1.Clinical Question-Centered Remote Learning for Residents
Atsushi JINNO ; Kento HANADA ; Ken NAGAHATA ; Kazuhito NOMURA ; Hiroshi MIHARA ; Masanori SHIRATORI ; Hiroshi IDA ; Tatsuo MANABE ; Kenta SATO ; Naoki ASAKAGE ; Hideki OKASHIWA ; Yoshihisa TSUJI
Medical Education 2026;57(1):19-26
Cognitive apprenticeship and reflective practice are fundamental educational theories supporting postgraduate clinical training. Community hospital rotations provide ideal opportunities to apply these theories. However, community hospitals face challenges in securing educational time due to faculty shortages and heavy clinical workloads, leading to on-the-job training becoming the primary educational approach. Consequently, opportunities for structured instruction and reflection may be limited, potentially hindering the implementation of cognitive apprenticeship and reflective practice. To address this mismatch between educational needs and available resources, we implemented a remote educational conference focused on clinical questions (CQs) arising from residents' clinical experiences. Unlike traditional clinical conferences that focus on determining patient management, this initiative centers on reflective dialogue based on CQs formulated by residents themselves. By integrating experiential learning theory and reflective practice theory and focusing specifically on the latter three steps of cognitive apprenticeship, we successfully constructed an effective educational model for remote learning environments. This practice enables high-quality medical education that transcends geographical constraints and is considered valuable for future community-based medical education.
2.Clinical Characteristics, Risk Factors, Diagnostic Methods and Therapeutic Response of Cutaneous Sporotrichosis Infection In An Endemic Region
Shen Wei Lee ; Dy-win Low ; Ken Chen Loh ; Adawiyah Jamil
Malaysian Journal of Health Sciences 2026;24(No. 1):44-51
Cutaneous sporotrichosis is a fungal infection caused by traumatic inoculation of Sporothrix. We aimed to study
the clinical characteristics of human sporotrichosis, risk factors for infection, the yield of diagnostic methods and
therapeutic response to standard clinical therapy. A cohort study of was performed. A total of 29 patients with
clinical features suggestive of sporotrichosis were recruited within a one-year period from all public hospitals in
Kedah, Malaysia. Majority were females (86%) who were housewives (69%). The most common comorbidities
were diabetes mellitus (38%), hypertension (31%) and dyslipidaemia (21%), none was a significant risk factor for
severity of infection. Mean duration of disease was 2±2 months. More than 2/3 of the patients (79%) had pet cats,
14(48%) recalled minor cat-inflicted trauma. Lymphocutaneous sporotrichosis (62%) was more common than
fixed cutaneous type, affecting the upper limbs in 94%. Ulcerations and nodules were the main lesion morphology.
Histopathology showed granulomatous inflammation in 72%, culture grew Sprorothrix in 55% and polymerase
chain reaction (PCR) detected Sporothrix schenkii sensu stricto in 65%. Itraconazole was effective with 93% of
patients achieving complete resolution with 4 months of therapy. Sporotrichosis in Malaysia remains endemic.
Feline contact is the most important risk factor for infection. Diagnosis is best confirmed with tissue PCR while
culture and histopathology are also useful. Sporothrix schenkii sensu stricto was the only species identified and
itraconazole is an effective first line therapeutic agent.
3.Initial Experiences of Total Body Irradiation Using Radixact
Keita SAKAI ; Tatsuya HASEGAWA ; Ken SHISHIDO ; Yuta OMI ; Yoshiyuki ITO ; Arisa TAKEUCHI
Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine 2025;73(5):434-440
A new radiation system known as the TomoTherapy Radixact X9 was introduced at our hospital in June 2021. From August 2021 to March 2022, 6 patients underwent total body irradiation (TBI) with tomotherapy with the Radixact X9. This paper describes the sequence of events from treatment planning computed tomography to irradiation. Results are also reported for measurements made with Gafchromic EBT3 film, the Delta4 Phantom+, and an A1SL ionization chamber dosimeter, set-up error, and time required to enter and exit the room, which were measured during plan verification. The measurement results were as follows: Gafchromic EBT3 film, 91.78±0.96% ; Delta4 Phantom+ head, 100±0% ; chest, 98.93±1.17% ; foot, 98.90±2.28% ; ionization chamber dosimeter A1SL, -0.39±0.70%; Residual error: -0.01±1.91 mm for lateral, 0.29±1.60 mm for longitudinal, 0.36±2.07 mm for vertical, -0.06±0.78° for roll. In addition, the time required to enter and exit the room was 98.50±17.17 min. TBI could be performed within set-up error of 5 mm in all cases. The validation results from the initial 6 cases confirmed that TBI with tomotherapy provided good dose distribution and positional accuracy.
4.A Case of Crohn's Disease With Varicella-Zoster Virus Infection and Acute Liver Failure During Remission Maintenance With Infliximab and Azathioprine
Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine 2025;73(5):453-460
A 34-year-old man had been diagnosed with ileocolonic-type Crohn's disease at the age of 27 years. He had undergone a wait-and-see partial ileal resection and an ileocecal resection for an intestinal fistula, and clinical remission was maintained with the maximal dose of infliximab and azathioprine. The patient developed a sore throat, fever, and rash that spread from the face to the rest of the body, and he was admitted to the hospital with liver dysfunction. Varicellazoster virus infection was found, and acute liver failure developed due to a rapid decrease in hepatic reserve. Visceral disseminated varicella-zoster virus infection was strongly suspected. After antiviral therapy and steroid pulse therapy, the liver failure became mild and the patient was discharged from the hospital. It should be noted that fatal infections can occur in patients with inflammatory bowel disease on immunosuppressive drugs.
7.Long-Term Response Durability of Infliximab for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Japan: A Single Center Experience
Naoya TSUMURA ; Ken KATO ; Ryosuke YASUDA ; Shinichiro YOSHIOKA ; Hidetoshi TAKEDATSU ; Tatsuki MIZUOCHI
Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition 2025;28(3):166-175
Purpose:
The long-term efficacy and safety of infliximab (IFX) in Japanese children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the longterm outcomes of IFX treatment in Japanese children with IBD.
Methods:
We retrospectively recruited patients aged <16 years who were diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn’s disease (CD) at Kurume University Hospital in Japan between 2011 and 2022 and examined the effectiveness and safety of IFX. We characterized the responses to IFX as primary response, primary nonresponse (PNR), secondary loss of response (sLOR), or still receiving IFX.
Results:
Among the 77 enrolled patients with UC (median age, 10 years) and 48 with CD (median age, 12 years), 55 (27 with UC and 28 with CD) received IFX treatment. IFX treatment was significantly more common in patients with CD (58.3%) than in those with UC (35.1%;p=0.016). The PNR was significantly greater in patients with UC (18.5%) than in those with CD (0.0%; p=0.023), as was the sLOR (UC, 51.9%; CD, 21.4%; p=0.026). The likelihood of continuing IFX treatment during follow-up (median, 38 months) was significantly higher in patients with CD (71.4%) than in those with UC (29.6%; p=0.003). Adverse events resulting in the discontinuation of IFX occurred in 3.6% of the patients; one patient with CD developed leukemia, and the other had a serious infusion reaction.
Conclusion
The long-term durability of IFX in Japanese pediatric patients with IBD was inadequate in UC compared with CD. Serious adverse events in 3.6% of patients required discontinuation.
8.Research progress in mechanisms of kidney-tonifying traditional Chinese medicine in promoting healing of osteoporotic fractures.
Jun WU ; Ou-Ye LI ; Ken QIN ; Xuan WAN ; Wang-Bing XU ; Yong LI ; Jia-Wei ZHONG ; Yong-Xiang YE ; Rui XU
China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica 2025;50(15):4166-4177
Osteoporotic fractures(OPF) refer to the fractures caused by minor violence in the state of osteoporosis, seriously threatening the life and health of elderly patients. Drug and surgical therapies have limitations such as single targets, diverse adverse reactions, and poor prognosis. Kidney-tonifying traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) has good potential in the treatment of OPF. TCM can promote the healing of OPF by promoting angiogenesis in the early stage of bone healing, promoting osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in the stage of bone repair, maintaining the balance of osteogenic and osteoclastic system in the stage of bone remodeling, and regulating the oxidative stress responses throughout the process of OPF healing. TCM can alleviate the pathological state of osteoporosis and promote fracture healing in OPF patients via multiple pathways and targets, demonstrating the advantages and potential of biphasic regulation.
Humans
;
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use*
;
Osteoporotic Fractures/metabolism*
;
Animals
;
Fracture Healing/drug effects*
;
Medicine, Chinese Traditional
;
Kidney/metabolism*
;
Osteogenesis/drug effects*
9.Small bowel video keyframe retrieval based on multi-modal contrastive learning.
Xing WU ; Guoyin YANG ; Jingwen LI ; Jian ZHANG ; Qun SUN ; Xianhua HAN ; Quan QIAN ; Yanwei CHEN
Journal of Biomedical Engineering 2025;42(2):334-342
Retrieving keyframes most relevant to text from small intestine videos with given labels can efficiently and accurately locate pathological regions. However, training directly on raw video data is extremely slow, while learning visual representations from image-text datasets leads to computational inconsistency. To tackle this challenge, a small bowel video keyframe retrieval based on multi-modal contrastive learning (KRCL) is proposed. This framework fully utilizes textual information from video category labels to learn video features closely related to text, while modeling temporal information within a pretrained image-text model. It transfers knowledge learned from image-text multimodal models to the video domain, enabling interaction among medical videos, images, and text data. Experimental results on the hyper-spectral and Kvasir dataset for gastrointestinal disease detection (Hyper-Kvasir) and the Microsoft Research video-to-text (MSR-VTT) retrieval dataset demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of KRCL, with the proposed method achieving state-of-the-art performance across nearly all evaluation metrics.
Humans
;
Video Recording
;
Intestine, Small/diagnostic imaging*
;
Machine Learning
;
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods*
;
Algorithms
10.Long-Term Response Durability of Infliximab for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Japan: A Single Center Experience
Naoya TSUMURA ; Ken KATO ; Ryosuke YASUDA ; Shinichiro YOSHIOKA ; Hidetoshi TAKEDATSU ; Tatsuki MIZUOCHI
Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition 2025;28(3):166-175
Purpose:
The long-term efficacy and safety of infliximab (IFX) in Japanese children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the longterm outcomes of IFX treatment in Japanese children with IBD.
Methods:
We retrospectively recruited patients aged <16 years who were diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn’s disease (CD) at Kurume University Hospital in Japan between 2011 and 2022 and examined the effectiveness and safety of IFX. We characterized the responses to IFX as primary response, primary nonresponse (PNR), secondary loss of response (sLOR), or still receiving IFX.
Results:
Among the 77 enrolled patients with UC (median age, 10 years) and 48 with CD (median age, 12 years), 55 (27 with UC and 28 with CD) received IFX treatment. IFX treatment was significantly more common in patients with CD (58.3%) than in those with UC (35.1%;p=0.016). The PNR was significantly greater in patients with UC (18.5%) than in those with CD (0.0%; p=0.023), as was the sLOR (UC, 51.9%; CD, 21.4%; p=0.026). The likelihood of continuing IFX treatment during follow-up (median, 38 months) was significantly higher in patients with CD (71.4%) than in those with UC (29.6%; p=0.003). Adverse events resulting in the discontinuation of IFX occurred in 3.6% of the patients; one patient with CD developed leukemia, and the other had a serious infusion reaction.
Conclusion
The long-term durability of IFX in Japanese pediatric patients with IBD was inadequate in UC compared with CD. Serious adverse events in 3.6% of patients required discontinuation.


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