Dealing with Disasters: Environmental History of Early Modern Cities (Edo, Istanbul, London, Pest, and Prague)

List of ContributorsForeword Introduction The Ordinary and the Extraordinary in Early Modern Cities / Koichi Watanabe trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Part I: Aspects of Urban Disasters Chapter 1 Typhoon Damage in 1856 Edo: Integrating Archaeology, Climatology and History / Koichi Watanabe, Junpei Hirano, Hiroyuki Ishigami, and Masumi Zaiki trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Chapter 2 The Great Flood in Pest, 1838 / Csaba Katona Chapter 3 Fire Disasters in European Cities, 1600-1800 David Garrioch Comment Disaster of Beijing in the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911 / Akira Horichi trans. by Yoko Onodera Part II: Disasters and Responses Chapter 4 Prevent the Big Water. Flood Control Measures in Prague (Bohemia) Issued by Public Administrative Bodies in Late 18th Century / Ondřej Hudeček Chapter 5 Citizens’ Awareness of Firefighting in Edo: Analysing Eighteenth-Century Textbooks on Firefighting / Reiji Iwabuchi trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Part III: Infrastructure as Artificial Nature Chapter 6 The Ordinary Made Extraordinary: The Archaeology of Water Management in a Global City / Sophie Jackson Chapter 7 Management and Civil Engineering of Urban Water Supply and Sewage System in Edo as Seen from Archaeological Excavation / Hiroyuki Ishigami trans. by Mina Ishizu Chapter 8 Dredging the Edo Castle\u27s Moat: a Case of the Okayama-Domain Dredging in 1765 / Reiji Iwabuchi trans. by Naoko Nomoto Chapter 9 Canal, Dredging and Sedimentation in the Lowland Area of East Edo: Considering Physical and Spatial Characteristics of Canals in a Historical Context / Genki Takahashi trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Part IV: Hinterland and Nature Chapter 10 Flooding in Edo and the Tone-gawa River and Tama-gawa River Systems / Koichi Watanabe trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Chapter 11 The Great Edo Flood of 1742 and the Okutama Valley / Koichi Watanabe trans. by Hisashi Kuboyama Chapter 12 The Deluge of Istanbul in 1563: a Case of Flood Where There Was No River / Kazuaki Sawai trans. by Yoko Onodera Chapter 13 Storms, Flooding and the Development of London 1300-1500 / Matthew Davies Chapter 14 Bridging London’s River’s General Situation of London, the Thames, the Bridge / Vanessa Hardin

Pregnancy and Lactation-Associated Osteoporosis Successfully Treated with Romosozumab: A Case Report

Pregnancy- and lactation-associated osteoporosis (PLO) is a rare type of premenopausal osteoporosis that occurs mainly in the third trimester or immediately after delivery; one of its most common symptoms is back pain caused by a vertebral fracture. The pathogenesis of PLO is unclear, and there is no accepted consensus regarding the treatment of PLO. Although treatments with drugs such as bisphosphonate, strontium ranelate, denosumab, and teriparatide were reported, there is no report of a patient with PLO treated with romosozumab. We present the first case of a patient with PLO treated with romosozumab following 4-month teriparatide treatment. A 34-year-old primiparous and breastfeeding Japanese woman experienced severe low back pain 1 month postdelivery. She was diagnosed with PLO on the basis of low bone marrow density (BMD) and multiple vertebral fractures with no identified cause of secondary osteoporosis. She was treated with teriparatide injection for 4 months, but the treatment was discontinued because of the patient feeling severe nausea after every teriparatide injection and the appearance of new vertebral fractures. Thereafter, we used romosozumab for 12 months. After the romosozumab treatment, her BMD was increased from the baseline by 23.6% at L1–L4, 6.2% at the femoral neck, and 11.2% at the total hip. Treating PLO with 12-month romosozumab after 4 months of teriparatide injection remarkably increased the BMD of the lumbar spine, femoral neck, and total hip without subsequent fracture. Romosozumab has potential as a therapeutic option to improve the BMD and reduce the subsequent fracture risk of patients with PLO

Anatomic and clinical investigation of a low signal peripheral line (black line) around the lumbar herniated nucleus pulposus on magnetic resonance imaging

It has been reported that a low signal peripheral line (black line) around the lumbar herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used for the evaluation of the interruption of the posterior longitudinal ligament (PLL). However, the previous reports have showed that different rates of agreement between MRI and surgical findings. In order to clarify this matter, the black line on MRI was assessed by a combined anatomic and clinical investigation. Three cadavers were used for the anatomic part of the study. For the clinical study, 11 patients with the diagnosis as HNP and 5 healthy volunteers were subjected to MRI to compare with the results from the anatomic study. The lumbo-sacral spine was dissected en bloc from the cadavers. The first imaging on MRI of the specimens was performed with the dural sac; the second imaging was performed after the dural sac and the nerve roots have been removed but with the PLL left; the third imaging was performed after the PLL was completely removed. After completion of imaging, the specimens were cut in sagittal and horizontal planes for histological evaluation. In the cadavers after removing the PLL histologically, the black lines were still shown on MRI. Finally, after changing encoding, the black lines were interrupted at some disc levels in the cadaver specimen, the patients with HNP, and healthy volunteers. Therefore the black lines could be interpreted as a chemical shift artifact. These results indicate that the continuity or the discontinuity of the black line is not appropriate sign to diagnose whether disruption of the PLL has occurred or not

