A 29-year-old female with aortic regurgitation associated with aortitis syndrome and severe stenosis of bilateral carotid arteries was reported. She had no symptom of brain ischemia, although an aortogram revealed complete occlusion of the left common carotid artery and the left subclavian artery, and severe stenosis of the right common carotid artery. The intracranial major arteries were perfused totally by the right vertebral artery via collaterals. The transcranial Doppler method and perfusion cintigraphy revealed normal cerebral perfusion. Therefore, we performed conventional aortic valve replacement without reconstruction of carotid arteries. During cardiopulmonary bypass, the mean systemic blood pressure was kept higher than 60mmHg under moderate-hypothermic (tympanic temperature: 25°C) pulsatile perfusion with monitoring of the left middle cerebral artery flow velocity. The patient did not develop any cerebral complications during or after the operation.

Four patients with multiple dissecting aortic aneurysms treated surgically from 1960 to 1996 were evaluated clinically. The incidence of multiple dissecting aortic aneurysms was 3.2% of all surgically treated cases of aortic dissection. Only one case suffered from Marfan's syndrome. Morphologically, all cases showed chronic DeBakey II+III type dissection. Case 1 was treated by Bentall's operation for DeBakey II type dissection and the residual aortic aneurysm was not treated surgically. Case 2 underwent a two-staged operation: Bentall's operation first, followed by entry closure with plication of the DeBakey III type aneurysm. Case 3 underwent a two-staged operation: graft replacement of the ascending aorta combined with coronary artery bypass grafting in the first operation and graft replacement of descending and abdominal aorta in the second. Case 4 was treated by graft replacement of the hemiarch, resuspension of the aortic valve and entry closure of the DeBakey III type dissection. Among them, two cases (Cases 1 and 2) whose aneurysms were treated incompletely showed a rapid growth and rupture of residual DeBakey III type aneurysm. In conclusion, one-staged aggressive and complete operation should be done for the patients with multiple dissecting aortic aneurysms. When a two-staged operation is selected, more intensive follow-up of the residual aortic aneurysm is needed.

We report a successfully treated case of infectious endocarditis with ventricular septal defect (VSD) and double-chambered right ventricle. A 41-year-old man complained of dyspnea. Echocardiography showed his tricuspid valve, aortic valve, and pulmonary valve had vegetation and severe regurgitation. He received treatment with antibiotics but it was not effective. He underwent TVR, AVR, pulmonary valve resection, VSD patch closure and RV abnormal muscle resection. Pathological findings of resected valves showed infectious endocarditis. He recovered uneventfully and resumed his original social activities.

A case of multiple mycotic aneurysms of the abdominal aorta is presented. A 62-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital complaining of left abdominal and back pain with persistent high fever. Although the blood cultures were negative during medical treatment, the patient status seemed septic by laboratory findings such as WBC (14, 000/μl), CRP (20.2mg/dl), and ESR (100 mm/h). Abdominal CT and aortography showed two saccular aneurysms in the abdominal aorta, and these aneurysms were considered as mycotic ones because of their rapid growth and clinical features. An urgent operation was performed. The three aneurysmal orifices were identified in infrarenal abdominal aorta and these seemed to be pseudoaneurysms. Although tight inflammatory adhesions were found around the aneurysms, no active infection was detected. After removal of the thrombi and intimal wall with meticulous irrigation, the in situ graft replacement was carried out. All the bacterial cultures of thrombi and intimal wall of aneurysms were negative. The infection had subsided after operation and she remained well without recurrence one year after operation. A few cases of mycotic aneurysm of abdominal aorta have been reported in Japan, but cases with multiple mycotic aneurysms are rare. The mechanism of aneurysmal formation in the present case might be lodgement of circulating organisms within the aortic wall during preceding prolonged antibiotic chemotherapy. The early surgical treatment consisted of en bloc aneurysmectomy, in situ graft replacement, and adjuvant antibiotic chemotherapy might provide good results.

We have experienced 3 successful repair surgeries for insufficient bicuspid aortic valve. The operative procedure consisted of combinations of suture placation, raphe triangular resection, commisural annuloplasty, and patch closure of perforation due to infectious endocarditis. The postoperative course was uneventful and postoperative echocardiography showed residual regurgitation as only trivial or mild. Retrospective study done on 19 previous cases with insufficient bicuspid aortic valve demonstrated that this operative procedure could have been applied in 15 (79%) of the cases. These results showed that repair surgery for insufficient bicuspid aortic valve is useful and has a wide application.

