58 research outputs found
Multicenter questionnaire survey for sporadic inclusion body myositis in Japan
Background: Sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM) is the most prevalent acquired muscle disease in the elderly. sIBM is an intractable and progressive disease of unknown cause and without effective treatment. The etiology of sIBM is still unknown; however, genetic factors, aging, lifestyles, and environmental factors may be involved. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the cross-sectional profile of patients affected by sIBM in Japan.
Methods: We surveyed patient data for 146 cases diagnosed at a number of centers across Japan. We also issued a questionnaire for 67 patients and direct caregivers to further elucidate the natural history of the disease.
Results: The mean age at the onset was 63.4 ± 9.2 years. The mean length of time from the onset to diagnosis was 55.52 ± 49.72 months, suggesting that there is a difficulty in diagnosing this disease with long-term consequences because of late treatment. 73 % described the psychological/mental aspect of the disease. The most popular primary caregiver was the patient’s spouse and 57 % patients mentioned that they were having problems managing the finances.
Conclusions: Through these surveys, we described the cross-sectional profiles of sIBM in Japan. Many patients described psychological/mental and financial anxiety because of the aged profile of sIBM patients. The profiles of sIBM patients are similar to those in Western countries
The updated retrospective questionnaire study of sporadic inclusion body myositis in Japan
Background: Sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM) is the most prevalent muscle disease in elderly people, affecting the daily activities. sIBM is progressive with unknown cause and without effective treatment. In 2015, sIBM was classified as an intractable disease by the Japanese government, and the treatment cost was partly covered by the government. This study aimed to examine the changes in the number of patients with sIBM over the last 10 years and to elucidate the cross-sectional profile of Japanese patients with sIBM.
Methods: The number of sIBM patients was estimated through a reply-paid postcard questionnaire for attending physicians. Only patients diagnosed as “definite” or “probable” sIBM by clinical and biopsy sIBM criteria were included in this study (Lancet Neurol 6:620-631, 2007, Neuromuscul Disord 23:1044-1055, 2013). Additionally, a registered selfadministered questionnaire was also sent to 106 patients who agreed to reply via their attending physician, between November 2016 and March 2017.
Results: The number of patients diagnosed with sIBM for each 5-year period was 286 and 384 in 2011 and 2016, respectively. Inability to stand-up, cane-dependent gait, inability to open a plastic bottle, choking on food ingestion, and being wheelchair-bound should be included as sIBM milestones. Eight patients were positive for anti-hepatitis C virus antibody; three of them were administered interferon before sIBM onset. Steroids were administered to 33 patients (31.1%) and intravenous immunoglobulin to 46 patients (43.4%). From 2016 to 2017, total of 70 patients applied for the designated incurable disease medical expenses subsidy program. Although the treatment cost was partly covered by the government, many patients expressed psychological/mental and financial anxieties.
Conclusions: We determined the cross-sectional profile of Japanese patients with sIBM. Continuous support and prospective surveys are warranted
Free-Floating planet Mass Function from MOA-II 9-year survey towards the Galactic Bulge
We present the first measurement of the mass function of free-floating
planets (FFP) or very wide orbit planets down to an Earth mass, from the MOA-II
microlensing survey in 2006-2014. Six events are likely to be due to planets
with Einstein radius crossing times, days, and the shortest has
days and an angular Einstein radius of as. We measure the detection efficiency depending on both
and with image level simulations for the first
time. These short events are well modeled by a power-law mass function,
dexstar with for . This implies a total of FFP or very wide orbit
planets of mass per star, with a total mass of
per star. The number of FFPs is
times the number of planets in wide orbits (beyond the snow line), while the
total masses are of the same order. This suggests that the FFPs have been
ejected from bound planetary systems that may have had an initial mass function
with a power-law index of , which would imply a total mass of
star. This model predicts that Roman Space
Telescope will detect FFPs with masses down to that of
Mars (including with ). The
Sumi(2011) large Jupiter-mass FFP population is excluded.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A
KMT-2021-BLG-1150Lb: Microlensing planet detected through a densely covered planetary-caustic signal
Recently, there have been reports of various types of degeneracies in the
interpretation of planetary signals induced by planetary caustics. In this
work, we check whether such degeneracies persist in the case of well-covered
signals by analyzing the lensing event KMT-2021-BLG-1150, for which the light
curve exhibits a densely and continuously covered short-term anomaly. In order
to identify degenerate solutions, we thoroughly investigate the parameter space
by conducting dense grid searches for the lensing parameters. We then check the
severity of the degeneracy among the identified solutions. We identify a pair
of planetary solutions resulting from the well-known inner-outer degeneracy,
and find that interpreting the anomaly is not subject to any degeneracy other
than the inner-outer degeneracy. The measured parameters of the planet
separation (normalized to the Einstein radius) and mass ratio between the lens
components are for the inner
solution and for the outer
solution. According to a Bayesian estimation, the lens is a planetary system
consisting of a planet with a mass
and its host with a mass lying toward
the Galactic center at a distance ~kpc. By
conducting analyses using mock data sets prepared to mimic those obtained with
data gaps and under various observational cadences, it is found that gaps in
data can result in various degenerate solutions, while the observational
cadence does not pose a serious degeneracy problem as long as the anomaly
feature can be delineated.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
KMT-2021-BLG-1547Lb: Giant microlensing planet detected through a signal deformed by source binarity
We investigate the previous microlensing data collected by the KMTNet survey
