The effect of metabolic syndrome on heart rate turbulence in non-diabetic patients

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS), which includes a cluster of risk factors, is being increasingly recognized as a new risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Heart rate turbulence (HRT) is a Holter-based non-invasive method for detecting cardiac autonomic imbalance and is an independent, powerful predictor of cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in different patient groups. This study evaluated the effect of MetS on HRT in non-diabetic patients. Methods: This study included 80 non-diabetic MetS subjects and 50 healthy subjects. All 130 subjects underwent a 24-h ambulatory Holter electrocardiogram recording. Two indices of HRT were analyzed: turbulence onset (TO) and turbulence slope (TS). HRT values were classified into 3 categories for risk stratification: 1) Category 0, TO and TS were normal; 2) Category 1, either TO or TS was abnormal; 3) Category 2, both TO and TS were abnormal. Results: When we compared MetS rates in the HRT risk stratification groups, there were significant differences for all groups as compared with the controls (Category 0 = MetS 28.8%, n = 15, Control 71.2%, n = 37, p < 0.001; Category 1 = MetS 80.8%, n = 42, Control 19.2%, n = 10, p < 0.001; Category 2 = MetS 88.5%, n = 23, Control 11.5%, n = 3, p < 0.001). In addition, TO and TS abnormalities were correlated with the number of MetS components (r = 0.608, p < 0.001; r = -0.388, p < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to establish a relationship between HRT and MetS. These findings suggest that MetS adversely affects HRT scores. In addition, the number of MetS components is related to impaired HRT scores. (Cardiol J 2012; 19, 5: 507-512

Pyoderma gangrenosum after breast cancer resection: A less-invasive and early treatment using the skin around ulcers

Surgical invasion is a risk factor of pyoderma gangrenosum (PG). A total of 25% of postoperative PG cases were reported to occur after breast surgeries, including bilateral breast reduction and breast reconstruction following cancer resection. Immunosuppressive therapy and less-invasive wound therapy are necessary; however, the complete healing of ulcers takes 5.1 months on average. We herein report a case of skin grafting under a surgical concept of less-invasive and short-term treatment. An 82-year-old woman complained of a high fever and severe pain at her breast wounds after bilateral breast cancer resection. Although we performed emergency debridement surgery to remove the necrotic tissue, suspecting surgical site infection and inflammation, her high fever persisted. She was diagnosed with PG because of the physical findings of characteristic painful, sterile ulcerations, bullae and pustules, and the pathological abundance of neutrophils in the absence of infection and vasculitis. Oral administration of prednisolone 30 mg/day improved the symptoms, and we applied negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) from day 16 following debridement surgery. After the gradual reduction of oral steroid intake to 12.5 mg/day, we performed skin grafting surgery. To limit the surgical invasion, we used the surplus skin around the ulcers. Split-thickness mesh skin grafts were fixed by NPWT to avoid the use of tie-over sutures. We achieved short-term treatment of PG with a less-invasive surgical strategy using skin around the ulcers and NPWT

Genome Analysis Revives a Forgotten Hybrid Crop Edo-dokoro in the Genus Dioscorea

忘れられた作物「えどどころ」の起原 --ゲノム解析が明らかにする青森県三八上北地域に残る栽培イモの歴史--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.A rhizomatous Dioscorea crop “Edo-dokoro” was described in old records of Japan, but its botanical identify has not been characterized. We found that Edo-dokoro is still produced by four farmers in Tohoku-machi of Aomori Prefecture, Japan. Rhizomes of Edo-dokoro are a delicacy to the local people and are sold in the markets. Morphological characters of Edo-dokoro suggest its hybrid origin between the two species, D. tokoro and D. tenuipes. Genome analysis revealed that Edo-dokoro is likely originated by hybridization of a male D. tokoro to a female D. tenuipes, followed by a backcross with a male plant of D. tokoro. Edo-dokoro is a typical minor crop possibly maintained for more than 300 years but now almost forgotten from the public. We hypothesize that there are many such uncharacterized genetic heritages passed over generations by small scale farmers that await serious scientific investigation for future use and improvement by using modern genomics information

Stochastic Geometry Analysis of Individual Carrier Sense Threshold Adaptation in IEEE 802.11ax WLANs

