The Lifelong Health Support 10: a Japanese prescription for a long and healthy life

BACKGROUND@#Although the age-adjusted incidence and mortality of cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD) have been decreasing steadily in Japan, both diseases remain major contributors to morbidity and mortality along with the aging society. Herein, we aim to provide a prescription of 10 health tips for long and healthy life named the "Lifelong Health Support 10 (LHS10)."@*METHOD@#The LHS10 was developed by the preventive medicine specialists at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center in Suita, where it has been used for health guidance to prevent CVD, cancer, and cognitive decline in addition to their major risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. It consisted of the lifestyle modification recommendations of the 2014 Japanese Society of Hypertension guidelines and the 2017 Japan Atherosclerosis Society Guidelines for preventing atherosclerotic CVD. Further, it came in line with other international lifestyle modification guidelines. In this narrative review, we summarized the results of several Japanese epidemiological studies investigating the association between the LHS10 items and the risk of cancer, CVD, and other chronic diseases including dementia, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease.@*RESULTS@#The LHS10 included avoiding smoking and secondhand smoke exposure, engaging in physical activity, refraining from excessive alcohol drinking, reducing fried foods and sugary soft drinks, cutting salt in food, consuming more vegetables, fruits, fish, soy foods, and fibers, and maintaining proper body weight. All items of the LHS10 were shown to reduce the risk of cancer, CVD, and other chronic diseases.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The LHS10 can be a helpful tool for health guidance.

Stair climbing and incident atrial fibrillation: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND@#A protective role for physical activity against the development of atrial fibrillation (AF) has been suggested. Stair climbing is a readily available form of physical activity that many people practice. Herein, we investigated the association between stair climbing and the risk of AF in a Japanese population.@*METHODS@#In this prospective cohort study, we used data of 6,575 people registered in the Suita Study, aged 30-84 years, and had no history of AF. The frequency of stair climbing was assessed by a baseline questionnaire, while AF was diagnosed during the follow-up using a 12-lead ECG, health records, check-ups, and death certificates. We used the Cox regression to calculate the hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals of AF incidence for climbing stairs in 20-39%, 40-59%, and ≥60% compared with <20% of the time.@*RESULTS@#Within 91,389 person-years of follow-up, 295 participants developed AF. The incidence of AF was distributed across the stair climbing groups <20%, 20-39%, 40-59%, and ≥60% as follows: 3.57, 3.27, 3.46, and 2.63/1,000 person-years, respectively. Stair climbing ≥60% of the time was associated with a reduced risk of AF after adjustment for age and sex 0.69 (0.49, 0.96). Further adjustment for lifestyle and medical history did not affect the results 0.69 (0.49, 0.98).@*CONCLUSION@#Frequent stair climbing could protect from AF. From a preventive point of view, stair climbing could be a simple way to reduce AF risk at the population level.

Modifiable Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease in Korea and Japan

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and a major contributor to disability worldwide. Since the majority of cardiovascular events are preventable, identification of modifiable CVD risk factors and implementation of primordial prevention strategies should be a public health priority. In this aspect, the American Heart Association declared a strategic goal to reduce total CVD mortality in the US by 20% within 10 years via eliminating 7 major CVD risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, and poor-quality diet) in 2010, and their strategy has been achieving. However, the applicability of similar metrics to prevent CVD among East Asians requires an in-depth investigation of the modifiable CVD risk factors based on national and regional evidence-based findings. Herein, this review article aims to discuss several modifiable risk factors for CVDs, using epidemiological evidence from cohort studies and nationally representative data of 2 East Asian countries: Korea and Japan.

Modifiable Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease in Korea and Japan

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and a major contributor to disability worldwide. Since the majority of cardiovascular events are preventable, identification of modifiable CVD risk factors and implementation of primordial prevention strategies should be a public health priority. In this aspect, the American Heart Association declared a strategic goal to reduce total CVD mortality in the US by 20% within 10 years via eliminating 7 major CVD risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, and poor-quality diet) in 2010, and their strategy has been achieving. However, the applicability of similar metrics to prevent CVD among East Asians requires an in-depth investigation of the modifiable CVD risk factors based on national and regional evidence-based findings. Herein, this review article aims to discuss several modifiable risk factors for CVDs, using epidemiological evidence from cohort studies and nationally representative data of 2 East Asian countries: Korea and Japan.

