Two Cases of Hair Loss Due to Long COVID Treated with Ninjin'yoeito / 日本東洋医学雑誌

Two cases of hair loss due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) sequelae as known as Long COVID were successfully treated with ninjin’yoeito. Case 1 was a 45-year-old woman who complained of hair loss about 2 months after COVID-19 (moderate II in Japanese criteria). Case 2 was a 50-year-old woman who complained of hair loss about 2 months after COVID-19 (mild). In all cases, hair loss stopped next month after treatment with ninjin’yoeito. And their hair began to grow 2 months later administration, the depression caused by hair loss improved as the symptoms improved. Hair loss is one of the symptoms with blood [TM1] deficiency, and patients suffering from Long COVID are also with qi deficiency. We gave ninjinʼyoeito for pattern of both qi and blood [TM1] deficiency with reference to traditional key of treatment, and it contributed to the improvement of symptoms.

A Case of Cerebellar Cognitive Affective Syndrome（CCAS）with Aphasia due to Cerebellar Infarction Detected Using Arterial Spin Labeling （ASL）MRI / The Japanese Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine

Higher brain dysfunctions commonly interfere with functional reconstruction during rehabilitation. Most culprit lesions causing higher brain dysfunctions are observed in the cerebral cortex. However, recently, higher brain dysfunction caused by cerebellar lesions, termed cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS), has attracted attention. Here, we report a case of CCAS in a patient with cerebellar infarction exhibiting aphasia, where arterial spin labeling (ASL) method of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to confirm decreased blood flow due to crossed cerebello-cerebral diaschisis (CCCD). The patient was a 5x years old, left-handed female. She was initially admitted to a neurosurgical hospital for dizziness. MRI demonstrated cerebellar infarction in the left posterior inferior cerebellar artery area. The next day, she was admitted to our hospital for surgery after the diagnosis of hemorrhagic cerebellar infarction due to progressive loss of consciousness. Craniotomy was performed to remove the hematoma. Neurological examination revealed fluent aphasia and ataxia in the left upper and lower extremities and trunk. ASL demonstrated decreased cerebral blood flow in the left cerebellar hemisphere and right front-temporal lobe. Therefore, we detected that CCCD resulted in higher brain dysfunction. After 3 months of inpatient rehabilitation, the patient's auditory comprehension, word conversion, and word recall improved. The patient was discharged unaided. This study used ASL to confirm the diagnosis and rehabilitation of the CCAS incidence effectively.

A Case of Cerebellar Cognitive Affective Syndrome（CCAS）with Aphasia due to Cerebellar Infarction Detected Using Arterial Spin Labeling （ASL）MRI / The Japanese Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine

Higher brain dysfunctions commonly interfere with functional reconstruction during rehabilitation. Most culprit lesions causing higher brain dysfunctions are observed in the cerebral cortex. However, recently, higher brain dysfunction caused by cerebellar lesions, termed cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS), has attracted attention. Here, we report a case of CCAS in a patient with cerebellar infarction exhibiting aphasia, where arterial spin labeling (ASL) method of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to confirm decreased blood flow due to crossed cerebello-cerebral diaschisis (CCCD). The patient was a 5x years old, left-handed female. She was initially admitted to a neurosurgical hospital for dizziness. MRI demonstrated cerebellar infarction in the left posterior inferior cerebellar artery area. The next day, she was admitted to our hospital for surgery after the diagnosis of hemorrhagic cerebellar infarction due to progressive loss of consciousness. Craniotomy was performed to remove the hematoma. Neurological examination revealed fluent aphasia and ataxia in the left upper and lower extremities and trunk. ASL demonstrated decreased cerebral blood flow in the left cerebellar hemisphere and right front-temporal lobe. Therefore, we detected that CCCD resulted in higher brain dysfunction. After 3 months of inpatient rehabilitation, the patient's auditory comprehension, word conversion, and word recall improved. The patient was discharged unaided. This study used ASL to confirm the diagnosis and rehabilitation of the CCAS incidence effectively.

Physical fitness level in Japanese breast cancer survivors / 体力科学

It has been reported that physical fitness of breast cancer patients is relatively lower due to the cancer treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy, or endocrine therapy. Previous studies have revealed that not only cardiorespiratory fitness but also muscle strength is lower among breast cancer patients than no disease women and these symptoms may aggravate the health-related quality of life. However, there is no study which has focused the physical fitness level in Japanese breast cancer survivors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the physical fitness level and the relationship between exercise habituation and physical fitness level in Japanese breast cancer survivors. Fifty breast cancer survivors participated in this study. Participants were assigned to either exercise habituation group (n=25) or non-exercise group (n=25). We evaluated exercise habituation using an original questionnaire and examined various physical fitness level. Body weight, body mass index, and percent body fat were significantly lower in the exercise habituation group than non-exercise group. T-score of cardiorespiratory fitness was significantly higher in the exercise habituation group than average Japanese women. These results suggested that exercise habituation is relative to body weight and cardiorespiratory fitness level in Japanese breast cancer survivors.

