Evaluation of Carotid Arterial Intima-Media Thickness (IMT) and Its Relation to Clinical Parameters in Japanese Children

The aim of this study was to evaluate the carotid arterial intima-media thickness (IMT) and its relation to clinical parameters in Japanese children. Fifty-two healthy children (39 boys and 13 girls), aged 6-14 years, were enrolled in this cross-sectional investigation study. IMT of the common carotid artery was determined using ultrasonography. We also investigated anthropometric parameters, blood pressure (BP), lifestyles and blood examinations. The mean value of IMT was 0.4±0.1mm, which was lower than the normal value (1.0mm) in adults. IMT was positively correlated with age (r＝0.340) and height (r＝0.346) in boys, while it was positively correlated with body mass index (BMI) (r＝0.584) and diastolic BP (DBP) (r＝0.563) in girls. In addition, IMT was associated with sleeping hours and hours of watching television (TV) by using stepwise regression analysis. In conclusion, IMT increased with aging, and it was linked to some clinical parameters of atherosclerosis and lifestyles in children. Therefore, this reference data will be helpful for future assessment of age-related change in Japanese children in clinical practice, and IMT might be a good predictor of atherosclerosis in Japanese children

Leveraging Tendon Vibration to Enhance Pseudo-Haptic Perceptions in VR

Pseudo-haptic techniques are used to modify haptic perception by appropriately changing visual feedback to body movements. Based on the knowledge that tendon vibration can affect our somatosensory perception, this paper proposes a method for leveraging tendon vibration to enhance pseudo-haptics during free arm motion. Three experiments were performed to examine the impact of tendon vibration on the range and resolution of pseudo-haptics. The first experiment investigated the effect of tendon vibration on the detection threshold of the discrepancy between visual and physical motion. The results indicated that vibrations applied to the inner tendons of the wrist and elbow increased the threshold, suggesting that tendon vibration can augment the applicable visual motion gain by approximately 13\% without users detecting the visual/physical discrepancy. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that tendon vibration acts as noise on haptic motion cues. The second experiment assessed the impact of tendon vibration on the resolution of pseudo-haptics by determining the just noticeable difference in pseudo-weight perception. The results suggested that the tendon vibration does not largely compromise the resolution of pseudo-haptics. The third experiment evaluated the equivalence between the weight perception triggered by tendon vibration and that by visual motion gain, that is, the point of subjective equality. The results revealed that vibration amplifies the weight perception and its effect was equivalent to that obtained using a gain of 0.64 without vibration, implying that the tendon vibration also functions as an additional haptic cue. Our results provide design guidelines and future work for enhancing pseudo-haptics with tendon vibration.Comment: This paper has been accepted by IEEE TVC

Influence of Cigarette Smoking on Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) in Japanese Male Workers

The link between changes in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and cigarette smoking was evaluated in Japanese male workers with a 5-year follow-up. We examined the data of 456 Japanese male workers, aged 22-70 years, who were taking no medications, and from this group, 286 men (43.5±8.2 years) were followed for 5-years. Habits of cigarette smoking were obtained during interviews by well-trained staff. The influence of cigarette smoking on eGFR was evaluated. In the first analysis, there was no significant difference in eGFR between subjects with and without cigarette smoking. In the second analysis, eGFR was significantly reduced after 5 years in all subjects. Changes in eGFR in subjects with cigarette smoking (－1.90±12.31ml/min/1.73m2) were significantly smaller than those in subjects without cigarette smoking (－4.97±12.05ml/min/1.73m2). At follow-up, we found that eGFR was weakly and negatively correlated with the number of cigarettes smoked (/day). The present study indicated that cigarette smoking may be an important modifiable factor for eGFR in Japanese male workers who are not taking any medications

The Association between Preoperative Blood Pressure Elevations and Postoperative Adverse Outcomes after Non-cardiac Surgery: A Single-center Retrospective Observational Study

