A 74-year-old woman was first admitted to our hospital for orthopnea, and was given a diagnosis of severe congestive cardiac failure caused by myocardial infarction. Coronary angiography revealed severe triple vessel disease, with a totally obstructed left anterior descending artery (LAD) and right coronary artery. First diagonal branch (Dx1) was 90% stenotic, and left circumflex artery was also 90% stenotic in its proximal portion (segment 11; #11). There was no stenotic lesion in the obtuse marginal branch or posterolateral branch, which are the usual target branches for the left circumflex branch (LCx). But they were too small to be grafted. Left ventriculography showed severe left ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction; 31%). Saphenous vein grafting (SVG) to the distal portion of #11 and sequential SVG to the LAD and Dx1 were performed. Postoperative angiography proved that these grafts were patent. The patient was discharged on the 46th postoperative day after an uneventful course.

We report a case of successful medical treatment for graft infection after abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. A 63-year-old man with a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm underwent a prosthetic graft replacement via a retroperitoneal approach. He became febrile on the 26th postoperative day (POD). A CT scan demonstrated fluid collection around the grafts. Re-operation was performed and gross pus was found around the prosthetic graft. After all pus and nonviable tissue were removed, two irrigation tubes and a drainage tube were placed adjacent to the graft for continuous irrigation with 0.5% povidone-iodine and super-acidic solution. Inflammatory reactions were gradually improved, and the patient discharged on the 88th POD.

A 46-year-old man who developed fever and general fatigue was referred to our hospital with suspicion of infective endocarditis. A ventricular septal defect had been previously diagnosed. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed vegetation on the aortic, mitral, and pulmonary valves, and each valve had significant regurgitation. An emergency operation was performed because of congestive heart failure. The aortic and mitral valves were replaced with mechanical valves. The pulmonary valve was repaired ; the anterior leaflet was resected and replaced by glutaraldehyde-treated autologous pericardium. The patient's postoperative course was uneventful. Recurrence of infection was not observed for 3 years after the operation. Triple-valve endocarditis, especially that involving a combination of the aortic, mitral, and pulmonary valves, is rare. Involvement of multiple valves on both sides of the heart may be attributed to a congenital intracardiac shunt. Early surgical intervention may be useful to control infection and heart failure, as in the present case.

Ischemic colitis following cardiac surgery is a rare but critical complication. We report two cases of ischemic colitis following cardiac surgery successfully treated with stenting of the stenotic celiac trunk. Case 1 was a 65-year-old man who developed perioperative myocardial infarction during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting. He experienced abdominal pain and bloody stool on postoperative day 19. Severe ischemic changes in the sigmoid colon and descending colon were seen on colonoscopy, and CT scan revealed significant stenosis of the celiac trunk and occlusion of the inferior mesenteric artery and bilateral internal iliac arteries. Revascularization of the celiac trunk via stenting resulted in dramatic improvement in colonic ischemic changes. Case 2 was a 60-year-old woman who underwent a restoration procedure for a left ventricular aneurysm. She experienced gradual onset of postprandial pain beginning 9 days after surgery and massive bloody stool on postoperative day 33. Imaging revealed severe ischemic changes in the descending colon on colonoscopy and stenoses of the celiac trunk, superior mesenteric artery, inferior mesenteric artery, and bilateral common iliac arteries on CT angiogram. Stenting was performed to the celiac trunk on postoperative day 52. Her abdominal pain and bloody stool were completely resolved after treatment. Prior to the introduction of endovascular treatment of mesenteric ischemia in 1980, the standard treatment had been open surgical repair. Since then, endovascular repair has become widely accepted. In our experience, endovascular treatment of the mesenteric vessels may be an effective and less invasive approach to treating mesenteric ischemia in unstable patients after cardiac surgery.

　　Case 1: A woman in her 70s was carried into emergency department of our hospital. Apparently she had dyspnea. Acute pulmonary heart was suspected. Electrocardiography S I Q III T III-pattern. The patient was diagnosed with popliteal vein vascular aneurysm by ultrasonography. Case 2: A man in his 60s, was referred to our hospital for treatment of lower extremity swelling and pain. Like Case 1, the male patient was suspected of having deep vein thrombosis and femoral artery aneurysms by ultrasound inspection and also diagnosed with pulmonary thromboembolism based on CT findings. We were able to rescue these two patients by rapid medical cooperation. Ultrasonography was particularly useful for diagnosis and morphological evaluation of blood vessels.

