Qualitative research has gained greater attention in medical research, but it might seem to be unscientific because qualitative and quantitative research methods are grounded in different paradigm.
In this article, we introduce three major qualitative research methods frequently used in studies of patient-doctor communications: 1) in-depth interviews; 2) focus group interviews and, 3) semi-structured interviews.
Each qualitative research method has different or common advantages and disadvantages, and which methods should be used depends on the study objectives. Qualitative research and quantitative research are complementary: while quantitative research explains the prevalence or variation of an issue, qualitative research explains the reasons or processes of that prevalence or variation. Combination of the two methods enables the gathering of more comprehensive and explanatory results.

　This report summarizes the Inohana Interprofessional Education （Inohana IPE） program and describes its current achievements and improvement process. Since 2007, a total of 5,679 students have participated in the program. Students who have graduated include 335 from the Faculty of Nursing, 197 from the Faculty of Medicine, 84 from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
　Through Inohana IPE we have created an environment that encourages students’ self-directed learning and the setting of behavioral objectives and have refined the program contents and evaluation method. As the first phase of the improvement, we developed competencies for interprofessional collaboration with 6 components and then created a matrix of learning-achievement goals and 4 learning steps based on the competencies. Furthermore, the number of faculty members participating in the program has increased.
　The two main tasks for the future are to develop an IPE program for nursing and to integrate IPE for basic education and continuing education.

Although aortic annular abscess and rupture of the sinus of Valsalva are known as complications of infective endocarditis, few cases in children have been reported. We report a surgical case of a 6-year-old girl with active infective endocarditis complicated with an annular abscess and pseudoaneurysm of the sinus of Valsalva. The patient presented progressive symptoms of heart failure and a subsequent echocardiogram demonstrated severe aortic regurgitation. A computed tomography indicated pseudoaneurysm of sinus of Valsalva and an emergency operation was performed. At operation, a bicuspid aortic valve with vegetation was noted. The annular abscess caused a large tissue defect of the left coronary sinus of Valsalva and formed a pseudoaneurysm. The infected lesion was resected completely. The defective aortic annulus and sinus of Valsalva were repaired with a bovine pericardial patch and aortic valve was replaced with a mechanical valve. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged after adequate antibiotic treatment.

Objective: Aerobic exercise on land decreases arterial stiffness, however, the effect of exercise in water on arterial stiffness has not been clear. This study investigated the effect of a 15-min cycling exercise on land and that in water on pulse wave velocity (PWV) as an index of arterial stiffness. Methods: Nine healthy young men were randomly performed exercise on land and exercise in water equivalent to 50% of each maximum oxygen uptake on separate days. The PWV from carotid to femoral artery (aortic PWV) and femoral to posterior tibial artery (leg PWV) were measured at baseline and 15, 30, 60 min after exercise. Results: The heart rate in water was significantly lower during exercise than that on land. In addition, the carbon dioxide output and respiratory exchange ratio during exercise were significantly greater in water. Body temperature increased after the exercise on land but decreased after the exercise in water. Although the aortic PWV and leg PWV decreased concomitantly with decrease in SBP and DBP after the exercise on land, there were no significant changes after the exercise in water. Conclusion: Although acute exercise on land decreased arterial stiffness after exercise, acute exercise in water of the same exercise load did not. The differences in body temperature and blood pressure after exercise may result in diverse arterial stiffness after exercise.

1) We compiled lists of accredited training hospitals for postgraduate education from the matching program list and of hospitals that employ board-certified specialists in emergency medicine.We then evaluated the number of training hospitals that employ board-certified specialists.
2) There are 1072 accredited hospitals for postgraduate education. However, only 546 (50.8%) of these hospitals employ board-certified specialists in emergency medicine.
3) Accredited training hospitals with emergency-medicine specialists are prevalent in Okinawa, Tokushima, and Kagawa prefectures.However, the prevalence of these hospitals is surprisingly low in metropolitan areas.

  In Kochi prefecture, the mortality rate of males in their 40s and 50s exceeds the mean death rate of Japanese men by more than 10%. The causes of death in general in Kochi are cancer (27.1%), cardiac disease (16.8%), cerebrovascular disease (11.9%) and pneumonia (11.2%) in that order. We analysed the data of a total of 1,826 males in the 40-50 age band who had panticipated in the one-day health screening course provided by our hospital. Our findings showed that many of these middle-aged males, were heavy drinkers and obese people with BMI of 25 or more. The amount of alcohol consumption in Kochi is the second largest in Japan, which may impact on the incidence of alcohol-related diseases and death. As for blood pressure, the ratio of those people in their 50s and 60s with hypertension in Kochi was higher than the mean of this country. To prevent the development of the metabolic syndrome, we must keep on making efforts and encourage them to adopt a healthy life style.

