[Objective] To determine the long-term effect of Kampo medicine on patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG).
[Patients] Patient 1 was a 17-year-old male with POAG at his initial visit, having been treated using Kampo for 34 years. Patient 2 was a 56-year-old female, diagnosed with POAG 30 years before visiting our clinic, who had continued Kampo treatment for 19 years. At their first visit, these two patients had a very high risk of becoming blind, but, after long-term treatment using Kampo, their visual function was maintained and their intraocular pressure was well controlled. Patient 3 was a 23-year-old female at her initial visit, who we have been following for 27 years. During this period, her intraocular pressure returned to normal while she was taking Kampo medicine regularly, and conversely elevated when she stopped.
[Discussion] We cannot indicate the specific Kampo prescription which reduces intraocular pressure, but Kampo medicines prescribed according to the usual pattern identifications may be able to improve the intraocular pressure in the presence of POAG. In addition, Kampo medicine may be effective in maintaining the visual function of POAG patients.
[Conclusion] Kampo medicine may reduce intraocular pressure, and be effective as an add-on therapy when combined with standard treatment in patients with POAG.

Patients with relapsing eye diseases can be treated using Kampo medicine to prevent recurrence. In our 30-year experience, only 27 patients have been treated with a Kampo formula aimed at preventing recurrence. Their conditions have included hordeolum, multiple chalazion, subconjunctival hemorrhage, filamentary keratitis, corneal herpes, Posner-Schlossman syndrome, central serous chorioretinopathy and vitreous hemorrhage. Of our patients with these conditions, the number with a successful Kampo treatment outcome for more than 3 years has been 12, when following the principles of Kampo medicine, i.e., “treatment according to a Kampo pattern of identification.”It is considered difficult to prevent recurrence in patients with relapsing eye disease, but our results indicate the effectiveness of Kampo medicine for such patients and, therefore, we believe Kampo medicine should be used continuously for these conditions in the future.In addition, there are no standard guidelines regarding a treatment time required to confirm success in preventing a recurrence in patients with relapsing disease, but we assume that it should to be more than 3 or 4 years.

[Objectives] To investigate the long-term effect of Kampo medicine on the ocular manifestations of Behçet's disease based on 30-years of experience.
[Patients] The number of patients who consulted Yamamoto Eye Clinic on Kampo medicine over a 30-year period was 24, and we investigated and reviewed these patients.
[Results] Although 11 patients discontinued treatment within a few months and 2 patients left our clinic after a short time, we were able to continue Kampo treatment in 11 patients for more than 10 years, with the longest period being 26 years. Consequently, 8 patients recovered their visual acuity.
[Discussion] Our retrospective study indicates that continuous treatment using Kampo medicine reduces the frequency of uveitis attacks and disease activity. In addition, it may be possible to discontinue Kampo medicine if patients achieve and maintain a better condition despite there being several factors that deteriorate their condition. Our study also indicates the importance of more than 10-years follow up to evaluate the efficacy of any intervention for this chronic disease.
[Conclusions] Kampo medicine is effective for preventing the recurrence of uveitis in patients with Behçet's disease.

Objective：The previous study was to develop the“Itamikei”, a small machine which patients can use to record their subjective level of pain. And new assessment tool“Tablet PC application for Pain Memory”, which enable the user to visualize and record the pain levels both instantly and over time. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Pain Memory as a pain assessment tool for patients with cancer pain. Method：12 inpatients prescribed analgesics for cancer pain, were instructed to input their pain level into Pain Memory over a 2-week period, and the resulting graph was reviewed by the patient and staff. They also completed a questionnaire evaluating the design, function and pain assessment of the tool. Result：The patients input their pain level into Pain Memory 5.25 times／day（Md）, which provided increased opportunities to ascertain the patient’s pain level compared to that“Itamikei”. The design and function of the Pain Memory were given approximately rate 4 using a 5 point scale by both patients and staff members. Moreover, using Pain Memory, the patients highly rated the parameter“I understood changes in pain”, and the staff members highly rated the parameter“Patients participating in the treatment of pain”. Conclusion：We found Pain Memory could be useful in the assessment of pain. It provided more opportunities to ascertain the pain level of patients, and enabled the visualization of the pain level through a graph.

Shoyogan is a Kampo prescription described in the Jinkuiyaolue text, but there have been no case reports regarding this medicine. We report a patient with terminal stage lung cancer, whose appetite and general well-being was maintained following oral administration of this medicine.A 62-year old woman had her main tumor in the left pulmonary lobe, which invaded to the bilateral peritoneum and the mediastinum. Metastasis was recognized in the left femoral bone which had been broken, the ilium, chest and lumbar vertebral bones, and the liver. Her general condition was very poor in spite of the administration of corticosteroids and narcotic medicines, when she began to take shoyogan 5 months after the onset of her symptoms. Cytological examination of her pleural effusion revealed adenocarcinoma. Following the administration of shoyogan, her appetite recovered, nutrition improved, and she was able to survive while maintaining her quality of life for another 2 months.In this paper we discuss the efficacy of shoyogan in improving the general well-being of patients having the above-mentioned conditions, or jueyinbing in Kampo parlance. Although preparing shoyogan is laborious, we believe this medicine should be used more frequently.
Following ; Malignant neoplasm of lung ; Patients ; Medicine ; Administration, Oral

Objective: A hospital Formulary (HF) is useful not only for providing a list of formulary drugs, but also for drug safety management and clinical practice in hospitals.  Our Pharmacy Division serves as a clinical training facility for the Faculty of Medicine and offers a bedside learning (BSL) program that allows students to participate in medical services.  Providing medical students with a requisite understanding of pharmacotherapy in order to effectively provide medical services is the goal of the core curriculum of medical education and HF use in BSL may be effective in achieving this goal.  We conducted a survey in order to examine the usefulness of an HF for medical students during clinical training and to determine what drug information is required by students.
Methods: Between April 2012 and March 2013, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 88 fifth-year medical students    who participated in a 1-day BSL program using an HF.
Results: The response rate was 100%.  All students responded that they understood how to use the HF and believed it was useful in BSL.  However, the level of satisfaction with the explanatory notes was significantly lower than that of other sections providing clinically useful additional information such as monographs or supplementary tables (p<0.05).  More than 80% of the students considered monographs to be useful for obtaining information on side effects, warnings and contraindications, dosage and administration, indications, dosing in renal impairment, and drug name.  Students generally considered supplementary tables useful for obtaining information on serious side effects and their early identification, points of drug use in renal dysfunction, appropriate drug use in cancer chemotherapy, insulin and diabetes treatment, calculations of pediatric dosing, and a list of clinically used abbreviations.
Conclusion: These results suggest that medical students believe an HF is useful in BSL.  When medical students participate in pharmacotherapy during BSL programs outside the Pharmacy Division, an HF that not only lists drugs but also contains supplementary tables of clinically useful information may be required.

Objective: The objective of this study was to validate the Japanese version of the STOP-Bang test for risk assessment of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS).Methods: We retrospectively evaluated inpatients who underwent nocturnal pulse oximetry for OSAS screening at the internal medical wards.Results: One hundred and forty-four subjects were included the study, and 57 subjects who had a 3% oxygen desaturation index ≥10/hr underwent polysomnography. Seventeen and 29 subjects were diagnosed with moderate and severe OSAS, respectively. According to the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the STOP-Bang test had a higher diagnostic value using a cutoff of 30 kg/m2 for BMI than using a cutoff of 35 kg/m2. A STOP-Bang score of 3 or greater had a sensitivity of 95.7% and specificity of 42.9% for detecting moderate-to-severe OSAS.Conclusion: The STOP-Bang test is a simple and useful tool for the risk assessment of OSAS.

Introduction: Tramadol (TRM) has been included as a weak opioid at the second step of the WHO analgesic ladder and has been widely used in palliative medicine. Here we report a case of amelioration of cancer pain by TRM therapy in a female patient with myasthenia gravis (MG). Case:The patient was a 70’s woman who was diagnosed with advanced endometrial carcinoma and suffered from chest pain caused by chest metastasis. 25 mg of a TRM capsule was orally administered three times a day. The dose was increased to 50 mg twice a day. It was resulted in sound pain relief with transient muscle weakness but without a myasthenic crisis.

Introduction: Our palliative care staff began the support activity in opioid introduction for outpatients with cancer at Komaki City Hospital in March 2018, because it was difficult to make them understand about proper use of opioid analgesics and misinterpretation about abuse at the time of opioid introduction in outpatient settings. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the activity (patient education on pain control, telephone follow up, and assessment of the symptom). Method: Outpatients with cancer receiving strong opioids for pain relief from January 2017 to March 2019 were eligible. We retrospectively investigated the difference of the variables between baseline and after the activity as follows; the ratios of prescribing immediate-release opioids, antiemetics, and laxatives when opioids were prescribed and side effects due to opioid analgesics appeared. Results: The study included 122 patients. The prescribing ratios of immediate-release opioids antiemetics and laxatives all increased from 90.7 to 98.5%, from 63.0 to 70.6%, and from 61.1 to 70.6%, respectively. The side effect incidence due to opioids with STAS-J 2 or more decreased from 12 (22.2%) to 9 (13.2%). Discussion: The activity could contribute to the provision of drug treatments and counselling needed for opioid therapy.

To screen for additional treatment targets against tongue cancer, we evaluated the contributions of extracellular signal-related kinase (ERK), AKT and ezrin in cancer development. Immunohistochemical staining showed that ERK and ezrin expressions were significantly higher in invasive squamous cell carcinoma than in carcinoma in situ. To investigate the roles of ERK and ezrin in cancer development, we used the non-woven silica fibre sheet Cellbed with a structure resembling the loose connective tissue morphology in a novel 3D culture system. We confirmed that the 3D system using Cellbed accurately mimicked cancer cell morphology in vivo. Furthermore, cell projections were much more apparent in 3D-cultured tongue cancer cell lines than in 2D cultures. Typically, under conventional 2D culture conditions, F-actin and cortactin are colocalized in the form of puncta within cells. However, in the 3D-cultured cells, colocalization was mainly observed at the cell margins, including the projections. Projections containing F-actin and cortactin colocalization were predicted to be invadopodia. Although suppressing ezrin expression with small interfering RNA transfection caused no marked changes in morphology, cell projection formation was decreased, and the tumour thickness in vertical sections after 3D culture was markedly decreased after suppressing ERK activity because both the invasion ability and proliferation were inhibited. An association between cortactin activation as well as ERK activity and invadopodia formation was detected. Our novel 3D culture systems using Cellbed™ are simple and useful for in vitro studies before conducting animal experiments. ERK contributes to tongue cancer development by increasing both cancer cell proliferation and migration via cortactin activation.
Carcinoma in Situ ; metabolism ; pathology ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; metabolism ; pathology ; Cell Culture Techniques ; methods ; Cell Movement ; Cell Proliferation ; Cytoskeletal Proteins ; metabolism ; Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases ; metabolism ; Humans ; Neoplasm Invasiveness ; pathology ; Phosphorylation ; Podosomes ; pathology ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt ; metabolism ; Silicon Dioxide ; Tongue Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Tumor Cells, Cultured