Clinical Research Support in Mito Kyodo General Hospital: Current Practice and Future Problems / 日本農村医学会雑誌

    Clinical research is essential for the practice of evidence-based medicine. This study reports on our current practice of clinical research support in Mito Kyodo General Hospital and discusses future challenges. In April 2013, the University of Tsukuba hired a clinical research assistant to provide clinical research support in Mito Kyodo General Hospital. The clinical research assistant worked full-time in the hospital in collaboration with 3 university faculty members. The target population for this study comprised 450 medical personnel including doctors, nurses, and other medical staff. From April 2014, 1 of the 3 faculty members visited the hospital once a month to offer clinical research consultations and deliver a lecture on nursing research. We analyzed past records of clinical research support and conducted a questionnaire survey to explore the level of satisfaction of the medical personnel. Four-hundred and ninety records of 91 research topics proposed by 68 medical personnel were identified. Of these, 93.4% were proposed by doctors or nurses. Most studies employed an observational study design (64.8%) and were conducted in order to make a presentation at an academic conference (51.1%). The consultation sessions were held 1–5 times, for 40–405 min, and lasted from 1–84 days per research topic. Consultations mostly pertained to research design and protocol planning (57.1%). Forty-seven clients were invited to participate in the questionnaire survey, 30 of whom provided valid responses. The results showed that 96.6% of the clients were satisfied with the consultations. The number of clients who participated in the consultations comprised only 15.1% of the target population. These practice biases need to be addressed in future. However, nearly all respondents were satisfied with the consultations. These findings suggest that our clinical research support was beneficial to medical personnel.

Lactic Acidosis with Metformin Use in a Patient with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus / General Medicine

Metformin is widely prescribed for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Its use for patients with type 1 has been considered a contraindication because of possible adverse effects such as lactic acidosis. However, metformin has been recently used with insulin therapy to reduce insulin-dose requirements in Type 1 DM.<br>An 81-year-old Japanese woman with type 1 DM was treated with insulin and metformin. She was admitted to our hospital due to altered mental state and hypotensive shock via a referral from her primary care physician. The patient had severe lactic acidosis and acute kidney injury with hyperkalemia with the suspected cause being the use of metformin. She was treated successfully with hemodialysis (HD).<br>Although the independent predictive factor of mortality due to metformin-associated lactic acidosis is a prothrombin time (PT) activity of less than 50% in 24 hours, we recommend that HD should be performed for a patient with severe lactic acidosis even if the initial PT activity is normal.

Evaluation by Students of Bedside Learning in the Department of Pediatric Surgery / 医学教育

We evaluated bedside learning in the department of pediatric surgery by conducting a questionnaire survey of senior medical students at Chiba University School of Medicine. We obtained responses from 70 of 95 students (74%). Although 84% of students responded by making lists of patients' problems. Many students indicated insufficient knowledge about diseases and insufficient technical skills for medical treatment as the reasons they could not solve these problems. This finding indicates that students do not have sufficient basic knowledge and clinical skills for bedside learning. These skills must be acquired and evaluated before bedside learning can be started.

Clinical studies of gastric cancer cases at a rural hospital in southern district of Ibaraki Prefecture / 日本農村医学会雑誌

During the eleven years from January 1978 to December 1988, we experienced 1, 287 cases of gastric cancer, hospitalized in the surgical department of Tsuchiura Kyodo Hospital which is located in the southern agricultural district of Ibaraki Prefecture.<BR>Among these 1, 287 cases, 1, 233 patients were operated on. Gastric resection was performed in 1, 059 cases including 337 cases of total gastrectomy with the resection rate of 85.9 percent (1, 059/1, 233). In 863 cases, resection gave histologically satisfactory results, and our curative resection rate was 70.0 percent (863/1, 233). Direct mortality rate was 2.35% in all operated cases and 1.32% in resected cases.<BR>The five-year survival rate over the period from 1978 to 1983 was 57.7% in all resected cases and 69.3% in curatively resected cases.<BR>Annual follow up observation showed increases in resection rate, curative resection rate, and five-year survival rate. However, there were no remarkable changes in the rate of total gastrectomy, rate of combined resection of other organs, and degree of lymph nodes dissection.<BR>The main factor contributing to the improvement in the results of surgical treatment of gastric cancer was the increase in the detection rate of cancer in relatively early stages, through gastric mass survey or total check-up in the asymptomatic stage.