Impact of fatty pancreas and lifestyle on the development of subclinical chronic pancreatitis in healthy people undergoing a medical checkup

BACKGROUND@#Although fat accumulation in human organs is associated with a variety of diseases, there is little evidence about the effect of a fatty pancreas on the development of subclinical chronic pancreatitis over the clinical course.@*METHODS@#We conducted a prospective cohort study from 2008 to 2014 of patients who underwent a medical checkup consultation for fat accumulated in the pancreas. Patients included in the analysis were divided into a non-fatty pancreas group (n = 9710) and fatty pancreas group (n = 223). The primary end point was the odds ratio (OR) for chronic pancreatitis associated with fatty pancreas, which was diagnosed using ultrasonography. We used a multiple logistic regression model to estimate the OR and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI).@*RESULTS@#Ninety-two people were diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis, including both presumptive and definitive diagnoses. Twelve people were diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis by ultrasonography among the 223 patients with fatty pancreas, and 80 patients among 9710 were diagnosed with non-fatty pancreas. The crude OR was 6.85 (95% CI 3.68, 12.75), and the multiple adjusted OR was 3.96 (95% CI 2.04, 7.66).@*CONCLUSIONS@#Fat accumulation in the pancreas could be a risk factor for developing subclinical chronic pancreatitis.

Sleep stage estimation method using a camera for home use

Recent studies have developed simple techniques for monitoring and assessing sleep. However, several issues remain to be solved for example high-cost sensor and algorithm as a home-use device. In this study, we aimed to develop an inexpensive and simple sleep monitoring system using a camera and video processing. Polysomnography (PSG) recordings were performed in six subjects for four consecutive nights. Subjects' body movements were simultaneously recorded by the web camera. Body movement was extracted by video processing from the video data and fi ve parameters were calculated for machine learning. Four sleep stages (WAKE, LIGHT, DEEP and REM) were estimated by applying these fi ve parameters to a support vector machine. The overall estimation accuracy was 70.3 ± 11.3% with the highest accuracy for DEEP (82.8 ± 4.7%) and the lowest for LIGHT (53.0 ± 4.0%) compared with correct sleep stages manually scored on PSG data by a sleep technician. Estimation accuracy for REM sleep was 68.0 ± 6.8%. The kappa was 0.19 ± 0.04 for all subjects. The present non-contact sleep monitoring system showed suffi cient accuracy in sleep stage estimation with REM sleep detection being accomplished. Low-cost computing power of this system can be advantageous for mobile application and modularization into home-device.

Long-term effects of lifestyle on multiple risk factors in male workers

<p><b>OBJECTIVES</b>To examine the long-term effects of lifestyle on the recovery from risk factors of cardiovascular disease and to discuss the difference in the effects of lifestyle modification in subjects with a single risk factor and those with multiple risk factors.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We used checkup data compiled for 6477 male workers, aged 20-59 years in 1995, with risk factors of cardiovascular disease. The relation between the recovery from risk factors 9 years later and baseline lifestyles was examined by logistic regression according to the initial number of risk factors.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Nine years following the baseline measurements, 1907 subjects had recovered from at least one risk factor. When there was initially a single risk factor, a good overall lifestyle was effective in the recovery [odds ratio (OR) 1.27; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03, 1.57], with maintaining good dietary habits (OR 1.24; 95% CI 1.07, 1.45) and moderate stress levels (OR 1.19; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.38) both found to be especially effective in the recovery. When there were multiple risk factors, although the effect of a good overall lifestyle on the recovery was less than that when there was only a single risk factor, non-smoking (OR 1.27; 95% CI 1.07, 1.51) and limiting working hours (OR 1.25; 95% CI 1.05, 1.49) were found to be effective.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Our results provide evidence that good lifestyles are effective in the recovery from multiple risk factors. Effects of lifestyle on recovery from multiple risk factors are different from effects on the recovery from a single risk factor, with the difference depending on the initial number of risk factors.</p>

Fixation of Vascular Access Catheters--Comparison of Two Different Sized Dressing Tapes-- / 日本農村医学会雑誌

  A vascular access catheter has been widely used for hemodialysis patients in an emergency when an arteriovenous shunt get clogged and cannot be reopened or when patients have no arterio-venous fistula. However, it often causes deterioration in activities of daily living (ADLs) and other troubles. Therefore, we place the catheter into the internal jugular vein in the neck to minimize the risk of complications and patients' inconvenience. Nevertheless, free spaces tend to be created between the dressing agent and skin because the articular excursion is wide in the neck. Although the CDC (Centerfor Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines recommended that the dressing tapes should be changed once every seven days, we change the tapes every two or four days to avoid peeling-off. In this study, we examine the difference in fixation ability between two types of tapes;standard size (10×12 cm) and 1/4 cut-size (5×6 cm). Our results showed that there were significant differences in peeling-off area between the two tapes. The smaller-sized tape had better adhesion to the skin so that you could not peel it off easily. Furthermore, the smaller one stuck fast to the catheter and needed less replacement. Consequently, the skins seemed to be more protected.

Fixation of Vascular Access Catheters / 日本農村医学会雑誌

A vascular access catheter has been widely used for hemodialysis patients in an emergency when an arteriovenous shunt get clogged and cannot be reopened or when patients have no arterio-venous fistula. However, it often causes deterioration in activities of daily living (ADLs) and other troubles. Therefore, we place the catheter into the internal jugular vein in the neck to minimize the risk of complications and patients' inconvenience. Nevertheless, free spaces tend to be created between the dressing agent and skin because the articular excursion is wide in the neck. Although the CDC (Centerfor Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines recommended that the dressing tapes should be changed once every seven days, we change the tapes every two or four days to avoid peeling-off. In this study, we examine the difference in fixation ability between two types of tapes;standard size (10×12 cm) and 1/4 cut-size (5×6 cm). Our results showed that there were significant differences in peeling-off area between the two tapes. The smaller-sized tape had better adhesion to the skin so that you could not peel it off easily. Furthermore, the smaller one stuck fast to the catheter and needed less replacement. Consequently, the skins seemed to be more protected.