What Behaviors Are Important for Successful Weight Maintenance?

Purpose. To examine behavioral factors related to successful weight maintenance. Methods. Subjects were 90 middle-aged participants who attended a weight loss program and were followed for one year. The subjects were classified into either successful weight maintainers (maintained a weight loss of 5% or more from their initial weight for one year) (SWM) or unsuccessful weight maintainers (USWM), and weight control practice, stress, obstacles, support, and self-efficacy during the program and follow-up period were compared. Results. SWM had mean loss of 12% from their initial weight during the program. They showed a greater improvement in their regularity of eating, walked more, and felt less stress regarding their increased physical activity than the USWM. During the follow-up period, significantly more SWM participants had self-efficacy (for measuring weight, practicing dietary objective, and assessing the practice and keeping records), actually kept records and measured weight more than the USWM participants. In contrast, more USWM participants felt stress about measuring weight. Conclusion. In addition to a substantial initial weight loss due to an increased amount of physical activity, having a higher self-efficacy and consistently keeping records of one's activities, as well as regularly weighing themselves, may be important for successful weight maintenance

A rare benign genitourinary tumor in a Japanese male: urinary retention owing to aggressive angiomyxoma of the prostate

Close examination of a 67-year-old Japanese man, who complained of persistent nocturia, revealed that a semitransparent polypoid tumor had developed from the bladder neck to the prostatic urethra obstructing the internal urethral meatus, which resulted in excessive urinary retention and post-renal dysfunction. The tumor was resected by a transurethral procedure and a pathological examination of specimens revealed aggressive angiomyxoma (AAM) of the prostate. AAM usually develops in the intrapelvic and perineal organs of females. So far as we know, this is the second case of primary prostatic AAM reported in the English literature, and is the first case where the patient encountered urethral obstruction

肥満解消のための無作為介入研究による脂肪量とアディポサイトカインの変化

Adipocytokines arebioactive substances synthesizedand secretedbyfat cell. Previous studies have reported an association between weight loss and adipocytokines. However, these studies are inconsistent and they have not clarified the relationship between weight regain and changes in circulating levels of adipocytokines. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between weight and fat volume changes and adipocytokines. The subjects were 235obese people recruited in the Saku Control Obesity Program (SCOP). Participants were randomly assigned to either immediate (Group A) or delayed (Group B, control group). Group A participants were followed for another two years after completion of the one year intervention. As controls, Group B participants received the same intervention as Group A after a delay of one year. Then they were followed up for one year. The intervention consisted in a one-year lifestyle program to induce weight loss, based on a cognitive-behavioral approach. After the first year of the study, body weight, BMI, body fat and abdominal fat areas were significantly lower in group A participants, compared to controls. After the intervention, leptin levels were significantly lowered both in men and women. After one year follow-up, both men and women re-gained about 1.5 kg body weight on average. BMI, waist circumference, fat areas by CT and HBA1c significantly increased during the follow-up period. The change of adipocytokine levels by analysis of the quartile of body weight decrease and regain revealed that increased adiponectin and decreased leptin was noteworthy for weight reduction, while increase of leptin influenced the weight regain. In conclusion, our results suggest that leptin could have broad effects on the distribution off at tissues and on lipid metabolism. Leptin inversely associated with adiponectin, which in turn was necessary to decrease body weight. In particular, leptin decreased remarkably in the process of weight reduction, and its increase seemed to be related in weight regain. The observed increase of adiponectin seemed to be induced by reduction in fat volume

A Case of Benign Schwannoma of the Transverse Colon with Granulation Tissue

Schwannomas occurring in the gastrointestinal tract are rare, and among them, schwannomas of the large intestine are extremely rare. In this paper, we report a case of a macroscopically atypical schwannoma of the transverse colon. The case is a female aged 67. Stool occult blood test was positive, and colonoscopy revealed a protruded lesion resembling a type 1 carcinoma measuring 4 cm with a reddish and uneven surface on the transverse colon. The surface was smooth and lobulated in observation with indigo carmine spray, and granulation tissue was revealed by biopsies. CT of the abdomen showed an irregular mass, and clinical examinations could not rule out malignancy. Therefore, partial transverse colectomy with peripheral lymph node dissection was performed. Histologically, proliferation of spindle cells was observed originating from the muscularis propria, and most of the upper part of the lesion was replaced by granulation tissue. In immunohistochemical staining, S-100 protein and NSE were positive while KIT, CD34, desmin and smooth muscle actin were negative, and the tumor was therefore diagnosed to be a schwannoma. In addition, since the MIB-1 labeling index was low and virtually no mitosis was observed, it was diagnosed as benign tumor

A case of primary renal angiosarcoma

A 78-year old man was diagnosed with a left bleeding renal cyst from CT scan results. Serial CT scans revealed the left kidney mass to be increasing in size and a new lesion in the liver. Renal cell carcinoma with liver metastasis was diagnosed and a radical nephrectomy performed. The initial pathological diagnosis was a benign chronic hematoma. However, the liver mass increased in size and multiplied, while another mass emerged in the twelfth thoracic vertebra with spinal paralysis and was immediately removed. Pathological findings for that specimen showed malignancy of stromal cell origin but low atypia. The renal specimen was re-evaluated using whole cross-section analysis and immunohistochemistry, and diagnosed as a primary renal angiosarcoma. Recombinant interleukin-2 therapy was started immediately; however, the patient died of metastatic disease 13 months after the initial operation. Although contrast imaging depicted the primary lesion as a non-specific hematoma with little focal pooling, and low-grade cytological atypia was shown pathologically, the angiosarcoma was extremely aggressive