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Urinary sodium-to-potassium ratios are known to be high in preschoolers, but there are no reports comparing these ratios with those of the children's mothers. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the urinary sodium-to-potassium ratios of mothers and their preschool children under the hypothesis that the ratio is equivalent between the two. We evaluated 297 preschoolers aged four to five attending six kindergartens (four in northern Japan, two in southern Japan), and we also evaluated the children's mothers. We asked the participants to take morning first urine samples for 2 consecutive days in the spring and autumn of the same year (four samples per participant) and to fill out a dietary questionnaire. There was a correlation between the urinary sodium-to-potassium ratios of preschoolers and those of their mothers. However, in a comparison between the preschoolers and their mothers overall, higher values were found in the preschoolers [preschoolers: 4.6 (3.5-6.3) mmol/L/g·Cr; mothers: 4.3 (3.9-4.7) mmol/L/g·Cr, p = 0.003]. These results correlated with the urinary sodium-to-potassium ratios estimated from the dietary questionnaire. The preschoolers showed high sodium and low potassium intake consumption compared to the mothers. Interestingly, these were found to differ by region and gender. In conclusion, the urinary sodium-to-potassium ratio in Japanese preschoolers is related to and higher than that of their mothers. It is important to educate children, their parents, childcare professionals, and society as a whole about proper salt restriction and potassium supplementation, as well as to improve the food environment., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Japanese Society of Hypertension.)

The aims of this study were to generate a written notification message using social marketing methods to encourage examinees with abnormal glucose levels to seek medical care and to evaluate the optimized message. A semi-structured interview was conducted among examinees with abnormal glucose levels who had never visited a medical clinic for diagnosis of hyperglycemia. Patients were divided into two segments. A tailored notification letter was developed according to these segments using a social marketing approach. Other examinees were prospectively enrolled as the control group. The tailored notification for Segment 1 included a web code to access a health care provider. Future loss of time and money was emphasized in the message for Segment 2. According to responses in a telephone interview, 654 examinees with abnormal fasting glucose levels in a health checkup were divided into Group 1 ( n  = 178), Group 2 ( n  = 24), and a control group ( n  = 452) and given a tailored or conventional notification letter. The proportion of examinees who actually visited a health care provider in Group 1 (20.8%) was significantly higher than that in the control group (11.1%); no examinees in Group 2 visited a health care provider. Receipt of a tailored notification was a significant factor associated with visiting a health care provider, independent of age, sex, or severity of glucose abnormality (odds ratio 1.77; p  = 0.02). Our results showed that tailored notification developed using a social marketing approach prompted health checkup examinees with abnormal glucose levels to seek medical care., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13340-021-00534-1., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and later versions., (© The Japan Diabetes Society 2021.)

