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For becoming a talented pharmacist at a health support pharmacy, the practitioner must obtain ability in two significant skill sets: "Technical skill" and "Non-technical skill". Technical skills are that required for a pharmacist's specialty/expertise, such as a wide variety of specialized knowledge and techniques. Non-technical skills are those required for effective communication and cooperation with patients, as well as with professionals from multiple fields, and also leadership/problem-solving ability within a team. Therefore, technical skill and non-technical skill go hand-in-hand like the two wheels on an axle. In a community-based integrated care system, medical professionals are expected to support a patient's overall health more effectively, even extending into his/her private life. In order to enable pharmacists to expand their scope of activity and fully execute their expertise, Yakugaku Seminar Lifelong Learning Center supports pharmacists from the standpoint of education with various themes, for example: the simulated experience of doctor conducting patient education and formulation on a daily basis, learning a basic way of thinking when clinical decisions are made for a patient nearby, mature decision making by combining vital signs, communication that takes into consideration a patient's background, and improved communication or problem-solving abilities within a broader team.

ObjectivesIn this study, a comparative study between primers from Japan’s and US’s disease control centers was conducted. As further investigation, virus sequence alignment with primers’ oligonucleotide was analyzed.Design or methods11,652 samples from Japanese population were tested for SARS-CoV-2 positive using recommended RT-PCR primer-probe sets from Japan National Institute of Infectious Disease (NIID) and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).ResultsOf the 102 positive samples, 17 samples (16.7% of total positives) showed inconsistent results when tested simultaneously for the following primers: JPN-N2, JPN-N1, CDC-N1, and CDC-N2. As a result, CDC recommended primer-probe sets showed relatively higher sensitivity and accuracy. Further virus sequence alignment analysis showed evidences for virus mutation happening at primer’s binding sites.ConclusionsThe inconsistency in the RT-PCR results for JPN-N1, JPN-N2, CDC-N1, and CDC-N2 primer-probe sets could be attributed to differences in virus mutation at primers’ binding site as observed in sequence analysis. The use of JPN-N2 combined with CDC-N2 primer produces the most effective result to reduce false negatives in Japan region. In addition, adding CDC-N1 will also help to detect false negatives.

Rationale: Approximately 10% of the patients with asthma are complicated with eosinophilic otitis media (EOM). Although pathogenesis of EOM is supposed to be associated with local production of Th2 cytokines, as with allergic asthma, the relationship between asthma and EOM remains unclear. We therefore investigated the clinical features of asthma patients with EOM and the effect of omalizumub therapy. Method: Of 41 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis were included in this study, 14 patients revealed to have EOM based on full examinations by otolaryngologists, and 27 patients did not have EOM. We compared these two groups in terms of age, sex, atopic factors, smoking history, severity of asthma, pulmonary function and lung image findings including airway wall thickness based on high-resolution CT. In addition, we studied the effect of omalizumab on asthma with EOM. Results: There were no significant differences between two groups in terms of age, sex, atopic factors and the level of serum IgE. Asthma severity, the number of blood eosinophils, Brinkman index and airway wall thickness were each significantly greater in patients with EOM than in those without EOM. Treatment with omalizumab at least for 4 months caused improvements in symptoms of both asthma and EOM. Conclusions: These results suggest that smoking, in concert with eosinophilic airway inflammation, and the resultant airway wall thickness possibly play roles in the pathogenesis of EOM with asthma. Thus, cessation of smoking might be important in preventing development of EOM, and furthermore, early initiation of omalizumab therapy seems to inhibit progression of both diseases.

Objective.To assess anxiety among pediatric patients and their parents related to initial gastrointestinal endoscopy.Methods.Patients aged Results.The subjects were 128 children, aged 1 month to 17 years. Forty-eight patients (37.5%) underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), 32 (25%) underwent colonoscopy (CS), 39 (30.5%) underwent both EGD and CS, 3 (2.3%) underwent balloon enteroscopy (BE), 3 (2.3%) underwent capsule endoscopy (CE), and 3 (2.3%) underwent CE and other endoscopic procedures. In the preendoscopy questionnaire, the most common concerns of the patients and parents before undergoing the procedure were “Pain” (45% of the patients underwent EGD or BE via the oral approach, and 52% of the patients underwent CS or BE via the anal approach) and “Procedural accidents related to the endoscopy” (63% of parents). In the postendoscopy questionnaire, the most common difficulty that patients and parents actually experienced before and after undergoing the procedure was “Hunger.”Conclusion.A preparatory intervention including an explanation regarding specific concerns before initial GI endoscopy, which this study revealed, could reduce anxiety experienced by both pediatric patients and parents.

Organic anion transporters (OAT1 and OAT3) and multidrug resistance-associated proteins (MRP2 and MRP4) play important roles in anionic drug secretion in renal proximal tubules. Changes in the expression of such transporters are considered to affect the tubular secretion of anionic drugs. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the developmental changes in the expression of OAT1, OAT3, MRP2, and MRP4 and their effects on the tubular secretion of drugs. The mRNA level of each transporter was measured by real-time PCR, and the protein expression was evaluated by Western blotting and immunohistochemical analysis. In addition, the tubular secretion of phenolsulfonphthalein (PSP) in infant (postnatal day 14) and adult rats was estimated based on in vivo clearance study. The protein expression of organic anion transporters were very low at postnatal day 0 and gradually increased with age. In postnatal day 14 rats, the expression of OAT1 and OAT3 seemed to be at almost mature levels, while MRP2 and MRP4 seemed to be at immature levels. Immunohistochemical analysis in the kidney of postnatal day 0 rats revealed OATs on the basolateral membrane and MRPs on the brush-border membrane. At postnatal day 0, the distribution of these transporters was restricted to the inner cortical region, while after postnatal day 14, it was identical to that in adult kidney. An in vivo clearance study revealed that the tubular secretion of PSP was significantly lower in postnatal day 14 rats than adult rats. These results indicate that age-dependent changes in organic anion transporter expression affect the tubular secretion of anionic drugs in pediatric patients.

Chlorophyll a was adsorbed to freeze-dried montmorillonite, bentonite, in benzene to form chlorophyll-bentonite conjugate. The adsorption proceeds into two steps; monolayer and multilayer adsorption. The absorption maximum in red region of chlorophyll a shifts to longer wavelength from 660 nm to 678 nm by increasing the amount of chlorophyll a conjugated with bentonite. Chlorophylls in the conjugated state was found to be photo-stable, although chlorophylls free from bentonite took place the marked bleaching by light-illumination.

Analytical conditions for the determination of glucono-δ-lactone in soybean curd by gas chromatography were examined, and a standard method is proposed. The method is shown in Scheme 2.Glucono-δ-lactone is hydrolyzed gradually in aqueous solution, and partially decomposed to gluconic acid, so that glucono-δ-lactone and gluconic acid co-exist in solution. Since glucono-δ-lactone in basic solution is wholly transformed to gluconic acid, it was converted to, and determined as, gluconic acid. The coefficient of variation was 2.36% and the average recovery was 98%.