Introduction: The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between the available service information on small-scale multifunctional in-home nursing care (KANTAKI) and its operational status via text mining.Methods: We obtained nationwide textual information on KANTAKI from the Nursing Care Service Information Disclosure System and the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, and analyzed the characteristics of the word usage using KH Coder. The number of users and employees and the implementation of services were compared among the facilities that used terms relating to medical dependency and end-of-life care, which are KANTAKI characteristics, and with other facilities.Results: The facilities that used terms relating to medical dependency and end-of-life care showed significantly more users requiring nursing care level 5 and more full-time nursing staff than those not using such terms. Moreover, regarding service provision, the rate of procedures was significantly higher in 11 of 12 items, except for stoma.Conclusion: The facilities that use terms relating to medical dependency and end-of-life care in their information have more users and provide a greater variety of services. In the future, educational support is required to enable facility managers to understand the services and translate them into their work.

Purpose: The basophil activation test (BAT) has been reported to be useful for the diagnosis of various food allergies, such as allergy to peanut, but not to fish. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the BAT for fish allergy. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of patients with fish allergy who underwent the BAT using a panel of fish extracts (15 kinds) to examine the differential reactivity to several species of fish. The BAT score for each extract was expressed as the ratio of CD203chigh% with the extract to that with anti-IgE antibody. Clinical reactivity to each fish was confirmed by positive oral food challenge or a typical history of fish-induced immediate allergy symptoms. Receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance. Results: Fifty-one patients with fish allergy were analyzed. Using extracts of 15 species of fish, the BAT was performed a total of 184 times on the patients. Clinical allergy to each species of fish was confirmed in 90 (48.9%) of those tests. ROC analysis yielded high areas under the curve for the BAT scores for the 5 most common fish species (0.72–0.88). The diagnostic accuracy ranged from 0.74 to 0.86. Using a tentative cutoff value of 0.3 deduced from the ROC analyses of the 5 fish species, the accuracy for other fish allergic reactions was generally high (0.6–1.0), except the fish tested in a small number of patients. Conclusions The BAT score based on CD203c expression may be useful for fish allergy diagnosis, especially since a large variety of fish can be tested by the BAT using fish extracts prepared by a simple method.

Purpose: The basophil activation test (BAT) has been reported to be useful for the diagnosis of various food allergies, such as allergy to peanut, but not to fish. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the BAT for fish allergy. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of patients with fish allergy who underwent the BAT using a panel of fish extracts (15 kinds) to examine the differential reactivity to several species of fish. The BAT score for each extract was expressed as the ratio of CD203chigh% with the extract to that with anti-IgE antibody. Clinical reactivity to each fish was confirmed by positive oral food challenge or a typical history of fish-induced immediate allergy symptoms. Receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance. Results: Fifty-one patients with fish allergy were analyzed. Using extracts of 15 species of fish, the BAT was performed a total of 184 times on the patients. Clinical allergy to each species of fish was confirmed in 90 (48.9%) of those tests. ROC analysis yielded high areas under the curve for the BAT scores for the 5 most common fish species (0.72–0.88). The diagnostic accuracy ranged from 0.74 to 0.86. Using a tentative cutoff value of 0.3 deduced from the ROC analyses of the 5 fish species, the accuracy for other fish allergic reactions was generally high (0.6–1.0), except the fish tested in a small number of patients. Conclusions The BAT score based on CD203c expression may be useful for fish allergy diagnosis, especially since a large variety of fish can be tested by the BAT using fish extracts prepared by a simple method.

INTRODUCTIONCandidaemia, recognised as a fairly common disease among intensive care unit (ICU) patients, carries a poor prognosis. However, as studies on the prognostic factors associated with candidaemia in ICU patients are limited, this study aimed to establish the best prognostic factor for ICU patients with candidaemia in a tertiary care hospital in Japan.

METHODSWe conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with candidaemia in the emergency ICU at Fukuoka University Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan, from April 2010 to March 2015. Demographic and clinical data was collected from the patients' medical records and laboratory databases.

RESULTSA total of 25 patients were included in the study. However, 18 patients died during hospitalisation, resulting in an in-hospital mortality rate of 72.0%. The variables of Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score and cumulative number of risk factors for invasive candidiasis showed significant differences between patients in the survivor and non-survivor groups (p < 0.05). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves for the SOFA score and cumulative number of risk factors for invasive candidiasis were 0.873 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.72-1.00) and 0.937 (95% CI 0.84-1.00), respectively.

CONCLUSIONOur results suggest that the cumulative number of risk factors for invasive candidiasis was the most useful prognostic indicator for candidaemia in ICU patients.