Case Report Bilateral Endoscopic Medial Maxillectomy for Bilateral Inverted Papilloma

Inverted papilloma (IP) is a benign tumor of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses that is unilateral in most cases. Bilateral IP, involving both sides of the nasal cavity and sinuses, is extremely rare. This paper describes a large IP that filled in both sides of the nasal cavity and sinuses, mimicking association with malignancy. The tumor was successfully treated by bilateral endoscopic medial maxillectomy (EMM). The patient is without evidence of the disease 24 months after surgery. If preoperative diagnosis does not confirm the association with malignancy in IP, endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) should be selected, and ESS, including EMM, is a good first choice of the treatment for IP

チュートリアル キョウイク ノ カイゼン ニ カンスル ケンキュウ : チュートリアル キョウイク ドウニュウ ノ タメ ノ ガクセイ ワークショップ ノ シコウ ト ソノ セイカ

チュートリアル教育は、少人数グループにチューターが付いて学生の自主的な学習を指導・促進す る学習方法である。徳島大学医学部医学科では2001 年から導入して、3 年生の9 月から4 年生12 月まで の47 週間行なっている。2004 年度で4 年目を迎えるが、学生が教員に学習課題を少なめに出して早く終 了する傾向もみられ始めた。われわれは、こうした傾向を憂い、グループ学習の楽しさを体験させてから チュートリアル学習を開始する方が、好ましい学習態度を形成できるのではないかと考え、3 年生の7 月 に従来の2 時間程度の説明会以外に4 時間かけて「沖縄旅行計画」を作る学生ワークショップを行なった。 この結果、前年度の学生よりも、このチュートリアル学習に対する好感度・有用感などが高くなり、グル ープ学習時間も増加して、この導入プログラムの有効性を示唆した。New curriculum of the school of medicine, the University of Tokushima included 47-week PBL-tutorial hybrid program started in 2001.To improve their learning skill and attitude, and to introduce a new learning style of PBL-tutorial to students smoothly, we held a half day student workshop. The content of workshop is of making tour plans for a family who had relationship problems among family members. Twelve groups with eight students respectively competed and evaluated each other, and all students enjoyed working as groups. The efficacy of this introductory program was evaluated with questionnaire and their study time of group learning between this year and last year students. Impression and feeling of usefulness toward PBL-tutorial was improved, and time of group study increased this year. Results suggested usefulness of this introductory program. We will continue the evaluation of this program

A Case of Perforated Sigmoid Diverticulitis in Which Gram Staining of Ascitic Fluid Was Useful for Diagnosis

An 85-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for steroid therapy for relapsing nephrotic syndrome. During hospitalization, she complained of sudden epigastric pain at night. Although there were signs of peritoneal irritation, CT showed a large amount of ascitic fluid, but no free intraperitoneal gas. Gram staining of ascitic fluid obtained by abdominal paracentesis showed Gram-negative rods, which raised a strong suspicion of gastrointestinal perforation and peritonitis. Therefore, emergency surgery was performed. Exploration of the colon showed multiple sigmoid diverticula, one of which was perforated. The patient underwent an emergency Hartmann's procedure. Imaging studies failed to reveal any evidence of gastrointestinal perforation, presenting a diagnostic challenge. However, a physician performed rapid Gram staining of ascitic fluid at night when laboratory technicians were absent, had a strong suspicion of gastrointestinal perforation, and performed emergency surgery. Gram staining is superior in rapidity, and ascitic fluid Gram staining can aid in diagnosis, suggesting that it should be actively performed. We report this case, with a review of the literature on the significance of rapid diagnosis by Gram staining

Qualitative investigation of the factors that generate ambivalent feelings in women who give birth after receiving negative results from non-invasive prenatal testing

Background: Women who receive negative results from non-invasive prenatal genetic testing (NIPT) may find that they later have mixed or ambivalent feelings, for example, feelings of accepting NIPT and regretting undergoing the test. This study aimed to investigate the factors generating ambivalent feelings among women who gave birth after having received negative results from NIPT. Methods: A questionnaire was sent to women who received a negative NIPT result, and a contents analysis was conducted focusing on ambivalent expressions for those 1562 women who responded the questionnaire. The qualitative data gathered from the questionnaire were analyzed using the N-Vivo software package. Results: Environmental factors, genetic counseling-related factors, and increased anticipatory anxiety, affected the feeling of ambivalence among pregnant women. Furthermore, pregnant women desired more information regarding the detailed prognosis for individuals with Down syndrome and living with them and/or termination, assuming the possibility that they were positive. Conclusions: Three major interrelated factors affected the feeling of ambivalence in women. Highlighting and discussing such factors during genetic counseling may resolve some of these ambivalences, thereby enhancing the quality of decisions made by pregnant women

Effect of extracted garlic powder ingestion for two months on exercise-induced immunological responses

