Objective: To clarify the progression of core flexibility and core muscle strength in fresh lumbar spondylolysis before and after the introduction of rehabilitation treatment. Methods: We enrolled 160 patients diagnosed with fresh lumbar spondylolysis based on magnetic resonance imaging findings from September 2019 to December 2022. Posterior Lumbar Flexibility test and Lumbar Locked Rotation test were performed to assess core flexibility. The Kraus-Weber test and Sahrmann Core Stability test were performed to assess core muscle strength. The initial and final evaluations of all tests were compared.Results: All tests showed significant improvement at the final evaluation compared to the initial evaluation.Conclusion: Patients with lumbar spondylolysis often had decreased core flexibility and core muscle strength at the initial evaluation; these parameters improved at the final evaluation owing to rehabilitation treatment.

In aortic surgery involving shaggy aorta, surgical strategy to avoid embolism is crucial for each case. We applied the frozen elephant trunk technique to a patient with shaggy aorta. A 79-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for conservative treatment of acute Type B aortic dissection. Dissecting aneurysms of the aortic arch and descending aorta were shown to have rapidly dilated according to CT three weeks later. Preoperative contrast CT showed an ulcerated shaggy aorta from the aortic arch to the mid portion of the descending aorta. To utilize the benefit of the stent compared with the classical elephant trunk technique, we proposed that the frozen elephant trunk technique would be helpful in prevention of embolism. We therefore planned total arch replacement with the frozen elephant trunk technique and performed thoracic endovascular aortic repair. We employed the frozen elephant trunk technique in the first operation and balloon protection of the superior mesenteric artery and the renal artery in the second operation. The patient had an uneventful postoperative course without thromboembolism. The frozen elephant trunk technique may be helpful for patients with shaggy aorta to avoid thromboembolic events.

　　The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends antimicrobial use density (AUD) as an indicator for evaluating the amount of antimicrobials used, an index that is now widely employed in many facilities. Defined daily doses (DDD) set by WHO are used for calculating AUD. However, discrepancies have been noted between other countries and Japan in the standard dosage of antimicrobials, which may cause a problem evaluating antimicrobial use with the DDD. Therefore, in this study, we calculated AUD (modified antimicrobial use density: mAUD) with the DDD (modified defined daily dose: mDDD) of our hospital for the carbapenem antimicrobial meropenem (MEPM), mAUD, and resistance rate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. From 2010 through fiscal year 2016 (ending in March), AUD was 5.9±1.4, 7.0±2.9, 8.2±2.3, 6.8±2.1, 7.3±2.2, 7.0±2.1, and 8.0±3.0 and mAUD was 11.7±2.7, 12.0±4.9, 11.3±3.1, 11.0± 3.4, 11.4±3.5, 11.5±3.5, and 11.2±4.2, respectively. The corresponding resistance rate of P. aeruginosa was 35.1%, 37.9%, 10.0%, 6.0%, 22.6%, 10.6%, and 10.0%. A significant positive correlation was found between mAUD and the resistance rate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P < 0.01, r = 0.88). Our results confirm that the mAUD is an effective index for controlling resistance of P. aeruginosa.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Seattle Angina Questionnaire, Japanese version (SAQ-J) as a disease-specific health outcome scale in patients with coronary artery disease. METHODS: Patients with coronary artery disease were recruited from a university hospital in Tokyo. The patients completed self-administered questionnaires, and medical information was obtained from the subjects' medical records. Face validity, concurrent validity evaluated using Short Form 36 (SF-36), known group differences, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 354 patients gave informed consent, and 331 of them responded (93.5%). The concurrent validity was mostly supported by the pattern of association between SAQ-J and SF-36. The patients without chest symptoms showed significantly higher SAQ-J scores than did the patients with chest symptoms in 4 domains. Cronbach's alpha ranged from .51 to .96, meaning that internal consistency was confirmed to a certain extent. The intraclass correlation coefficient of most domains was higher than the recommended value of 0.70. The weighted kappa ranged from .24 to .57, and it was greater than .4 for 14 of the 19 items. CONCLUSIONS: The SAQ-J could be a valid and reliable disease-specific scale in some part for measuring health outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease, and requires cautious use.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Vessels ; Humans ; Informed Consent ; Medical Records ; Reproducibility of Results ; Thorax ; Tokyo ; Surveys and Questionnaires