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Purpose: To observe the current situation of tuberculosis and its control measures in hemodialysis facilities in Chiba Prefecture, Japan., Method: Questionnaires on medical dialysis and tuberculosis were sent to hemodialysis facilities in Chiba Prefecture., Results: The questionnaires were answered by 55 of 127 facilities. Of the respondents, 46 (83.6%) were not aware of the recommendation of treatment for latent tuberculosis infections in Japanese patients. Moreover, 30 (54.5%) facilities did not examine patients for tuberculosis prior to the initiation of hemodialysis. Of the 21 facilities that did assess patients for tuberculosis infection, only 5 (23.8%) performed a tuberculin skin test or QuantiFERON TB-2G. Three of the five (60.0%) that were treating tuberculosis by themselves expressed fear or uncertainty about the diagnosis and treatment of latent tuberculosis infections. During January 2006 through December 2007, tuberculosis patients were detected in 11 facilities, and the proportion of extrapulmonary tuberculosis among these patients was 52.4%. Seven facilities reported that they took no control measures against tuberculosis., Conclusion: It is important to inform medical dialysis facilities about latent tuberculosis infections, the early diagnosis of tuberculosis, and the combination of nosocomial infection control. It is also important for experts in hemodialysis and tuberculosis to work closely together.

Purpose: To examine the clinical problems of died cases with pulmonary tuberculosis., Methods: Clinical findings of 52 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis, who had died in our hospital between April 2005 to March 2007, were analyzed., Results: Mean age was 72.3 10.6 years old, 9 cases (17.3 %) were relapsed, and 35 cases (67.3%) had cavity on the chest X-ray. 34 cases (65.4%) were PS4 and none was PS0 or PS1 on admission. Complications were malignancy in 11 cases, diabetes mellitus in 10 cases, and respiratory diseases in 6 cases. 15 cases (28.8%) were treated with drugs including INH, RFP and PZA, 14 cases (26.9%) with drugs including INH and RFP, 16 cases (30.8%) with the other drugs, and 7 cases (13.5%) were not able to be administered any drug. 35 cases (67.3%) died of tuberculosis and 17 cases (32.7%) died of non-tuberculous conditions., Conclusion: Many died cases were under very poor general condition, needed frequent care, had many kind of complications and had difficulty with standard treatment on admission. Tuberculous death were observed highly, but death by complications were observed in many cases. It is necessary to control complications and enlighten society and docters about importance of early diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis continuously.

A 79-year-old man with past history of thoracoplasty due to pulmonary tuberculosis visited a general clinic complaining of left back pain and left axillary tumor. As the pus of tumor aspirated was positive for PCR-TB, the patient was diagnosed as pericostal tuberculosis and introduced to our hospital. At first, the operation was considered, but the patient had high risk for the operation because he was old and low body weight and the lesion of tuberculosis in his thorax was very extensive. Anti-tuberculous drugs were administrated and exclusion of pus by needle aspiration was repeated. After starting the treatment, the size of tumor had reduced guradually. Pericostal tuberculosis should be taken into consideration in case of pericostal mass with past history of tuberculosis, and the method of treatment should be decided with considering patient's condition.

A 71-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of systemic edema and exertional dyspnea. Chest radiographs revealed infiltrative shadows in both lung fields, pleural effusion, and pericardial effusion. Seven years before, he had undergone gastric surgery for a gastric ulcer with lymphoid hyperplasia. In the pathologic diagnosis based on the percutaneous lung biopsy, hyalinizing granuloma was suspected. For a more thorough diagnosis, the patient was subjected to an open lung biopsy, and the final diagnosis was low-grade B-cell lymphoma of the MALT (mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue) type. Gallium scintigraphy showed accentuated accumulation in the left neck and hypothyroidism was present. Histologic re-examination of the resected stomach revealed infiltration of centrocyte-like cells and lymphoepithelial lesions, compatible with the pathologic features of MALT lymphoma. We considered that the gastric neoplasm and the pulmonary, pleural, and thyroid tumors of MALT lymphoma had occurred seven years apart in this case. Thyroid hormone replacement and CHOP therapy improved the symptoms and decreased the lung tumor size by 73%. MALT lymphomas tend to remain localized for a long period. The multiorgan involvement seen in this case is rather rare.

Estimation of the contact angle on a moving contact line is one of the important factors for the prediction of the liquid surface geometry contacting with solid. In this study the dynamic contact angle on an accelerating vertical glass rod is investigated both experimentally and numerically to elucidate the effect of the acceleration of the contact line. The experiment was held by using ethylene-glycol and its aqueous solution as test fluid. The measured contact angle in the transient state clearly deviated from that for the steady state, depending on the acceleration of the rod. Numerical simulation shows that the acceleration and the gravity terms in the momentum equation, which are relatively remarkable in macroscopic scale, are not responsible for such deviation in the contact angle. Rather, the dependence of the microscopic contact angle on the acceleration, estimated with the viscous bending model, should be the primary factor on the deviation of the contact angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]