Purpose: We identified the risk factors for remnant gastric cancer (RGC) based on remnant gastric mucosal characteristics and gastritis morphology in patients undergoing distal gastrectomy. Materials and Methods: This multicenter retrospective study included 100 patients with RGC after distal gastrectomy and 550 patients without RGC treated between 2013 and 2020.Endoscopic findings, including anastomotic redness, red streaks, enlarged folds, bile reflux as anastomotic findings, as well as disappearance of the regular arrangement of collecting venules (RAC), atrophic gastritis, and intestinal metaplasia as background gastric mucosal findings, were evaluated. Disease risk score matching (1:1) was adjusted for baseline characteristics. Logistic regression analysis was used to develop a risk score model to stratify RGC risk into low, moderate, and high categories. Results: After matching, 96 patients with RGC and 96 controls were analyzed. Anastomotic redness and red streaks, as well as the disappearance of RAC and atrophic gastritis, were significantly more frequent in the RGC group than in the control group, whereas enlarged folds and bile reflux showed no significant differences. Risk scores were assigned as follows:anastomotic redness, 2; red streaks, 3; disappearance of RAC, 7; and atrophic gastritis, 3. The total score stratified patients into high (≥15), moderate (7–14), and low risk (≤6). The positive and negative predictive values were 67.7% and 83.3%, respectively. Conclusions The endoscopic findings of anastomotic redness, red streaks, RAC disappearance, and atrophic gastritis were significantly associated with RGC development.The proposed risk-scoring model could serve as a stratification tool for RGC surveillance.

Background: The potassium voltage-gated channel subfamily Q member 1 (KCNQ1) gene has recently received much attention as a candidate susceptibility gene for type 2 diabetes mellitus, especially in Asian populations. We previously reported that Kcnq1 mutant mice exhibit reduced insulin secretion and hyperglycemia due to a decrease in pancreatic β-cell mass. Through in vivo and in vitro analyses, we ascertained that this mechanism is the result of the downregulation of the non-coding RNA ‘Kcnq1ot1,’ which is expressed in the paternal allele of the Kcnq1 gene region, causing an increase in the expression of the cell cycle inhibitor cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 1C (Cdkn1c). It was found that decreased Kcnq1ot1 expression resulted in pancreatic β-cell failure; however, the degree of pancreatic β-cell volume reduction was not severe. Methods: We induced obesity in Kcnq1ot1 truncation mice by feeding them a high-fat diet and evaluated pancreatic β-cell mass. Results: In the present study, we reveal that CCAAT/enhancer binding protein beta (C/EBPβ), which is expressed at higher levels in pancreatic β-cells in obese individuals, further increases the expression of Cdkn1c, which is upregulated by the Kcnq1 gene mutation. We found that simultaneous Cdkn1c hypomethylation and C/EBPβ overexpression in pancreatic β-cells causes a synergistic decrease in pancreatic β-cell mass. Conclusion This finding suggests that the synergistic effect of genetic factors such as Kcnq1 gene mutations and environmental factors such as obesity and overeating, which lead to increased expression of C/EBPβ, contribute to the regulation of pancreatic β-cell mass. This study is the first to show that the Kcnq1 gene is related to pancreatic β-cell mass through genetic-environment interactions.

Background: Patients with malignant brain tumors are often accompanied by progressive loss of consciousness, aphasia, and paralysis, and often miss the time to make decisions on their own. Methods: In an acute neurosurgical unit, a multidisciplinary conference was held to support decision-making, and a brain tumor-specific advance care planning (ACP) leaflet was created and operated. The attainment rate of the five steps of ACP and the number of times the ACP process was repeated during hospitalization were evaluated for 79 inpatients before and after the introduction of the leaflet. Results: Forty-eight patients received decision-making support with the leaflet, while 31 did not. The rate of achievement of the discussion (38.7% vs 89.6%, p<0.001) and writing down (6.5% vs 33.3%, p=0.006) in ACP significantly increased after the introduction of the leaflet. Conclusion: The newly developed brain tumor-specific ACP leaflet was useful in promoting ACP for patients with brain tumors and providing decision support. In addition, a multidisciplinary ACP support framework for brain tumor patients has been established through ACP conferences.

This case report describes our first experience performing percutaneous epicardial catheter ablation for Burugada syndrome in our hospital. We describe the good results achieved in this case. The patient was a man in his 30s with no remarkable medical history. However, his family history was notable for the sudden death of his grandfather at age 37 years and his father at age 27 years. While asleep, the patient experienced convulsions and lost consciousness. During emergency transportation, defibrillation was performed 7 times by the ambulance crew. When the patient arrived at our hospital, sinus rhythm was observed on ECG. During resuscitation, Burugada syndrome was diagnosed based on ECG findings. On hospital day 6, an internal cardioverter defibrillator was implanted. After discharge, the defibrillator operated 10 times, so we opted for ablation treatment. Fractionated potential of over 150 ms was confirmed in the right ventricular outflow tract. A low voltage zone of <1 mV could be mapped, and the same site was cauterized a total of 46 times. As a result, ST segment amplitude decreased significantly in lead V1 on ECG. Percutaneous epicardial catheter ablation performed with reference to Nademanee’s report achieved good results in this case of Burugada syndrome.

