The effect of mountaineering on the association between blood pressure and physical activity: A new multi-sensor ambulatory blood-pressure monitoring device. The Mount Fuji Study.

It has not been fully investigated whether the response of blood pressure (BP) to activity at high altitudes differs from that at low altitudes or how temperature is involved in these differences. The author compared BP response to accelerometer measurements during mountaineering and daily living. In 15 healthy people (mean age 33 ± 6 years), a new multi-sensor ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) device equipped with barometer, thermometer, and accelerometer was used to measure BP responses to activity during a trip to Mt. Fuji and during daily living. Associations between physical activity (log-transformed 5-min average values of accelerometer just before each ambulatory BP) and the corresponding BP were obtained from 843 and 676 readings during the Mt. Fuji trip and daily living, respectively. All ambulatory systolic BP (SBP) parameters were significantly higher during the Mt. Fuji trip than during daily living (all p < .01). There were significant positive correlations between physical activity and corresponding BPs in both mountaineering and daily living (all p < .01), and there was an interaction between BPs and physical activity according to the two conditions (p < .01). On Mt. Fuji, multivariate regression analysis showed increased physical activity and lower temperature were associated with increased 24-h SBP and diastolic BP (DBP) (all p < .05). The goodness-of-fit values of the association between activity and 24-h SBP or DBP were improved by adding temperature to the model of both 24-h SBP and DBP. However, these associations were not found in the daily living model. BP response to activity was more pronounced during mountaineering than daily living.

[The combination effects of antibacterial agents against clinical isolated multiple-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa].

The effectiveness of antibacterial agents against 70 strains of clinically isolated multiple-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDRP) was measured by the micro dilution method. Fifty of all strains (71%) produced metallo-beta-lactamase and the IMP-1 gene was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The MIC90 (the minimum inhibitory concentration of an antibiotic necessary to inhibit the growth of 90% of bacterial strains) values of biapenem (BIPM), meropenem (MEPM), tazobactam/piperacillin (TAZ/PIPC), sulbactam/ cefoperazone (SBT/CPZ), cefepime (CFPM), ciprofloxacin (CPFX), pazufloxacin (PZFX), amikacin (AMK) and aztreonam (AZT) were found to be 265, 512, 256, 512, 512, 64, 128, 128 and 128 microg/mL, respectively. The in vitro combination effects of antibacterial agents were examined against 62 strains of MDRP and the synergy or additive effects were evaluated by fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) index calculated by the checkerboard method. The combination of AMK and AZT showed synergy effects on 15/59 (25.4%) strains of MDRP. The synergy and additive effects on the MDRP strains were also found by the other antibacterial agents combination such as TAZ/PIPC and AMK, CFPM and AMK, and SBT/CPZ and AZT. These results suggested the necessity of further investigation of clinical usefulness.