Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disorder marked by epidermal proliferation. It is extremely difficult to cure. Although Kampo has frequently been employed to treat this condition, the Sho distribution and frequency of the presence of Oketsu (stagnated blood) have not been clarified.
Using the Maeda Oketsu checklist, which is based on the Terasawa diagnostic criteria, 72 patients with psoriasis were examined. Thirty-one patients (43%) felt into the deficient (Kyo) Sho category (0-8 points), 36 (50%) were classified as intermediate (Chukan) Sho, and 5 (7%) patients were placed in the excessive (Jitsu) Sho category. Thus, a predominance of excessive Sho was not confirmed. Rather, the frequency was highest for the intermediate Sho, which is close to the distribution of healthy subjects.
Thirty of the patients (41.7%) had high Oketsu scores (40 points or above), and 30 (41.7%) had intermediate Oketsu scores (21-39 points), indicating a high level of Oketsu.
According to Spearman's rank-difference correlation, there is a significant positive correlation between the Oketsu score and treatment score (degrees of a variety of previous treatments for psoriasis patients).

    Clinical research is essential for the practice of evidence-based medicine. This study reports on our current practice of clinical research support in Mito Kyodo General Hospital and discusses future challenges. In April 2013, the University of Tsukuba hired a clinical research assistant to provide clinical research support in Mito Kyodo General Hospital. The clinical research assistant worked full-time in the hospital in collaboration with 3 university faculty members. The target population for this study comprised 450 medical personnel including doctors, nurses, and other medical staff. From April 2014, 1 of the 3 faculty members visited the hospital once a month to offer clinical research consultations and deliver a lecture on nursing research. We analyzed past records of clinical research support and conducted a questionnaire survey to explore the level of satisfaction of the medical personnel. Four-hundred and ninety records of 91 research topics proposed by 68 medical personnel were identified. Of these, 93.4% were proposed by doctors or nurses. Most studies employed an observational study design (64.8%) and were conducted in order to make a presentation at an academic conference (51.1%). The consultation sessions were held 1–5 times, for 40–405 min, and lasted from 1–84 days per research topic. Consultations mostly pertained to research design and protocol planning (57.1%). Forty-seven clients were invited to participate in the questionnaire survey, 30 of whom provided valid responses. The results showed that 96.6% of the clients were satisfied with the consultations. The number of clients who participated in the consultations comprised only 15.1% of the target population. These practice biases need to be addressed in future. However, nearly all respondents were satisfied with the consultations. These findings suggest that our clinical research support was beneficial to medical personnel.

Purpose: The albumin-to-globulin ratio (AGR) is a recognized chronic inflammation marker. No evidence regarding the relationship between AGR level and ulcerative colitis (UC) exists. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between AGR and clinical outcomes among Japanese subjects with UC. Methods: The study subjects consisted of 273 Japanese individuals with UC. AGR was divided into 4 categories (low, moderate, high, and very high). The definition of complete mucosal healing (MH) was based on the Mayo endoscopic subscore of 0. Clinical remission (CR) was defined as no rectal bleeding and no abnormally high stool frequency (<3 times per day). Results: The percentage of MH was 26.4%. High AGR and very high AGR were significantly positively correlated with CR (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 5.85; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.52–14.18 and adjusted OR, 4.97; 95% CI, 2.14–12.04) and complete MH (adjusted OR, 4.03; 95% CI, 1.56–11.51 and adjusted OR, 5.22; 95% CI, 1.97–14.89), respectively after adjustment for confounding factors (P for trend=0.001). Only in the low C-reactive protein (CRP) group (≤0.1 mg/dL), very high AGR was significantly positively correlated with complete MH but not CR (adjusted OR, 4.38; 95% CI, 1.06–21.77; P for trend=0.017). In the high CRP group, no correlation between AGR and complete MH was found. Conclusion Among Japanese patients with UC, AGR may be independently positively correlated with complete MH. In particular, among UC patients with low CRP, AGR might be a useful complementary marker for complete MH.

Approximately 40%–65% of new fitness club (FC) members cancel their membership within 6 months. To prevent such cancellations, it is essential to identify members at high risk of doing so. This study developed a model to predict the probability of discontinuing FC membership among new members. We conducted a cohort study and enrolled participants from 17 FCs in Japan. We asked 5,421 individuals who became members from March 29, 2015 to April 5, 2016 to participate in the study; 2,934 completed the baseline survey, which was conducted when the participants became FC members. We followed up the participants until September 30, 2016. We excluded 883 participants with missing values and 69 participants under aged 18 years; thus, our analysis covered 1,982 individuals. We conducted the random survival forest to develop the prediction model. The mean follow-up period was 296.3 (standard deviation, 127.3) days; 488 participants (24.6%) cancelled their membership during the follow-up. The prediction model comprised 8 predictors: age; month of joining FC; years of education; being under medical follow-up; reasons for joining FC (health improvement, relaxation); and perceived benefits from exercise (maintaining good body weight, recognition of one’s ability by other). The discrimination and calibration were acceptable (C statistic: 0.692, continuous ranked probability score: 0.134). Our findings suggest that the prediction model could assess the valid probability for early FC cancellation among new members; however, a validation study will be needed.