Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) is identified as one of the most important causes of cognitive disorders in patients with traumatic brain injury. Radiologic recognition of DAI can help in understanding the clinical syndrome and in making treatment decisions. However, CT and conventional MRI are often normal or demonstrate lesions that are poorly related to the cognitive disorders present. Recently, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and fiber tractography (FT) have been shown to be useful in detecting various types of white matter damage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using DTI and FT to detect lesions in DAI patients, and to correlate these DAI lesions with the patients' cognitive disorders. We investigated 9 normal volunteers and 9 patients with DAI. The DAI patients had impaired intelligence, as well as attention, memory and executive function disorders that restricted their activities of daily living. In the DAI patients, DTI showed abnormal brain areas in the corpus callosum, fornix, frontal and parietal lobe white matter, and FT revealed interruptions of the white matter fibers in the corpus callosum and the fornix when compared with the normal volunteers, while no lesions were found on conventional MRI. DTI and FT can directly visualize DAI lesions, which cannot be reliably detected by conventional methods. Accordingly, both DTI and FT may be useful techniques for the evaluation of DAI, and may have the potential to be applied to planning rehabilitation therapy, and predicting the neurologic prognosis in DAI patients with cognitive disorders.

A recent study evaluated the effect of pleurotomy for harvesting internal thoracic arteries (ITAs) on pulmonary complications after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Fifty consecutive patients with pleurotomy (group I) were studied retrospectively and compared with a control group of fifty patients undergoing CABG without pleurotomy during ITA harvest (group II). Group I was divided into two groups; forty patients using left ITAs with left open pleurotomy (group Ia), and ten patients using bilateral ITAs with bilateral open pleurotomy (group Ib). On the other hand, group II includes 22 patients without pleurotomy (group IIa) and 28 patients with closed pleurotomy (group IIb). In group I, ITAs were dissected from the chest wall with mediastinal pleura and then isolated from the pleura by pleurotomy. Before sternal closure, an L-shaped pleural tube was inserted into the deep costophrenic sinus and the pleurotomy remained open. In group II, ITAs were simultaneously dissected from the chest wall and mediastinal pleura, and if the pleura was damaged, the pleurotomy was approximated before sternal closure. There was no significance in the number of bypass grafts, aortic crossclamp time, cardiopulmonary bypass time and temperature. ITA harvest time with open pleurotomy was shorter than that of closed pleura (15min versus 25min). Postoperatively, the ventilation time and duration of chest drainage also showed no significance, however group Ia and Ib showed significantly more fluid accumulation removed by chest drainage (Ia, 288±193ml; Ib, 285±198ml, versus IIb, 169±98ml). On postoperative day 30 no pleural effusion was observed in group I but it was seen in one case in group IIb which had diaphragm paralysis. In conclusion, open pleurotomy results in minimal pulmonary complications with optimal chest drainage and offers significant advantages for harvesting ITAs.

OBJECTIVESThe objective of this study was to evaluate factors associated with turnover intention among nurses in small and medium-sized medical institutions.

METHODSA self-administered questionaire survey was performed in 293 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and assistant nurses working full-time in various medical institutions. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted, with turnover intention as the dependent variable, and nurses' basic attributes and job satisfaction as independent variables.

RESULTSAs for nurses' basic attributes, turnover intention was significantly associated with registered nurses, younger nurses and those with low satisfaction with sleep. As for nurses' job satisfaction, the number of nurses with turnover intention was significantly higher for those with low satisfaction with salary, low satisfaction with welfare, poor implementation of fair salary raise and poor cooperation among nurses.

CONCLUSIONTurnover intention may be reduced by the enhancement of trust in the organization, giving appropriate advice to young nurses and registered nurses, and developing measures for addressing sleep disorders.

Methods: We performed 3T MRI in 10 healthy volunteers and 13 patients with LSS. The ADC values in the spinal canal were evaluated at 46 vertebrae (L4/5 and L5/S1 for each participant), and the reduced and conventional fields of view were compared. Results: The ADC values were 2.72±0.12 at L4/5 in healthy volunteers, 2.76±0.19 at L5/S1 in healthy volunteers, 1.77±0.58 at L4/5 in patients with LSS, and 2.35±0.29 at L5/S1 in patients with LSS. The ADC value at L4/5 in patients with LSS was significantly lower than that at L5/S1 in patients with LSS and that at L4/5 and L5/S1 in healthy volunteers (p <0.05). With an ADC cutoff value of 2.46 to identify LSS, this approach provided an area under the curve of 0.81, sensitivity of 0.92, and specificity of 0.76 (p <0.05). Conclusions Preoperative examination using ADC maps permits visualization and quantification of spinal canal lesions, thus proving the utility of ADC maps in the selection of decompression surgery for LSS.

Methods: A total of 14 patients with unilateral radicular symptoms and five healthy subjects were subjected to simultaneous apparent T2 mapping and neurography with nerve-sheath signal increased with inked rest-tissue rapid acquisition of relaxation enhancement signaling (SHINKEI-Quant) using a 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging. The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score for neck pain and upper arm pain was used to evaluate clinical symptoms. T2 relaxation times of the cervical dorsal root ganglia of the brachial plexus were measured bilaterally from C4 to C8 in patients with radicular symptoms and from C5 to C8 in healthy controls. The T2 ratio was calculated as the affected side to unaffected side. Results: When comparing nerve roots bilaterally at each spinal level, no significant differences in T2 relaxation times were found between patients and healthy subjects. However, T2 relaxation times of nerve roots in the patients with unilateral radicular symptoms were significantly prolonged on the involved side compared with the uninvolved side (p<0.05). The VAS score for upper arm pain was not significantly correlated with the T2 relaxation times, but was positively correlated with the T2 ratio. Conclusions In patients with cervical radiculopathy, the SHINKEI-Quant technique can be used to quantitatively evaluate the compressed cervical nerve roots. The VAS score for upper arm pain was positively correlated with the T2 ratio. This suggests that the SHINKEI-Quant is a potential tool for the diagnosis of cervical nerve entrapment.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of high-flow nasal cannula oxygen (HFNC) for dyspnea in patients with advanced disease. Methods: A literature search was conducted using MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and Ichu-shi Web. Inclusion criteria were: 1) randomized controlled trials evaluating the effect of HFNC on dyspnea; 2) aged 18 years or older with advanced disease with hypoxemia; 3) control group was conventional oxygen therapy or noninvasive positive pressure ventilation. Exclusion criteria were: 1) patients in intensive care unit, 2) weaning from ventilator. Results: Six studies (4 from database searches, and 2 from hand searches) were included. In the 2 studies evaluating short-term intervention, one showed HFNC was more efficacious, and the other conventional oxygen was more efficacious. In the 2 studies evaluating long-term interventions: one showed HFNC was more efficacious, and the other showed no significant difference. In the 2 studies evaluating the intervention during exercise, one showed HFNC was more efficacious, and the other showed no significant difference. Conclusion: HFNC may be effective for dyspnea in patients with advanced disease associated with hypoxemia.