Background: The National Cancer Center Institute for Cancer Control has trained regional palliative care coordinators to disseminate personnel promoting collaboration between cancer hospitals and regional institutions. We examined the effectiveness of the training. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted in February 2022 among facilities participating in the training sessions from 2016 to 2021. Results: One-hundred sixteen facilities responded. The results were classified as ‘positive change (78%)’ and ‘negative change (0%)’. Regarding ‘factors inhibiting the smooth transition of terminal cancer patients from hospital to home,’ ‘patients’ social background (e.g., living alone, old age, etc.) interferes with the transition to home care (88%)’ and ‘patients’ anxiety about home care (83%)’ were the most common factors. Conclusion: Nearly 80% of participants reported positive changes, indicating that the training has had a certain effect. With regard to inhibiting factors, we plan to consider how training should be conducted so that it can address the individual issues in each region.

We report two cases effectively treated with Kampo medicines for comorbid sleep disorder in developmental disorder. Case 1 was a 15-year-old woman diagnosed Asperger's syndrome, and her main complaints were difficulty in rising, difficulty in falling asleep and fatigability. We thought that the symptoms might be caused by in and ketsu deficiency, which lost control of kanki hyperactivity and evoked tension/excitement state easily. The difficulty in rising was improved with yokukansan and kambakutaisoto and she was able to go to school every day. Case 2 was a 17-year-old man diagnosed the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. His symptoms were difficulty in rising, feeling of weariness, fatigability, and frequent tension/excitement state. The previous use of shokenchuto had improved the symptoms slightly. After shigyakusan was added to cure kanki dysregulation, he succeeded in going to school every day. In the oriental medicine, ketsu has important roles in mental stability and sleep, whereas qi and ketsu tend to be insufficient in childhood. Our results suggest that replacement of in and ketsu would be useful in treating comorbidities in developmental disorder.

BACKGROUND: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is reported to be a useful technique, but difficult or inconvenient for some patients and institutions. We are developing a glucose area under the curve (AUC) monitoring system without blood sampling using a minimally invasive interstitial fluid extraction technology (MIET). Here we evaluated the accuracy of interstitial fluid glucose (IG) AUC measured by MIET in patients with diabetes for an extended time interval and the potency of detecting hyperglycemia using CGM data as a reference. METHODS: Thirty-eight inpatients with diabetes undergoing CGM were enrolled. MIET comprised a pretreatment step using a plastic microneedle array and glucose accumulation step with a hydrogel patch, which was placed on two sites from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM or from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM. IG AUC was calculated by accumulated glucose extracted by hydrogel patches using sodium ion as standard. RESULTS: A significant correlation was observed between the predicted AUC by MIET and CGM in daytime (r=0.76) and nighttime (r=0.82). The optimal cutoff for the IG AUC value of MIET to predict hyperglycemia over 200 mg/dL measured by CGM for 8 hours was 1,067.3 mg·hr/dL with 88.2% sensitivity and 81.5% specificity. CONCLUSION: We showed that 8-hour IG AUC levels using MIET were valuable in estimating the blood glucose AUC without blood sampling. The results also supported the concept of using this technique for evaluating glucose excursion and for screening hyperglycemia during 8 hours in patients with diabetes at any time of day.
Area Under Curve ; Blood Glucose ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Extracellular Fluid* ; Glucose* ; Humans ; Hydrogel ; Hyperglycemia ; Inpatients ; Mass Screening ; Plastics ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sodium

PURPOSE: Guided bone regeneration (GBR) is the most widely used technique to regenerate and augment bones. Even though augmented bones (ABs) have been examined histologically in many studies, few studies have been conducted to examine the biological potential of these bones and the healing dynamics following their use. Moreover, whether the bone obtained from the GBR procedure possesses the same functions as the existing autogenous bone is uncertain. In particular, little attention has been paid to the regenerative ability of GBR bone. Therefore, the present study histologically evaluated the regenerative capacity of AB in the occlusive space of a rat guided bone augmentation (GBA) model. METHODS: The calvaria of 30 rats were exposed, and plastic caps were placed on the right of the calvaria in 10 of the 30 rats. After a 12-week healing phase, critical-sized calvarial bone defects (diameter: 5.0 mm) were trephined into the dorsal parietal bone on the left of the calvaria. Bone particles were harvested from the AB or the cortical bone (CB) using a bone scraper and transplanted into the critical defects. RESULTS: The newly generated bone at the defects' edge was evaluated using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and histological sections. In the micro-CT analysis, the radiopacity in both the augmented and the CB groups remained high throughout the observational period. In the histological analysis, the closure rate of the CB was significantly higher than in the AB group. The numbers of cells positive for runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2) and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) in the AB group were larger than in the CB group. CONCLUSIONS: The regenerative capacity of AB in the occlusive space of the rat GBA model was confirmed. Within the limitations of this study, the regenerative ability of the AB particulate transplant was inferior to that of the CB particulate transplant.
Acid Phosphatase ; Alveolar Ridge Augmentation ; Animals ; Bone Regeneration ; Bone Transplantation ; Parietal Bone ; Plastics ; Rats* ; Skull ; Transcription Factors ; X-Ray Microtomography