A durable response after the discontinuation of immune checkpoint-inhibitor therapy has previously been reported in several cancers. We herein describe a patient with gastric cancer who maintained a durable response after the discontinuation of nivolumab. A 65-year-old man was treated with nivolumab as a sixth-line therapy for recurrent gastric cancer. After four cycles of nivolumab therapy, he showed a partial response. But the treatment was discontinued when two immune-related adverse events occurred after six cycles. Disease regression was sustained for approximately 2 years, without the re-administration of nivolumab. The characteristics leading to such responses are unclear, and further studies are warranted in this regard.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the incidence of postoperative pneumonia (PP) and surgical site infection (SSI) in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients and clarify the relationship between oral care and postoperative infection., Methods: We conducted a retrospective observation survey based on the medical records of 209 HNC surgery patients managed at a University Hospital in 2016-2018. The incidence of PP and SSI were assessed in patients who underwent operations of the nose and paranasal sinuses to the larynx. Factors associated with PP and SSI in a univariate analysis were included in a multiple logistic regression analysis. A Cox proportional hazards model was used analyze the incidence of PP according to time after surgery. The present study was approved by the ethical review board of our Institute., Results: The rates of PP and SSI in our study population were 20.5% and 23.0%. Operative time (P < 0.01), blood loss (P = 0.004), tracheostomy (P < 0.01), reconstruction (P < 0.01), and preoperative plaque control record (PCR) (P < 0.01) were significantly associated with PP. The PCR depicted the oral hygiene based on the percentage of plaque attached to the tooth neck. A multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that the incidence of PP was significantly higher in patients with PCR values of ≥50% after preoperative oral care (OR=10.174, 95% CI 2.14-48.32, P = 0.004). Tracheostomy (P < 0.01), reconstruction (P = 0.044), a lower preoperative albumin level (P = 0.019), and a lower preoperative hemoglobin level (P < 0.01) were significantly associated with SSI., Conclusions: The incidence of PP among patients who received oral care was high in those patients with high PCR values, indicating the importance of increasing compliance to preoperative oral care., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest in association with the present study., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, the authors measured sodium and potassium concentrations in spot urine samples of preschool children on multiple days, and evaluated individual, daily, and seasonal effects. A total of 104 healthy preschool children aged 4 to 5 years were studied. Urine samples were collected from the first urine of the day after waking for three consecutive days (Monday-Wednesday) four times a year (spring, summer, autumn, winter). The authors estimated the daily urine volume as 500 mL and daily creatinine excretion as 300 mg, and used these to calculate daily sodium and potassium excretion levels. Daily sodium and potassium excretion levels and sodium to potassium ratios were highly variable. The coefficient variant in the children's excretion levels were also high within and between individuals. Sodium excretion levels and sodium to potassium ratios were higher on Monday (weekend sodium intakes) than Tuesday. Season had no effect on sodium or potassium excretion levels, but the sodium to potassium ratio was higher in summer than in winter. In conclusion, levels of urinary sodium excretion are comparatively high and those of potassium are low in preschool students, with high variability within and between individuals., (©2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Background: The use of femoral nerve block (FNB) combined with sciatic nerve block (SNB) after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has recently become controversial. Local infiltration analgesia (LIA) has been reported to be effective for postoperative TKA pain control. We aimed to assess whether LIA with continuous FNB is as effective as SNB combined with continuous FNB., Methods: This was a prospective, randomized, single-center, observer-blinded, parallel group comparison trial of 34 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status 1-3 patients who underwent TKA and fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Patients were randomized into two groups: a periarticular LIA and FNB group (group L, n = 17), and an SNB and FNB group (group S, n = 17). In both groups, participants received FNB with 20 mL of 0.375% ropivacaine, and 5 mL h(-1) of 0.2% ropivacaine after surgery. In group L, participants received 100-ml injections of 0.2% ropivacaine and 0.5 mg epinephrine to the surgical region. In group S, participants received SNB with 20 ml of 0.375% ropivacaine. After TKA, Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) scores for the first 24 h post-operation were compared via repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) as the primary outcome. Other outcome measures included NRS score changes within groups, area under the curve for the NRS scores, total analgesic dose, change in knee flexion and extension, pain control satisfaction, nausea and vomiting, and hospital stay duration., Results: NRS score changes were greater in group L than in group S (P < 0.01, ANOVA) and greater in group L than in group S at three postoperative time points: 3 h (P < 0.01), 6 h (P < 0.01), and 12 h (P = 0.013; Mann-Whitney U test). Changes in the mean NRS score were observed in each group (P < 0.01, Friedman test). No significant differences were detected in the other outcome measures (Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon signed-rank, and chi-squared tests)., Conclusions: Sciatic nerve block with femoral nerve block is superior to local anesthetic infiltration with femoral nerve block for postoperative pain control within 3-12 h of total knee arthroplasty., Trial Registration: UMIN-CTR ID: 000013364 R: 000015591.

Left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC) is a rare congenital cardiomyopathy characterized by heart failure, arrhythmia, and embolic events. A 65-year-old man, previously diagnosed as LVNC, was admitted to the emergency department with severe abdominal pain. He was diagnosed as appendicitis and treated conservatively with antibiotics. The echocardiogram examination showed left ventricular ejection fraction of less than 25%, and his B-type natriuretic peptide assay was > 5,000 pg x ml(-1) on admission. Ten days after admission, he underwent emergency surgery for suspected perforation of vermiform appendix. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) was used for real-time evaluation of cardiac function and restrictive fluid management during surgery. He was transferred to intensive care unit (ICU) for postoperative care, and extubated 16 hours after surgery. On the third postoperative day, he was discharged from ICU without any complications. We consider that perioperative hemodynamic management with TEE may be useful for gastrointestinal tract surgeries in patients with severe cardiac disease, such as LVNC.

We conducted a prospective randomized controlled trial to test the null hypothesis that there is no difference between sciatic nerve block (SNB) and local infiltration of analgesia (LIA) regarding postoperative analgesia after total knee arthroplasty (TKA), when administrated in addition to femoral nerve block (FNB). Forty-six patients scheduled for TKA were randomized into two groups: concomitant administration of FNB and SNB or FNB and LIA. Average pain scores during the first 21days after surgery were similar in the two groups and remained at low level. There was no significant difference in the need for adjuvant analgesics, patient satisfaction level, the time to achieve rehabilitation goals, and length of hospital stay. The LIA offers a potentially safer alternative to SNB as an adjunct to FNB., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

We present a rare case of solitary pulmonary papillary adenoma. A man consulted our hospital because of abnormal chest radiography finding. Chest computed tomography demonstrated a well-defined, homogeneous nodular shadow 11 mm in size at the left lower lobe. The previous physician had considered it to be an old benign inflammatory granuloma and had kept it under observation. This mass was followed through chest radiographs at annual medical checkups for 4 years. In 2006, enlargement and lobulation were noted. We performed thoracoscopic partial resection of the left lower lobe. On postoperative pathology examination, the nodule was found to be a circumscribed nodule consisting of a papillary growth of cuboidal to low-columnar epithelial cells lining the surface of a fibrovascular stroma. The histological features were consistent with pulmonary papillary adenoma. Only 20 cases of pulmonary papillary adenoma have been reported in the literature.

Objective: Although meningism manifesting acute headache has been observed to be associated with common viral and bacterial infections, its definition and pathogenesis have not been clarified. Clinical findings and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cytokines in adult patients with meningism were investigated and compared with those in viral meningitis., Patients and Methods: Among the adult inpatients in our hospital from 1997 to 2004, 5 with meningism and 17 with viral meningitis were identified according to the criteria described in this study, and their clinical data were analyzed. In the CSF samples of the 5 patients with meningism and the 17 with viral meningitis, the concentrations of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-4, IL-6, and IL-10 were determined using a cytometric bead array., Results: The five patients with meningism all showed fever and meningeal signs such as severe headache and nuchal stiffness without CSF pleocytosis (<5 cells/mm3). Four patients were associated with herpetic Kaposi's eczema, herpes simplex, or herpes zoster, and all five patients had favorable outcomes. The levels of all CSF cytokines in patients with meningism were below normal values, whereas IFN-gamma and IL-6 in patients with viral meningitis were moderately elevated., Conclusion: The normal cytokine levels in meningism may possibly reflect the lack of direct viral infection and may be helpful in differentiating both meningism and viral meningitis at an early stage.

A 25-year-old male who had no significant medical history presented abrupt onset of high-grade fever and chills without noticeable trigger. The patient sought for medical attention for subsequently developed dyspnea and chest pain. Radiological examinations revealed bilateral lung peripheral multiple opacities, some of which were cavitating, suggesting of septic pulmonary emboli (SPE). Isolation of Staphylococcus aureus in blood and sputum culture confirmed the diagnosis. Extensive examinations disclosed neither underlying immunocompromising conditions nor infectious foci, which are usually notable in patients with SPE. The present patient illustrates that there are patients with SPE in whom underlying conditions or infectious foci are difficult to determine, and that suspicion of the disease based on characteristic radiological findings is critical for appropriate management in those patients.