Introduction. Exhaustive exercise is associated with an increased risk of upper respiratory tract infection. Previously, allicin supplementation has been reported to reduce the incidence of common cold symptoms and production of exercise-induced interleukin (IL)-6. However, it is not clear if daily ingestion of the edible portion of whole garlic (Allium sativum) alters the exercise-induced immunological response. The present study investigated the effects of extracted garlic powder ingestion for 2 months on immune cell counts, natural killer cell activity (NKCA), as well as changes in cytokines, cortisol, and lactic acid in response to high-intensity cycling exercise. Methods. The present study employed a before-after study design. Six sedentary male participants (age, 22.0±0.3 years) consumed extracted garlic powder for 2 months, and underwent 45 minutes of cycling exercise at 80% of the heart rate reserve once before and once after the supplementation period. A thousand milligrams of extracted garlic powder, comparable to 6 g (1 clove) of raw garlic, was ingested every day. Blood samples were obtained at the following five time points: before exercise, 0 min, 30 min, 60 min, and 120 min after exercise. We measured NKCA, leukocyte counts, neutrophil counts, lymphocyte counts, as well as levels of serum IL-6, IL-10, cortisol, and lactic acid. Repeated measures ANOVA was used for statistical analyses. When interaction effects were significant, measurement values at the various time points were compared between pre- and post-supplementation period using the paired t-test. Changes were deemed statistically significant when p\u3c0.05. Results. We observed no significant difference in pre-exercise measurements between pre- and post-supplementation periods. In addition, we found no significant interaction effect for leukocytes, neutrophils, NKCA, IL-10, and cortisol. However, we did identify a significant interaction effect for lymphocytes, IL-6, and lactic acid (p=0.033, p=0.030, and p\u3c0.001, respectively). Lymphocyte counts were significantly lower post-supplementation relative to pre-supplementation immediately after exercise (p=0.014). In addition, IL-6 was significantly lower post-supplementation relative to pre-supplementation immediately and 30 minutes after exercise (p=0.015 and p=0.018, respectively). Lactic acid levels were significantly lower post-supplementation relative to pre-supplementation immediately after exercise (p=0.018). Conclusions. The extracted garlic powder did not significantly influence exercise-induced responses by leukocytes, neutrophils, NKCA, IL-10, or cortisol. However, exercise-induced responses by lymphocytes, IL-6, and lactic acid were suppressed after ingestion of extracted garlic powder. Thus, daily ingestion of the edible portion of whole garlic may suppress exercise-induced immunological responses and lactic acid levels

The 2nd DBCLS BioHackathon: interoperable bioinformatics Web services for integrated applications

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The interaction between biological researchers and the bioinformatics tools they use is still hampered by incomplete interoperability between such tools. To ensure interoperability initiatives are effectively deployed, end-user applications need to be aware of, and support, best practices and standards. Here, we report on an initiative in which software developers and genome biologists came together to explore and raise awareness of these issues: BioHackathon 2009.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Developers in attendance came from diverse backgrounds, with experts in Web services, workflow tools, text mining and visualization. Genome biologists provided expertise and exemplar data from the domains of sequence and pathway analysis and glyco-informatics. One goal of the meeting was to evaluate the ability to address real world use cases in these domains using the tools that the developers represented. This resulted in i) a workflow to annotate 100,000 sequences from an invertebrate species; ii) an integrated system for analysis of the transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) enriched based on differential gene expression data obtained from a microarray experiment; iii) a workflow to enumerate putative physical protein interactions among enzymes in a metabolic pathway using protein structure data; iv) a workflow to analyze glyco-gene-related diseases by searching for human homologs of glyco-genes in other species, such as fruit flies, and retrieving their phenotype-annotated SNPs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Beyond deriving prototype solutions for each use-case, a second major purpose of the BioHackathon was to highlight areas of insufficiency. We discuss the issues raised by our exploration of the problem/solution space, concluding that there are still problems with the way Web services are modeled and annotated, including: i) the absence of several useful data or analysis functions in the Web service "space"; ii) the lack of documentation of methods; iii) lack of compliance with the SOAP/WSDL specification among and between various programming-language libraries; and iv) incompatibility between various bioinformatics data formats. Although it was still difficult to solve real world problems posed to the developers by the biological researchers in attendance because of these problems, we note the promise of addressing these issues within a semantic framework.</p

