Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease associated with mild valvular regurgitation. However, there have been no detailed reports of infective endocarditis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Here, we describe a case of a 55-year-old woman without any cardiac abnormalities who was diagnosed with lupus nephritis by renal biopsy; she contracted infective endocarditis while receiving immunosuppressive therapy. Our case emphasizes that special consideration of the occurrence of infective endocarditis, and its early diagnosis and treatment are mandatory for patient survival. We propose that echocardiography should be performed before treating patients with systemic lupus erythematosus who have an uncertain cardiac status.

Objective: The present study investigated awareness and knowledge about clinical trials among pharmacists working in the Nagano Hokushin area as well as their contribution to the enlightenment of clinical trial.
Methods: A questionnaire survey of clinical trials was conducted to evaluate levels of interest, impressions, sources of information, and knowledge among hospital and community pharmacists.
Results: We received responses from 77 hospital and 67 community pharmacists.  The levels of interest in clinical trials were not significantly different between hospital and community pharmacists.  About impressions, hospital pharmacists thought that clinical trials were “a new development.”  Contrarily, community pharmacists thought that clinical trials were “a field that they were seldom concerned with.”  About sources of information, hospital pharmacists found that “study meetings” were the most informative.  More community pharmacists than hospital pharmacists chose “general reports, for example, newspapers and televisions” as a source of information, and similarly more community pharmacists indicated that they had “few opportunities for obtaining information about clinical trials.”  About knowledge, the percentage of correct answers about clinical trials between hospital and community pharmacists was not significantly different.  A higher percentage of community pharmacists than hospital pharmacists answered unknown.
Conclusion: Hospital and community pharmacists had different impressions and knowledge about clinical trials probably because of differences in sources of information and its access.  Henceforth, study meetings involving educational material about clinical trials should be held for discussing fundamental knowledge about the methods and structure of clinical trials and for discussing case studies wherein patients consult pharmacists about clinical trials.

　　Among visceral artery aneurysms, those arising in the region of the pancreatic duodenal artery due to celiac artery stenosis are rare. We report a surgical case with stenosis caused by dissecting celiac artery aneurysms and multiple aortic aneurysm rupture in the pancreaticoduodenal region. A 72-year-old man with a history of distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer was carried into our hospital by ambulance for acute abdominal pain. CT scans showed dissected aneurysms of the root of the celiac artery and hepatic artery as well as massive retroperitoneal hematoma around the pancreaticoduodenum and intraperitoneal hemorrhage. Arteriography of the superior mesenteric artery revealed multiple aneurysms of the pancreaticoduodenal artery that might have caused rupture. In the late phase, retrograde flows in the gastroduodenal, hepatic, celiac, and splenic arteries from the pancreaticoduodenal artery were contrast-enhanced. Because it was thought that transcatheter arterial embolization or surgical aneurysmectomy for pancreaticoduodenal aneurysms could prevent blood flow in all circulating branch arteries of the celiac artery, leading to extensive organ ischemia, the gastric pouch, spleen, entire pancreas, and gallbladder were resected. The patient has been doing well.

　　Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, relatively rare cancers, mostly arise in the pancreatic parenchyma with infrequent involvement of the main pancreatic duct. Now and then, however, case reports have been published on pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma in which the main pancreatic duct is obstructed by tumor cells with severely fibrous stromal cells. Here, in this paper, we report a case of pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma with obstruction of the main pancreatic duct. A 59-year-old man complained of right upper abdominal pain. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography and fat-suppressed T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging showed gallbladder stones, a low-intensity-area measuring 8 mm in diameter in the pancreatic body, and club-shaped dilatation at the distal end of the pancreatic duct. The patient was thus diagnosed with a tumor in the pancreatic body and cholecystolithiasis, and underwent distal pancreatectomy and cholecystectomy. HE-staining showed tumor cells with eosinophilic cytoplasm and nuclear atypia. The infiltrative growth of the cells with severe fibrosis caused stenosis of the pancreatic duct. Based on the positive results of immunohistochemical staining for chromogranin A and synaptophysin and the Ki-67 index, the tumor was finally identified as pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma. The patient has been under follow-up with no additional treatment for >3 years since the surgery, without evidence of tumor recurrence.

We report two cases of retroperitoneal fibrosis that emerged during a clinical course of moderate chronic kidney disease. In both cases, we observed an elevation in the serum CRP and IgG4 levels without an increase in the white blood cell count. The patients were treated with prednisolone. Their clinical conditions improved with a decrease in the serum IgG4 to total IgG ratio. The present cases suggest the importance of a differential diagnosis of retroperitoneal fibrosis in the medical care of chronic kidney disease patients, and we propose a useful biomarker for retroperitoneal fibrosis, which we suspect is associated with IgG4-related disease.

Although the pelvic autonomic plexus may be considered a mixture of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves, little information on its composite fibers is available. Using 10 donated elderly cadavers, we investigated in detail the topohistology of nerve fibers in the posterior part of the periprostatic region in males and the infero-anterior part of the paracolpium in females. Neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) were used as parasympathetic nerve markers, and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) was used as a marker of sympathetic nerves. In the region examined, nNOS-positive nerves (containing nNOS-positive fibers) were consistently predominant numerically. All fibers positive for these markers appeared to be thin, unmyelinated fibers. Accordingly, the pelvic plexus branches were classified into 5 types: triple-positive mixed nerves (nNOS+, VIP+, TH+, thick myelinated fibers + or -); double-positive mixed nerves (nNOS+, VIP-, TH+, thick myelinated fibers + or -); nerves in arterial walls (nNOS-, VIP+, TH+, thick myelinated fibers-); non-parasympathetic nerves (nNOS-, VIP-, TH+, thick myelinated fibers + or -); (although rare) pure sensory nerve candidates (nNOS-, VIP-, TH-, thick myelinated fibers+). Triple-positive nerves were 5-6 times more numerous in the paracolpium than in the periprostatic region. Usually, the parasympathetic nerve fibers did not occupy a specific site in a nerve, and were intermingled with sympathetic fibers. This morphology might be the result of an "incidentally" adopted nerve fiber route, rather than a target-specific pathway.
Adrenergic Fibers ; Aged* ; Cadaver* ; Female ; Humans ; Hypogastric Plexus* ; Male ; Myelin Sheath ; Nerve Fibers* ; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I ; Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase ; Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide

A 78-year-old man was diagnosed with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) and was started on standard chemotherapy 1 year earlier. However, treatment was discontinued because of adverse drug reactions and worsening delirium. Thereafter, he remained stable and was followed up while receiving etoposide. He then visited our hospital because of acute abdominal pain and underwent surgery with a diagnosis of gastrointestinal perforation. Intraoperative observation showed a reddened, concentric wall thickening measuring 4 cm and a perforation site in the ileum, and thus partial resection of the small bowel was performed. The histological diagnosis was small bowel perforation due to tumor cell invasion. Two months postoperatively, he started a less intensive chemotherapy regimen along with palliative care, and died due to the primary disease approximately 5 months postoperatively. ATL involves systemic organs because of its high organ-affinity. Once it involves the gastrointestinal tract, various gastrointestinal symptoms can occur. Patients with ATL are at risk of developing gastrointestinal perforation at any time during the clinical course. Therefore, clinicians should be aware that once gastrointestinal perforation develops, the prognosis becomes extremely poor. Assessment of the disease state, early detection of gastrointestinal lesions, and prevention of opportunistic infections appear to be important in the management of patients with ATL.

Real-world data (RWD), such as a health insurance claim database and electronic medical record database, which records daily medical care information, is one of the most important data sources in pharmacoepidemiological studies. In Japan, a post-marketing database study has been added as a new category of post-marketing surveillance since April 2018. It is expected that the post-marketing database studies will be conducted in the actual risk management plan； however, at this point, few have reached the stage of publishing study results. On the other hand, overseas, many database research results using RWD have already been reported. Although it is necessary to keep in mind that there are differences in the characteristics of the databases (e.g., data contents, structures) and the differences in the medical environment between overseas and Japan, we think that critically reviewing these reports has a reference value for the planning, execution, and interpretation of the results in performing post-marketing database studies in Japan. The purpose of this report is to examine the characteristics and cautions of the database studies through a critical review of published articles of overseas RWD studies and to make recommendations that are useful for conducting post-marketing database studies in Japan. We hope this article will become a help in the planning and implementation of future post-marketing database studies.

The prognostic significance of initial prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level for metastatic prostate cancer remains uncertain. We investigated the differences in prognosis and response to hormonal therapies of metastatic prostate cancer patients according to initial PSA levels. We analyzed 184 patients diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer and divided them into three PSA level groups as follows: low (<100 ng ml^-1), intermediate (100-999 ng ml^-1), and high (≥1000 ng ml^-1). All patients received androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) immediately. We investigated PSA progression-free survival (PFS) for first-line ADT and overall survival (OS) within each of the three groups. Furthermore, we analyzed response to antiandrogen withdrawal (AW) and alternative antiandrogen (AA) therapies after development of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). No significant differences in OS were observed among the three groups (P = 0.654). Patients with high PSA levels had significantly short PFS for first-line ADT (P = 0.037). Conversely, patients in the high PSA level group had significantly longer PFS when treated with AW than those in the low PSA level group (P = 0.047). Furthermore, patients with high PSA levels had significantly longer PFS when provided with AA therapy (P = 0.049). PSA responders to AW and AA therapies had significantly longer survival after CRPC development than nonresponders (P = 0.011 and P < 0.001, respectively). Thus, extremely high PSA level predicted favorable response to vintage sequential ADT and AW. The current data suggest a novel aspect of extremely high PSA value as a favorable prognostic marker after development of CRPC.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Androgen Antagonists/therapeutic use* ; Disease Progression ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prognosis ; Progression-Free Survival ; Prostate-Specific Antigen/blood* ; Prostatic Neoplasms/mortality* ; Treatment Outcome

BACKGROUND: To examine changes in psychological distress prevalence among pregnant women in Miyagi Prefecture, which was directly affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and compare it with the other, less damaged areas of Japan. METHODS: This study was conducted in conjunction with the Japan Environment and Children`s Study. We examined 76,152 pregnant women including 8270 in Miyagi Regional Center and 67,882 in 13 other regional centers from the all-birth fixed data of the Japan Environment and Children's Study. We then compared the prevalence and risk of distress in women in Miyagi Regional Center and women in the 13 regional centers for 3 years after the disaster. RESULTS: Women in the Miyagi Regional Center suffered more psychological distress than those in the 13 regional centers: OR 1.38 (95% CI, 1.03-1.87) to 1.92 (95% CI, 1.42-2.60). Additionally, women in the inland area had a consistently higher prevalence of psychological distress compared to those from the 13 regional centers: OR 1.67 (95% CI, 1.18-2.38) to 2.19 (95% CI, 1.60-2.99). CONCLUSIONS The lack of pre-disaster data in the Japan Environment and Children's Study made it impossible to compare the incidence of psychological distress before and after the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. However, 3 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the prevalence of pregnant women with psychological distress did not improve in Miyagi Regional Center. Further, the prevalence of mental illness in inland areas was consistently higher than that in the 13 regional centers after the disaster.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Disasters ; Earthquakes ; Female ; Humans ; Japan/epidemiology* ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Complications/psychology* ; Pregnant Women/psychology* ; Prevalence ; Psychological Distress ; Tsunamis ; Young Adult