To evaluate the usefulness of bronchial lavage for the diagnosis of pulmonary disease due to Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex (MAC) infection, we examined the clinical records and bacteriologic findings of patients admitted to our hospital between 1999 and 2002 who fulfilled the 1997 American Thoracic Society (ATS) criteria for MAC pulmonary infection. Bronchoscopic examinations were performed in those patients with MAC pulmonary disease who showed negative sputum smears for mycobacteria on 3 consecutive days ( n = 14) or who could not expectorate sputum ( n = 2). The bronchial lavage sample was smear-positive for acid-fast bacilli in 8 of the 16 patients (50.0%), polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-positive for MAC in 10 of 15 (66.7%), and culture-positive for MAC in 15 of 16 (93.7%). The brushing sample was positive for MAC in 5 of 14 patients (35.7%), and transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB)-positive for MAC in 2 of 5 (40.0%). MAC was isolated by culture of bronchial lavage samples in a higher percentage of patients than that in whom MAC was isolated by sputum culture, and we could make an early diagnosis of MAC pulmonary disease based on the smear and PCR results for bronchial lavage samples. Bronchial lavage is useful to screen sputum smear-negative patients suspected of having MAC pulmonary disease.

Since a "low-dose and long-term" administration of erythromycin (EM) was reported to be effective in patients with chronic respiratory diseases, including diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB), the modulation of host defense responses by EM has attracted much attention. Despite considerable controversy, it was recently demonstrated that macrolides reduced neutrophil function. In this study, we investigated the effects of EM, a 14-membered ring macrolide, azithromycin (AZM), a 15-membered ring macrolide, and rokitamycin (RKM), a 16-membered ring macrolide, on neutrophil function in terms of active oxygen generation of neutrophils in the absence and presence of mononuclear cells in vitro. EM and AZM significantly suppressed active oxygen generation by neutrophils in the absence of mononuclear cells at low concentration (0.5 microgram/ml. p < 0.05). At the next step, to confirm that EM and AZM directly reduced active oxygen generation by neutrophils, we investigated whether mononuclear cells affected this effect of EM and AZM. In the presence of mononuclear cells pretreated with EM or AZM, both antibiotics suppressed active oxygen generation at concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 20 micrograms/ml. However, the inhibition rates induced by EM and AZM at low concentrations were not so different between the absence and the presence of mononuclear cells. These results indicated that EM and AZM have direct effects on the active oxygen generation by neutrophils and those effects that were not influenced by mononuclear cells. This inhibitory effect may be responsible for the therapeutic efficacy of these 14-membered and 15-membered ring macrolides in patients with DPB.

A 7-year-old girl suffered from a gradual loss of her ability to understand speech. But she had normal hearing and understood various environmental sounds. Brain computerized axial tomography showed normal, but electroencephalogram revealed spike and wave activity from temporal leads, especially on the left side. She was diagnosed as having verbal auditory agnosia. The treatment consisted of diazepam therapy. One year after the onset, her impaired auditory comprehension dramatically improved with the use of diazepam. The dichotic listening test revealed a left ear advantage for both environmental sounds and spoken words. The results seemed to suggest that in this patient the right hemisphere might be functioning as a speech center instead of the left one.

The patient was a 61-year-old female who suffered from the sudden attack of a speech disorder. The episodes of speech disorder lasted for less than 1 min, but occurred several times a day, paroxysmally. A CT revealed a low density area on the surface of the left frontal lobe and an EEG showed an abnormal wave at the frontoparietal area, more dominantly on the left. This condition was diagnosed as a kind of epilepsy. The paroxysmal speech disorder occurred very often during the 2 months after the first episode. However, with therapy using anticonvulsives and antibiotics, the condition began to improve after 4 months and disappeared completely after 6 months. It is assumed that the inflammatory change which occurred at the frontal lobe stimulated the supplementary motor area paroxysmally, and subsequently the speech disorder occurred as a kind of epilepsy.

