Search

Takashi Ono,1,2 Katsuhito Kinoshita,1 Takuya Iwasaki,1 Yosai Mori,1 Ryohei Nejima,1 Yasuko Nakamura,3 Shiro Amano,4 Makoto Aihara,2 Kazunori Miyata1 1Miyata Eye Hospital, Miyakonojo, Miyazaki, Japan; 2Department of Ophthalmology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; 3Kagoshima Miyata Eye Clinic, Kagoshima, Japan; 4Inouye Eye Hospital, Tokyo, JapanCorrespondence: Takashi OnoMiyata Eye Hospital, 6-3, Kuraharacho, Miyakonojo, Miyazaki 885-0051, JapanTel +81-986-22-1441Fax +81-986-24-2174Email taono-tky@umin.ac.jpPurpose: To investigate the clinical courses of patients with corneal endothelial dysfunction due to Gomphocarpus physocarpus milky latex-induced injury.Patients and methods: In this retrospective case series, we included consecutive patients who visited Miyata Eye Hospital or Kagoshima Miyata Eye Clinic between October 2010 and August 2017 and had corneal edema caused by G. physocarpus milky latex-induced injury. Patient information and data on central corneal thickness (CCT), corneal endothelial cell density (ECD), best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and treatment were retrospectively reviewed.Results: Five eyes of four patients were included. The mean age was 79.0 ± 7.1 years. All patients complaining of symptoms visited the hospital 1 or 2 days after the injury. All patients had corneal edema; two of the five eyes showed hyperemia, whereas none showed corneal epithelial defect or blepharitis. The mean CCT was 699.8 ± 95.9 μm at the first visit and decreased to 563.2 ± 74.0 μm 1 week after the injury with treatment with topical steroids and antibiotics. The mean ECD and BCVA were 2695.8 ± 191.3 cells/mm2 and 0.22 ± 0.19 at the first visit and 2826.0 ± 132.9 cells/mm2 and 0.10 ± 0.09 one week after the injury, respectively.Conclusion: G. physocarpus caused transient dysfunction of the corneal endothelium and thereby, corneal edema. Accurate diagnosis with history taking is important to ascertain the types of plants the patient has touched and to exclude other possible diagnoses.Keywords: Asclepias physocarpus, corneal endothelial dysfunction, corneal edema, plant toxin

Takashi Nakamura, Masanobu Okayama, Masakazu Aihara, Eiji KajiiCenter for Community Medicine, Jichi Medical University, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, JapanBackground: Unintentional injury is a major cause of death across the globe. The accessibility to emergency medical services may affect the rate of preventable trauma deaths. The purpose of this study was to analyze the accessibility to emergency medical hospitals in municipalities in Japan and to clarify whether accessibility was associated with the mortality rate attributed to unintentional injuries.Methods: An observational epidemiological study was conducted in all 1,742 municipalities in Japan. Measurements assessed were population size, accessibility to emergency hospitals, and mortality rates attributed to unintentional injuries. Accessibility of each municipality to their nearest emergency hospital was calculated with a computer simulation using a geographic information system. After calculating demographic statistics and the Gini coefficient of accessibility, multivariate analyses were used to examine the correlation between accessibility time and mortality. Municipalities were divided into six groups according to accessibility time, and we then performed a correlation analysis between accessibility time and mortality using analysis of covariance.Results: The median time of accessibility to emergency hospitals was 34.5 minutes. The Gini coefficient of accessibility time was 0.410. A total of 385 municipalities (23.4%) had an accessibility time of over 60 minutes. Accessibility was significantly related to mortality (beta coefficient =0.006; P30 minutes, and the mortality rate in municipalities with an accessibility time of 30–45 minutes was lower than that in municipalities with an accessibility time of 60–90 minutes (P

CoCrPt media with 20 nm thickness are fabricated at low temperatures on plastic disks using Cr and Si[O.sub.2] underlayers and on glass substrates using a Cr underlayer. The fabrication condition is optimized for high coercivity of 2.2 kOe on plastic and 2.4 kOe on glass. The dependence of magnetic properties on Ar pressure and sputtering power of CoCrPt is discussed for the media on plastic disks in comparison with the glass case. The micromagnetic properties such as Barkhausen volume and [Delta]M are discussed. Recording properties of the media on plastic disks deposited under different fabrication conditions are also discussed, and are found to be consistent with micromagnetic properties. Index Terms - Magnetic Recording Media, Micromagnetics, Plastic Substrates, Recording Performance.

Serum thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC/CCL17) may be useful to predict the disease activity in patients with bullous pemphigoid Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is one of the most common autoimmune bullous diseases that occasionally demonstrates relapse during the clinical course.1 However, the predictive markers for BP that are clinically equivalent to or more useful than the anti-BP180 Abs titre remain to be established.2,3 In this study, we analysed serum levels of multiple cytokines and TARC in BP patients to identify the predictive markers reflecting disease activity. Therefore, we further chronologically evaluated the fluctuation of TARC levels and anti-BP180 Abs titres on disease activity during the clinical course in 4 BP patients with relapse (Fig. [Extracted from the article]