The Japanese Society of Hospital Pharmacists (JSHP) started to collect the pharmaceutical care reports from the hospital pharmacists by a name of “PreAVOID” from 1999. The report number of PreAVOID increased year by year and reached about 50,000 totals in 2006. PreAVOID reports are classified in 2. One is the prevention of the adverse reaction and the drug interaction, the other is the avoidance of progress to the adverse reaction. In the latter, the role of the adverse reaction monitoring is included. Therefore PreAVOID is able to apply in Pharmacovigilance. PreAVOID is reported to JSHP by Fax or E-mail or the homepage of JSHP and it is evaluated and classified and then are accumulated in the database. The accumulated PreAVOID reports are utilized for creation of the pharmaceutical care information, study promotion about the medical economy. Therefore PreAVOID takes an important role as a nucleus of the pharmaceutical care management system by the pharmacists.
We are convinced that PreAVOID will be able to contribute to achievement of real purpose of Pharmacovigilance that is the effective and safety drug therapy.

[Objective]To motivate acupuncture school teachers to introduce higher-quality methodology in clinical acupuncture research.
[Methods]Twenty-eight teachers from 18 acupuncture schools participated in the simulated randomized, subject and evaluator-blinded, and sham-controlled trial of acupuncture for low back pain. Twenty of them played a role as subjects, four of them were raters, and another four were therapists. Before and after conducting the trial, all the participants were asked several questions using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) regarding necessity of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) in acupuncture and their level of understanding of several terms related to a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT),
[Results]After the simulated RCT, the understanding level of all terms related to RCT increased significantly ("RCT":from 58.0 ± 27.2 to 75.5 ± 25.7, "informed consent":from 88.1 ± 15.4 to 99.2 ± 10, "recruitment":from 43.0 ± 41.0 to 74.8 ± 31.3, "random allocation":from 55.5 ± 35.0 to 78.7 ± 25.8, "masking":from 54.7 ± 35.0 to 79.0 ± 26.0) (mean ±SD). Nineteen teachers answered that they would try to conduct RCT and introduce it to their education program.
[Conclusion]The results suggest that the practice of simulated RCT is effective in understanding RCT and motivating acupuncture teachers to introduce it to their education program.

Objective: In order to assess usefulness, applicability and problems of aromatherapy in the modern medical practice.
Method: We conducted a questionnaire survey on the recognition and utilization of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and medical aromatherapy in a professional school of acupuncture and Judo-therapy in Osaka City. The respondents were 866 students at the school.
Results: We found that 97.1% of the respondents had experienced at least one CAM therapy and 25.8% had aromatherapy. Compared to male students, more female students used aromatherapy. Perceived effectiveness of aromatherapy for purpose of the use ranged between 73.8% and 89.2%. Approximately 70.0% of the respondents were interested in medical aromatherapy, and 89.4% expected this therapy for psychosomatic/mental diseases. Main problems pointed out were collecting more scientific evidence and reducing the costs.
Conclusion: The results suggest that aromatherapy may become more widespread and one of the options to make the current clinical practice more satisfactory for patients.

Objective: It has been reported that essential oils used in aromatherapy effect the nervous, immune and endocrine systems. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of essential oils on the cardiovascular system in healthy human subjects.
Methods: Rosemary essential oil, which reportedly has a vasopressor-like effect, and lavender essential oil which reportedly has a depressor-like effect, were administered to sixty subjects divided into rosemary, lavender, or control groups. Blood pressure and heart rate were measured after two-minutes of smelling. Data were compared among the three groups.
Result: Heart rate increased in the rosemary group. In addition to blood pressure and heart rate increased in subjects who expressed a negative impression from smelling a specific essential oils.
Conclusion: The results suggest that fragrance preference affects the therapeutic effects of aromatherapy.