A 61-year-old woman with low grade obesity index complained of general fatigue. Cardiomegaly had been present since the age of 45. According to a roentgenogram on admission, her cardia-thoracic ratio was 61%. Pericardial effusion was strongly suspected because of extra echo spaces on both posterior and anterior walls, and unsynchronized echocardiograph waves of epicardium and pericardium. However, values of dynamic CT measured at areas equivalent to the extra echo spaces were -120. On admission, T1-emphasized MRI image showed a high signal density in those areas. After significant weight reduction, the abnormal values and signs of the clinical examinations, as well as the patient's complaints were attenuated or disappeared. Together with these results, cardiomegaly of the patient was diagnosed to be due to excessive fat deposit between the epicardium and cardiac muscle. Dissociation between mildness of obesity index and excessive deposition of fat in the pericardium was discussed from the point of view of body mass index and time course of fat deposition.

Right unilateral spatial neglect (USN) was investigated on three left brain-damaged patients suffering from the right homonymous hemianopsia and hemiplegia. A test battery consisted of visuo-constructive praxis; 1) putting blocks into a box, 2) bisecting a horizontal line, 3) figure drawing, 4) drawing of a dial plate and 5) copying drawing. The investigation revealed that USN of left brain-damaged patients resulted from 1) generally impaired mental function, 2) right unilateral sensory deprivation and 3) right hemiplegia. It was guessed that, as for a patient with right homonymous hemianopsia and hemiplegia, his attention would be attracted toward the left hand, and then he would be apt to neglect the right side. Right USN was not so prominent compared with the left one of right hemispheric lesion. However, it is suggested that if clinicians examine carefully the visuo-constructive function in addition to aphasia on left brain-damaged patients, right USN appears greater in some cases.

We carried out our Systematic Rhythm Test for the Brain-Damaged Patients named "The Asian Rhythm Test" on our four patients with lesions of the corpus callosum, and analyzed their rhythmic capabilities--their performances in rhythm perception (auditory distinction) and in rhythm expression (rhythm-tapping)--in accordance with the neuropsychological model proposed in 1980 by us. All our partial split-brain patients showed the abnormal one-ear inferiority (superiority) and the one-hand inferiority under our testing conditions. The patients with lesions of the anterior corpus callosum showed the interhemispheric (the left-to-right) transfer-dysfunction of motor-programming information, while the patient with the lesion of the posterior corpus callosum showed the interhemispheric transfer-dysfunction of auditory information. The patients with lesions including the truncus showed the interhemispheric integration-loss in the process of rhythm perception and its expression. And moreover, we could see the specific auditory interruption between the ipsilateral and the contralateral systems in the patient with the lesion including the anterior commissure. Based on these our findings, the roles of the corpus callosum and the anterior commissure were discussed.

Distorted speech sounds were presented to normal children aged 4-11 years and to young adults in such a way that 20 monosyllables were distorted with a 'speech stretcher' which produced frequency expansion and compression and also time expansion and compression. The experiment was performed to observe the intelligibility of such distorted speech sounds and the development of the discrimination ability in normal children. The results were as follows: (1) discrimination decreased sharply with increasing frequency change in both frequency-expanded and frequency-compressed speech; (2) discrimination was relatively unaffected by time expansion. However, with time compression there was a gradual decrease in discrimination at 50% time compression followed by a rapid deterioration at 75% time compression; (3) for a given percentage of distortion, frequency shift degraded intelligibility of speech sounds more severely than time shift, and (4) discrimination ability clearly increased with age in normal children. There was no significant difference between boys and girls.