255 were found in three patients with idiopathic azoospermia, resulting in an estimated frequency of deletions of 10.7% in idiopathic azoospermia men.

CONCLUSIONWe conclude that PCR analysis is useful for the diagnosis of microdeletions in the Y chromosome, which is important when deciding the suitability of a patient for assisted reproductive technology such as testicular sperm extracion-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (TESE-ICSI).

Adult ; Base Sequence ; Chromosomes, Human, Y ; DNA Primers ; Euchromatin ; genetics ; Follicle Stimulating Hormone ; blood ; Heterochromatin ; genetics ; Humans ; Luteinizing Hormone ; blood ; Male ; Oligospermia ; blood ; etiology ; genetics ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prolactin ; blood ; Sequence Deletion ; genetics ; Sequence Tagged Sites ; Testosterone ; blood