Purpose: To investigate the association between skin advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) levels, blood antioxidative vitamin and carotenoid concentrations, and severe erectile dysfunction (ED) in community-dwelling men. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study used the 5-Item International Index of Erectile Function to identify 335 community-dwelling men with ED. The accumulation of skin AGEs was assessed noninvasively by measuring skin autofluorescence. Background-adjusted multivariable logistic regression analyses using the inverse probability of treatment weighting method were performed to evaluate the effects of AGEs, vitamins, and carotenoids on severe ED. Moreover, multiple linear regression analyses were performed to assess the association between skin AGEs levels and serum carotenoid concentrations. Results: The median age of study participants was 57 years. Of the 335 men, 289 (86.3%) and 46 (13.7%) were classified into the mild/moderate and severe ED groups, respectively. Multivariable analyses revealed that skin AGEs levels, blood vitamins C and E, lutein, zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, α-carotene, β-carotene, total lycopene, and cis-lycopenes concentrations were significantly associated with severe ED, whereas all-trans lycopene concentrations were not. In the multiple linear regression analyses, serum zeaxanthin concentrations were negatively and significantly correlated with skin AGEs levels. Conclusions Higher skin AGEs levels and lower blood antioxidative vitamin and carotenoid concentrations were significantly associated with severe ED. Serum zeaxanthin levels were negatively and significantly correlated with skin AGEs levels, suggesting the possible effects of zeaxanthin on ED by decreasing tissue AGEs levels.

Acute heart failure is associated with high mortality and frequent rehospitalization, resulting in enormous healthcare costs and declining physical function, activities of daily living, and quality of life. Cardiac rehabilitation has been recommended as one of the nonpharmacologic treatments for patients with heart failure. However, much of the evidence for cardiac rehabilitation interventions reported to date has been limited to chronic heart failure. In recent years, the effectiveness of rehabilitation intervention in patients with acute heart failure has been reported, led by the Rehabilitation Therapy in Older Acute Heart Failure Patients (REHAB-HF) trial. This review overviews the recent evidence of rehabilitation in patients with acute heart failure.

A 64-year-old man was found to have a nodule in his right lung. He also complained of nausea and abdominal pain during the clinical course. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy revealed a duodenal ulcer associated with severe stenosis and a suspicion of malignancy. However, three subsequent biopsies revealed no evidence of malignancy. The fourth biopsy showed scattered large eosinophilic cells with an eccentric nucleus, leading to a diagnosis of Russell body duodenitis (RBD). RBD is an extremely rare disease, and little is known about its etiology and clinical course. The pathogenesis of RBD is discussed based on our experience with this case.
Abdominal Pain ; Biopsy ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Diagnosis ; Duodenal Ulcer ; Duodenitis* ; Endoscopy, Digestive System ; Eosinophils ; Humans ; Lung ; Middle Aged ; Nausea ; Rare Diseases

Background: Because generic medicines reduce the financial burden on patients and medical insurance providers, they become more popular year after year.  However, there are still few reports that analyze the efficacy and safety of generic medicines, especially in terms of their characteristics and side effects.
Methods: Paclitaxel is an antineoplastic frequently used with good results in the treatment of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, gastric cancer, and angiosarcoma, but fat solubility is high and various kinds of adverse events, such as myelosuppression and arthralgia, peripheral neuropathy, and alcohol hypersensitivity are known to develop.  We investigated the efficacy, characteristics, and the incidence of adverse events for the generic product of paclitaxel.
Results: Differences were found for the generic version in terms of the characteristics and preparation time.
Conclusion: The incidence of adverse events was not significant, suggesting that the generic version could be a reasonable substitute.

Early surgical resection for cardiac myxoma is necessary because it may frequently cause cerebral infarction. However the optimal surgical timing for the disease is controversial because the acute phase of infarction may induce intracranial hemorrhage. An 82-year-old woman referred to our hospital because of unconsciousness and right hemiparesis. MRI showed infarction in the left middle cerebral artery area and UCG revealed a left atrial mass. The fourth day after the onset, brain CT showed hemorrhagic infarction and MRI showed new infarction. There was no enlargement of the hemorrhagic focus on brain CT and the patient underwent surgery on the fifth day after the onset. The postoperative course was uneventful. Despite the existence of hemorrhagic infarction, open heart surgery may save patients with cerebrovascular event.

