ABSTRACT
Lifestyle-related diseases are defined as diseases which have close relations to indivisual lifestyle. The Agricultural Health Care Center in our hospital has been performing health checkups for 5, 000 members every year. However, analysis of data obtained has not been effectively used for the purpose of prevention of disease and health promoting education. Therefore, we built up data-base and analysed risk factors in lifestyle-related diseases. Results; 1) Total-cholesterol (T-Chol) level was higher in females than in males. The level of T-Chol showed a tendency to decrease in males and to increase in females with in creasing age. 2) Triglyceride (TG) level was higher in males than in females. TG level was most highest in younger males. 3) Blood pressure (BP) was higher in males than in females and elevated as their ages increase in both sexes. 4) HDL-cholesterol was lower in males than in females. 5) Diabetic pattern in blood suger (GL) level was more common in males than in females. 6) The incidence of obesity was slightly higher in males than in females. 7) Individuals with more than two risk factors accounted for 26% of the total. The Percentege for men alone was 31% which was higher than that for women. The education and advise to correct bad habits for prevention of diseases appear to be neccesary especially for males who are at higher risk than females are.
ABSTRACT
Recently, allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT) has been established for the treatment of hematological disorders. Fifteen patients had recieved allo-BMT at Tsuchiura Kyodo General Hospital as of April 1999. In this paper, we analyzedthe results and the problems of allo-BMT at our institution. The mean age of patients was 29.2years. Seven patients had AML, 5 ALL, 1 CML, 1 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and one had severe aplastic anemia. Bone marrow donors were all HLA-identical siblings. Most of the patients were conditioned with a combination of busulfan or totalbody irradiation, cyclophosphamide and etoposide. To prevent GVHD, cyclosporine A and methotrexate were mainly used. Patients with acute GVHD were 4 and patients with chronic GVHD were only two. Three grade I patients with acute GVHD and all with chronic GVHD did not require therapy. In spite of small numbers of transfused cells, no cases of transplant rejection were found. All these engrafted patients achieved a WBC≥1×10<SUP>3</SUP>μl after a median of 19.5days and a Plt≥5×10<SUP>4</SUP>/μEl after a median of 38.1days. Five of the 14 engrafted patient relapsed in a median of 6.7months and all died in a median of 9.6months. Eight are alive in complete remission for 0.2 to 39.4 months (median 21.7months). For the improvement of the disease-free survival rate after allo-BMT, the prevention of relapse and prophylaxis of GVHD and infection are important. At our institution, especially the former is important. The conditioning regimens were stronger than usual but acute and chronic GVHD was very mild, therefore GVL would be weak. If prophylaxis of GVHD is weaken and mild GVHD ans GVL occur frequently, relapse will be prevented and better results will be obtained.
ABSTRACT
It has been made known that there isn't any significant regional difference in the frequencies of cases of viral hepatitis C by subtypes in our country. In the present study we investigated the subtypes in hepatitis C virus carring patients without blood transfusion history in the southern region of Ibaraki Prefecture to clarify the occurrence ratio of each subtype of the virus. The results of interferon therapy were also examined in those patients with chronic hepatitis C. The frequencies of subtypes 2, 3 and 4 were found to be 71%, 16% and 10%, respectively. Although these ratios were the same as the national average, a significantly high frequency (P>0.01) of subtype 3 was observed in the patients from Tsuchiura in the region, suggesting that there may have existed some particular source of infection other than blood transfusion. The effectiveness of interferon therapy was significantly higher (P>0.01) in the patients with subtype 3 (75%) than in those patients with subtypes 2 and 4 (23% and 43%, raspectively), suggesting that interferon is a remedy specific to subtype 3.
ABSTRACT
During winter months, lotus growers have to harvest edible roots, waist-deep in the muddy fields. In addition to such an external factor as the cold, physical labor involved is so hard that a level of stress is considered high, especially on the cardiovascular system. In this study, we examined how hard the labor is on the cardiovascular system, based on the measurements of hemodynamic parameters taken in the fields while farmers were working. The subjects were comprised of a total of 18 lotus growers-11 men and 7 women-aged between 41 and 66 years (mean: 56.7 years old). During a week before the measurement was performed, a physical examination and an anaerobic threshold (AT) test were given. In the field, each examinee carried an ambulatory electrocardiograph with him or her and levels of blood Pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and blood saturation-O<SUB>2</SUB> (SO<SUB>2</SUB>) were measured. During work, the heart rate was elevated significantly, but did not exceed the evaluated maximum heart rate in every case. Immediately after the work, the HR returned to the level measured before the work began. No significant fluctuation was noted in BP, pressure-rate-products (PRP) and SO<SUB>2</SUB> even during the work. Any sign associated with ischemia was not observed on ECG, either. Soon after the work began, the blood pressure level tended to lower in women compared with that in men and the PRP did not rise in women so much as it did in the opposite sex. However, in two elderly subjects of over 60 years, arrhythmia was noted along with the elevation of blood pressure soon after the stop of the work. These results showed that harvesting lotus roots did not bring about marked changes in the hemodynamic parameters and that the caraiovascular load was slight. However, an adequate health control system should be worked out for the lotus growers of advanced age over 60.
ABSTRACT
We reviewed a total of 23 cases of multiple myeloma that were treated in our hospital during the six-year period between January 1978 and December 1983. It was found that the majority of the multiple myeloma patients (52.2%) had complained of pain in the lumbar spine area when they visited our office. It was also made clear that it had taken considerably long before definitive diagnosis for those patients with low back pain when compared with the patients with other complaints.<BR>Furthermore, we went over the results of some of the routine tests conducted at their first visits. These tests are often included in the mass health screening program.<BR>We found that ZTT levels were abnormal in 90.9% of the multiple myeloma patients, Ch-E in 82.6% and A/G ratio in 73.9%.<BR>These resuits suggest that doctors should suspect multiple myeloma and indicate further examinations when ZTT values were found abnormally high or low among elderly people complaining of low back pain by clinial or mass health examination.