1.Therapeutic Effects of Hangeshashinto, a Japanese Kampo Medicine, on Radiation-Induced Enteritis and Oral Mucositis : Case Series
Aiko NAGAI ; Keiko OGAWA ; Junya MIURA ; Ken KOBAYASHI
Kampo Medicine 2014;65(2):108-114
Despite the development of radiotherapy machines and technologies, a proportion of patients suffer from radiation-induced enteritis or oral mucositis. It has been reported that hangeshashinto has been used for not only enteritis but also oral mucositis. This study reports the effect of hangeshashinto on enteritis or oral mucositis caused by radiotherapy. Three patients with enteritis and 5 patients with oral mucositis were treated with hangeshashinto at a dose of 7.5 g/day. The severity of enteritis or oral mucositis was evaluated using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 4 and Numerical Rating Scale both before and after hangeshashinto treatment. After the treatment with hangeshashinto, 3 of 5 patients with oral mucositis and 2 of 3 patients with enteritis showed apparent improvement. In conclusion, it is important to control the side effects of radiotherapy, which lead to improved tumor control rates. Prospective randomized studies are necessary to confirm the findings of this case series study.
2.Archetype Model-Driven Development Framework for EHR Web System.
Shinji KOBAYASHI ; Eizen KIMURA ; Ken ISHIHARA
Healthcare Informatics Research 2013;19(4):271-277
OBJECTIVES: This article describes the Web application framework for Electronic Health Records (EHRs) we have developed to reduce construction costs for EHR sytems. METHODS: The openEHR project has developed clinical model driven architecture for future-proof interoperable EHR systems. This project provides the specifications to standardize clinical domain model implementations, upon which the ISO/CEN 13606 standards are based. The reference implementation has been formally described in Eiffel. Moreover C# and Java implementations have been developed as reference. While scripting languages had been more popular because of their higher efficiency and faster development in recent years, they had not been involved in the openEHR implementations. From 2007, we have used the Ruby language and Ruby on Rails (RoR) as an agile development platform to implement EHR systems, which is in conformity with the openEHR specifications. RESULTS: We implemented almost all of the specifications, the Archetype Definition Language parser, and RoR scaffold generator from archetype. Although some problems have emerged, most of them have been resolved. CONCLUSIONS: We have provided an agile EHR Web framework, which can build up Web systems from archetype models using RoR. The feasibility of the archetype model to provide semantic interoperability of EHRs has been demonstrated and we have verified that that it is suitable for the construction of EHR systems.
Automatic Data Processing
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Computing Methodologies
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Electronic Health Records
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Indonesia
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Internet
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Semantics
3.A Case of Legionella Pneumonia Complicated by ARDS, Acute Renal Failure and Shock
Kazuhisa ITOH ; Hideyuki KOBAYASHI ; Satoshi HASEGAWA ; Ken YOSHIDA ; Osamu NAKAGAWA ; Yoichi IWAFUCHI ; Minoru ABE ; Kaoru KUNISADA ; Akira KAMIMURA
Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine 2006;55(1):18-24
A 55-year-old man visited his neighborhood general practitioner complaining of headache, fever and wet cough on July 7, 2003, but there were no sigins that his symptoms would subside. Since an abnormal shadow was found on chest X-ray on July 11, he was referred to our department and hospitalized on the same day. We started to treat him on the assumption that he had community-acquired pneumonia due-to common pathogens. However, he developed severe hypoxemia, and abnormal shadows rapidly progressed to affect both lungs, which led us to suspect that he had acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We identified the pathogen by examining urinary antigens and serum antibodies and diagnosed of his case as Legionella pneumonia. Although he suffered complications of acute renal failure and shock, the respirator was withdrawn after 11 days of controlled mechanical ventilation, as he was steadily recovering from his illness. The patient was discharged from the hospital on September 9. Although the mortality of legionella pneumonia, when complicated by ARDS, acute renal failure and shock as in the present case, has been reported to be as high as 50 to 80%, we consider that the administration of neutrophil elastase inhibitors and steroids was effective against this disorder.
4.Role of Neutrophils in Pulmonary Dysfunction during Cardiopulmonary Bypass.
Hidenori Gohra ; Tomoe Katoh ; Toshiro Kobayashi ; Masahiko Nishida ; Ken Hirata ; Akihito Mikamo ; Haruhiko Okada ; Kimikazu Hamano ; Nobuya Zempo ; Kensuke Esato
Japanese Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery 2000;29(6):363-367
To test the hypothesis that neutrophils play a role in lung injury during cardiopulmonary bypass, granulocyte elastase and myeloperoxidase release from pulmonary circulation were measured, as well as the respiratory index, before and after cardiopulmonary bypass. The production of granulocyte elastase and myeloperoxidase in the pulmonary circulation, and the respiratory index also elevated significantly after cardiopulmonary bypass. Furthermore, the level of granulocyte elastase and myeloperoxidase released from pulmonary circulation correlated with the changes of the respiratory index and preoperative pulmonary artery pressure. These data indicate that neutrophils play a major role in pulmonary dysfunction occurring after cardiopulmonary bypass, which is accentuated in patients with pulmonary hypertension.
