Introduction: A clinicopathological study of diagnosis and treatment for esophageal cancer in Hiraka General Hospital was performed.Patients and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed clinical records of 417 esophageal cancer patients treated between January 1998 through December 2009.Results: It was presumed that we took care of about 10% of esophageal cancer patients in Akita prefecture. Sixty-six percent of the patients were referred to our hospital from other medical facilities during the period under review. On the other hand, those patients with esophageal cancer detected by medical examination or health screening accounted for only 9.6%. The rate of those patients who could receive definitive therapies was 75% (313 cases), and 308 cases (98%) underwent curative surgical resection in Hiraka General Hospital. Among the patients who had received therapy aimed for complete cure, 285 patient (91.1%), went through treatment as planned, and the complete response rate was 73%. Five-year survival rates of all the patients in stage 0, stage I, stage II, stage III and stage IV were 44.7%, 76.3%, 67.3%, 38.0%, 31.6% and 15.6%, respectively. These survival rates are never be inferior to those of major centers for esophageal cancer in Japan. Long term survival rates of the patients who had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer by medical examination or health screening were statistically significantly better than those of the patients who were diagonosed by another categories. Among the 209 patients who responded completely to definitive therapy, the cancer recurred in 50 patients (23.9%). Among the 50 recurrent group, recurrence has been primarily recognized in 33 patients (67%) with in 12 months after definitive therapy and in 40 patients (82%) within 24 months. Therefore, a close follow-up is very important up to 24 months after treatment. As for the cause of death in patients who underwent curative resection the death from esophageal cancer accounted for 66% whereas the death from other diseasea and/or other type of cancer accounted for 34%.

A study was made to elucidate growing health problems confronting women in rural communities today amidst drastic changes in agriculture.
From the standpoint of production structure, the area covered by our survey was divided into single-crop (paddy-rice), paddy-rice and fruits (apple), paddy-rice and water melon, and fishing village districts. In each of these districts, we conducted a survey by the use of a questionnaire and a health examination.
1, About 45 to 70 % of women engaged in farming complained that they could not take enough time to sleep. Especially in the paddy-rice and water melon producing district, the percentage was high.
2. Female farmers who complained of pains in the legs and the lower part of the back accounted for 40-60 % of the total. The rates were high in the rice producing district, and the paddy-rice and water melon producing district. This is probably due to the nature of farm work. However, the cause of the complaints was not always clear in the paddy-rice district.
3. Depending on the working postures (work on the stepladden in the orchard, work on hillsides, work in the supine position, etc.), the ailing region they complained about differed.
4. Those women who take care of supplementary work when machines are employed said that they feel they are subordinate to mechnization.
5. When pesticides are used, 10-20 % of the subjects showed toxic symptoms. In the paddy-rice and apple growing district, high ratios were recorded.
6. Of the total, 52.7 % were found negative in the mass health screening. The rate was the highest in the paddy-rice and water melon producing district.
7. The obesity rate rose in proportion to the rise in age.
8. The incidence of hypertension (WHO criteria) was the lowest in the fishing community, followed by the paddy-rice and apple district, and the rice producing district in that order.
9. As regards the hemoglobin level, those who showed less than 12.0 g/dl accounted for 11 to 32%. The level was lowest in the paddy-rice and apple producing district, followed by the paddy-rice district and the fishing village. There were few who need medical treatment immediately.
10. Abnormality of liver function was found among some 5 % of the examined. Serum cholesterol levels were lower in the paddy-rice district than in the other districts.

As regards to low back pain of agricultural worker, there are many problems still as to a syndrom of “Nofusho” in rural medicine, a disease in ocupational medicine and clinic of orthopedic.
Agricultural worker who complained of low back pain varies with their country and farm products, and it tend to increase with adding to their age. Further, the female rate of low back pain showed slightly high tendency than the made rate, 8.5-12.5 % of male, 6.5-13.4 % of female always complained of low back pain.
According to the findings of roentogenographic examination of back bone, the deformed vertebrae was found clearly, especially, low back pain caused by a trauma of soft tissue and iscogenic pain showed in farmers. Therefor, it is necessary to be improved working posture and condition.
In comparrison with non-farmer, it is located in order of truck drivers. bus drivers and repairmen.

