A system for Physiology Educator Accreditation was established by the Physiological Society of Japan in 2013 and then implemented. The accreditation process starts by the applicant participating in the education program during the society’s annual meeting, after which the applicant’s teaching and research experiences are reviewed. The education program consists of model lectures to learn teaching skills and lectures to obtain up-to-date knowledge about physiology. The main purpose of the system is to provide an opportunity to obtain a wide range of knowledge and skills for physiology teaching for teachers working at medical universities and universities of life sciences and for young researchers aiming for a tenure-track academic position.

A case of a 51-year old male with pulmonary valve endocarditis accompanied by aortic regurgitation, and ruptured aneurysm of Valsalva sinus was reported. Repeated blood cultures grew α-streptococcus on a single occasion. After medical treatment, resection of pulmonary valve vegetation, resection and patch closure of aneurysm, and aortic valve replacement were performed successfully. Twenty one cases of pulmonary valve endocarditis reported in Japan, including our case, were collected and reviewed. Causative organism was streptococcus in 93% of cases. No case of intravenous drug abuse was found in this series. A variety of preexisting heart diseses were found in 20 cases out of 21 (95%). All these diseases were congenital ones, such as ven-tricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, pulmonary stenosis and ruptured aneurysm of Valsalva sinus. This fact means that jet lesion of pulmonary valve is a major predisposing factor of pulmonary valve endocarditis. Surgical procedures were reported in 12 cases: resection of vegetation in 4 cases, resection of pulmonary valve in 2, and pulmonary valve replacement in 5. Appropriate surgical procedures should be chosen, depending upon the activity of infective endocarditis, severity of destruction of the valve, and pulmonary vascular resistance.

Water Jet flow was projected at normal human aortic walls and human chronic obstructive iliac arteries in the air or in the ordinary saline solution. Ordinary saline solution was used for the jet, which was projected at a pressure of 10kg·f/cm² through a nozzle 0.10mm in diameter. When the Water Jet was projected at the normal aortic intima, damage to the wall was more severe with duration of fluid projection, and projection for ten sec ruprured the elastic fiber of the media. But when the fluid jet projected ordinary saline, damage to the aortic wall was slight and projection for 30sec only dissected the surface of the intima. Water Jet projection in air showed slight effect on thrombi of the chronic obstructive iliac arteries, and projection for 60sec only made small irregular holes in the thrombi. When the Water Jet was projected in ordinary saline solution, however, destructive effects on thrombi were stronger and the projection for 40sec could remove almost all the thrombi for a distance of 2cm, while damage to the initima was very slight. This study demonstrated that fluid jet projection using ordinary saline solution could remove thrombi in chronically obstructive artery safely and effectively and suggested the possibility of the Water Jet angioplasty.

Background: Recently launched, the system for granting a medical specialty in Japan raised has concerns about exacerbating the regional maldistribution of medical doctors. The aim of this study is to clarify the characteristics of prefectures that are gathering larger numbers of trainees under this system. Methods: We performed a factor analysis of population structure, medical care and the number of trainees in the system and studied the correlations between the number of trainees and related items. Results: The factor analysis extracted two principal components using Varimax rotation (cumulative ratio of the total variance: 70%). The first principal component suggested an aging society, and the second suggested educational conditions. According to the analysis, the number of trainees was closely related to the educational conditions (1st principal component: -0.19, second principal component: 0.96). In the correlation analysis, the number of trainees closely correlated with the number of doctors in medical school (r=0.80, P<0.001), although it was weakly correlated with urbanization rate (r=0.32, P=0.03). Discussion: This study revealed that the prefectures that are gathering a large number of the trainees are characterized as having a sufficient number of teaching doctors. The trainees might be choosing specific training hospitals to receive relevant specialty training.

We have developed a comprehensive software suite for bioinformatics research of cDNAs; it is aimed at rapid characterization of the features of genes and the proteins they code. Methods implemented include the detection of translation initiation and termination signals, statistical analysis of codon usage, comparative study of amino acid composition, comparative modeling of the structures of product proteins, prediction of alternative splice forms, and metabolic pathway reconstruction.The software package is freely available under the GNU General Public License at http://www.g-language.org/data/cdna/.

　　Evaluation of the attitude of patients according to behavior modification stage when they were admitted to hospital for our diabetes educational program and various parameters after they discharged were reviewed.　　We examined the 106 people (53 males and 53 females, average age 66.0 years) who were admitted to our hospital for diabetes education during the period from October 2009 to February 2012. We examined HbA1c levels and measurements taken during the stay in hospital, and 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months after leaving hospital. Compared with the measured values in the hospital, HbA1c levels measured each month showed a significant improvement (p<0.05). By evaluation of the value according to behavior modification stage, we recognized a rebound tendency in precontemplation groups. The evaluation of patients’ attitude by occupation according to stage of behavior modification revealed a difference more than 2 stages by approximately 10%. From these result, it was speculated that the patient self-management skills made a significant impact on glycemic control after hospital discharge.　　Diabetes educational hospitalization is supported by team members who vary in specialty. It is expected that we can provide higher-quality medical care by each specialist and supporter with a good knowledge.　　Assessment difference of behavior modification stage may appears by each specialty staff member and by changes in physical condition and feeling of the patients. In addition, these causes may change further by difference in the way each specialist deals with the patients. Therefore, we considered it was important to share information and have the mutual confirmation of the evaluation. Now, team medical care is regarded as important. It was suggested that cooperation among the staff members would lead to better medical treatment, and to improvement in patients’ QOL.

Objective: While antipsychotics are necessary for relapse prevention in the treatment of schizophrenia in general, some minority of patients may be maintained without continuous antipsychotic treatment. However, the characteristics of such patients are not well known and previous reports have not evaluated key elements such as physical comorbidities and functioning. Methods: Among 635 patients with schizophrenia who participated in a 12-year follow-up, those who were maintained without antipsychotic treatment for at least one year after the study were investigated. The patients underwent comprehensive assessments, including Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for psychopathology, Cumulative Illness Rating Scale for Geriatrics (CIRS-G) for physical comorbidities, and Functional Assessment for Comprehensive Treatment of Schizophrenia (FACT-Sz), Barthel Index, and EuroQoL five dimensions (EQ5D) for function. Results: Six patients were included (mean ± standard deviation age, 66.8 ± 17.4 years; 4 inpatients). The four inpatients were old (77.8 ± 4.8 years) and chronically ill (duration of illness, 49.3 ± 12.5 years) with a high PANSS score (total score, 118.0 ± 9.8; negative syndrome subscale, 41.3 ± 6.9), low functioning (FACT-Sz, 9.8 ± 3.6; Barthel Index, 8.8 ± 9.6), and serious physical comorbidities (CIRS-G, 15.5 ± 1.1). By contrast, the two outpatients were relatively young (45.0 ± 12.0 years) and clinically in good condition (PANSS total score, 44.5 ± 0.5; Barthel Index, 100 for both; EQ5D, 0.85 ± 0.04). Conclusion Although the number is limited, two types of patients with schizophrenia were identified who were free from ongoing antipsychotic treatment; 1) older chronic inpatients with serious physical comorbidities, and 2) younger outpatients with milder impairments. Future explorations are needed to identify those who will be successfully withdrawn from continuous antipsychotic treatment.