A 45-year-old woman was admitted for acute left hemiplegia and left hypogastric pain. Central CT showed a right parietal lobe infarction. Abdominal CT demonstrated ovarian tumor and infarction of the liver, spleen and kidney. Chest radiography showed moderate cardiomegaly. Transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated vegetation in the aortic valves and severe aortic regurgitation. Aortic valve replacement and bi-adnexectomy were performed urgently. Intraoperative examination revealed normal aortic valves except for small amounts of vegetation on leaflet surfaces. Pathological diagnosis of vegetation was fibrin without inflammatory cells or bacteria. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient was discharged 13 days after surgery without a permanent neurological deficit. Trousseau syndrome caused by ovarian cancer and nonbacterial thrombotic endocarditis is rare, and it is important to be aware of this syndrome in the case of a young cerebral infarction patient with malignant disease.

Previous research has demonstrated that the concentric muscle strength of knee extension exerted at slow to medium angular velocities is increased by teeth clenching. This study evaluated the isokinetic eccentric strength of knee extensors at 4 angular velocities (60, 120, 180 and 240 degrees per second) with and without teeth clenching on the Cybex 6000 Extremity Testing and Rehabilitation System. Twelve healthy adult male (26.8±1.8 years) volunteered for the study. Peak torque per body weight and average power per body weight were analyzed. The results demonstrated that peak torque per body weight accompanied by teeth clenching was significantly increased at 60, 120, 180 and 240 deg/s by 9.5%, 8.2%, 8.2% and 9.8%, respectively (p<0.01) . Similarly average power per body weight during teeth clenching was significantly higher at 60, 120, 180 and 240 deg/s by 9.1%, 9.5%, 9.4% and 7.7%, respectively (p<0.05) . These findings suggest that teeth clenching is a factor that leads to augmented eccentric strength of knee extensors. Its effect appears to be independent of angular velocity.

Purpose: Bone is one of the most common sites of metastases in patients with advanced lung cancer. Skeletal complications may cause significant morbidity and decrease performance status (PS). Such complications, referred to as skeletal related events (SREs), include severe bone pain, pathological fractures, spinal cord compression, and hypercalcemia of malignancy. We assessed the clinical impact of SREs in non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with bone metastases. Methods: We retrospectively investigated the clinical records of all 120 patients who were diagnosed advanced NSCLC with bone metastases between June 1998 and March 2009. Results: A total of 23 patients (26.7%) were found to have SREs at the time of initial diagnosis. The median survival time (MST) was 123 days for patients with SREs, while it increased to 276 days for those without SREs. The MST of the patients with SREs were significantly shorter than that of the patients without SREs (p<0.001). We also studied the SREs during clinical courses of 89 patients whose records were available over 3 months. A total of 39 patients (43.8%) were found to have SREs during clinical courses. Conclusion: The patients in NSCLC with bone metastases were often found to have SREs. SREs cause significant morbidity and deterioration of PS. Systemic chemotherapy could not decrease SREs during their clinical courses. Further studies evaluating bisphosphonates in combination with chemotherapy are warranted. Palliat Care Res 2010; 5(2): 145-151

A 61-year-old man underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for the right coronary artery. However, he had an acute onset of right neck pain and swelling after PCI. Contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT) revealed extravasation into the mediastinum and aberrant right subclavian artery. After transfer to our hospital, we performed emergency endovascular repair for iatrogenic arterial injury. His postoperative course was uneventful.

Purpose: The simple conversion ratio of 1：1：1/50 between oxycodone injection (OXJ), morphine injection and fentanyl injection is used at Saga－Ken Medical Centre Koseikan. However, there are no studies on the validity of the simple conversion ratio. Methods: A total of 18 patients with opioid switching to OXJ using the simple conversion ratio were reviewed in this investigation. We surveyed the change in the numeric rating scale (NRS) and adverse effects before and after opioid switching. Result: The average period needed to reach a stable dose of OXJ was 0.6 days. The reasons of opioid switching to OXJ were the uncontrolled cancer pain in 11 patients, the impossibility of oral administration in 6 patients, the drowsiness in 1 patient. The average NRS decreased from 3.3 to 1.1 in 11 patients with uncontrolled cancer pain (p＝0.007). No obvious change in the NRS was observed in 6 patients with the impossibility of oral administration. In 18 patients, there was no significant difference in adverse effects before and after opioid switching. Conclusion: These results indicate that the simple conversion ratio could be safety for opioid switching between OXJ and other opioid in cancer pain treatment.

Effects of three plant extracts (Hordeum vulgare L., Apocynum Venetum L., Brasenia schreberi J.F.G mel.) on human gingival fibroblasts were examined. As a result, we observed the promoting effect of the extract of Hordeum vulgare L. and the extract of Apocynum Venetum L. respectively on FGF2 and FGF7 production. Moreover, the mixture of the three plant extracts showed the effect of improving the changes in type I collagen gene expression and matrix metalloproteinase 1 gene expression by LPS addition. Next, a dentifrice containing the three plant extracts was subjected to human efficacy trials. We measured periodontal pocket depth, attachment level, bleeding on probing and saliva TNFα as an indicator of periodontal disease. The results suggest that the dentifrice formulated with the three plant extracts were effective for the improvement of periodontal disease.

