Habitual smoking adversely affects the functions of the respiratory system. A Survey was conducted on 100 patients with respiratory diseases in the authors' institute regarding individuals' smoking habit and the following results were obtained.
1) Some respondents say they have difficulty abstaining from smoking though they perceive its unfavorable effects on their health. However, they feel a persuasive “recommendation to give up smoking” by the attending physicians a great help, and 2) earnest instruction and education for the patients are very important as many patients feel good after giving up smoking.
The relationship between habitual smoking and carbon monoxide (CO) concentration in the expired air was determined in 67 healthy volunteers with an ambulatory CO analyzer and the following results were obtained.
1) There was a significant difference in the CO concentrations in the expired air between non-smokers and smokers, 2) there were positive relationships between the CO concentrations in the expired air and daily numbers of cigarettes smoked and smoking index, 3) problems relating to passive smoking became evident, and 4) the ambulatory CO analyzer for the determination of the concentration of CO in the expired air is considered useful for the anti-smoking guidance and instructions.

Background: Problems associated with using inhalational anaesthesia are numerous in veterinary anaesthesia practice. Decreasing the amount of used inhalational anaesthetic agents and minimising of cardiorespiratory disorders are the standard goals of anaesthetists. Objective: This experimental study was carried out to investigate the sparing effect of intravenous tramadol, lidocaine, dexmedetomidine and their combinations on the minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of sevoflurane in healthy Beagle dogs. Methods: This study was conducted on six beagle dogs. Sevoflurane MAC was determined by the tail clamp method on five separate occasions. The dogs received no treatment (control; CONT), tramadol (TRM: 1.5 mg kg -1 intravenously followed by 1.3 mg kg -1 h -1 ), lidocaine (LID: 2 mg kg -1 intravenously followed by 3 mg kg -1 h -1 ), dexmedetomidine (DEX: 2 μg kg -1 intravenously followed by 2 μg kg -1 h -1 ), and their combination (COMB), respectively.Cardiorespiratory variables were recorded every five minutes and immediately before the application of a noxious stimulus. Results: The COMB treatment had the greatest sevoflurane MAC-sparing effect (67.4 ± 13.9%) compared with the other treatments (5.1 ± 25.3, 12.7 ± 14.3, and 40.3 ± 15.1% for TRM, LID, and DEX treatment, respectively). The cardiopulmonary variables remained within the clinically acceptable range following COMB treatment, although the mean arterial pressure was higher and accompanied by bradycardia. Conclusions Tramadol-lidocaine-dexmedetomidine co-infusion produced a remarkable sevoflurane MAC-sparing effect in clinically healthy beagle dogs and could result in the alleviation of cardiorespiratory depression caused by sevoflurane. Cardiorespiratory variables should be monitored carefully to avoid undesirable side effects induced by dexmedetomidine.

[Background] Presenteeism, defined as the practice of sick workers who come to work, and whose work performance effectiveness has been reduced due to various signs and symptoms, causes a significant financial loss to companies. However, comprehensive and effective occupational health countermeasures have not yet been presented. Therefore, we report here the results of an interim analysis to determine whether an allowance for acupuncture treatment is beneficial for workers' presenteeism. [Methods] A four-week randomized intergroup comparative study was conducted on office workers who were aware of their presenteeism. Participants were allocated to either the control group, in which regular recommended presenteeism countermeasures for each workplace were implemented arbitrarily, or to the intervention group in which an allowance of up to 8,000 was given for acupuncture treatment, in addition to the usual arbitrary measures. The primary endpoint was the WHO-HPQ relative presenteeism score: a score lower than 1 indicates lower work performance; and it was analyzed with the "full analysis set" population.[Results] A total of 52 patients were assigned to the intervention group (n = 30) and the control group (n = 22). On average, the intervention group received acupuncture treatments 1.4 times for stiff neck and shoulders (67%), lower back pain (26%), depression (5%), and allergies (2%), and paid a total of 7,219; and 6,556 was paid as an expense allowance. As a result, the relative presenteeism score was 0.95 in the intervention group, compared to 0.91 in the control group, with a between-group difference of 0.04 (ES (r) = 0.22, P = 0.12).[Conclusions] With a total of up to 8,000 offered to office workers who were aware of their presenteeism, an acupuncture treatment allowance for a four-week period was provided 1.4 times on average. The results suggested that the treatment allowance would increase workers' performance efficiency by about 4% (equivalent to 19,691 per person) compared to those without it.