Plasma adiponectin as a predictive factor of survival after a bypass operation for peripheral arterial disease

ObjectiveWe investigated an association between adiponectin and long-term survival in patients requiring an arterial bypass operation for peripheral arterial disease.MethodsAn enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit was used to measure plasma adiponectin levels in 49 patients (38 men, 11 women) before they underwent an arterial bypass operation. Median patient age was 70 years (range, 49-90 years). The study excluded patients with hemodialysis requirement, heart failure, malignant neoplasm, or collagen disease. The symptoms at the first visit were severe intermittent claudication in 27 patients (55%) and critical limb ischemia with rest pain or ulcer, or both, in 22 (45%).ResultsPlasma adiponectin levels were a mean 7.8 ± 5.3 μg/mL (range, 1.0-25.2 μg/mL). Multiple regression analyses revealed that plasma adiponectin was positively correlated with age (r = 0.49, P = .0003) and negatively correlated with body mass index (r = −0.51, P = .0002) and systolic blood pressure (r = −0.41, P = .0059). The Cox proportional hazards model revealed that plasma adiponectin (hazard ratio, 1.30; P = .03) and critical limb ischemia (hazard ratio, 16.67; P = .047) were significant independent predictors of patient survival after a bypass operation.ConclusionPlasma adiponectin could be indicative of mortality after a bypass operation for patients with advanced peripheral arterial disease

Intramuscular Adipose Tissue Content Predicts Patient Outcomes after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

移植の成功に重要なのは、「質の良い」筋肉 --コンピュータ断層撮影を用いて評価した骨格筋指標での検討--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-07-12.During clinical courses involving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), multidisciplinary assessments for patients including physical functions are indispensable, and quantitative skeletal muscle loss is a poor prognostic marker. In addition, deteriorating quality of muscle due to intra-muscle adipose tissue degeneration can be important as well, because many patients are cachexic or sarcopenic before allo-HSCT, although this approach has not been employed yet. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the quality, as well as quantity of skeletal muscle using computed tomography (CT). Psoas muscle mass index (PMI) and radiographic density (RD) calculated by cross-sectional area and averaged CT values of the psoas major muscle at the umbilical level were used to determine the quantity and quality of muscle, respectively. In total, 186 adult patients, aged 17-68 years (median, 49) were included in this study, and 46 (24.7%) and 49 (26.3%) patients were assigned to the lower PMI and RG groups. Low RD was identified as an independent risk factor for poor overall survival after allo-HSCT (adjusted hazard ratio 2.54, p<0.01), while PMI was not significant. Decreased RD along with reduced 6-min walking distance before transplantation was also significant factor for increased non-relapse mortality (hazard ratio, 2.69, p=0.01). This study is the first to suggest the use of a qualitative skeletal muscle index to serve as a prognostic indicator following allo-HSCT. RD should be included in pre-transplant screening parameters, and approaches that include rehabilitation focused on improving both muscle quality and quantity may improve the prognosis of allo-HSCT

Risk stratification for the prognosis of patients with chemoresistant urothelial cancer treated with pembrolizumab

The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat urothelial carcinoma (UC) is increasing rapidly without clear guidance for validated risk stratification. This multicenter retrospective study collected clinicopathological information on 463 patients, and 11 predefined variables were analyzed to develop a multivariate model predicting overall survival (OS). The model was validated using an independent dataset of 292 patients. Patient characteristics and outcomes were well balanced between the discovery and validation cohorts, which had median OS times of 10.2 and 12.5 mo, respectively. The final validated multivariate model was defined by risk scores based on the hazard ratios (HRs) of independent prognostic factors including performance status, site of metastasis, hemoglobin levels, and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio. The median OS times (95% confidence intervals [CIs]) for the low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups (discovery cohort) were not yet reached (NYR) (NYR–19.1), 6.8 mo (5.8-8.9), and 2.3 mo (1.2-2.6), respectively. The HRs (95% CI) for OS in the low- and intermediate-risk groups vs the high-risk group were 0.07 (0.04-0.11) and 0.23 (0.15-0.37), respectively. The objective response rates for in the low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups were 48.3%, 28.8%, and 10.5%, respectively. These differential outcomes were well reproduced in the validation cohort and in patients who received pembrolizumab after perioperative or first-line chemotherapy (N = 584). In conclusion, the present study developed and validated a simple prognostic model predicting the oncological outcomes of pembrolizumab-treated patients with chemoresistant UC. The model provides useful information for external validation, patient counseling, and clinical trial design

The ASTRO-H X-ray Observatory

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe via a suite of four instruments, covering a very wide energy range, from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. These instruments include a high-resolution, high-throughput spectrometer sensitive over 0.3-2 keV with high spectral resolution of Delta E < 7 eV, enabled by a micro-calorimeter array located in the focal plane of thin-foil X-ray optics; hard X-ray imaging spectrometers covering 5-80 keV, located in the focal plane of multilayer-coated, focusing hard X-ray mirrors; a wide-field imaging spectrometer sensitive over 0.4-12 keV, with an X-ray CCD camera in the focal plane of a soft X-ray telescope; and a non-focusing Compton-camera type soft gamma-ray detector, sensitive in the 40-600 keV band. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution, will enable the pursuit of a wide variety of important science themes.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation "Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

The Quiescent Intracluster Medium in the Core of the Perseus Cluster

Clusters of galaxies are the most massive gravitationally-bound objects in the Universe and are still forming. They are thus important probes of cosmological parameters and a host of astrophysical processes. Knowledge of the dynamics of the pervasive hot gas, which dominates in mass over stars in a cluster, is a crucial missing ingredient. It can enable new insights into mechanical energy injection by the central supermassive black hole and the use of hydrostatic equilibrium for the determination of cluster masses. X-rays from the core of the Perseus cluster are emitted by the 50 million K diffuse hot plasma filling its gravitational potential well. The Active Galactic Nucleus of the central galaxy NGC1275 is pumping jetted energy into the surrounding intracluster medium, creating buoyant bubbles filled with relativistic plasma. These likely induce motions in the intracluster medium and heat the inner gas preventing runaway radiative cooling; a process known as Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback. Here we report on Hitomi X-ray observations of the Perseus cluster core, which reveal a remarkably quiescent atmosphere where the gas has a line-of-sight velocity dispersion of 164+/-10 km/s in a region 30-60 kpc from the central nucleus. A gradient in the line-of-sight velocity of 150+/-70 km/s is found across the 60 kpc image of the cluster core. Turbulent pressure support in the gas is 4% or less of the thermodynamic pressure, with large scale shear at most doubling that estimate. We infer that total cluster masses determined from hydrostatic equilibrium in the central regions need little correction for turbulent pressure.Comment: 31 pages, 11 Figs, published in Nature July

Second nationwide surveillance of bacterial pathogens in patients with acute uncomplicated cystitis conducted by Japanese Surveillance Committee from 2015 to 2016: antimicrobial susceptibility of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Staphylococcus saprophyticus

The Japanese Surveillance Committee conducted a second nationwide surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of uropathogens responsible for acute uncomplicated cystitis (AUC) in premenopausal patients aged 16–40 years old at 31 hospitals throughout Japan from March 2015 to February 2016. In this study, the susceptibility of causative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus saprophyticus) for various antimicrobial agents was investigated by isolation and culturing of organisms obtained from urine samples. In total, 324 strains were isolated from 361 patients, including E. coli (n = 220, 67.9%), S. saprophyticus (n = 36, 11.1%), and K. pneumoniae (n = 7, 2.2%). The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 20 antibacterial agents for these strains were determined according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) manual. At least 93% of the E. coli isolates showed susceptibility to fluoroquinolones and cephalosporins, whereas 100% of the S. saprophyticus isolates showed susceptibility to fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides. The proportions of fluoroquinolone-resistant and extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing E. coli strains were 6.4% (13/220) and 4.1% (9/220), respectively. The antimicrobial susceptibility of K. pneumoniae was retained during the surveillance period, while no multidrug-resistant strains were identified. In summary, antimicrobial susceptibility results of our second nationwide surveillance did not differ significantly from those of the first surveillance. Especially the numbers of fluoroquinolone-resistant and ESBL-producing E. coli strains were not increased in premenopausal patients with AUC in Japan

Hitomi (ASTRO-H) X-ray Astronomy Satellite

The Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission is the sixth Japanese x-ray astronomy satellite developed by a large international collaboration, including Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. The mission aimed to provide the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E  >  2  keV, using a microcalorimeter instrument, and to cover a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft x-rays to gamma rays. After a successful launch on February 17, 2016, the spacecraft lost its function on March 26, 2016, but the commissioning phase for about a month provided valuable information on the onboard instruments and the spacecraft system, including astrophysical results obtained from first light observations. The paper describes the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission, its capabilities, the initial operation, and the instruments/spacecraft performances confirmed during the commissioning operations for about a month

Hitomi X-Ray Studies of Giant Radio Pulses from the Crab Pulsar

To search for giant X-ray pulses correlated with the giant radio pulses (GRPs) from the Crab pulsar, we performed a simultaneous observation of the Crab pulsar with the X-ray satellite Hitomi in the 2300 keV band and the Kashima NICT radio telescope in the 1.41.7 GHz band with a net exposure of about 2 ks on 2016 March 25, just before the loss of the Hitomi mission. The timing performance of the Hitomi instruments was confirmed to meet the timing requirement and about 1000 and 100 GRPs were simultaneously observed at the main pulse and inter-pulse phases, respectively, and we found no apparent correlation between the giant radio pulses and the X-ray emission in either the main pulse or inter-pulse phase. All variations are within the 2 fluctuations of the X-ray fluxes at the pulse peaks, and the 3 upper limits of variations of main pulse or inter-pulse GRPs are 22% or 80% of the peak flux in a 0.20 phase width, respectively, in the 2300 keV band. The values for main pulse or inter-pulse GRPs become 25% or 110%, respectively, when the phase width is restricted to the 0.03 phase. Among the upper limits from the Hitomi satellite, those in the 4.510 keV and 70300 keV bands are obtained for the first time, and those in other bands are consistent with previous reports. Numerically, the upper limits of the main pulse and inter-pulse GRPs in the 0.20 phase width are about (2.4 and 9.3) 10(exp 11) erg cm(exp 2), respectively. No significant variability in pulse profiles implies that the GRPs originated from a local place within the magnetosphere. Although the number of photon-emitting particles should temporarily increase to account for the brightening of the radio emission, the results do not statistically rule out variations correlated with the GRPs, because the possible X-ray enhancement may appear due to a >0.02% brightening of the pulse-peak flux under such conditions

Monotropastrum humile var. humile is associated with diverse ectomycorrhizal Russulaceae fungi in Japanese forests

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comArticleECOLOGICAL RESEARCH. 23(6):983-993(2008)journal articl