A Task Force team consisting of members from pharmaceutical companies --a central player to develop and implement RMP (Risk Management Plan)-- as well as health care professionals and members from academia was established in JSPE. The Task Force developed guidance for scientific approach to practical and ICH-E2E-compliant Pharmacovigilance Plan (PVP) stated in Japanese Risk Management Plan issued in April 2012 by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The guidance contains the following topics.
1．Introduction: JSPE's activities and this task force's objectives for pharmacovigilance activities
2．How to select Safety Specification (SS) and describe its characteristics
・Selection of SS
・Characterization of SS
・Association with Research Questions (RQ)
3．How to define and describe RQ
・What is RQ ?
・RQ interpretation in other relevant guidelines
・Methodology to develop RQ for PVP with examples
・Best approach to integrating PVP for whole aspects of safety concern
4．How to optimize PVP for specific RQ
・Routine PVP or additional PVP ?
・Additional PVP design (RQ and study design, RQ structured with PICO or GPP's research objectives, specific aims, and rationale)
・Checklist to help develop PVP
5．Epilogue:
・What can/should be “Drug use investigation” in the context of ICH-E2E-compliant PVP.
・Significance of background incidence rate and needs for comparator group
・Infrastructure for the future PVP activities
6．Appendix: Checklist to help develop PVP activities in RMP
The task force team is hoping that this guidance help develop and conduct SS and PVP in accordance with ICH E2E, as stated in Japanese Risk Management Plan Guideline.

Background/Aims: Patients with achalasia-related esophageal motility disorders (AEMDs) frequently present with dilated and sigmoid esophagus, anddevelop esophageal diverticulum (ED), although the prevalence and patients characteristics require further elucidation. Methods: We conducted a multicenter cohort study of 3707 patients with AEMDs from 14 facilities in Japan. Esophagography on 3682 patients were analyzed. Results: Straight (n = 2798), sigmoid (n = 684), and advanced sigmoid esophagus (n = 200) were diagnosed. Multivariate analysis revealed that long disease duration, advanced age, obesity, and type I achalasia correlate positively, whereas severe symptoms and integrated relaxation pressure correlate negatively with development of sigmoid esophagus. In contrast, Grade II dilation (3.5-6.0 cm) was the most common (52.9%), while grade III dilation (≥ 6 cm) was rare (5.0%). We found early onset, male, obesity, and type I achalasia correlated positively, while advanced age correlated negatively with esophageal dilation. Dilated and sigmoid esophagus were found mostly in types I and II achalasia, but typically not found in spastic disorders. The prevalence of ED was low (n = 63, 1.7%), and non-dilated esophagus and advanced age correlated with ED development. Patients with right-sided ED (n = 35) had a long disease duration (P = 0.005) with low integrated relaxation pressure values (P = 0.008) compared with patients with left-sided ED (n = 22). Patients with multiple EDs (n = 6) had lower symptom severity than patients with a single ED (P = 0.022). Conclusions The etiologies of dilated esophagus, sigmoid esophagus, and ED are considered multifactorial and different. Early diagnosis and optimal treatment of AEMDs are necessary to prevent these conditions.

Background/Aims: ManoScan and Sandhill high-resolution manometry (HRM) systems are used worldwide; however, the diagnosis of achalasia on the Starlet HRM system is not fully characterized. Furthermore, the impact of calcium channel blockers and nitrites in treating achalasia has not been investigated using HRM. Management of recurrent cases is a priority issue, although few studies have examined patient characteristics. Methods: We conducted a multicenter, large-scale database analysis. First, the diagnosis of treatment-naive achalasia in each HRM system was investigated. Next, patient characteristics were compared between type I-III achalasia, and the impact of patient characteristics, including calcium channel blocker and nitrite use for integrated relaxation pressure (IRP) values, were analyzed. Finally, patient characteristics with recurrent achalasia were elucidated. Results: The frequency of type I achalasia with Starlet was significantly higher than that with ManoScan and Sandhill HRM systems. In achalasia, multivariate analysis identified male sex, advanced age, long disease duration, obesity, type I achalasia, and sigmoid type as risk factors related to normal IRP values (< 26 mmHg). Calcium channel blockers and nitrites use had no significant impact on the IRP values, although achalasia symptoms were indicated to be alleviated. In recurrent cases, the IRP value was significantly lower, and advanced age, long disease duration, and sigmoid type were more common than in treatment-naive patients. Conclusions We should cautiously interpret the type of achalasia and IRP values in the Starlet HRM system. Symptoms of recurrent cases are related to disease progression rather than IRP values, which should be considered in decision making.