To assess the changes in attitudes toward smoking after the smoking-prevention classes presented by Kumamoto Tobacco-Free Forum, this study administered a questionnaire survey to first-year junior high school students before and after a smoking-prevention class at a junior high school. The questionnaire that was used to pre and post comparison comprised thirteen items, ten from the Kano Test for Social Nicotine Dependence (KTSND-Youth) and three as follows: “I think I will be a smoker in the future,” “I think I will smoke about once,” and “What do you think of people around you who smoke tobacco?” The results of this pre- and post-class questionnaire indicate that attitudes toward seven items improved in a statistically significant way. These included four from KTSND-Youth: “Smokers cannot stop even if they want to,” “Smoking is adult-like and cool,” “Smoking is enjoys taste and a fragrance,” and “If it’s a place with an ashtray, it’s okay to smoke.” The smoking-prevention classes significantly decreased total KTSND-Youth scores. Furthermore, the analysis has clarified that the KTSND-Youth items: “Smoking is adult-like and cool” and “Doctor and school teachers say, ‘Tobacco is no good too much”, as well as the item “What do you think of people around you who smoke tobacco?” are significantly influencing factors for the item “I will be a smoker in the future.” These results indicate that the smoking-prevention classes presented by Kumamoto Tobacco-Free Forum were effective for decline in social nicotine dependence of the first-year students in junior high school.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan is planning a pooling system for multiple-choice questions (MCQs) for the national examination for medical practitioners. To clarify possible problems of such a system, a field study was performed by 10 medical schools in Japan using 90 MCQs from previous examinations. Nine hundred twenty-four 6th-year students participated in the field test. For each MCQ, the correct-response rates at the originating school and those obtained in the field test were significantly correlated. Thus, the correct-response rates to questions on the field test could be predicted from the rates at the originating schools. However, for each question the correct-response rate was significantly higher for students of the originating school than for students of other schools. In the national examination, care should be taken to prevent differences in scores on the basis of question sources.

1）We had the opportunity to study medical education in Thailand and Singapore while we visited medical schools in those countries as a member of the Japan Tropical Medicine Association.
2）In Thailand, undergraduate medical education last for 6 years, which is the same length as in Japan. All lectures are in English. Medical students in Thailand are more deeply related to patients at bedside learning than are students in Japan. In Singapore, undergraduate education lasts for 5 years, and lectures are in English. In the third year, medical students start clinical medicine. Recently, a new program has been adopted in which medical students can easily choose their specialties right after graduation.
3）Japanese medical students study medicine in Japanese. In contrast, greater emphasis should be placed in Japan on medical education in English.

In conventional pharmacological research in the field of mental disorders, pharmacological effect and dose have been estimated by ethological approach and in vitro data of affinity to the site of action. In addition, the frequency of administration has been estimated from drug kinetics in blood. However, there is a problem regarding an objective index of drug effects in the living body. Furthermore, the possibility that the concentration of drug in blood does not necessarily reflect the drug kinetics in target organs has been pointed out. Positron emission tomography (PET) techniques have made progress for more than 20 years, and made it possible to measure the distribution and kinetics of small molecule components in living brain. In this article, we focused on rational drug dosing using receptor occupancy and proof-of-concept of drugs in the drug development process using PET.
Brain ; Central Nervous System ; Drug Evaluation ; Electrons ; Kinetics ; Mental Disorders ; Norepinephrine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; Receptors, Dopamine D2 ; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is to investigate recurrence of stage I epithelial ovarian cancer. METHODS: Six hundred two patients diagnosed with stage I epithelial ovarian cancer at 4 hospitals between 2000 and 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. Age, surgical procedure, substage, histologic type, adjuvant chemotherapy, recurrence, initial recurrence site (peritoneal dissemination [P], hematogenous recurrence [H], lymphogenous recurrence [L], and others [O]), and frequency of recurrence at each site were investigated retrospectively. RESULTS: Median age was 54 years and median follow-up was 60 months. The stage was IA in 180 cases (30%), IB in 8 (1%), IC1 in 247 (41%), IC2 in 63 (10%), and IC3 in 104 (17%). Systematic lymph node dissection including both pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes was performed in 224 patients (37%), and 412 patients (68%) received adjuvant chemotherapy. Recurrence occurred in 70 patients (11.6%). The median time to recurrence was 18 months, and the stage was IA in 13 (19%), IB in 1 (1%), IC1 in 24 (34%), IC2 in 9 (13%), and IC3 in 23 (33%) cases. The numbers of recurrence at the P, H, L, and O sites, including overlapping cases, were 49 (70%), 18 (26%), 9 (13%), and 6 (9%), respectively, and recurrence by peritoneal dissemination in the pelvis occurred in 43 cases (61%). CONCLUSION: Recurrence of stage I epithelial ovarian cancer by peritoneal dissemination was frequent, especially in the pelvis. There is a need to elucidate the pathogenesis of peritoneal recurrence and to prepare a treatment strategy to prevent pelvic peritoneal recurrence.
Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lymph Node Excision ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm Seeding ; Ovarian Neoplasms* ; Pelvis ; Recurrence* ; Retrospective Studies*