in search of anomalous events for which no precise interpretations of the
anomalies have been suggested. From this investigation, we find that the
anomaly in the lensing light curve of the event KMT-2021-BLG-1547 is
approximately described by a binary-lens (2L1S) model with a lens possessing a
giant planet, but the model leaves unexplained residuals. We investigate the
origin of the residuals by testing more sophisticated models that include
either an extra lens component (3L1S model) or an extra source star (2L2S
model) to the 2L1S configuration of the lens system. From these analyses, we
find that the residuals from the 2L1S model originate from the existence of a
faint companion to the source. The 2L2S solution substantially reduces the
residuals and improves the model fit by with respect to the
2L1S solution. The 3L1S solution also improves the fit, but its fit is worse
than that of the 2L2S solution by . According to the 2L2S
solution, the lens of the event is a planetary system with planet and host
masses lying at a distance \D_{\rm L}
=5.07^{+0.98}_{-1.50}~kpc, and the source is a binary composed of a subgiant
primary of a late G or an early K spectral type and a main-sequence companion
of a K spectral type. The event demonstrates the need of sophisticated modeling
for unexplained anomalies for the construction of a complete microlensing
planet sample.Comment: 9 pages, 4 tables, 7 figure
Systematic KMTNet Planetary Anomaly Search. IX. Complete Sample of 2016 Prime-Field Planets
As a part of the ``Systematic KMTNet Planetary Anomaly Search" series, we
report five new planets (namely, OGLE-2016-BLG-1635Lb, MOA-2016-BLG-532Lb,
KMT-2016-BLG-0625Lb, OGLE-2016-BLG-1850Lb, and KMT-2016-BLG-1751Lb) and one
planet candidate (KMT-2016-BLG-1855), which were found by searching
KMTNet prime fields. These planets show a wide range of masses from
Earth--class to Super--Jupiter--class, and are located in both the disk and the
bulge. The ultimate goal of this series is to build a complete planet sample.
Because our work provides a complementary sample to other planet detection
methods, which have different detection sensitivities, our complete sample will
help us to obtain a better understanding of planet demographics in our Galaxy.Comment: 38 pages, 17 figures, 12 Tables, submitted to the AAS journa
KMT-2022-BLG-0440Lb: A New Microlensing Planet with the Central-Resonant Caustic Degeneracy Broken
We present the observations and analysis of a high-magnification microlensing
planetary event, KMT-2022-BLG-0440, for which the weak and short-lived
planetary signal was covered by both the KMTNet survey and follow-up
observations. The binary-lens models with a central caustic provide the best
fits, with a planet/host mass ratio, -- at
. The binary-lens models with a resonant caustic and a brown-dwarf
mass ratio are both excluded by . The binary-source model
can fit the anomaly well but is rejected by the ``color argument'' on the
second source. From Bayesian analyses, it is estimated that the host star is
likely a K or M dwarf located in the Galactic disk, the planet probably has a
Neptune-mass, and the projected planet-host separation is
or au, subject to the close/wide degeneracy. This is the
third planet from a high-magnification planetary signal (). Together with another such planet, KMT-2021-BLG-0171Lb, the
ongoing follow-up program for the KMTNet high-magnification events has
demonstrated its ability in detecting high-magnification planetary signals for
planets, which are challenging for the current microlensing
surveys.Comment: MNRAS accepte
KMT-2023-BLG-1431Lb: A New Microlensing Planet from a Subtle Signature
The current studies of microlensing planets are limited by small number
statistics. Follow-up observations of high-magnification microlensing events
can efficiently form a statistical planetary sample. Since 2020, the Korea
Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) and the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO)
global network have been conducting a follow-up program for high-magnification
KMTNet events. Here, we report the detection and analysis of a microlensing
planetary event, KMT-2023-BLG-1431, for which the subtle (0.05 magnitude) and
short-lived (5 hours) planetary signature was characterized by the follow-up
from KMTNet and LCO. A binary-lens single-source (2L1S) analysis reveals a
planet/host mass ratio of , and the
single-lens binary-source (1L2S) model is excluded by . A
Bayesian analysis using a Galactic model yields estimates of the host star mass
of , the planetary mass of , and the lens distance of kpc. The projected planet-host separation of au or , subject to the
close/wide degeneracy. We also find that without the follow-up data, the
survey-only data cannot break the degeneracy of central/resonant caustics and
the degeneracy of 2L1S/1L2S models, showing the importance of follow-up
observations for current microlensing surveys.Comment: PASP submitted. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2301.0677
OGLE-2019-BLG-0825: Constraints on the Source System and Effect on Binary-lens Parameters arising from a Five Day Xallarap Effect in a Candidate Planetary Microlensing Event
We present an analysis of microlensing event OGLE-2019-BLG-0825. This event
was identified as a planetary candidate by preliminary modeling. We find that
significant residuals from the best-fit static binary-lens model exist and a
xallarap effect can fit the residuals very well and significantly improves
values. On the other hand, by including the xallarap effect in our
models, we find that binary-lens parameters like mass-ratio, , and
separation, , cannot be constrained well. However, we also find that the
parameters for the source system like the orbital period and semi major axis
are consistent between all the models we analyzed. We therefore constrain the
properties of the source system better than the properties of the lens system.
The source system comprises a G-type main-sequence star orbited by a brown
dwarf with a period of days. This analysis is the first to demonstrate
that the xallarap effect does affect binary-lens parameters in planetary
events. It would not be common for the presence or absence of the xallarap
effect to affect lens parameters in events with long orbital periods of the
source system or events with transits to caustics, but in other cases, such as
this event, the xallarap effect can affect binary-lens parameters.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables. Accepted by A
A Male Case of Symptomatic Generalized Epilepsy with Gynecomastia Associated with Frequent Epileptic Seizures
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