A Prenatally Diagnosed Rare Vascular Ring Formed by Left Aortic Arch and Right Ductus Arteriosus.

Background: A vascular ring arises during the development of the fetal arches and is often associated with a double aortic arch or right-sided aorta, an aberrant left subclavian artery with a posterior esophageal component, and a left-sided ductus arteriosus.

Case Summary: This is a rare vascular ring formed by a left aortic arch, aberrant right subclavian artery, and right ductus arteriosus that was diagnosed prenatally by fetal echocardiography. The 3-vessels and trachea (3VT) view with 2-dimensional and color Doppler sweeps were helpful in defining the vascular pathology.

Birth weight reference for Japanese twins and risk factors for infant mortality: A population-based study.

There is no standard birth weight curve for twins in Japan other than a prototype curve based on 1988-1991. Twins have a high perinatal mortality rate than singletons; therefore, we developed a new standard curve for twin birth weight using data from the 1995-2016 Vital Statistics and compared it with previous reports. We used 469,064 cases for analysis, excluding stillbirths and cases with missing values, and created a standard curve using LMS (statistical methods to vary the distribution by using skewness, median, and coefficient of variation) method.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs induce severe hematologic toxicities in lung cancer patients receiving pemetrexed plus carboplatin: A retrospective cohort study.

Purpose: As the major toxicity induced by pemetrexed plus carboplatin is severe hematologic toxicities, the aim of this study was to determine the risk factors for severe hematologic toxicities in lung cancer patients.

Methods: We retrospectively investigated data from lung cancer patients who had received pemetrexed plus carboplatin, with or without bevacizumab. This observational study was carried out at Ehime University Hospital using electronic medical records dating from July 2009 to March 2015.

Differentiating Alzheimer's disease from subcortical vascular dementia with the FAB test.

Background: The frontal assessment battery (FAB) test is a composite tool for assessing executive functions related to the frontal lobe. Neuropsychological and blood-flow studies indicate distinct patterns of deterioration of anterior and posterior cortical function in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and subcortical vascular dementia (VD) patients. We predict that the FAB score may be useful for discriminating VD from AD.

Electrochemical study of the effect of nano-zinc oxide on microperoxidase and its application to more sensitive hydrogen peroxide biosensor preparation.

Direct electron transfer reactions of microperoxidase were achieved with the help of semiconductive zinc oxide nanoparticles on a pyrolytic graphite electrode. The enzyme could also exhibit fine electrocatalytic activity towards the reduction of hydrogen peroxide. Thereby, a hydrogen peroxide biosensor was constructed based on the electrocatalysis of microperoxidase.

Upregulation of protease-activated receptor-1 in astrocytes in Parkinson disease: astrocyte-mediated neuroprotection through increased levels of glutathione peroxidase.

In the present study, we investigated the expression of protease-activated receptors (PARs), receptors for thrombin, in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) of Parkinson disease (PD) brains and cultures of human neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia as determined by immunocytochemistry and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Expression of PAR-1 was demonstrated only in glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive astrocytes in SNpc, and the number of astrocytes expressing PAR-1 increased in SNpc of PD as compared with nonneurologic control brain. Immunoreactivity for thrombin and prothrombin was stronger in astrocytes and the vessel walls in SNpc of PD brains.

Immortalized human microglial cell line: phenotypic expression.

Microglia are a major neuroglial component of the CNS, playing an important role as resident immunocompetent and phagocytic cells in the CNS in the event of injury and disease. To understand the role of microglia in the CNS in health and diseases, we have recently established an immortalized clonal cell line of human microglia, HMO6, from human embryonic telencephalon tissue by using a retroviral vector encoding v-myc. This immortalized microglia HMO6 cell line exhibits cell-type-specific antigens for microglia, including CD11b (Mac-1), CD68, CD86 (B7-2), HLA-ABC, HLA-DR, and RCA-1 lectin, and actively phagocytoses latex beads.

Recognition of bile acids at cyclodextrin-modified gold electrodes.

Lipoylamino-beta- and gamma-cyclodextrin (LP-beta-CD and LP-gamma-CD, respectively) were adsorbed at the surface of gold electrodes by sulfur-gold bonding. The resultant electrodes exhibited quasi-reversible voltammograms for the redox reaction of Fe(CN)6(3-/4-) in aqueous solutions, with peak-to-peak separation (deltaEp) being 85 mV at 20 mV s(-1) as a potential sweep rate. When bile acids are added to the solution, deltaEp values increased to 200-300 mV with increasing the concentration of bile acids.