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.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To confirm the feasibility of using newly developed endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) with Zone sonography(TM) technology (ZST; Fujifilm Corp.). METHODS: Seventy-five patients with pancreatic disorders were enrolled: 45 with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm; 15 with ductal carcinoma; five with neuroendocrine tumors; three with serous cystic neoplasms; and seven with simple cysts. The endoscopes used were EG-530UR2 and EG-530UT2 (Fujifilm Corp.). Two items were evaluated: visualization depth among four frequencies and image quality after automatic adjustment of sound speed (AASS), assessed using a 5-scale Likert scale by two endosonographers blinded to disease status. Because sound speed could be manually controlled, besides AASS, image quality at sound speeds of 1,440 and 1,600 m/sec were also assessed. RESULTS: In all cases, sufficient images were obtained in the range of 3 cm from the EUS probe. Judgments of image quality before AASS were 3.49+/-0.50, 3.65+/-0.48, respectively. After AASS, A and B scored 4.36+/-0.48 and 4.40+/-0.49 (p<0.0001). There were significant differences in the data before and after AASS and plus 60 m/sec, but no significant difference between the datasets were seen after AASS and at sound speeds manually set for minus 100 m/sec. CONCLUSIONS: EUS with ZST was shown to be feasible in this preliminary experiment. Further evaluation of this novel technology is necessary and awaited.
Endoscopes ; Endosonography ; Humans ; Judgment ; Mucins ; Pancreatic Diseases

The collapse of community medicine has becomes a serious social problem in Japan, and a variety of measures have been implemented to counter it. In medical education, the model core curriculum has been revised, and many universities have started programs for community medical. We have had a community-based medical course at the Kinki University School of Medicine since 2005. This study examined the changes in students' consciousness about and affinity for community medicine during our program.
1)Questionnaires were completed by 494 students taking part in community-based medical training from April 2006 through July 2010. Results from before and after training were compared.
2)The questionnaire had 3 parts. The first part concerned medical activities with community residents. The second part concerned medical activities with housebound elderly persons. The third part concerned the students' future plans.
3)Many students gave themselves high scores for activities with community residents and housebound elderly persons. More students preferred hospitals in regional towns. A few students chose rural areas.
4)In an introduction to community medicine, it is important to first foster cordial relations with community residents. Cultivating problem-solving skills is the next challenge.
5)Community-based medical programs enhance medical students' understanding of and affinity for community medicine. Furthermore, some students will choose community-based medicine as a specialty.

Objective: In our country, the measure for the spread of the generic has been introduced over several-time as part of the moderation in health care cost plan.  However, not having related to an enough spread unlike Europe and America yet is a current state.  Then, we investigated from the view point of patients.  A detailed examination was performed for the acknowledgment level and attitude toward the generic drug.
Design and Method: The questionnaire survey was performed for the patient who used the community pharmacy for dispensing prescription.  The investigation was performed for two weeks (June and July, 2008) at the 50 drugstores in Hokkaido.  The patient attribute, source of information, and kind of the taking medicine were examined as a factor to affect decision making for generic drug substitution.
Result: The main results are as follows.  The patients who did not know generic drugs accounted 52% of the total and the patients who did not know the words called generic drugs was 16%.  This result shows that the degree of the recognition about generic drugs at that time was still low.  The information source for the patients who learned generic drugs were articles of the newspaper, a TV program, and advertising with accounted 52% of the total.  Also, the patients who prefer generic drugs in the future were 64%.  In the relationships between presence of wish for generic drugs and the source of information, the case of from the doctor, was significant (p<0.05) and the case from the pharmacist showed the tendencies of statistical significance (p=0.076).
Conclusion: From the viewpoint of medicine costs restraint in our country, it seems that the pharmacist contributes for the patient’s generic drugs selection expected positively.

Objective: In the Drug Informatics in Department of Pharmacy, Kitasato Institute Hospital (hereinafter “the hospital”), we have had question-and-answer sessions regarding doping agents (banned drugs) among doctors and other workers and prepared an Anti-doping Quick Reference List (hereinafter “the list”), facing an urgent need to provide precise information quickly.
Methods: The list consists of drugs adopted by the hospital and over-the-counter drugs according to package inserts, interview forms, and other sources of information.
Results: In the list, hospital and over-the-counter drugs are classified into three categories in terms of a doping test: (1) “Non-banned” (drugs that can be used), (2) “Banned” (drugs that cannot be used), and (3) “Suspected” (unclear drugs) with their half lives for elimination as an indicator of the disappearance time from the body and divided by medicinal effect.  In addition, we indicated any drug for which the Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) application (hereinafter, TUE application) is required before use.
Conclusion: The list prepared in this investigation offers many benefits, including precise and quickly available information on banned and non-banned drugs, ease in suggesting alternatives, and avoidance of failure in TUE application.