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Hidekazu Tanaka,1 Taiki Ono,1 Yuki Manabe,1 Miki Kajima,1 Koya Fujimoto,1 Yuki Yuasa,1 Takehiro Shiinoki,1 Yoshikazu Yamaji,2 Kazuto Matsunaga2 1Department of Radiation Oncology, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Japan; 2Department of Respiratory Medicine and Infectious Disease, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, JapanCorrespondence: Hidekazu Tanaka 1-1-1 Minamikogushi, Ube, 755-8505, JapanTel +81 836 22 2966Fax +81 836 22 2471Email h-tanaka@yamaguchi-u.ac.jpPurpose: Anemia has been associated with poor prognosis in patients with cancer across several cancer types. It has been identified as a prognostic factor in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have undergone surgery or chemoradiotherapy. However, there are only a few reports that have evaluated the prognostic significance of anemia in patients with NSCLC undergoing stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT).Patients and Methods: A total of 77 patients were enrolled in this study. The pretreatment hemoglobin (Hb) levels, within 2 weeks before SBRT, were available for all patients. The median age of the participants (56 men, 21 women) was 80 (range, 50– 90) years. The median Hb level was 12.8 (range, 7.8– 18.3) g/dL. The median follow-up period was 24 (range, 1– 87) months.Results: Local recurrence was observed in 8 (10.4%) cases during the follow-up period. The 1- and 2-year local control (LC) rates were 94.8% and 86.4%, respectively. Seventeen (22.1%) patients died during the follow-up period. The 1- and 2-year overall survival (OS) rates were 93.1% and 85.2%, respectively. Univariate analysis identified anemia and body mass index as significant prognostic factors for predicting OS. On multivariate analysis, anemia was confirmed to be the only significant factor (p = 0.02469).Conclusion: Our data suggest that anemia is a prognostic factor for predicting the OS rate in patients with early-stage NSCLC treated with SBRT.Keywords: anemia, hemoglobin, non-small cell lung cancer, stereotactic body radiation therapy, stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy

Yuichi Ono, Naohisa Miyakoshi, Yuji Kasukawa, Manabu Akagawa, Ryota Kimura, Itsuki Nagahata, Yusuke Yuasa, Chiaki Sato, Yoichi Shimada Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, JapanCorrespondence: Yuichi OnoDepartment of Orthopedic Surgery, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1-1, Hondo, Akita-shi, Akita 010-8543, JapanTel +81-18-884-6148Fax +81-18-836-2617Email yuichi.ono24@gmail.comPurpose: Sarcopenia and osteoporosis are both serious health problems in postmenopausal women. The Asia Working Group for Sarcopenia recommends using the skeletal muscle index (SMI), which is height-adjusted appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASMM). However, loss of height has been shown to be a common clinical finding in patients with osteoporosis. This study examined the prevalence of presarcopenia using height and arm span, which is a predictor of height, and investigated the diagnostic accuracy for presarcopenia.Methods: A total of 55 post-menopausal osteoporotic patients aged 62– 95 years underwent bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) for ASMM measurement and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan for bone mineral density (BMD). Anthropometric measurements, including height, weight, and arm span were taken, and body mass index (BMI), SMI, and arm span-adjusted SMI (Arm span SMI) were calculated. Presarcopenia was defined as SMI or Arm span SMI < 5.7 kg/m2 in this study.Results: The prevalence of presarcopenia was 27.3% and 38.2% evaluated by SMI and Arm span SMI, respectively. The prevalence of presarcopenia was higher when evaluated by Arm span SMI than by SMI. In the presarcopenia group diagnosed only by Arm span SMI (n=11), the arm span-height difference was significantly higher (p< 0.001) and the percentage of young adult mean (YAM) femoral neck-BMD was significantly lower (p=0.013) compared to the normal group diagnosed by both SMI and Arm span-SMI (n=29).Conclusion: These results indicated that Arm span SMI might be useful for the diagnosis of sarcopenia in patients with severe osteoporosis and kyphosis.Keywords: arm span, body height, osteoporosis, presarcopenia, skeletal muscle mass

Gut 2004;53:323-330. doi: 10.1136/gut.2003.026609 Background and aims: Although it has been reported that intestinal metaplasia implicated in gastric carcinogenesis is induced by the ParaHox gene CDX2, it is unclear which [...]

Recently, the use of gas turbine systems, such as combined cycle and cogeneration systems, has gradually increased in the world. But even when a clean fuel such as LNG (liquefied natural gas) is used, thermal N[O.sub.x] is generated in the high temperature gas turbine combustion process. The N[O.sub.x] emission from gas turbines is controlled through selective catalytic reduction processes (SCR) in the Japanese electric industry. If catalytic combustion could be applied to the combustor of the gas turbine, it is expected to lower N[O.sub.x] emission more economically. Under such high temperature and high pressure conditions, as in the gas turbine, however, the durability of the catalyst is still insufficient. So it prevents the realization of a high temperature catalytic combustor. To overcome this difficulty, a catalytic combustor combined with premixed combustion for a 1300 [degrees] C class gas turbine was developed. In this method, catalyst temperature is kept below 1000 [degrees] C, and a lean premixed gas is injected into the catalytic combustion gas. As a result, the load on the catalyst is reduced and it is possible to prevent the catalyst deactivation. After a preliminary atmospheric test, the design of the combustor was modified and a high pressure combustion test was conducted. As a result, it was confirmed that N[O.sub.x] emission was below 10 ppm (at 16 percent [O.sub.2]) at a combustor outlet gas temperature of 1300 [degrees] C and that the combustion efficiency was almost 100 percent. This paper presents the design features and test results of the combustor.