Purpose：We evaluated that the current state from which a palliative care unit receives emergency admission of cancer patients at home. Methods：We retrospectively investigated the medical records of 393 cancer patients who hospitalized in our unit between January 2013 and December 2014. The patients were shared with a group of two, schedule admission (schedule group) and emergency admission (emergency group), and it was compared with a result on discharge and with a hospitalization period. We investigated admission process, the date and time of admission, and reason for admission in emergency group. Results：The number of patients was 224 of schedule group and 169 of emergency group. The mortality rates were 81% in schedule group and 78% in emergency group (not significant). An emergency group for an average of 24.3 days was shorter for 9 days than schedule groups in a hospitalization period of dead leaving patients (p<0.05). In emergency group, admission process included 128 completed-interviews with the hospitalization, 11 incompleted-interviews before admission and 30 first visits, and 129 patients (76％) admitted within the weekday daytime. Many patients had a complaint of severe pain, appetite loss and oral absorption difficulty, and so much. Conclusions：An emergency group admitted the various processes and the much symptom. There were a lot of cases of early hospital death, but also admitted return at home, and our unit played the role of emergency admission.

Purpose: To investigate the indications for use of the Japanese version of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), we evaluated the conditions of patients using and those not using the LCP. Methods: We retrospectively investigated the medical records of 71 LCP patients and 60 non－LCP patients who died in our palliative care unit between March and December 2013. Results: There was no significant difference in patients’ background between the LCP and non－LCP groups. For patients in the non－LCP group, sudden changes in condition were significantly more frequent and deep continuous sedation was used significantly less than in the LCP group. In the LCP group, the average duration on the LCP was 4.0 days, and the beginning criterion was met by three－point or more of all the patients. The initial assessment was achieved except for one case. In the non－LCP group, reasons for not using the LCP were a sudden change in condition (35 patients), a rapid change in medical condition (14), and a risk of falling (4). Conclusions: The LCP met the beginning criterion and was started at suitable time in the LCP group. The LCP is not useful for all patients; it cannot be used for a patient with sudden or rapid changes in condition, or at a risk of falling.

A 70-year-old man with dextrocardia with situs inversus, presented to our hospital complaining of chest pain. ECG showed ST elevations in leads II, III and _aV_f , and ST depressions in leads V3 through V6. Blood tests showed creatinine kinase elevation. He underwent coronary angiography, which revealed obstruction of the anatomical right coronary artery and we diagnosed acute inferior myocardial infarction. However, the anatomical left coronary artery was not clearly identifiable because of its anomalous origin. He was transferred to our intensive care unit and intra-aortic balloon pumping was initiated. Coronary 3D-CT was then performed to obtain an anatomical overview of the coronary artery system. This enabled a second coronary angiography which showed obstruction of the left anterior descending artery and stenosis of the left main trunk in the first diagonal branch and the ramus intermedius branch. Coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG) was indicated. He underwent conventional quintuple CABG using the right internal thoracic artery and saphenous vein grafts. Preoperatively we made digital mirror images of the original coronary angiographic images to clarify his coronary artery anatomy. During surgery, the main surgeon continuously stood on the patient's left side except when opening and closing the chest, which enabled us to perform CABG. The postoperative course was uneventful. CABG in a patient with situs inversus totalis is very rare. We present this case with a review of the relevant literature.

A 61-year-old man was referred to our hospital for treatment of hemolytic anemia after ascending aortic replacement aortic dissection. Cine mode magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed stenosis at the proximal anastomostic site of a Teflon strip. We diagnosed hemolytic anemia induced by collision of red blood cells on the inverted felt strip. Conservative therapy with Sarpogrelate and β-blockers was effective to treat his hemolytic anemia. However, 7 years later he was re-admitted because of infective endocarditis at the aortic valve, and underwent aortic root replacement. Intraoperative findings showed a stiff and inverted Teflon felt strip causing stenosis of the proximal anastomosis. Hemolytic anemia should be considered a rare complication of using a Teflon felt strip to reinforce anastomosis for acute aortic dissection.

We report a case of ulcerative colitis (UC) after mitral valve replacement (MVR) surgery due to infective endocarditis (IE). A 59-year-old woman underwent MVR for mitral regurgitation due to IE. Six days after the surgery, melena was observed suddenly, and she received a blood transfusion. Ulcer and erosion were observed in the rectum 5 to 10 cm from the anal ring by endoscopy. We changed her antibiotic treatment and stopped warfarin potassium. Heparin sodium was started 2 days after melena. We diagnosed ulcerative colitis from the finding of the rectal lesion and biopsy. We gave mesalazine and betamethasone as treatment for UC. The patient's condition improved and her general condition stabilized. She was discharged 36 days after surgery.