In recent years, the stress levels in the workplace have gotten worse and worse. The situation has aroused a sreat deal of public interest in mental health. Workers have become more conscious of their own stress levels. The incidences of stress-induced mental illness and overwork-related suicide have increased to the point of amajor social issue. With this knowledge, corporations are thinking in termes of improving their organizational work environment. Becoming aware that stress on the job ia a serious mental health hazard, some organizations are introducing an inhouse system to help employees, with mental problems due to workplace stress. This article reports on the 3-year-old system we have integrated into our hospital to support those employees suffering from workplace stress. First we established a consultation room. Since it opened, everything has progressed smoothly. The number of cases and number of consultations have been increasing each year. Along with the advancement of mental health care and support, we have made efforts to establish a coordination framework, both internally and externally, for bringing to light workplace cardio-health problems, stress management, and rehabilitation. So, you can see we have constructed a strong foundation of a mental health care system for the personnel of the hospital.

A 69-year-old male complained of intermittent claudication of the right leg. Computed tomography revealed a right femoral artery stenosis with severe calcification and intimal thickening extending to the superficial and deep femoral arteries. Femoral endarterectomy and decalcification was carried out using the Cavitron Ultrasonic Surgical Aspirator (CUSA). All arteries were repaired by an ePTFE Y-shaped patch. Postoperative CT showed no stenosis and progressive calcification of the common, superficial and deep femoral arteries 2 years after surgery.

Chromosomal loss of heterozygosity (LOH) is a common mechanism for the inactivation of tumor suppressor genes in human epithelial cancers. LOH patterns can be generated through allelotyping using polymorphic microsatellite markers; however, owing to the limited number of available microsatellite markers and the requirement for large amounts of DNA, only a modest number of microsatellite markers can be screened. Hybridization to single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays using Affymetarix GeneChip Mapping 10 K 2.0 Array is an efficient method to detect genome-wide cancer LOH. We determined the presence of LOH in oral SCCs using these arrays. DNA was extracted from tissue samples obtained from 10 patients with tongue SCCs who presented at the Hospital of Tokyo Dental College. We examined the presence of LOH in 3 of the 10 patients using these arrays. At the locus that had LOH, we examined the presence of LOH using microsatellite markers. LOH analysis using Affymetarix GeneChip Mapping 10K Array showed LOH in all patients at the 1q31.1. The LOH regions were detected and demarcated by the copy number 1 with the series of three SNP probes. LOH analysis of 1q31.1 using microsatellite markers (D1S1189, D1S2151, D1S2595) showed LOH in all 10 patients (100). Our data may suggest that a putative tumor suppressor gene is located at the 1q31.1 region. Inactivation of such a gene may play a role in tongue tumorigenesis.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic ; Chimera ; Coat Protein Complex I ; DNA ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Genes, vif ; Genome ; Humans ; Loss of Heterozygosity ; Microsatellite Repeats ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Tokyo ; Tongue