Unilateral Retroorbital Pain Secondary to Isolated Sphenoid Sinus Aspergillosis

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全身麻酔下の患者の血漿サブスタンスP濃度 : 術後嘔気・嘔吐の有用な指標となる

Background: This study investigated plasma concentrations of substance P (SP) in patients undergoing general anesthesia (GA) and postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). This prospective, observational, cohort study included 23 patients who underwent scheduled surgery under general anesthesia. Blood was collected from the radial artery at predetermined time points (15–30 mins prior anesthesia, 15–30 mins after surgery/GA, and 24 h after surgery). PONV, SP concentrations, risk factors, and analgesics used were measured. Findings: Nine of 23 patients experienced PONV. In patients without PONV, SP concentrations significantly decreased (P < 0.0001) at the end of surgery/GA, compared to baseline, and recovered at 24 h after surgery/GA (452.9 ± 146.2 vs. 666.9 ± 176.5 vs. 580.7 ± 168.6 pg/mL, respectively), whereas SP levels were unchanged during surgery/GA and increased at 24 hours after surgery (P = 0.020) in patients with PONV (726.1 ± 167.8 vs. 655.8 ± 168.0 vs. 779.7 ± 220.7 pg/mL, respectively). Conclusions: These finding suggest that SP levels may be utilized as an objective marker for PONV

The synergistic effects of omega-3 fatty acids against 5-fluorouracil-induced mucosal impairment in mice

Background: Anti-cancer pharmaceuticals frequently have adverse side effects on patients such as gastrointestinal involvement limiting their clinical applications. These effects may be controlled by nutritional interventions, however, there are few studies that have shown any mechanistic effects. In this study, we examined effects of diet enhanced with eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-induced intestinal impairment and immunity in mice. Methods: C57Bl6 mice were randomized to control diet, control diet + EPA, control + DHA, control + fish oil, or diet enchanced with DHA/EPA. After seven days of each respective diet, mice, excluding those in the sham group, were treated with 10 mg/kg/day 5-FU for 7 days. The effects of 5-FU-induced impairment in the small intestine were assessed using cytokine concentrations in serum and tissue, secretory immunoglobulin (Ig) A, diamine oxidase (DAO) activity, the length of the small intestine, and the expression of apoptosis signaling genes. Results: The EPA/DHA-enhanced diet resulted in the most beneficial, synergystic and protective effect against 5-FU induced weight loss. Protection against inflammation, impaired intestinal function, and immunity of the small intestine were also observed. Individually, a DHA-enriched diet demonstrated a protective effect against 5-FU damage with longer small intestine mucosal and crypt lengths, greater DAO activity, and higher IgA concentrations, whereas the EPA-enriched diet resulted in decreased inflammatory cytokine concentrations in both plasma and small intestine and expression of apoptosis target genes. Conclusions: In conclusion, a diet enhanced with EPA and DHA results in synergism protecting against the detrimental effects of 5-FU and limiting chemotherapy induced mucosal impairment

Postoperative assessment after AVR and TAVI

Background and aims : Severe aortic stenosis (AS) has been normally treated with surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) whereas recently, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has been introduced as a minimally invasive operation for patients with high surgical risk and frailty. In this study, we have evaluated postoperative physical function and nutrition intake in the patients following AVR and TAVI. Methods : This prospective observational study involved 9 patients with surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) and 7 patients with transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Body composition was measured one day prior surgery, postoperative day (POD) 1, POD 3, POD 5 and POD 7. Hand grip strength, calf circumference and gait speed were measured one day before surgery and on the day of discharge. Results : Skeletal muscle was significantly decreased in AVR patients at postoperative day 3 and 7, while there was no change in TAVI patients. Patients with TAVI showed higher dietary intake after surgery compared to patients with AVR, and they maintained hand grip strength and calf circumference at discharge. Conclusions : In elderly patients with AS, TAVI can improve post-operative recovery maintaining nutritional status and physical function even

New Approach to Teaching Japanese Pronunciation in the Digital Era - Challenges and Practices

Pronunciation has been a black hole in the L2 Japanese classroom on account of a lack of class time, teacher\u2019s confidence, and consciousness of the need to teach pronunciation, among other reasons. The absence of pronunciation instruction is reported to result in fossilized pronunciation errors, communication problems, and learner frustration. With an intention of making a contribution to improve such circumstances, this paper aims at three goals. First, it discusses the importance, necessity, and e ectiveness of teaching prosodic aspects of Japanese pronunciation from an early stage in acquisition. Second, it shows that Japanese prosody is challenging because of its typological rareness, regardless of the L1 backgrounds of learners. Third and finally, it introduces a new approach to teaching L2 pronunciation with the goal of developing L2 comprehensibility by focusing on essential prosodic features, which is followed by discussions on key issues concerning how to implement the new approach both inside and outside the classroom in the digital era

2017 年度臨地実習におけるルーブリックを用いた看護技術到達度の学生自己評価の報告

報告Reports　学生が卒業までに修得すべき看護技術について、技術内容の評価基準を明確化したルーブリックによる質的な評価表を作成した。学生がルーブリックによる自己評価を記録し教員と共有するICT システムを作成し、臨地実習にて学生の技術到達度の確認と指導に活用した。現状の教育内容の成果と課題を明確にするために、2017 年度秋セメスターから2018 年度春セメスターに行われた臨地実習期間に入力された自己評価データを集計し、学生の技術修得状況を確認した。結果からは、臨地実習や学内演習での繰り返しの実践によって高い到達度評価が得られている技術項目が存在する一方で、臨地実習での実践や経験の機会が限られる項目に関しては、評価のレベルが上がらない傾向がみられた。また臨地実習を進めながらの142 項目の技術評価は学生・教員とも負担が大きく、自己評価の更新頻度を向上させ学生の実態を客観的に把握するためには技術項目の精選による絞り込みが必要と考えられる

Usefulness of Combined Screening with Conventional Procedure and Screening Mammography in the Detection of Breast Cancer : Results from the Mass Survey for Breast Cancer in Kumamoto Prefecture

The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of combined screening with conventional procedure and screening mammography by comparing a number and detection rate of breast cancers between conventional procedure without (CP group) and with screening mammography (MMG group) performed in Kumamoto prefecture from 1999 to 2005

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection