There is Bartonella henselae (B. henselae) leads to cat-scratch disease and causes infective endocarditis, but shows as negative in blood cultures. We performed aortic valve replacement in a patient with aortic valve infective endocarditis which was regative on blood cultures. The patient had a contact history with a cat prior to admission. Thus, we suspected B. henselae and made a definitive diagnosis by PCR method and Warthin-Starry (WS) stain. A correct diagnosis was possible by detailed history taking and the use of appropriate antibiotics.

Correction of fetal malpresentation such as knee-chest positioning and external cephalic version, has long been performed in cases of breech presentation. The reliability and safety of such treatment, however, remains unclear. We performed moxibustion on three acupoints, namely, Saninko, Shiin, and Yusen to correct the condition.
We studied a total of 28 women, 22 of whom were observed until delivery, and six who had not reached full term by the end of the study. Cephalic presentation was achieved in 25 (89.3%), All but one of the fetuses that were corrected to cephalic presentation had full term vaginal delivery. The remaining one underwent premature delivery due to premature rupture of the membrane at 35 weeks 6 days. None of the babies showed any abnormalities. Correction could not be achieved in three women by the time of delivery. One of these three had dicornate uterus and underwent caesarian section due to premature rupture of the membrane. The other two had full term vaginal delivery of live babies. These results indicate that the correction of breech presentation by moxibustion is a safe method which cause no adverse effects on the mother or baby.

Up until the present, the primary treatment for threatened premature labor has been bed rest, with drug therapy as a supplement. However, with drug therapy the problems of side effects and dosage limitations have made it difficult to achieve therapeutic effectiveness. In this paper, the authors report the favorable results obtained in such cases when moxibustion and a microwave emitter were used for stimulation therapy based on Oriental medical theory. Moxibustion was carried out on Shim, Yusen and Saninko (acupuncture points) in cases of threatened premature labor beyond the 24th week. Despite the short duration of treatment, uterine tension was relieved, fetal movement increased, and resistance in the umbilical artery and uterine artery reduced. Similar results were achieved with multiple microwave stimulation treatments; the effects lasted for long periods and were not accompanied by side effects. Thus, the results showed that through the use of moxibustion therapy in conjunction with drug therapy, the dosage could be reduced, and the frequency of side-effect appearance lowered. These results suggest that moxibustion therapy has potential as an effective and safe new treatment for threatened premature labor.

BACKGROUND: Preventing the need for long-term care (LTC) by identifying physical function risk factors are important to decrease the LTC burden. The objective of this study was to investigate whether grip strength and/or walking speed, which are components of the frailty definition, are associated with LTC in community-dwelling older and oldest people. METHODS: The participants were 1098 community-dwelling older and oldest people who had not received LTC at the baseline. The endpoint was receiving LTC after the baseline survey. The independent variables were grip strength and walking speed, and participants were divided into two groups based on these variables. The confounding factors were age, sex, the Japanese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-J), hypertension, diabetes mellitus, stroke, joint diseases, living alone, body mass index, and serum albumin. We calculated the hazard ratio of receiving LTC using the Cox proportional hazard model. RESULTS: Among the 1098 participants, 107 (9.7%) newly received LTC during the follow-up. Regarding the physical function, only slow walking speed was significantly correlated with LTC after adjusting for all confounding factors except the MoCA-J score (HR = 1.74, 95% CI = 1.10-2.75, P = .018). However, slow walking speed was still a risk factor for LTC after adjusting for the MoCA-J score and other confounding factors (HR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.03-2.60, P = .037). CONCLUSIONS The findings from this study may contribute to a better understanding of slow walking speed as a factor related to LTC, which might be a criterion for disability prevention and could serve as an outcome measure for physical function in older people.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Exercise ; Female ; Humans ; Independent Living ; statistics & numerical data ; Japan ; Long-Term Care ; statistics & numerical data ; Male ; Proportional Hazards Models