Search

We examined quality-of-life (QOL) of patients with a prospective comparison of multiple daily insulin injections therapy (16 patients in MDI group) and continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion therapy (12 patients in CSII group) using insulin lispro (LP), which was switched from short-acting insulin on the basis of a questionnaire about insulin-therapy-related QOL measure (ITR-QOL). The overall score of ITR-QOL before using LP in the CSII group was significantly higher (P<0.02) than the MDI group. In four subscales of ITR-QOL, the scores of social and daily activities and of therapy-related feelings in the CSII group were significantly higher (P<0.02) than those in the MDI group, respectively, while there was no significant difference in the score of physical function between the two groups. Three months after using LP, the score of daily activities in the MDI group was significantly higher (P<0.02) than that before using LP, while there were no significant differences in other scores of the two groups. There were no significant differences in HbA1c between two groups before and after using LP. The frequency of hypoglycemic events in the MDI group before using LP was higher than that in the CSII group and decreased after using LP. These results show that QOL of patients treated by CSII is superior to that treated by MDI and demonstrate that insulin lispro has a more beneficial effect on daily activities in patients treated by MDI than short-acting insulin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:Partner of SLD5 1 (PSF1) is an evolutionarily conserved DNA replication factor. Previous studies have suggested that transcriptional activity of the PSF1 gene correlated with malignancy of cancer cells. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the relationship between PSF1 expression and the clinical features of prostate cancer.Methods:We determined the expression of PSF1 in 120 needle biopsy samples of prostate cancer by immunohistochemistry. We divided patients into PSF1-positive or -negative groups and analyzed the relationships between the expression of PSF1, the Gleason score, PSA level, TNM classification and prognosis.Results:Our results showed that the PSF1 expression correlated significantly with PSA values at diagnosis (P=0.0028), with tumor grade (P<0.0001), and with clinical stage (P=0.0005). Moreover, the PSF1 expression correlated significantly with overall survival (hazard ratio (HR) 5.5; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.17-15.8; P=0.003) and progression-free survival in 99 consecutive patients with prostate cancer. Noteworthy, the prognosis of PSF1-positive cases was also worse in patients with a Gleason score of 8-10 (HR 3.7; 95% CI 1.28-13.43; P=0.0143). Limitations include that this study had a retrospective design, that patients in the study were heterogeneous and included those with early and advanced cancer, and that small tumor fragments may not be representative of the entire carcinoma.Conclusions:PSF1 is expressed in high-grade prostate cancer and may be a useful biomarker to identify patients with a poor prognosis at the time of diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic alcohol consumption is known to be a major risk factor for cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract. The incidence of esophageal cancer (4.4%) in alcoholics is reported to be much higher than that in the Japanese population as a whole (0.0001%). This suggests the presence of specific factors in chronic alcohol consumption-related carcinogenesis. Recently, data showing a significant correlation between Streptococcus anginosus and carcinogenesis in the upper aerodigestive tract have been reported. In this study, the ratio of S. anginosus to oral bacteria in the saliva of 38 alcoholic patients was investigated to determine if there is an association between alcoholic patients and S. anginosus infection. The level of S. anginosus in the saliva from 22 healthy people, 41 esophageal cancer patients, 32 gastritis patients, and 24 periodontitis patients was also investigated and compared to the level in alcoholic patients. In the saliva from esophageal cancer patients, the level of S. anginosus was not significantly different from that of healthy people. The levels of S. anginosus in periodontitis and gastritis patients were also similar. In alcoholics, however, there was an extremely high level of S. anginosus, suggesting that they, rather than healthy people and general esophageal cancer patients, have a high risk for S. anginosus infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the International index of Erectile Function in patients and healthy controls to evaluate the erectile function in male renal failure patients with hemodialysis. Evaluation of the prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) using the erectile function score; Classification of the severity of ED; Univariate logistic regression analysis.