Purpose: To compare the effects of aging in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) on their clinical background and hospitalization progress, and to examine the relationships between age and these factors.
Subject: One hundred and fifty-three patients who experienced cardiac rehabilitation after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (63.8±11.1 y.o, 126 men, 27 women).
Method: The patients were divided into the middle aged group (<65 y.o, n=84), young old group (65 to 74 y.o, n=44), and old group (75 y.o≥ n=25). The differences between groups were examined in respect of 13 items about clinical backgrounds (responsibility coronary arteries, CKmax, LVEF, residual stenosis, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipemia, smoking, and BMI) and hospitalization progress (cardiac complications, locomotorium disabilities, abnormality as 200mECG, and duration of hospitalization).
Results: Left veticular ejection fraction (LVEF) was significantly lower in the old group than in the young old group. The old group had a high rate of residual stenosis. In the coronary risk factors, all of the groups had hypertension at a high rate of 54.5% or over. The middle aged group and young old group had diabetes at about 38%. The middle aged group was prone to hyperlipemia, and had significantly a high smoking rate. Body mass index (BMI) was significantly higher in the middle aged group than in the old group. In hospitalization progress, the old group had a high rate of cardiac complications and locomotorium disability. The duration of hospitalization was significantly longer in the old group than in the other groups.
Conclusion: It would be necessary to give middle-aged persons educational guidance for the improvement of the coronary risk factors, and to provide the old persons with the suitable rehabilitation programs considering various complications.

OBJECTIVE: The prevalence of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in school-age children is 7.2%, and ADHD is divided into clinical subtypes. METHODS: The current study explored whether specific cognitive profiles as assessed using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)-IV could be obtained for each clinical ADHD subtype (ADHD-Inattentive type and ADHD-Combined type) and investigated the correlation between WISC scores and parental age at their children’s birth or birthweight. The enrolled sample comprised 12 ADHD-I and 15 ADHD-C subjects. RESULTS: An impaired Processing Speed Index was found in ADHD-I. The age of the father at the child’s birth and birthweight positively correlated with the full scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) score in the WISC assessment. CONCLUSION: Inattentiveness within the behaviors of the children with ADHD-I is partly due to the impaired processing speed, therefore effective support for ADHD will be conducted if educator decreases their speaking speed. Since biological basis of ADHD is still largely unknown, future studies using both psychological and biological methods will reveal the etiology of ADHD. These scientific assessments will provide information for more effective approaches in the care of children with ADHD.
Child ; Cognitive Science ; Fathers ; Humans ; Intelligence ; Neurodevelopmental Disorders ; Parents ; Parturition ; Prevalence

OBJECTIVE: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a reasonable option for intractable depression or schizophrenia, but a mechanism of action has not been established. One credible hypothesis is related to neural plasticity. Three genes (Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc) involved in the induction of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are Wnt-target genes, which constitute a key gene group involved in neural plasticity through the TCF family. Klf4 is the other gene among Yamanaka's four transcription factors, and increases in its expression are induced by stimulation of the canonical Wnt pathway. METHODS: We compared the peripheral blood gene expression of the four iPS genes (Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc, and Klf4) before and after modified ECT (specifically ECT with general anesthesia) of patients with intractable depression (n=6) or schizophrenia (n=6). Using Thymatron ten times the total bilateral electrical stimulation was evoked. RESULTS: Both assessments of the symptoms demonstrated significant improvement after mECT stimulation. Expression of all four genes was confirmed to increase after initial stimulation. The gene expression levels after treatment were significantly different from the initial gene expression in all twelve cases at the following treatment stages: at the 3rd mECT for Oct4; at the 6th and 10th mECT for Sox2; and at the 3rd, 6th and 10th mECT for c-Myc. CONCLUSION: These significant differences were not present after correction for multiple testing; however, our data have the potential to explain the molecular mechanisms of mECT from a unique perspective. Further studie should be conducted to clarify the pathophysiological involvement of iPS-inducing genes in ECT.
Depression ; Electric Stimulation ; Electroconvulsive Therapy* ; Gene Expression* ; Humans ; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells ; Plastics ; Schizophrenia ; Transcription Factors* ; Wnt Signaling Pathway

Early detection of third-generation cephalosporin-resistant bacteria in blood culture tests influences the choice of antimicrobial agents. We report on our hospital’s system for early reporting of third-generation cephalosporin-resistant bacteria and its utility. The hospital operates a 24-h simple cefpodoxime (CPDX) testing system, where the content of a sample container with a positive blood culture result is smeared on a CA Sheep Blood Agar/VCM Chocolate EX II fractionation medium, and an antibiotic susceptibility test (AST) disk (Sensi-Disk CPDX) is placed at the center of the medium and incubated. The presence or absence of third-generation cephalosporin-resistant bacteria is estimated from the diameter of the growth inhibition zone. The physician in charge of AST makes comments on the chart based on the simple CPDX test results. The sensitivity of the simple CPDX test for detecting third-generation cephalosporin-resistant bacteria, based on AST results, was 95.5%. Among patients with failed antimicrobial therapy, the rate of switching antimicrobials before the AST results were known was 57.9% in cases where there were comments made by the physicians in charge of AST, compared with 42.9% in cases without comments. These results suggest that the simple CPDX test enables early and accurate detection of third-generation cephalosporin-resistant bacteria, facilitating early switching of antimicrobial agents through collaboration with physicians in charge of AST.