Among 62 patients who underwent hybrid arch TEVAR, which is a combination of supra-aortic bypass and TEVAR to treat arch aneurysm, 5 patients encountered postoperative cerebral infarction. In 2 patients, whose thoracic aorta were extremely shaggy, cerebral infarction were multiple and fatal. Other 3 patients, whose aorta were not shaggy, developed visual disturbance after TEVAR and minor cerebral infarction were detected in the area of vertebral artery. To prevent cerebral infarction after hybrid arch TEVAR, the blood flow from the left subclavian to vertebral artery is considered to be significant.

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the relationships between the exercise history and the bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC) in female Japanese young adults using dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). One-hundred twenty females, aged between 18 to 28 years, participated in the present investigation. The BMD at the lumbar spine (L-BMD), whole body BMD and BMC (WB-BMD and WB-BMC), lean body mass (LBM) and fat mass (FM) were measured by DXA. Using a self-administrered questionnaire, the exercise habits during preschool (4-6 years), primary school (7-12 years), junior high school (13-15 years), high school (16-18 years), and the current habits (>18 years) were eveluated. The L-BMD, WB-BMD and WB-BMC were significantly higher in the subjects with exercise habits during both the period of <18 years and >18 years compared with those in the subjects without an exercise history during all periods (p<0.05). In a separate analysis with the data stratified by the school age, the subjects with an exercise history during primary school, junior high school, or high school had significantly higher BMD and BMC values compared with the non-exercisers (each, p<0.05). In contrast, the BMD and BMC did not differ significantly according to either the exercise history during pre-school nor the current exercise status. A multiple stepwise regression analysis revealed that the body weight, LBM, FM, age of menarche, and exercise habits during high school were significant determinants of the L-BMD, WB-BMD and WB-BMC (p<0.001). The results of the present investigation show that both the exercise history during school age and the current exercise habits affect the BMD and BMC in young adults. In particular, high school females should be encouraged to participate in the regular exercise to increase their bone health. Future studies will be needed to confirm the targeted age-group(s) for participation in sports/exercise for the improvement of bone health, including an analysis of the type and intensity of exercise/sports.

Introduction: Compared with faculties in clinical and medical research departments, those in medical departments are not appropriately evaluated in terms of their contributions to or achievements in medical education. Therefore, the aims of this study were to investigate the contributions of medical department faculties to medical education, and to examine differences in contributions according to duty positions and specialties.

Methods: Five-grade self-assessments in relation to 20 items on a rating form for performance in medical education, which was developed by the Japan Society for Medical Education's Committee for Performance Evaluation, were carried out by medical department faculties in Japanese universities. The data were then totalized and analyzed.

Results and Discussion: Although faculties belonging to departments other than medical education units did not actively participate in examinations or the education system, they still made contributions to lectures and practice. In addition, faculties with positions with more duties tended to show greater participation in the education system.

Conclusion: Based on these findings, we recommend the use of a rating form as a standard scale to evaluate performance in medical education.

A 74-year-old man undergone mitral valve plasty. After cessation of cardiopulmonary bypass, bleeding persisted from the cardioplegia injection site and dilatation of the ascending aorta with discoloration was observed. The diagnosis of type A aortic dissection extending to the descending aorta was made by transesophageal echocardiogram. Replacement of the ascending aorta was performed under deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. The postoperative course was uneventful. The false lumen of the aortic arch and descending aorta was thrombosed completely on postoperative computed tomography. Intraoperative aortic dissection is a rare but fatal complication of cardiopulmonary bypass. Prompt recognition and appropriate surgical management are of prime importance.

For the purpose of protecting the rights of Lentinula edodes breeders, we developed a new simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker set consisting only of genetically independent tetranucleotide or longer core motifs. Using available genome sequences for five L. edodes strains, we designed primers for 13 SSR markers that amplified polymorphic sequences in 20 L. edodes cultivars. We evaluated the independence of every possible marker pair based on genotype data. Consequently, eight genetically independent markers were selected. The polymorphic information content values of the markers ranged from 0.269 to 0.764, with an average of 0.409. The markers could distinguish among 20 L. edodes cultivars and produced highly repeatable and reproducible results. The markers developed in this study will enable the precise identification of L. edodes cultivars, and may be useful for protecting breeders' rights.