Objective : To evaluate the reliability and the validity of the Japanese version of the Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM) in patients with cervical spinal cord injury. Design : Cross-sectional, observational study. Setting : Rehabilitation ward for spinal cord injury in Japan. Patients and Methods : 26 inpatients with traumatic and non-traumatic cervical spinal cord injury, with an average age of 60.3, were included to examine the internal consistency of the subscales (subscores in each domain) and the whole scale, and to determine concurrent validity of the SCIM and the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) motor subscores. To examine interrater reliability, 12 of these patients were assessed by 2 physiatrists independently and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for total scores and weighted kappas for individual item scores were calculated. Results : The ICC for total SCIM score was 0.99, and the weighted kappas for individual item scores showed moderate to strong agreement (kappa=0.54-1.00). The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for domain subscores and total score were above 0.71, demonstrating appropriate internal consistency of the SCIM. The total SCIM scores significantly correlated with the FIM motor subscores (Spearman's rho=0.95), however, there were some variations with the SCIM scores in patients who were rated as 6 (modified independence) with the FIM in such items as bladder management and indoor mobility. Conclusion : The results supported the internal consistency, interrater reliability and concurrent validity of the SCIM in patients with cervical spinal cord injury. The SCIM may be a potential measure to evaluate certain functional aspects that cannot be assessed by the FIM alone.

A 62-year-old woman was admitted to a regional hospital for acute myocardial infarction. Emergency coronary angiography revealed occlusion of the first diagonal branch, and transesophageal echocardiography showed severe mitral regurgitation due to anterior papillary muscle rupture. She was transferred to our hospital in a state of cardiogenic shock despite the use of high-dose catecholamine and intra-aortic balloon pumping. We immediately performed mitral valve replacement. The patient's postoperative course was uneventful and she was ambulatory when transferred to another hospital on foot on postoperative day 19. Physicians should be aware that fatal anterior papillary muscle rupture may be caused by isolated occlusion of the diagonal branch.

Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) was performed in 16 patients with impaired left ventricular function due to ischemic heart disease (IHD) and the surgical procedures and cardiac functions before and after operation were studied. Preoperative angiogram showed three vessel disease in all patients. The ejection fraction was less than 40% in all and the mean cardiac index (CI) was 1.97l/min/m². At operation arterial graft was used in 10 patients (Group-AG) and no arterial graft but saphenous vein graft was used in 6 patients (Group-SVG). The average total cardiopulmonary bypass time, aortic cross clamping time and the number of revascularized vessels in both groups showed no significant differences. However, intraaortic balloon pumping was necessitated in one of Group-SVG and the requirement of postoperative catecholamine was in higher ratio in Group-SVG than in Group-AG. Postoperative CI improved to 3.1±0.4l/min/m² and 3.3±0.3 l/min/m² in Group-AG and Group-SVG, respectively. The postoperative New York Heart Association Functional Class improved to Class I or II in all patients and there were no significant differences of the improvement between the groups. Conclusively, it seems that the arterial grafts can be used safely and extensively in CABG for impaired left ventricular function due to IHD.

　　The aim of this study was to examine topophilia in the elderly living in mountainous areas. Topophilia, which is the geographical concept invented by Yi-Fu Tuan in 1999, is defined as the affective bond between people and place or environmental setting. A total of 120 elderly subjects living in a mountainous area responded to a standardized, validated 9-item Life Satisfaction Index K (subjective well-being) developed by Wataru Koyano and a new structured 6-item questionnaire on topophilia. Factor analyses revealed two domains of topophilia (public emotion and private emotion toward the living place). Public emotion was the emotion of being hard to leave the living place. Private emotion was the emotion of not loving the living place. There were areas where the elderly had a lesser degree of attachment toward the present state of the elderly could hardly have a sense of well-being and attachments to the current domicile. It is considered that not only physical but also mental approach is necessary to support the daily life of the elderly living in the mountainous area. Also, we examined the influences of aging and the living place on a subjective well-being and topophilia. There was no significant correlation between age and subjective well-being, but there was significant positive correlation between age and the degree of topophilia (r＝0.234, p‹0.01). On the other hand, the degree of subjective well-being by the place of residence was significantly different (p‹0.001; ANOVA), and the degree of topophilia by the place of residence was not significantly different. These findings suggest that subjective well-being is not influenced by age but influenced by the place of residence, and topophillia is not influenced by the place of residence but influenced by age.

An 81-year-old man was referred to our hospital with bilateral multiple patchy opacities on chest radiography. His chief complaints were a few months’ history of intermittent mild cough and slightly yellow sputum. Chest computed tomography (CT) showed non-segmental air-space consolidations with ground-glass opacities. Amyloid deposition with organizing pneumonia (OP) was seen in transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) specimens from the left S8. Three months later, the infiltration originally seen in the left lower lobe was remarkably diminished, and new infiltrations in the lingual and right lower lobes were detected on chest CT. Amyloid deposition with OP was seen in TBLB specimens from the left S4. Transthyretin was detected following immunohistochemical examination. The presence of wild-type transthyretin (ATTRwt) was proven using genetic analysis. The present report describes a rare case of ATTRwt amyloidosis associated with OP.