The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of hochuekkito for late-onset hypogonadism (LOH) patients. We administered hochuekkito 7.5 g/day for 8 weeks to 47 patients with LOH whose AMS scale was more than 27. We assessed the patients' symptom change with the AMS, SHIM, SDS, BDI, and SF-36. We measured their endocrine profiles and levels of their cytokines. At the end of study, 31 of 47 patients were evaluable. No significant difference in subjective symptoms was seen with any questionnaire after 8 weeks hochuekkito administration. However, hochuekkito significantly increased free testosterone and decreased ACTH/cortisol levels. Thus we believe hochuekkito is beneficial for the treatment of LOH.

A 43-year-old man with rheumatic arthritis was admitted to our hospital for symptoms of cough, left chest pain, and left elbow pain, and further examination revealed an elevated level of C-reactive protein. On day 2 after admission, he underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy. On the morning of day 7, he developed a high fever of 39.7°C, several hours after bronchoscopy. On day 13, he underwent colonoscopy. Five minutes after the colonoscopy, he developed a high fever of 39.9°C, accompanied by stridor, indicating a decrease in arterial oxygen saturation level. An intradermal test for peracetic acid which was used for cleaning flexible endoscopy was positive. We suspect that he suffered from an allergic reaction to peracetic acid following the flexible endoscopy. This is the first case reported on suspicious allergic reaction to peracetic acid following a flexible endoscopy procedure.

Objective To evaluate the volume change of rat root following direct pulp capping with mineral triozide aggregate (MTA) and calcium hydroxide-based paste (Vitapex).Methods Sixty-four female,1-month-old Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups,MTA group,Vitapex group,model group and control group,16 rats in each group.The right maxillary first molar was taken as experimental tooth and control tooth.The exposed pulp was capped separately with MTA and calcium hydroxide after the pulp had been exposed mechanically,while nothing done to the control group.Using micro-CT and three-dimensional reconstruction techniques,the volume change of rat root was evaluated at 1,2,4 weeks and 6 weeks after direct pulp capping.The data were analyzed by an way ANOVA analysis followed by a LSD-t test.Results The root volume in the MTA group [(1.08 ± 0.07),(1.32 ± 0.18) mm3] was significantly smaller than that in the Vitapex group[(1.28 ±0.16),(1.59 ±0.18) mm3] at 2 and 4 weeks after operation(P ＜0.05).At the sixth week,there was no significant difference between the MTA group [(1.36 ± 0.03) mm3] and the Vitapex group [(1.61 ± 0.31) mm3] (P ＞ 0.05).The root volume in the MTA group and Vitapex group was significantly larger than that in the model group [(0.87 ± 0.09),(1.01±0.17),(1.02 ± 0.25) mm3] from the second to sixth week after operation(P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions MTA and Vitapex can effectively promote root formation and growth and can be used as biological pulp-capping material.