A76-year-old man was transferred to our hospital for evaluation of continuous abdominal pain with systemic inflammation. Clinical examinations suggested the pressure of an adynamic ileus due to diverculitis and an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm. Thirty-eight millimeter in diameter despite the commencement of antibiotic therapy, the symptoms progressively worsened and repeated CT scan demonstrated a rupture of the aneurysm without any enlargement in diameter. An emergency operation was done, and the patient was discharged on the 77th postoperative day. Blood culture and histological findings disclosed an infected aortic aneurysm due to Listeria monocytogenes. The possibility of aortic infection should be considered in patients showing a sudden rupture of an aortic aneurysm.

OBJECTIVE: Accumulated evidence collected via functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been reported with regard to mental disorders. A previous finding revealed that emotional words evoke left frontal cortex activity in patients with depression. The primary aim of the current study was to replicate this finding using an independent dataset and evaluate the brain region associated with the severity of depression using an emotional Stroop task. METHODS: Oxygenized and deoxygenized hemoglobin recording in the brain by fNIRS on 14 MDD patients and 20 normal controls. RESULTS: Hyperactivated oxygenized hemoglobin was observed in the left frontal cortex on exposure to unfavorable stimuli, but no significant difference was found among patients with depression compared with healthy controls on exposure to favorable stimuli. This result is consistent with previous findings. Moreover, an evoked wave associated with the left upper frontal cortex on favorable stimuli was inversely correlated with the severity of depression. CONCLUSION: Our current work using fNIRS provides a potential clue regarding the location of depression symptom severity in the left upper frontal cortex. Future studies should verify our findings and expand them into a precise etiology of depression.
Brain ; Dataset ; Depression ; Frontal Lobe ; Humans ; Mental Disorders ; Oxygen ; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared