Objectives: Postmenopausal women with osteoporosis are frequently underdiagnosed. In Japan, general dental practitioners have begun using the cortical shape of the mandible on dental panoramic radiographs (PRs) to identify and refer women at risk of osteoporosis to medical professionals. It remains unclear whether dental students, after relevant education, possess the ability to identify these at-risk individuals. This study evaluated the ability of dental students to screen for osteoporosis on PRs. Methods: A cohort of 113 fifth-year dental students participated in a lecture on osteoporosis screening using PRs.The students then categorized the mandibular inferior cortex on PRs from 30 postmenopausal women (11 with osteoporosis) as normal, mildly to moderately eroded, or severely eroded. Interobserver agreement between the students and an expert oral radiologist using two cortical groups (normal to moderately eroded and severely eroded) was assessed through kappa statistics. Screening ability for osteoporosis detection by identifying severely eroded cortices was calculated and compared with that of the Osteoporosis Self-assessment Tool for Asians (OSTA). Results: Twenty-one (18.6%) students demonstrated moderate to substantial agreement with the expert. The mean sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for these students in identifying osteoporosis were 60.2%, 88.0%, 76.3%, and 80.0%, respectively. For the OSTA, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 27.3%, 68.4%, 33.3%, and 61.9%, respectively. Conclusions Even with minimal education, approximately one-fourth of dental students may accurately identify postmenopausal women with osteoporosis on PRs, outperforming questionnaire-based screening tools.

Objectives: Postmenopausal women with osteoporosis are frequently underdiagnosed. In Japan, general dental practitioners have begun using the cortical shape of the mandible on dental panoramic radiographs (PRs) to identify and refer women at risk of osteoporosis to medical professionals. It remains unclear whether dental students, after relevant education, possess the ability to identify these at-risk individuals. This study evaluated the ability of dental students to screen for osteoporosis on PRs. Methods: A cohort of 113 fifth-year dental students participated in a lecture on osteoporosis screening using PRs.The students then categorized the mandibular inferior cortex on PRs from 30 postmenopausal women (11 with osteoporosis) as normal, mildly to moderately eroded, or severely eroded. Interobserver agreement between the students and an expert oral radiologist using two cortical groups (normal to moderately eroded and severely eroded) was assessed through kappa statistics. Screening ability for osteoporosis detection by identifying severely eroded cortices was calculated and compared with that of the Osteoporosis Self-assessment Tool for Asians (OSTA). Results: Twenty-one (18.6%) students demonstrated moderate to substantial agreement with the expert. The mean sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for these students in identifying osteoporosis were 60.2%, 88.0%, 76.3%, and 80.0%, respectively. For the OSTA, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 27.3%, 68.4%, 33.3%, and 61.9%, respectively. Conclusions Even with minimal education, approximately one-fourth of dental students may accurately identify postmenopausal women with osteoporosis on PRs, outperforming questionnaire-based screening tools.

Objectives: Postmenopausal women with osteoporosis are frequently underdiagnosed. In Japan, general dental practitioners have begun using the cortical shape of the mandible on dental panoramic radiographs (PRs) to identify and refer women at risk of osteoporosis to medical professionals. It remains unclear whether dental students, after relevant education, possess the ability to identify these at-risk individuals. This study evaluated the ability of dental students to screen for osteoporosis on PRs. Methods: A cohort of 113 fifth-year dental students participated in a lecture on osteoporosis screening using PRs.The students then categorized the mandibular inferior cortex on PRs from 30 postmenopausal women (11 with osteoporosis) as normal, mildly to moderately eroded, or severely eroded. Interobserver agreement between the students and an expert oral radiologist using two cortical groups (normal to moderately eroded and severely eroded) was assessed through kappa statistics. Screening ability for osteoporosis detection by identifying severely eroded cortices was calculated and compared with that of the Osteoporosis Self-assessment Tool for Asians (OSTA). Results: Twenty-one (18.6%) students demonstrated moderate to substantial agreement with the expert. The mean sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for these students in identifying osteoporosis were 60.2%, 88.0%, 76.3%, and 80.0%, respectively. For the OSTA, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 27.3%, 68.4%, 33.3%, and 61.9%, respectively. Conclusions Even with minimal education, approximately one-fourth of dental students may accurately identify postmenopausal women with osteoporosis on PRs, outperforming questionnaire-based screening tools.