Blood pressure (BP) often rises before surgery. This study investigated whether BP elevation immediately before surgery was associated with adverse outcomes. Medical records of 11,732 patients (average age: 61 years; male: 47.4%) who underwent non-cardiac elective inpatient surgery under general anesthesia at Kagawa University Hospital between January 2011 and June 2019 were reviewed. Differences between the first BP values measured on the day before surgery and the first BP values in the operating room were defined as Δ systolic BP (ΔSBP) and Δ diastolic BP (ΔDBP). The relationships between ΔSBP/ΔDBP and 30-day mortality, 30-day readmission, and over-the-standard length of hospital stay (OSLOS) were assessed. OSLOS was defined as a hospital stay longer than mean+2 standard deviations and was calculated using the Japanese Diagnosis Procedure Combination data. In univariate analysis, the differences in ΔSBP and ΔDBP between the OSLOS and standard LOS groups were both 2 mmHg. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, only ΔDBP was associated with OSLOS. The adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for the largest quartile was 1.31 (1.02-1.69) (p<0.05). ΔDBP was associated with OSLOS; however, there may be little need to worry about large ΔSBPs and ΔDBPs in clinical practice

FADDのリン酸化の状態と根治的前立腺全摘除術後の生化学的再発は関連する

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether the phosphorylated Fas-associated death domain protein (FADD) at 194 serine (p-FADD) is valuable as a marker of biochemical recurrence in hormone-naive patients who had undergone radical prostatectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used radical prostatectomy specimens from 106 patients. None of the patients had received neoadjuvant or adjuvant therapy. The percentage of positive p-FADD cells (nuclear staining) was immunohistochemically evaluated. The correlation between FADD phosphorylation and the clinicopathologic parameters was assessed. The correlation between the biochemical recurrence-free rate and the p-FADD expression level was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: Overall, 39 patients developed biochemical recurrence. We investigated the expression of p-FADD in 106 patients with prostate cancer using immunohistochemistry. We compared our findings with the clinicopathologic parameters, including the follow-up data. Patients with a greater positive p-FADD rate had a significantly lower biochemical recurrence rate than those with a lower positive p-FADD rate (P < .001). A significant inverse correlation was found between the positive p-FADD rate and the Gleason score. CONCLUSION: A low expression of p-FADD could be a predictor of biochemical recurrence in hormone-naive patients who have undergone radical prostatectomy.博士（医学）・乙第1313号・平成25年5月29

The New School Absentees Reporting System for Pandemic Influenza A/H1N1 2009 Infection in Japan

Objective: To evaluate the new Japanese School Absentees Reporting System for Infectious Disease (SARSID) for pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009 infection in comparison with the National epidemiological Surveillance of Infectious Disease (NESID). Methods:We used data of 53,223 students (97.7%) in Takamatsu city Japan. Data regarding school absentees in SARSID was compared with that in NESID from Oct 13, 2009 to Jan 12, 2010. Results: Similar trends were observed both in SARSID and NESID. However, the epidemic trend for influenza in SARSID was thought to be more sensitive than that in NESID. Conclusion: The epidemic trend for influenza among school-aged children could be easily and rapidly assessed by SARSID compared to NESID. SARSID might be useful for detecting the epidemic trend of influenza

Extraction of interface stiffness in superlattices : Proposal of the interface elasticity parameter

We develop a methodology to extract the interface stiffness in superlattices using picosecond ultrasound spectroscopy. Ultrafast light pulses excite and detect thickness phonon modes in a five-layered superlattice thin film, consisting of three matrix layers and two ultrathin interlayers. The thickness of interlayer is varied between 2 and 10 -A. We define the interface elasticity parameter as the frequency ratio of two phonon modes, which are sensitive and insensitive to the interface elastic constants, and inversely evaluated the elastic stiffness of the interlayer. It is revealed that the interface in the superlattice thin film is significantly softened.Hirotsugu Ogi, Tomohiro Shagawa, Nobutomo Nakamura and Masahiko Hirao. Extraction of interface stiffness in superlattices : Proposal of the interface elasticity parameter. Applied Physics Express, 2009, 2(10), 105001. https://doi.org/10.1143/APEX.2.105001