This paper discusses the impact of spatial reuse and carrier sense threshold (CST) optimization on the performance of wireless local area networks using stochastic geometry analysis. The adjustment of the CST is a promising approach to improve spatial reuse, and has been proposed for the IEEE 802.11ax standard. Considering the situation where each access point (AP) individually adjusts its CST based on the individual received power, this paper derives the probability of transmission success and the density of successful transmissions (DST). The evaluation results of these metrics reveal that the optimal setting is to increase the CST linearly (in terms of dB) with respect to the average received signal power. Because the maximization of the DST causes unfairness from the viewpoint of success of transmission, the maximization of the product of the transmission success probabilities is proposed to improve the performance of the entire system and restrain unfairness. Using the trend of the optimal CST function, the impact of the density of APs on the optimal CST function is determined. Moreover, individual CST adjustment is found to improve spatial reuse compared with identical adjustment, i.e., setting the CST of all APs to an identical value

Resection of the Gastric Tube Reconstructed through the Retrosternal Route without Sternotomy

With advances of combined modality therapy, prognoses in esophageal cancer have been improving. After resection of esophageal cancer, the development of gastric tube cancer is a risk. While such cancer in an early stage can be cured endoscopically, total gastric tube resection is indicated in advanced stages. A 68-year-old man underwent subtotal esophagectomy reconstructed with a gastric tube through the retrosternal route. Gastric cancer was found one and a half years postoperatively. The gastric tube was resected without sternotomy. This is the first report of a patient undergoing resection of the gastric tube reconstructed through the retrosternal route without sternotomy

Constructing a digital museum with a large-scale archive for endangered languages

In this presentation we will propose a design for a digital museum for endangered languages. Just like a real museum, the digital museum proposed here consists of (1) a storage space, where items are archived, and (2) an exhibition space, where a selection of items from the storage are exhibited. Currently, in language documentation and conservation, the archives and the web pages are treated separately. Language archives are created mainly for the purpose of storing language data permanently for future reference. The web spaces for language conservation or exhibition are usually constructed without direct reference to the archived data. In our previous work presented at the first ICLDC, we proposed a basic design for a digital museum and demonstrated its prototype, featuring Nishihara village, where Ikema, a dialect of Miyako, one of the endangered languages of Ryukyuan, is spoken. It consisted of three layered digital spaces, the first layer is used for the exhibition, the second for the storage of past exhibits and the third for the raw data. The proposed digital museum has been implemented by an open source content management platform, providing a webpage easily updatable and extendable to other languages, making a step forward in the documentation and conservation of endangered languages. The museum was made public early this year (www.kikigengo.jp). As it is, however, the site has not been linked to the data archives, mostly due to technical reasons. With the recent development of cloud technologies and services, however, we are now able to construct a digital museum, in which the large-scale archive space is directly linked with an exhibition space. The archive is constructed in a large-scale cloud space from which files can be directly linked to the web exhibit space. We will use an open source video asset management platform on the private cloud service at our university, which manages audio-visual files and controls the security and privacy of the archives constructed on the cloud. The archive space can be compartmentalized into “publishers,” each of which can serve as a distinct password protected archive for a different language conservation project. The publishers can also be used for exchanging files with other members of the same project. The system enables us to construct a digital space for endangered languages linked to a large-scale archive at an individual level and at a manageable price, thereby providing us with a powerful tool for language documentation and conservation

Surrogate marker of schistocytes

Objectives : Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT)-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA) is an important early post-treatment condition. This study evaluated the Revised %MICRO, a parameter obtained from the ADVIA 2120i automated blood cell counter, as a surrogate marker of the schistocyte ratio. We hypothesized that individual differences between the %MICRO value and schistocyte ratio would remain constant. Design and Methods: EDTA-2K-treated peripheral blood samples were collected from 19 patients who underwent allogeneic HSCT from April 2014 to September 2018. First, the baseline difference, X, was calculated using a sample from the first day after HSCT as X = %MICRO (first day) – schistocyte ratio (first day). Next, the Revised %MICRO for each subsequent day was calculated as Revised %MICRO = %MICRO – X. We evaluated correlations of the schistocyte ratio with the calculated %MICRO and Revised %MICRO and the RBC fragment, RBC distribution width, %MICRO and Revised %MICRO data obtained from the ADVIA 2120i. Results : The mean schistocyte percentage and Revised %MICRO were both 0.4% ± 0.6. RBC fragments correlated weakly with the %MICRO and schistocyte ratio, respectively (r = 0.162 and r = 0.771, respectively), whereas the Revised %MICRO correlated strongly with the schistocyte ratio (r = 0.893). Conclusion : The Revised %MICRO appears to be a good surrogate of the schistocyte ratio in a clinical setting