Objectives: Postmenopausal women with osteoporosis are frequently underdiagnosed. In Japan, general dental practitioners have begun using the cortical shape of the mandible on dental panoramic radiographs (PRs) to identify and refer women at risk of osteoporosis to medical professionals. It remains unclear whether dental students, after relevant education, possess the ability to identify these at-risk individuals. This study evaluated the ability of dental students to screen for osteoporosis on PRs. Methods: A cohort of 113 fifth-year dental students participated in a lecture on osteoporosis screening using PRs.The students then categorized the mandibular inferior cortex on PRs from 30 postmenopausal women (11 with osteoporosis) as normal, mildly to moderately eroded, or severely eroded. Interobserver agreement between the students and an expert oral radiologist using two cortical groups (normal to moderately eroded and severely eroded) was assessed through kappa statistics. Screening ability for osteoporosis detection by identifying severely eroded cortices was calculated and compared with that of the Osteoporosis Self-assessment Tool for Asians (OSTA). Results: Twenty-one (18.6%) students demonstrated moderate to substantial agreement with the expert. The mean sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for these students in identifying osteoporosis were 60.2%, 88.0%, 76.3%, and 80.0%, respectively. For the OSTA, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 27.3%, 68.4%, 33.3%, and 61.9%, respectively. Conclusions Even with minimal education, approximately one-fourth of dental students may accurately identify postmenopausal women with osteoporosis on PRs, outperforming questionnaire-based screening tools.

Objectives: Postmenopausal women with osteoporosis are frequently underdiagnosed. In Japan, general dental practitioners have begun using the cortical shape of the mandible on dental panoramic radiographs (PRs) to identify and refer women at risk of osteoporosis to medical professionals. It remains unclear whether dental students, after relevant education, possess the ability to identify these at-risk individuals. This study evaluated the ability of dental students to screen for osteoporosis on PRs. Methods: A cohort of 113 fifth-year dental students participated in a lecture on osteoporosis screening using PRs.The students then categorized the mandibular inferior cortex on PRs from 30 postmenopausal women (11 with osteoporosis) as normal, mildly to moderately eroded, or severely eroded. Interobserver agreement between the students and an expert oral radiologist using two cortical groups (normal to moderately eroded and severely eroded) was assessed through kappa statistics. Screening ability for osteoporosis detection by identifying severely eroded cortices was calculated and compared with that of the Osteoporosis Self-assessment Tool for Asians (OSTA). Results: Twenty-one (18.6%) students demonstrated moderate to substantial agreement with the expert. The mean sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for these students in identifying osteoporosis were 60.2%, 88.0%, 76.3%, and 80.0%, respectively. For the OSTA, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 27.3%, 68.4%, 33.3%, and 61.9%, respectively. Conclusions Even with minimal education, approximately one-fourth of dental students may accurately identify postmenopausal women with osteoporosis on PRs, outperforming questionnaire-based screening tools.

Background/Aims: A latex agglutination turbidity (LA) assay to test for serum antibodies has been approved in Japan and Korea for mass screening of Helicobacter pylori infection. In this study, we evaluated the LA assay for diagnosing H. pylori infection and predicting gastric mucosal changes in a Mongolian population. Methods: In total, 484 individuals were classified into H. pylori-positive (n=356) and H. pylorinegative (n=128) groups, as determined by histology and H. pylori culture. Results: The best cutoff, sensitivity, and specificity values for the LA assay were 18.35 U/mL, 74.2%, and 65.6%, respectively. The LA values in the atrophic gastritis group were statistically higher than those in the other groups (healthy, chronic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, and gastric cancer, p<0.0001). The cutoff value to distinguish the atrophic gastritis group from the other four groups was 32.0 U/mL, and its area under the curve was 0.673, which was the highest among the E-plate, pepsinogen (PG) I, PG II, and PG I/II ratio tests in our data. The odds ratios for atrophic gastritis determined by the LA assay and PG I test in multiple logistic regression were 2.5 and 1.9, respectively, which were significantly higher than for the other tests. Conclusions The LA assay can determine the risk of atrophic gastritis, which in turn is a considerable risk factor for gastric cancer. We propose using this assay in combination with the PG I/II ratio to avoid missing gastric cancer patients who have a low LA value (less than 32.0 U/mL).

Background/Aims: Hybrid endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), in which an incision is made around a lesion and snaring is performed after submucosal dissection, has some advantages in colorectal surgery, including shorter procedure time and preventing perforation. However, its value for rescue resection in difficult colorectal ESD cases remains unclear. This study evaluated the utility of rescue hybrid ESD (RH-ESD). Methods: We divided 364 colorectal ESD procedures into the conventional ESD group (C-ESD, n=260), scheduled hybrid ESD group (SH-ESD, n=69), and RH-ESD group (n=35) and compared their clinical outcomes. Results: Resection time was significantly shorter in the following order: RH-ESD (149 [90–197] minutes) >C-ESD (90 [60–140] minutes) >SH-ESD (52 [29–80] minutes). The en bloc resection rate increased significantly in the following order: RH-ESD (48.6%), SH-ESD (78.3%), and C-ESD (97.7%). An analysis of factors related to piecemeal resection of RH-ESD revealed that the submucosal dissection rate was significantly lower in the piecemeal resection group (25% [20%–30%]) than in the en bloc resection group (40% [20%–60%]). Conclusions RH-ESD was ineffective in terms of curative resection because of the low en bloc resection rate, but was useful for avoiding surgery.

Objective：Only 44 of the 82 university medical schools in Japan have rehabilitation medicine departments, although rehabilitation medicine is one of the 19 basic specialties recognized by the Japanese Medical Specialty Board, and many medical doctors are concerned regarding selecting rehabilitation medicine as a basic specialty without sufficient education in the field. The “Let's Become a Physiatrist” Seminar has been organized since 2017 to eliminate such concerns, and this study aimed to investigate how these results are manifested in the number of majors.Methods：We examined the number of past attendees and tracked how many of them became rehabilitation medicine majors.Results：The number of seminar attendees over a 5-year period was 589. The number of on-demand viewers in FY2020 and FY2021, which were held via the web, was 554. A total of 116 of the 471 physicians who began specialty training in rehabilitation medicine after the seminar was planned attended or web viewed the seminar accounting for 24.63％．This percentage has been increasing each year, with 36.81％ of the majors who applied in 2022 attending the seminar, and the number of multiple attendees also increased. The number of majors has increased significantly doubling to 144 in 2022 compared with 74 in 2018.Conclusion：In many cases, the seminar helped the attendees learn more about physiatrists and develop their thoughts while attending multiple times. Thus, they started their majors. Five years have passed since we started planning this seminar, and we believe that the results are now coming to fruition.

Objective：Only 44 of the 82 university medical schools in Japan have rehabilitation medicine departments, although rehabilitation medicine is one of the 19 basic specialties recognized by the Japanese Medical Specialty Board, and many medical doctors are concerned regarding selecting rehabilitation medicine as a basic specialty without sufficient education in the field. The “Let's Become a Physiatrist” Seminar has been organized since 2017 to eliminate such concerns, and this study aimed to investigate how these results are manifested in the number of majors.Methods：We examined the number of past attendees and tracked how many of them became rehabilitation medicine majors.Results：The number of seminar attendees over a 5-year period was 589. The number of on-demand viewers in FY2020 and FY2021, which were held via the web, was 554. A total of 116 of the 471 physicians who began specialty training in rehabilitation medicine after the seminar was planned attended or web viewed the seminar accounting for 24.63％．This percentage has been increasing each year, with 36.81％ of the majors who applied in 2022 attending the seminar, and the number of multiple attendees also increased. The number of majors has increased significantly doubling to 144 in 2022 compared with 74 in 2018.Conclusion：In many cases, the seminar helped the attendees learn more about physiatrists and develop their thoughts while attending multiple times. Thus, they started their majors. Five years have passed since we started planning this seminar, and we believe that the results are now coming to fruition.

Methods: A total of 120 patients with AIS who underwent posterior spinal fusion from August 2006 to March 2017 at our facility and were followed up for 2 years or more were included. Radiological parameters were measured on whole-spine anteroposterior and lateral radiographs. Revised SRS-22 (SRS-22r) values were also recorded. Coronal trunk imbalance was defined as a deviation of ≥2.0 cm between the C7PL and the central sacral vertical line. Patients with and without coronal trunk imbalance at 2 years after surgery were defined as D (+) (decompensation type) and D (-), respectively. Mean SRS-22r values, including function, pain, self-image, mental health, and subtotal were compared between the D (+) and D (-) groups. Logistic regression analysis was performed to detect the preoperative factors related to D (+) using predictors, including curve type, maximum Cobb angle, and coronal trunk imbalance. Results: At 2 years after surgery, the D (+) group had a significantly lower self-image in the domain of SRS-22r scores compared with the D (-) group. Preoperative coronal trunk imbalance was significantly related to D (+) but not to significant changes in the postoperative SRS-22 score in any of the SRS-22 domains. Conclusions Postoperative C7PL deviation lowers the self-image in patients with AIS. Patients with preoperative coronal trunk imbalance were significantly more likely to be D (+).