ムシュウ ニンニク 2カゲツカン ノ セッシュ ハ ウンドウ ユウハツセイ IL-6 ジョウショウ ヲ ヨクセイ スル：ゼンゴ ヒカク シケン

ニンニクに含まれるアリシンはヒトで運動誘発性インターロイキン（IL）6産生を抑制することが報告されている。しかし，アリシンは特有の強い臭気を持つため，実生活を考えると日常的に使用することが難しい。我々はそこで，無臭ニンニク（odorless garlic ; OG）2か月間摂取が運動誘発性IL-6産生と他の免疫応答を減弱する可能性について検討することを目的とした。日頃からあまり活動的でない6名の健康な男性（22.0±0.7歳）を対象に一日当たり1 gのOGを2か月間にわたって摂取させた。研究での運動負荷条件は推定最大心拍数の80％強度の自転車運動とし，45分間実施した。運動負荷は，実験開始前（control群 ; CON-Ex）とニンニク摂取2か月後（odorless garlic supplementation and exercise群 ; OG-Ex）に実施した。血液サンプルは運動負荷を行う前，運動負荷直後（0 min），30分後，60分後に採取し，IL-6，IL-10，白血球数，好中球数，リンパ球数，Natural Killer Cell Activity （NKCA），コルチゾールを測定した。運動負荷前から運動負荷60分後までの上昇曲線下面積（iAUC）を算出し，統計解析には繰り返しのある二元配置分散分析（ANOVA）およびHolm’s methodを用いた対応のあるt検定を行った。運動負荷前の生化学値にはCON-ExとOG-Exの間に有意な差は見られなかった。運動負荷後の白血球数，好中球数，リンパ球数，NKCA，IL-10，およびコルチゾールに交互作用は見られなかったものの，IL-6には交互作用が見られた（p＝0.011）。OG-Ex 群の運動誘発性IL-6 iAUC値はCON-Ex群に比べて有意な低下がみられた（CON-Ex, 82.5±12.2 min･pg/mL ; OG-Ex, 55.5±14.2 min･pg/mL ; p＝0.018）。今回の結果は2か月間のOG摂取が運動誘発性IL-6上昇を抑制するという仮説を支持する結果となった。しかしながら，OG摂取は他の免疫指標に影響を及ぼすことはなかった。OG摂取が運動誘発性の免疫機能に及ぼす影響については，今後のさらなる研究が必要である。Allicin, which is a primary compound in crushed garlic, inhibits exercise-induced interleukin (IL)-6 production in humans. However, the daily use of crushed garlic or stabilized allicin is not practical due to the strong odor of allicin. We therefore investigated the possibility that odorless garlic (OG) supplementation for 2 months attenuates exercise-induced IL-6 and other immunological responses. Six healthy untrained men (aged 22.0±0.7 years) consumed 1 g of OG per day for 2 months. Participants underwent two 45-min periods of acute cycling exercise at 80% intensity of heart rate reserve (HRR). The first period was at baseline (control exercise ; CON-Ex) and the second after 2 months of OG supplementation (odorless garlic supplementation and exercise ; OG-Ex). To assess levels of IL-6, IL-10, leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes, Natural Killer Cell Activity (NKCA) and cortisol, blood samples were collected before and immediately (0 min), and 30 and 60 min after each 45-min period of exercise. Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and paired t-test with Holm’s method were performed, and the incremental area under the curve (iAUC) from before to 60 min after exercise was calculated. No significant differ­ences in the pre-exercise levels of biochemical indices were observed between the CON-Ex and OG-Ex assessments. No significant interaction effects were observed in exercise-induced changes in leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes, NKCA, IL-10, or cortisol. A significant interaction effect was observed in exercise-induced changes in IL-6 (p＝0.011). OG consumption also significantly decreased the iAUC of IL-6 (CON-Ex, 82.5±12.2 min･pg/mL ; OG-Ex, 55.5±14.2 min･pg/mL ; p＝0.018). Our findings support the hypothesis that two months of OG supplementation attenuates exercise-induced increases in IL-6 levels among untrained men. However, OG did not exert a similar effect on other immunological parameters. Further study is required to clarify the effect of OG on exercise-induced activation of the immune system

BioHackathon series in 2011 and 2012: penetration of ontology and linked data in life science domains

The application of semantic technologies to the integration of biological data and the interoperability of bioinformatics analysis and visualization tools has been the common theme of a series of annual BioHackathons hosted in Japan for the past five years. Here we provide a review of the activities and outcomes from the BioHackathons held in 2011 in Kyoto and 2012 in Toyama. In order to efficiently implement semantic technologies in the life sciences, participants formed various sub-groups and worked on the following topics: Resource Description Framework (RDF) models for specific domains, text mining of the literature, ontology development, essential metadata for biological databases, platforms to enable efficient Semantic Web technology development and interoperability, and the development of applications for Semantic Web data. In this review, we briefly introduce the themes covered by these sub-groups. The observations made, conclusions drawn, and software development projects that emerged from these activities are discussed

Bilateral Endoscopic Medial Maxillectomy for Bilateral Inverted Papilloma

Inverted papilloma (IP) is a benign tumor of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses that is unilateral in most cases. Bilateral IP, involving both sides of the nasal cavity and sinuses, is extremely rare. This paper describes a large IP that filled in both sides of the nasal cavity and sinuses, mimicking association with malignancy. The tumor was successfully treated by bilateral endoscopic medial maxillectomy (EMM). The patient is without evidence of the disease 24 months after surgery. If preoperative diagnosis does not confirm the association with malignancy in IP, endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) should be selected, and ESS, including EMM, is a good first choice of the treatment for IP