Pathoanatomic investigation of cervical spondylotic myelopathy

Multiple dural sac and spinal cord indentations are often observed on MRI in cervical spondylotic myelopathy. However, it is rare that all of the indented levels contribute to clinical symptoms. Pathological changes in cervical compression myelopathy have previously been reported. Still the critical degree of spinal cord compression needed to induce pathologic changes is unknown. To clearfy this matter the relationships between the spinal cord as well as the dural sac indentations, and pathological changes of the cervical spinal cord were investigated in cadavers. Sixty-eight cadavers were used for this study. The dural sac and the spinal cord were observed especially regarding presence of indentations. The spinal cord was removed from the specimens in order to perform histopathological examination. The indentations of the dural sac and the spinal cord were observed at C4/ 5, C5/6, C6/7 and C3/4 intervertebral levels in order of incidence. However, all of the dural sac indentations were not correlated with spinal cord indentations. Pathological changes in the spinal cord were observed in two specimens with less than 30% of the AP compression ratio. One specimen with 20.9% in the AP compression ratio had remarkable histopathological changes. In the other specimen with 29.6% in the AP compression ratio, diffuse demyelination was distributed in the lateral white matter. The results indicate that the critical degree of the AP compression ratio is 30% to induce histopathological changes in the spinal cord. If a spinal cord indentation in the patient with cervical spondylotic myelopathy on imaging, i.e. MRI, show less than 30% in the AP compression ratio, the clinical symptoms, i.e. numbness, tickling and paresthetic pain, may not be improved after the surgery because of some histopathological changes in the spinal cord

The predictive factors for the resorption of a lumbar disc herniation on plain MRI

Previous studies have noted the morphologic changes of lumbar disc herniation (LDH) in conservative treatment and predictive value of the resorption of LDH by using contrast-enhanced MRI. However, there are few reports that note the predictive value of plain, non-enhanced MRI. Therefore, no definite predictive factors for the resorption of LDH have been detected on plain MRI. Thirty-four patients with lower limb pain receiving conservative treatment were followed for more than 6 months. MRI was performed every 3 months. The findings of the first MRI in the patients who finally had resorption of LDH (R-group, 21 patients) were compared with those of the patients who exhibited no resorption of LDH (N-group, 13 patients). The MRI evaluation included the signal intensity of LDH, migration of LDH. The transition of the visual analogue scale (VAS) of lower limb pain was also compared. The R-group had significantly more patients with iso-signal intensity in comparison to the signal intensity of the nucleus pulposus observed on T1 weighted images (WI) and high-signal intensity in comparison to the signal intensity of the annulus fibrosus observed on T2 WI, whereas the N-group had more patients with the high-signal intensity on both T1 and T2 WI. The R-group had significantly more patients with migration. The VAS significantly improved at 3 and 6 months in both groups. However, no statistically significant difference was detected between the 2 groups. It is very valuable that the results clearly indicate the predictive factors on plain MRI concerning the resorption of LDH. The study also showed that lower limb pain would gradually improve even in the patients who exhibited no resorption. Therefore, it is important in the treatment of LDH to observe the clinical symptoms carefully without overestimating MRI findings

Therapeutic efficacy of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug therapy versus exercise therapy in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain: a prospective study

Therapy for chronic, nonspecific low back pain is mainly conservative: medication and/or exercise. Pharmacotherapy, however, has side effects, and the quantities of concomitant drugs in older persons require attention. Although exercise promises improved function, its use to alleviate pain is controversial. Thus, we compared the efficacy of pharmacotherapy versus exercise for treating chronic nonspecific low back pain. The pharmacotherapy group (n=18: 8 men, 10 women) were prescribed celecoxib monotherapy. The exercise group (n=22: 10 men, 12 women) undertook stretching exercises. Because of drop-outs, the NSAID group (n=15: 7 men, 8 women) and the exercise group (n =18: 8 men, 10 women) were finally analyzed. We applied a visual analog scale, Roland-Morris disability scores, and the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey. We used a paired t-test for within-group analyses and an unpaired t-test for between-group analyses. Pain relief was achieved after 3 months of pharmacotherapy or exercise. Quality of life improved only in the exercise group. Recovery outcomes for the two groups were not significantly different. Efficacy of exercise therapy for strictly defined low back pain was almost equivalent to that of pharmacotherapy and provided better quality of life

Postoperative neck symptoms of posterior approach for cervical compressive myelopathy: Expansive open-door laminoplasty vs. segmental partial laminectomy

BACKGROUND: Laminoplasty is widely accepted as a standard treatment of cervical compressive myelopathy. However, due to the risk of postoperative complications such as neck symptoms, segmental partial laminectomy (SPL) is performed instead, which results in fewer postoperative symptoms. The aim of this study was to describe the difference in the incidence and severity of postoperative neck symptoms between traditional C3-C7 expansive open-door laminoplasty (ELAP) and SPL. Methods: A retrospective and comparative study was performed regarding neck complications following the two surgical procedures. Twenty patients underwent SPL, and an additional 20 age- and gender-matched patients underwent traditional C3-C7 ELAP. Preoperative and postoperative JOA scores were measured, and postoperative neck symptoms in both groups were evaluated using a self-administered questionnaire, according to the Neck Pain and Disability Scale. Results: The total incidence of postoperative neck symptoms in the SPL group was similar to that in the ELAP group; however, the severity of symptoms was remarkably lower in the SPL group than in the ELAP group. Conclusions: SPL seems to be a better procedure for reducing postoperative neck symptoms, when compared with C3-C7 ELAP