The Uteroglobin Gene G38A Polymorphism Is Not Associated with Kawasaki Disease

This study analyzed the genomic DNA extracted from 170 patients with Kawasaki disease as well as their clinical and laboratory parametersto determine whether uteroglobin gene polymorphism, which may be associated with the morbidity rate and severity of IgA nephropathy, is involvedin the pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease, which is another type of vasculitic syndrome in childhood. The uteroglobin genotype at position38 was determined by Sau96I digestion of PCR products. The uteroglobin genotype and allele frequency in Kawasaki disease patientswere compared with those of published control data reported by three independent studies on Japanese individuals. The clinical parametersinvestigated were age at onset, gender, duration of fever, white blood cell count, C-reactive protein, aspartate aminotransferase, alanineaminotransferase and total protein. No significant difference associated with the uteroglobin genotype was observed in the clinical parameters.The genotypic and allele frequencies at position 38 of the uteroglobin gene did not differ significantly in the three studies of Japanese healthycontrols and the present study. The logistic regression analysis demonstrated that no clinical parameter was associated with the progressionto coronary artery lesions except for the duration of fever (odds ratio = 1.7; 95% confidential interval = 1.42-2.05). In conclusion, the presentstudy failed to prove an association of uteroglobin gene polymorphism with the morbidity rate or the severity of Kawasaki disease, but suggestedthe existence of a factor contributing to the onset of Kawasaki disease and progression to coronary artery lesions in Kawasaki diseasepatients

Feasibility of a new hollow fiber silicone membrane oxygenator for long-term ECMO application

Currently in United States, there are no clinically-applicable hollow fiber extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) oxygenators available. Therefore, our laboratory is in the process of developing a silicone hollow fiber membrane oxygenator for long-term ECMO usage. This oxygenator incorporates an ultrathin silicone hollow fiber. At this time, a specially-modified blood flow distributor (one chamber distributor) is centered in the module to prevent blood stagnation. An ex vivo long-term durability test for ECMO was performed using a healthy miniature calf for 2 weeks. Venous blood was drained from the left jugular vein of a calf, passed through the oxygenator and infused into the left carotid artery using a Gyro C1E3 centrifugal blood pump. A successful 2-week ex vivo experiment was performed. The O2 and CO2 gas transfer rates were maintained at the same value of 40 ml/min at a blood flow rate of 1 L/min flow and V/Q=3 (V=gas flow rate Q=blood flow rate). The plasma free hemoglobin was maintained around 5 mg/dl. After the experiment, no blood clot formation was observed in the module and no abnormal necropsy findings were found. These data suggest that the performance of this newly-improved oxygenator was stable, reliable, and acceptable for long-term ECMO

Annual report by The Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery

All data regarding cardiovascular surgery and thoracic surgery were obtained from NCD, whereas data regarding esophageal surgery were collected from survey questionnaire by The Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery forms because NCD of esophageal surgery does not include non-surgical cases (i.e., patients with adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation alone). Based on the change in data aggregation, there are several differences between this 2015 annual report and previous annual reports: the number of institutions decreased in each category from 578 (2014) to 568 (2015) in cardiovascular, from 762 to 714 in general thoracic and from 626 to 571 in esophageal surgery. Because more than two departments in the same institute registered their data to NCD individually, we cannot calculate correct number of institutes in this survey. Then, the response rate is not indicated in the category of cardiovascular surgery (Table 1), and the number of institutions classified by the operation number is also not calculated in the category of cardiovascular surgery (Table 2)

Real-time observation of X-ray-induced intramolecular and interatomic electronic decay in CH2I2

The increasing availability of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) has catalyzed the development of single-object structural determination and of structural dynamics tracking in realtime. Disentangling the molecular-level reactions triggered by the interaction with an XFEL pulse is a fundamental step towards developing such applications. Here we report real-time observations of XFEL-induced electronic decay via short-lived transient electronic states in the diiodomethane molecule, using a femtosecond near-infrared probe laser. We determine the lifetimes of the transient states populated during the XFEL-induced Auger cascades and find that multiply charged iodine ions are issued from short-lived (similar to 20 fs) transient states, whereas the singly charged ones originate from significantly longer-lived states (similar to 100 fs). We identify the mechanisms behind these different time scales: contrary to the short-lived transient states which relax by molecular Auger decay, the long-lived ones decay by an interatomic Coulombic decay between two iodine atoms, during the molecular fragmentation