Objective: Early life events connected with the risk of later disease can occur not only in utero, but also in infancy. In study of the developmental origins of health and disease, the relationship between infantile growth patterns and adolescent body mass index and blood pressure is one of the most important issues to verify.
Materials and Methods: We analyzed the correlation of current body mass index and systolic blood pressure of 168 female college students with their growth patterns in utero and in infancy.
Results: Body mass index and systolic blood pressure in adolescence showed positive correlations with changes in weight-for-age z scores between 1 and 18 months but not with those between 18 and 36 months. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that both change in weight-for-age z scores from 1 to 18 months and body mass index at 1 month were significantly and independently associated with systolic blood pressure in adolescence. Body mass index at 36 months was positively correlated with body mass index in adolescence, while body mass index at birth was negatively correlated with body mass index in adolescence.
Conclusion: Our findings shows that restricted growth in utero and accelerated weight gain in early infancy are associated with the cardiovascular risk factors of high systolic blood pressure and high body mass index in adolescence. In Japan, an increasing proportion of low birth weight infants and accelerated catch-up growth after birth have been observed in recent decades. This might be an alarming harbinger of an increase in diseases related to the developmental origins of health and disease in Japan.

Iyaku Bungyo means separation of dispensing from medical practice. Under this system, physicians provide outpatients with prescriptions, if need be, after examinations. The patients visit neighborhood drugstores and produce the prescriptions to pharmacists, who are authorized to accept patients covered by health insurance and to make up prescriptions. The prescribed medicines will be given to the patients in exchange for the payment. The pharmacists will also instruct the customers how to take in the prescribed medicines properly. The system has been so designed as to improve the quality of health care services with the physicians and pharmacists performing their respective roles as the specialists. However, the government office is promoting the Iyaku Bungyo system in favor of the pharmacies outside the hospitals in the name of the containment of medical costs, charging that the medical institutions prescribe and dispense so many kinds and quantities of medicines the patients can hardly take in, simply to make large profits from a comfortable margin between the market price for each pharmaceutical and the price at which it is actually purchased. Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare officials and insurers have trumpeted the system as if it were an ideal scheme to curb health care costs. In reality, however, medical expenses have been boosted up. It can be taken for granted that the expenditure on national health care is increasing year after year with the population of the elderly on the rise and progress in medical technology. Notwithstanding, it is an important task to hold down increases in the cost of health care with the advent of an era of an aging population.
Marital separation ; experience (practice) ; Medical ; Health Care ; Surveys

Purpose: Many types of antihistamines used for the treatment of allergic rhinitis induce drowsiness as a side effect. Whether or not patients taking the internal drugs know of this untoward effect is a matter of importance. Recently we conducted a questionnaire survey to know how many patients are aware of this.Method: The subjects were 257 patients who visited our hospital for treatment of alergic rhinitis and took the prescription from February through March this year. The patients filled in a questionnaire given at the window of the dispensary. All the participants in this survey gave their informed consent.Results: Effective replies (90.3%) were obtained from 232 patients (mean age: 53.5±17.5; sex: 85 males and 147 females). Of those respondents, 45 individuals (19.9%) said they did not know that the antihistamines produce drowsiness. Furthermore, the survey found that 24 out of the 45 individuals were actually taking the type of antihistamine that caused drowsiness and 21 individuals were not given any explanation of the side effect by their doctors. The patients said that if they knew of the side effect they would not have taken the medicine. Moreover, it was found that 10 out of the 21 patients drove their cars while they felt drowsy.Conclusions: The survey revealed the hard fact that the drowsiness as side reaction the patients might have after taking antihistamines was made light of. The findings brought home to us the importance of giving clear directions to the patients about the medicine and the precaution against the side effects.
Drowsiness ; Surveys ; Antihistamines ; adverse effects ; Effective

We conduct an outpatient escort program as a part of our early exposure curriculum for first-year medical students. Each student escorts one patient at the University of Tsukuba Hospital throughout his or her first visit. We evaluated this program from the points of view of both students and patients.
1) A questionnaire was distributed to all participating patients and students in 2006.
2) In their questionnaires, many students commented on the long waiting time, the structural problems of the hospital, and the attitudes of physicians.
3) Results of the questionnaire showed that both students and patients rated this program highly.
4) No significant differences were noted between the comments of the students and those of the patients. The patients tended to rate this program more highly than did the students. One patient, however, commented that being constantly accompanied by a stranger was somewhat stressful.
5) We conclude that this program can be efficiently carried out without being too much of a burden to patients and is a valuable part of an early exposure program for first-year medical students.

High-quality terminal care cannot be given without good communication and understanding among patients, their family members and health as well as medical professionals.Recently, we have taken a questionnaire survey on new inpatients in our hospital to sound them out on their thinkings about hospital care, and examined the findings along with the validity of survey.Many respondents including those contracting either benign or malignant diseases wished to be keptposted on what they are really up against and to partake in the decision-making process before treatment plans are put into practice. The recent questionnaire survey has proved to be worthwhile as a tool to know the wishes of hospitalized patients and suggested an effective way to promote the practice of obtaining informed consent before specific test and therapautic procedure.

no abstract available.

Effects of anti-oketsu drug, Keishibukuryogan (Gui-zhi-fu-ling-wan) and Tokishakuyakusan (Dang-gui-shao-yao-san) in vivo and in vitro on platelet aggregation were investigated in normal volunteers.
Of 20 volunteers who were given Keishibukuryogan, there were 6, 3 and 11 subjects whose dose-response curves of collagen-induced aggregations were shifted to the right, to the left, or who had no shift, respectively. The control aggregations of these 20 people were in the same range. In ADP-induced aggregation, there were 5 curves shifted to the right. Their potencies in the control aggregation were higher than those of 9 subjects who were not affected by the drug. There were 6 curves shifted to the left, and their potencies were lower than those of the 9 unaffected subjects. Of 12 volunteers who were given Tokishakuyakusan, there were 2, 2 and 8 subjects whose dose-response curves in collagen-induced aggregation were shifted to the right, the left, or who had no shift respectively. With ADP-induced aggregation, there were 1, 1 and 10 subjects whose doseresponse curves were shifted likewise. In vitro, Keishibukuryogan caused inhibition of ADP-induced aggregation but not that of collagen-induced aggregation.

Objective: “Drug Guide for Patients” (DGP) is a drug information tool designated as one of the routine risk minimization activities in risk management plan (RMP) developed by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. However, patients and their families hardly recognize DGP. Therefore, we administered a questionnaire on drug consultation service of pharmaceutical companies that provide DGP with an aim to collect their views, elucidate problems when they prepare DGPs and examine effective utilization of DGP in the future.Methods: We sent a questionnaire by letter for 127 drug consultation service of pharmaceutical companies, and received questionnaire results using “Questant” that is web questionnaire making software. The results were examined using Fisher’s exact test or Pearson’s chi-squared test.Results: We obtained responses from 84 (66.1%) companies out of 127. As for the question of the published situation of DGP on their website, the most companies responded “Not published” with 47.6% and subsequently 41.7% for “Published for healthcare professionals”. The combined rate of “Published for Patients (3.6%)” and “Published for both healthcare professionals and patients (7.1%)” was only 10.7%. On the other hand, regarding the burden of companies making DGP, we found that more than 60% of pharmaceutical companies (63.5%) felt burdensome, whereas only 36.5% responded “Not burdensome.” Regarding the question on the role of DGP in RMP, pharmaceutical companies answered that the role is “sufficient” 3.6%, 29.8% “not sufficient”, and 66.6% “unknown”.Conclusion: Our results suggested that it is difficult for patients to get DGP from website of pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceutical companies felt burdensome in making DGP, and they recognized that DGP was not very much utilized by patients. Therefore, it would be necessary to improve the creation criteria of DGP. Furthermore, we felt it necessary to have the DGP known and utilized widely by (consumers and) patients.

A 57-year-old man, who had suffered chest, back and right leg pain about 10 years before, underwent CT and was found a chronic type B aortic dissection with an enlarged false lumen and a narrowed true lumen that was occluded at the infrarenal abdominal aorta. A conventional surgical repair seemed to be too high risk considering his comorbidities, thus we chose a staged hybrid repair. First, surgical repair of the abdominal aorta with an abdominal aortic fenestration was performed. Then, one month after the first operation, zone 2 thoracic endovascular aortic repair with left carotid-axillary artery bypass was performed. At the second operation, the stent graft was purposely deployed from zone 2 into Th12 level of a false lumen through the fenestration followed by coil embolization of a true lumen just distal to the entry tear. The postoperative course was uneventful and he had no complications at 6 months follow-up. Deploying stent graft into a false lumen could be a feasible option in case deploying into a true lumen is not suitable if the anatomical condition permits.