Role of magnetic resonance urography in diagnosis of pediatric obstructive uropathy: a surgeon perspective

Background: Obstructive uropathy is a group of different pathologies. Congenital obstructive uropathy represents a major cause of renal failure in infants and children. Urinary tract obstruction is defined as any condition that impairs urinary drainage from the pelvicalyceal system and leads to increased pressure and reduced urine flow rate

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the role of combined static and dynamic Magnetic Resonance Urography in the management of pediatric obstructive uropathy and to compare it with our basic investigations

Patients and Methods: This study was conducted on the pediatric patients presented to Pediatric Surgery Department in cooperation with Radiology Department, Ain Shams University Hospitals, presented with upper urinary tract dilatation detected by ultrasonograghy

Results: There was a high agreement between MRU and our standard imaging data as regard detection of urinary tract obstruction giving the MRU no superiority to the basic imaging in this field. Combined MRU showed the highest accuracy among other investigations in identification of the level of obstruction. Dynamic MRU and renal scintigraphy in our study yielded similar results for identification of split renal function

Conclusion: This study provides evidence that combined static and dynamic MRU is a promising technique that allows anatomical and functional evaluation of obstructed kidneys to be used as a single modality for the comprehensive evaluation of urinary tract obstruction

pattern of tuberculosis in Aswan Chest Hospital, Egypt

Objective/background: Tuberculosis [TB] is a major health problem. The aim of this study was to examine the pattern of TB in Aswan Chest Hospital, Aswan, Egypt. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out using medical records from the TB registry in Aswan Chest Hospital. The investigated variables included demographic characteristics, type of TB infection, and affected organs. All data were coded and statistically analyzed

Results: The average age of the 557 patients infected with TB was 40.31 +/- 18.87 years; 58.2% of the cases were men and 41.8% were women. In both sexes, the highest number of TB patients was from the reproductive age groups

During the 5-year study period, the highest percentage of cases were new cases and the highest frequency of cases was during 2011 and the lowest frequency was during 2015

Pulmonary TB cases showed a sharp decline; however, there was a decrease in extrapulmonary TB cases during 2012 and 2013, with a slight rise in 2014 and 2015. Of the pulmonary TB cases, 82.5% were smear-positive TB

Conclusion: There was a decline in the total number of TB cases across the studied years and the most studied cases were pulmonary smear-positive and new cases. Younger people represented a large percentage of reported cases

Intrafamilial transmission of hepatitis B and C among families of multi-transfused Egyptian children

Several studies have reported clustering of hepatitis B virus [HBV] and hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection in households. We aimed to measure the prevalence of HBV and HCV infections among family members of known HBV and/or HCV positive children, and to identify possible routes of intrafamilial transmission. 68 children with known HBV and/or HCV infections [index cases] were recruited. Blood samples were obtained from 303 of their family members for analysis for hepatitis B surface antigen [HBsAg] and HCV antibodies according to the index case status. A detailed questionnaire was applied to all study participants to investigate possible routes of medical, community and household infection. 2 relatives of the HBV infected index cases were positive for HBsAg [prevalence of 1.3% [21154]]. Both infected subjects were adults, were unvaccinated with HBV vaccine, had previous medical interventions, and had accompanied the index case during hospitalisation. No HBsAg infections were detected among siblings of HBV index cases, all of whom were vaccinated with the HBV vaccine. Prevalence of HCV infection among family members of HCV positive index cases was 9.3% [24/258], higher than the 4.4% [2/45] found among family members of HCV negative index cases. On logistic regression analysis, risk factors for HCV infection were older age, medical interventions, higher crowding index, and exposure to the blood of index cases. Sharing towels, beds, and eating utensils were not found to be associated with HBV or HCV infection. Absence of HBV infection among younger people in this study may be due to their high HBV vaccination coverage. There was a relatively higher prevalence of HCV infection among family members of HCV-infected index cases. Direct exposure to blood of the index case appeared to be the most important route of intrafamilial infection