5.A Case of \it{Legionella} Pneumonia Complicated by ARDS, Acute Renal Failure and Shock
Kazuhisa ITOH ; Hideyuki KOBAYASHI ; Satoshi HASEGAWA ; Ken YOSHIDA ; Osamu NAKAGAWA ; Yoichi IWAFUCHI ; Minoru ABE ; Kaoru KUNISADA ; Akira KAMIMURA
Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine 2006;55(1):18-24
A 55-year-old man visited his neighborhood general practitioner complaining of headache, fever and wet cough on July 7, 2003, but there were no sigins that his symptoms would subside. Since an abnormal shadow was found on chest X-ray on July 11, he was referred to our department and hospitalized on the same day. We started to treat him on the assumption that he had community-acquired pneumonia due-to common pathogens. However, he developed severe hypoxemia, and abnormal shadows rapidly progressed to affect both lungs, which led us to suspect that he had acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We identified the pathogen by examining urinary antigens and serum antibodies and diagnosed of his case as Legionella pneumonia. Although he suffered complications of acute renal failure and shock, the respirator was withdrawn after 11 days of controlled mechanical ventilation, as he was steadily recovering from his illness. The patient was discharged from the hospital on September 9. Although the mortality of legionella pneumonia, when complicated by ARDS, acute renal failure and shock as in the present case, has been reported to be as high as 50 to 80%, we consider that the administration of neutrophil elastase inhibitors and steroids was effective against this disorder.
Shock
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Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult
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Pneumonia
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Kidney Failure, Acute
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Complicated
8.Geographical Information Analysis of Difficulty of Access to Hospital to the Elderly Living in Mountainous Areas
Masayoshi IDE ; Tomihiro HAYAKAWA ; Reiko KASHIWADA ; Eriko YONEDA ; Nozomu ANDO ; Toshitaka WATARIGUCHI ; Yoshinori SUZUKI ; Shinya KOBAYASHI ; Mizuo TSUZUKI ; Yoshie ESAKI ; Ken KATO ; Hiroshi AMANO ; Makoto MIYAJI
Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine 2013;61(4):582-601
We examined how difficult it would be for the elderly living in mountainous areas to go to the nearest hospital using a Voronoi tessellation representing the mathematical concept of neighborhood. We defined the index of the nursing-care capacity for the elderly as the ratio of the number of caregivers to the number of the elderly receiving nursing-care.
The mean age of those who drive to the hospital by themselves worked out at 70±9.8 years. Meanwhile, that of those who go to the hospital by bus or taken to hospital in a car driven by a family member came to 80±7.0years. The latter was significantly older than the former.
The areas of the Voronoi tessellation generated by patients' places of residence were divided into three groups according to the size. The plots of these three groups of the the places of residence on the map had a three-layer and doughnut-like structure, i. e., inner-, middle-, and outer-layer.
The index of the nursing-care capacity in 2008 was less than 1.0 for the patients under 80 years of age. This means that when those who were at the age of 50 in 2008 become old and need nursing-care, access to the hospital will become harder to them than at present. For those who are over 80 years of age and live in the outer layer that is far away from arterial road, it will be almost impossible.
These findings suggest that outpatient care with transportation assistance by a family member at present should be reconsidered because of the future lack of care personnel. It would also be necessary to consider the welfare of older people from the geographical point of view in order to manage the problems concerning the various physical and sociological difficulties of the elderly.
9.Gender differences in preferences for mentoring styles and topics in academic medicine in Japan
Hiroki Mishina ; Ken Sakushima ; Kenei Sada ; Junji Koizumi ; Takashi Sugioka ; Naoto Kobayashi ; Masaharu Nishimura ; Junichiro Mori ; Hirofumi Makino ; Mitchell D Feldman ; Shunichi Fukuhara
Medical Education 2014;45(1):1-7
Objective: To evaluate gender differences in mentee’s preference for mentoring styles and topics in academic medicine in Japan.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of mentees at 6 graduate schools of medicine in Japan from December 2011 through January 2012. The study participants were 1700 Japanese-speaking graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The primary outcome was the percentage of respondents who desired to be mentored with a particular style or topic.
Results: A total of 676 (227 women) mentees responded to the survey. Women were less likely than men to prefer a hierarchical mentoring relationship (men, 82%; women, 71%; p=0.001) but were more likely to desire a mentor for career consultation (men, 51%; women, 64%; p=0.001). Women were more likely than men to want guidance in developing a research portfolio (men, 85%; women, 90%; p=0.04), in computer skills/statistical skills (men, 68%; women, 81%; p=0.001), and in long-term career planning (men, 38%; women, 50%; p=0.003).
Conclusion: Women mentees in Japan express different preferences for mentoring styles and topics from men. Mentors in Japan must take these differences into consideration.
10.Aortic Arch Aneurysm 7 Years after Aortic Root Replacement in a Patient of Loeys-Dietz Syndrome
Jun Hayashi ; Seigo Gomi ; Tetsuro Uchida ; Azumi Hamasaki ; Yoshinori Kuroda ; Atsushi Yamashita ; Ken Nakamura ; Daisuke Watanabe ; Shingo Nakai ; Akihiro Kobayashi ; Mitsuaki Sadahiro
Japanese Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery 2017;46(4):157-160
A 14-year-old women who had a history of aortic root replacement at 7 years old admitted our hospital due to dilatation of aortic arch aneurysm. Loeys-Dietz syndrome was diagnosed when she was 10 years old. Computed tomography showed 70 mm proximal arch aneurysm. Operative findings revealed brachiocephalic artery and left common carotid artery branched from aneurysm. Partial arch replacement was performed and distal anastomosis was made between left common carotid artery and left subclavian artery. Close observation by CT regularly is necessary and undergo aortic repair not to miss the timing of surgery.