Surgery did not improve the subjective neuropsychological symptoms of patients with incidentally detected mild primary hyperparathyroidism

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is known to cause diverse subjective symptoms, in addition to those related to osteitis fibrosa cystica and kidney stones. The treatment of the disease ameliorates the subjective symptoms and improves the patients’ quality of life. In this prospective study, patients undergoing surgery for incidentally detected, mild, asymptomatic PHPT were assessed to determine whether subjective neuropsychological symptoms are improved even in patients with “asymptomatic” PHPT. From October 1995 to March 2004, 25 patients who had one or more neuropsychological symptoms preoperatively and were followed up 1 year after parathyroidectomy were enrolled. The subjective symptoms were identified using questionnaires distributed to patients; eight questions were used to determine the presence or absence of psychoneurological symptoms. Compared to their preoperative status, patients responded that their general health perceptions 1 year after surgery were improved (13 cases, 52%), unchanged (11 cases, 44%), or aggravated (1 case, 4%). There were no statistically significant differences in the patients’ responses before and after surgery with respect to individual neuropsychological symptoms, such as “tiring easily, “forgetfulness,” “decreased concentration,” “depression,” “irritability,” “uneasiness,” and “sleeplessness.” Therefore, subjective neuropsychological symptoms did not improve in otherwise asymptomatic PHPT patients following parathyroidectomy. However, patients’ questionnaire responses may not reflect their actual status as accurately as laboratory examination results. Overall, 52% of patients were subjectively satisfied with surgery; this may result from patients’ expectations of treatment

Can Narrow-band Imaging Be Used to Determine the Surgical Margin of Superficial Hypopharyngeal Cancer?

Narrow-band imaging (NBI) is a novel optical technique that uses narrow bandwidth filters in a video endoscope system to improve the diagnostic capability of endoscopes in characterizing tissues. It is well known that early identification of neoplasia in the gastrointestinal tract using this technique might make it possible to reduce the suffering of patients caused by loss of function or severe complications after radical surgery. Several reports have introduced this system as a preoperative examination to evaluate the lateral spread of the neoplastic lesions in the oropharynx or hypopharynx. We experienced a case with hypopharyngeal cancer in which we were able to avoid underestimating cancer lesions following insufficient resection using the NBI system. A 62-year-old female underwent partial hypopharyngectomy with the margin estimated by an NBI view coupled with reconstruction of the hypopharynx while preserving the larynx. The resected specimen was cut into serial sections for a detailed pathology examination. The surgical margin seemed to be wide enough and it could be assumed that if possible we should observe these cancers with conventional electroendoscopy and NBI before treatment.</p

Early Spectroscopy of the 2010 Outburst of U Scorpii

We present early spectroscopy of the recurrent nova U~Sco during the outburst in 2010. We successfully obtained time-series spectra at $t_{\rm d}=$0.37--0.44~d, where $t_{\rm d}$ denotes the time from the discovery of the present outburst. This is the first time-resolved spectroscopy on the first night of U Sco outbursts. At $t_{\rm d}\sim 0.4$~d the H$\alpha$ line consists of a blue-shifted ($-5000$ km s$^{-1}$) narrow absorption component and a wide emission component having triple peaks, a blue ($\sim -3000$ km s$^{-1}$), a central ($\sim 0$ km s$^{-1}$) and a red ($\sim +3000$ km s$^{-1}$) ones. The blue and red peaks developed more rapidly than the central one during the first night. This rapid variation would be caused by the growth of aspherical wind produced during the earliest stage of the outburst. At $t_{\rm d}=1.4$~d the H$\alpha$ line has a nearly flat-topped profile with weak blue and red peaks at $\sim \pm 3000$ km s$^{-1}$. This profile can be attributed to a nearly spherical shell, while the asphericity growing on the first night still remains. The wind asphericity is less significant after $t_{\rm d}=9$ d.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication of PASJ Letter

Solar System Exploration Sciences by EQUULEUS on SLS EM-1 and Science Instruments Development Status

EQUULEUS is a spacecraft to explore the cislunar region including the Earth-Moon Lagrange point L2 (EML2) and will be launched by NASA’s SLS EM-1 rocket. Although the size of EQUULEUS is only 6U, the spacecraft carries three different science instruments. By using these instruments, the spacecraft will demonstrate three missions for solar system exploration science during and after the flight to EML2; imaging of the plasmasphere around the earth, observation of space dust flux in the cislunar region, and observation of lunar impact flashes at the far side of the moon. The developments and verifications of the flight models of these science instruments were completed by the end of 2018, and we started flight model integration and testing. This paper introduces the details of the scientific objectives, design results and development statuses of the instruments. In addition, results of the integration and pre-flight tests are also described