Constrictive pericarditis after open heart surgery is a rare entity that is difficult to diagnose. There are various approaches in the surgical treatment of pericarditis. We performed a pericardiectomy on cardiopulmonary bypass via a median approach with good results. A 67-year-old man underwent mitral valve repair in 2005. He began to experience easy fatigability as well as leg edema beginning in January 2010 for which he was treated medically. The fatigability worsened in July 2012. Echocardiography at that time was unremarkable. However, CT and MRI showed pericardial thickening adjacent to the anterior, posterior, inferior, and left lateral wall of the left ventricle. Bilateral heart catheterization revealed dip and plateau and deep X, Y waves as well as end-diastolic pressure of both chambers approximately equal to the respiratory time. He was diagnosed with constrictive pericarditis and taken to surgery. The chest was entered via median sternotomy and cardiopulmonary bypass was initiated to facilitate complete resection of the pericardium. The left phrenic nerve was visualized and care was taken to avoid damage to the structure. A part of the pericardium was strongly adherent to the epicardium. We elected to perform the waffle procedure. After pericardial resection, cardiac index improved from 1.5 l/min/m² to 2.7 l/min/m², and central venous pressure improved from 17 to 10 mmHg. Postoperatively, dip and plateau disappeared as measured via bilateral heart catheterization and diastolic failure improved. In the treatment of constrictive pericarditis, we should resect as much of the pericardium as possible. Depending on the case, this can be facilitated by median sternotomy and cardiopulmonary bypass.

In Japan there are many people who are intolerant to alcohol. Known as flushers, they do not genetically have low Km acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (AlDH₂). Flushers are judged easily and accurately by the alcohol patch test. An ethanol patch test carried out on agricultural and fishing populations in Japan showed that approx. 40% were deficient in AlDH₂. A questionnaire survey of the drinking behavior of many people showed significant differences between the normal AlDH₂ and AlDH₂-deficient groups. The normal group drinks positively and actively, while the deficient group drinks negatively and passively. As a result, there were significant differences in subjective and objective symptoms that result from drinking between the two groups: More frequent hangovers, abnormal physical conditions and higher KAST scores were seen in the normal group, and health examination showed higher values in liver function tests, including γ-GTP, and higher levels of blood pressure, HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), etc., in the normal AlDH₂group.
It may be very useful for prevention of alcohol-related health disorders to help Mongoloid peoples, such as the Japanese, recognize whether their AlDH₂ is normal or deficient, which is as determined by the ethanol patch test.

OBJECTIVE: Many studies have reported pre-processing effects for brain volumetry; however, no study has investigated whether non-parametric non-uniform intensity normalization (N3) correction processing results in reduced system dependency when using an atlas-based method. To address this shortcoming, the present study assessed whether N3 correction processing provides reduced system dependency in atlas-based volumetry. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Contiguous sagittal T1-weighted images of the brain were obtained from 21 healthy participants, by using five magnetic resonance protocols. After image preprocessing using the Statistical Parametric Mapping 5 software, we measured the structural volume of the segmented images with the WFU-PickAtlas software. We applied six different bias-correction levels (Regularization 10, Regularization 0.0001, Regularization 0, Regularization 10 with N3, Regularization 0.0001 with N3, and Regularization 0 with N3) to each set of images. The structural volume change ratio (%) was defined as the change ratio (%) = (100 x [measured volume - mean volume of five magnetic resonance protocols] / mean volume of five magnetic resonance protocols) for each bias-correction level. RESULTS: A low change ratio was synonymous with lower system dependency. The results showed that the images with the N3 correction had a lower change ratio compared with those without the N3 correction. CONCLUSION: The present study is the first atlas-based volumetry study to show that the precision of atlas-based volumetry improves when using N3-corrected images. Therefore, correction for signal intensity non-uniformity is strongly advised for multi-scanner or multi-site imaging trials.
Adult ; Atlases as Topic ; Brain Mapping/*methods ; Female ; Humans ; Image Enhancement/methods ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/*methods ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/*methods ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Software ; Statistics, Nonparametric