Background/Aims: There are few published registry studies from Asia on pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Registry network data enable comparisons among ethnic groups. This study examined the characteristics of IBD in Japanese children and compared them with those in European children. Methods: This was a cross-sectional multicenter registry study of newly diagnosed Japanese pediatric IBD patients. The Paris classification was used to categorize IBD features, and results were compared with published EUROKIDS data. Results: A total of 265 pediatric IBD patients were initially registered, with 22 later excluded for having incomplete demographic data. For the analysis, 91 Crohn’s disease (CD), 146 ulcerative colitis (UC), and 6 IBD-unclassified cases were eligible. For age at diagnosis, 20.9% of CD, 21.9% of UC, and 83.3% of IBD-unclassified cases were diagnosed before age 10 years. For CD location, 18.7%, 13.2%, 64.8%, 47.3%, and 20.9% were classified as involving L1 (ileocecum), L2 (colon), L3 (ileocolon), L4a (esophagus/stomach/duodenum), and L4b (jejunum/proximal ileum), respectively. For UC extent, 76% were classified as E4 (pancolitis). For CD behavior, B1 (non-stricturingon-penetrating), B2 (stricturing), B3 (penetrating), and B2B3 were seen in 83.5%, 11.0%, 3.3%, and 2.2%, respectively. A comparison between Japanese and European children showed less L2 involvement (13.2% vs. 27.3%, P< 0.01) but more L4a (47.3% vs. 29.6%, P< 0.01) and L3 (64.8% vs. 52.7%, P< 0.05) involvement in Japanese CD children. Pediatric perianal CD was more prevalent in Japanese children (34.1% vs. 9.7%, P< 0.01). Conclusions Upper gastrointestinal and perianal CD lesions are more common in Japanese children than in European children.

　　Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy for acute carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is performed after oxygen therapy and breathing therapy. The usefulness of HBO therapy in emergency treatment has been reported. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of HBO for CO poisoning that was performed at our hospital over the past 5 years. Subjects were 23 patients who had HBO therapy for CO poisoning in the period January 2008-November 2013. The male to female ratio of the cases was 14:9 and the mean age was 54.6±20.8 years. The cause was suicide in 39.1% of cases and accident in 60.9%. The mean number of treatments was 5.4±6.8. The atmosphere absolute was 2ATA:2.8ATA=12:11. The ratio of direct conveyance of the patient to our hospital to indirect conveyance of the patient from another hospital was 15:8. The effectiveness of HBO therapy at the time of discharge was 73.9%. However, delayed neuropsychiatric sequelae (DNS) was detected in 3 of the 23 cases of CO poisoning. No correlations were found between elapsed time after CO inhalation and various blood parameters. However, time to start of therapy is important for DNS, and our results suggest that early treatment at a hospital with a hyperbaric chamber is necessary.

Objectives: To optimize the treatment of patients on tube feeding, it is important to ascertain whether medicines are appropriate for administration by gastrostomy and nasogastric tubes.  In this study, we evaluated the drug information services provided to medical staff by clinical pharmacists related to 109 patients administered medication via a feeding tube in a neurological ward.
Design and Methods: We analyzed the records of drug information services provided to medical staff from January 2006 to December 2007 at the Higashi Nagoya Hospital.  We classified drug information services for avoiding obstruction of the feeding tube and chemical changes into four categories: ‘formulation changes’, ‘medication changes’, ‘incompatibilities’ and ‘administration method’, and evaluated the acceptance rate of the pharmacists’ recommendations for drug therapy via feeding tube.
Results: Drug information related to formulation and medication changes accounted for 130 and 88 cases, respectively.  Information related to incompatibilities accounted for 19 cases, involving anticipated chemical changes related to concurrent administration of drugs.  Information related to administration methods accounted for 24 cases.  The acceptance rate for information by medical staff was 92.0%.
Conclusions: Drug information to medical staff by pharmacists contributes to improved safety for patients administered medication via feeding tubes.  The acceptance rate for drug information was high, and the provision of drug information by pharmacists in the neurological ward was considered useful.

Purpose: To create flow charts of eating and swallowing that make it easy to identify the cases requiring professional treatment including dysphagia rehabilitation during oral intake.Subjects: 28 patients (mean age: 78.7±11.3 years) with dysphagia who underwent videofluorography (hereinafter “VF”).Methods: We conducted various tests such as Repetitive Salvia Swallowing Test (RSST), Modified Water Swallowing Test (MWST) and Food Test (FT), and studied relationships between VF findings and Fujishima's grade of eating and swallowing capability.Results: After the examination of th results of RSST (sensitivity: 0.83, specificity: 0.22), MWST (sensitivity: 0.56, specificity: 0.72), FT (sensitivity: 0.33, specificity: 0.75), VF and grade of eating and swallowing capability of Fujishima, the use of MWST and FT was appropriate. However, four cases in which the results of MWST and FT were over the cut-off value had misswallowed water and food. We created the flowcharts considering that all of those 4 cases are also the cases that suffered from the consequences of cerebral strokes.

Objective: To investigate the role of postgraduate clinical training at the emergency department of Tenri Hospital in teaching the diagnostic process in the general outpatient department.
Method: Patients seen by 11 first-year residents at the emergency department were consecutively registered with summary sheets. Further information was added, and an analysis was performed of: 1) the distribution of chief complaints in the emergency and general outpatient departments and 2) initial diagnoses and the diagnostic process in the emergency department and the final diagnoses.
Results: The distributions of chief complaints in 89 cases in the emergency department and in 183 cases in the general outpatient department were closely correlated (p=0.0016). Diagnoses in the emergency department were correct in 58% of cases. Treatment was incorrect in 3% of cases.
Conclusion: The distributions of chief complaints in the emergency and general outpatient departments were similar. In our hospital the emergency department plays a major role in postgraduate clinical training by teaching the diagnostic process for the general outpatient department. Clinical management, including decision making for further tests and consultation, in the emergency department by first year residents did lead to any major adverse events.