Previously, we have reported that age-predicted heart rate at 50%VO₂max (HR@50%VO₂max) is an effective index of adjusting appropriate exercise intensity for health promotion exercise. Thus, the aim of this study is to elucidate the change in HR at double product break point (HR@DPBP) and the validity of HR@50%VO₂max due to improvement of cardiovascular fitness. Ninety two healthy adults (57 +/- 9 years old), who participated in the health exercise training course, were studied. Participants were instructed how to control the intensity of physical activity for DPBP during their daily life. DPBP was determined with the use of incremental exercise test, and METs at DPBP (METs@DPBP), HR@DPBP, ratings of perceived exertion at DPBP (RPE@DPBP) were measured before and after the course. HR@50%VO₂max was calculated with the following formula; 138 - age/2 (bpm). METs@DPBP significantly increased (p<0.001) after 10 weeks of the course, whereas HR@DPBP did not change. Interestingly, however, there was a significantly positive correlation (p<0.001) between amount of change in METs@DPBP and that in HR@DPBP (ΔHR@DPBP). Multiple linear regression analysis indicated this correlation was independent from sex, age and amount of change in HR at rest (p<0.001). Before and after the course, proportion of study subjects’ %ΔHRs ((HR@50%VO₂max - HR@DPBP) / HR@DPBP x 100) within -10% ~ +10% were both 48.9%, and proportion of study subjects’ RPEs@DPBP within 11~13 were 92% and 85%, respectively. In this study, it was identified that significantly positive relation between amount of change in cardiovascular fitness and that of ΔHR@DPBP. This finding was independent from potentially affecting factors. In conclusion, this longitudinal study could suggest that HR@50%VO₂max and RPE were valuable indexes of determining exercise intensity for health promotion exercise.

A 54-year-old female had left femoral incarcerated hernia. One month later, she received a radical operation for it, but was admitted to our hospital twice because of ileus. Various tests showed no mechanical intestinal obstruction, but small-intestinal edema. She was transferred to our department to receive Kampo medicine. She could not eat any food and her weight decreased from 47 to 37.5 kg. We therefore administered intravenous hyperalimentation. She had a cold sweat on her face and was prone to bed rest because of severe abdominal pain as if in labor, and general fatigue. Her skin was dry, her radial pulse was weak and her abdominal tonus was weak. In addition, lower abdominal tension was more intense than upper and we could observe bowel movements from her skin. At first, we administered bushikobeito, but it had no effect. Referring to her abdominal findings, we considered that daikenchuto and tokikenchuto were compatible in her case, and after changing to chukenchutokatoki her abdominal pain disappeared in 5 days. Thus, Kampo medicine was effective for post-operative pseudo-obstruction.

Since the effect of the submaximal aerobic exercise on bone had been controversial, the aim of this study was to elucidate the effect of the bench step (BS), that seemed to deliver higher mechanical load on bone than any other aerobic exercises, on the total bone mineral content (BMC) and the bone metabolism of menopausal women. Sixteen menopausal women (65 ± 9 years old) as the exercise group (ExG) and 28 pre-menopausal women (43 ± 3 years old) as the control group (CG) were studied. ExG carried out BS training with the exercise intensity at lactate threshold (LT) for 21 weeks. In ExG, BMC was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at one year before the intervention (A year before), pre-intervention (Pre) and post-intervention (Post). Serum osteocalcin (OC) as the marker of bone formation and serum type I collagen cross-linked N-telopeptide (NTx) as the marker of bone absorption at Pre, 11th week of the intervention and Post. In CG, BMC was measured annually without the intervention. In ExG, OC was not changed, but NTx was significantly decreased by intervention (p<0.05). The decreased amount of annual change in BMC between a year before and Pre (T1) was significantly higher compared to that between Pre and Post (T2) (p<0.01) and CG (p<0.001). There was no significant difference between T2 and CG. In conclusion, BS with LT could prevent decreasing BMC in menopausal women, and maintain the same level of BMC in pre-menopausal women by suppressing the bone absorption.

BACKGROUND: The absence of thyroid cysts may indicate latent thyroid damage, as demonstrated in our previous study. However, the association between the absence of thyroid cysts and latent functional damage of the thyroid is unknown. At low thyroid hormone productivity, which may be associated with latent functional damage of the thyroid, the association between thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and hypertension might be enhanced. Therefore, we evaluated the association between TSH level and hypertension stratified by thyroid cyst status. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 1724 euthyroid Japanese individuals aged 40-74 years who participated in an annual health checkup in 2014. RESULTS: In the study population, 564 and 686 participants had thyroid cysts and hypertension, respectively. A significant positive association was observed between TSH and hypertension in subjects without a thyroid cyst but not in subjects with thyroid cysts. There was a significant positive association between hypertension and TSH in subjects without a thyroid cyst (odds ratio [OR] 1.27; 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.01, 1.61) but not in subjects with thyroid cysts (OR 0.79; CI 0.57, 1.09) in the model fully adjusted for known confounding factors. The correlation between the TSH and free triiodothyronine (fee T3) levels (simple correlation coefficient [r] = - 0.13, p < 0.01) was stronger in the subjects without thyroid cysts than in those with thyroid cysts (r = - 0.03, p = 0.525). CONCLUSIONS TSH is positively associated with hypertension only in individuals without thyroid cysts. The correlation between the TSH and free T3 levels was stronger in the subjects without thyroid cysts than in those with thyroid cysts. Therefore, the absence of thyroid cysts could be related to the association between TSH level and hypertension, possibly by indicating that the subjects without thyroid cysts had limited thyroid hormone reserves. Therefore, the absence of thyroid cysts could indicate the latent functional damage of the thyroid.
Aged ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Cysts/etiology* ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension/metabolism* ; Japan ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Thyroid Diseases/etiology* ; Thyroid Gland/pathology* ; Thyrotropin/metabolism*