We worked out TTR values in patients receiving warfarin treatment in Abashiri-Kosei General Hospital. The patients were divided into two groups - those with satisfactory TTR values and those with poor TTR values - and associations between patient factors and average dosing interval were examined in the two groups. A total of 178 patients joined this study. The average TTR value worked out at 65.1±24.8%. It was found that the average TTR value for those patients aged at 70 and above came to 72.7±21.4%, which was significantly high as compared with 51.06plusmn;24.6% for those under 70 years of age. When the average TTR value was calculated after the optimal PT-range for the group of those below the age of 70 was changed from 2.0～3.0 to 1.6～2.6, it rose from 51.0% to 74.9%. These findings made it clear that PT-INR, regardless of age, was under control within the range from 1.6 to 2.6 in this hospital in accordance with the results of the J-RHYTHM Registry analysis.

Objective: We investigated the incidence of side effects related to contrast medium employed in our hospital based on monitoring materials to improve the safety of contrast-enhanced examinations.  Furthermore, we compared the incidence of side effects between the original product and generic drugs to confirm the safety of each preparation.
Methods: The survey period was from April 2007 until March 2011.  Based on the number of patients who underwent contrast-enhanced examinations and that of patients with side effects, we calculated the incidence of side effects in our hospital, and confirmed its annual changes.  Subsequently, we again collected the incidence of side effects per each manufacturer’s preparation employed, and confirmed the state of side effects of individual preparations.  Furthermore, we evaluated the symptoms as side effects, interval until appearance, and treatment for side effects during the data collection period, as well as the subsequent state, symptoms as side effects, and interval until appearance.  The chi square independence test was employed to compare the results among groups.  p<0.05 was regarded as significant (paired test).
Results: There were no changes in the annual incidence of side effects.  There were also no significant differences in the annual incidence of side effects among the preparations.  Furthermore, there were no marked differences in the symptoms, interval until appearance, treatment for side effects, or subsequent state among the preparations.
Conclusion: We investigated the appearance of side effects regarding contrast-enhanced examinations for 4 years.  We confirmed that there were no differences in the incidence of side effects among the preparations.

Objectives: Waon therapy relieves ischemic symptoms in patients with peripheral arterial disease. Waon therapy increases capillary density and blood flow in ischemic hindlimbs of mice (Circ J 2006;70:463). Moreover, we have shown that Waon therapy increases capillary densities of non-infarcted myocardium of rat with myocardial infarction in association with increases in myocardial expression of eNOS and VEGF mRNA (Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 2011;301:H548). Taken together, Waon therapy may improve myocardial blood flow in patients with severe coronary artery disease. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study was to investigate whether repeated Waon therapy could improve myocardial perfusion in patients with ischemia related to chronic total occlusion (CTO) of coronary arteries. Patients and Methods: Twenty-four patients who had myocardial ischemia in the CTO-related area were examined. The Waon group (n=16) was treated daily for 3 weeks with a 60°C far infrared-ray dry sauna bath for 15 minutes and then kept in a bed covered with blankets for 30 minutes. The severity of ischemia was quantified by thallium-201 myocardial perfusion scintigraphy with adenosine before and after 3-week Waon therapy. Treadmill exercise test, flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery, and the number of circulating CD34-positive bone marrow-derived cells, a putative precursor of endothelial progenitor cells, were determined. The control group (n=8) underwent myocardial perfusion scintigraphy twice with a 3-week interval. Results: In the control group, neither summed stress score (SSS) nor summed difference score (SDS) of myocardial scintigraphy changed. However, Waon therapy improved both SSS (16±7 to 9±6, p<0.01) and SDS (7±4 to 3±2, p<0.01), and the improvement was greater in patients with higher SSS and SDS scores at the baseline. Waon therapy extended treadmill exercise time (430±185 to 511±192 sec, p<0.01) and improved FMD (4.1±1.3 to 5.9±1.8%, p<0.05), but tended to decrease the number of circulating CD34-positive cells. Conclusions: Waon therapy improves CTO-related myocardial ischemia in association with improvement of vascular endothelial function. This therapy could be a complementary and alternative tool in patients with severe coronary lesions not suitable for coronary intervention.