Attitudes of Dental Students Toward Oriental Medicine before and after Lecture Course and Comparison to Medical Students / 日本東洋医学雑誌

In order to examine the attitudes of third-year dental students towards oriental medicine before and after lecture courses, and compare their attitudes with those of medical students, self-administered questionnaires were given to Aichi-Gakuin University School of Dentistry students (DS), and Kinki University School of Medicine students (MS). Pre-course,105 DS and 68 MS provided valid answers, while 104 DS provided valid answers post-course. Pre-course, 80.9% of DS thought oriental medicine would be important in the future, and 72.4% wanted to learn it. Also pre-course, 7.6% of DS had knowledge of oriental medicine, 55.2% were interested in oriental medicine, and 54.3% wanted to introduce oriental medicine into their clinical practice in the future. These last percentages increased after the lecture courses to 50.0%, 76.9% and 77.9%, respectively. With pre-course MS, on the other hand : 64.7% were interested in oriental medicine ; 58.8% thought it would be important in the future ; 51.5% wanted to introduce it in their clinical practice ; and 70.6% wanted to learn it.These results show that both dental and medical students had similar attitudes toward oriental medicine, and that dental students need an oriental medicine education equivalent to that of medical students.

Urinary concentration of osteopontin and association with urinary supersaturation and crystal formation.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we measured urinary osteopontin (OPN) concentrations in urolithiasis patients as well as in healthy volunteers, and investigated the relationship between urinary excretion of OPN and urinary supersaturation level. METHODS: Supersaturation levels (AP indexes) were determined by using Tiselius's index. Crystals with a maximum diameter of 12 ìm or larger and less than 5 ìm were counted by scanning electron microscopy. A sum of cross-sectional areas of crystals was also calculated as the total crystal volume (VT). RESULTS: Urinary OPN concentrations in the group with no urinary stone were significantly higher than that in the urolithiasis patients with a tendency toward stone enlargement. AP indexes were observed to be significantly higher in patients with stone enlargement, whereas urinary OPN concentrations bore no definite relation to the urinary supersaturation levels. VT and number of large crystals (12 ìm or larger) in patients with a tendency toward stone enlargement were higher than healthy volunteers, but no differences were found between the number of micro-crystal with the diameter of less than 5 ìm. On the basis of the plots of VT and OPN concentrations, regression analysis revealed that VT and log OPN had a significant correlation. CONCLUSION: Urinary OPN tended to be lower in cases with larger crystal volumes and is potentially associated with crystal growth for inhibitory effect.

Th Clinical Effects of Sairei-to on Renal Transplanted Patients with Proteinuria / 日本東洋医学雑誌

Although there are many treatment methods for proteinuria in renal transplanted patients, none have been found to be definitively effective.<br>We examined the clinical effects of the administration of Sairei-to on 11 renal transplanted patients with proteinuria. Clinical evaluation was carried out over six months of administration. The patients were divided into the chronic rejection group, consisting of four patients, and the non-chronic rejection group. Although no improvement was seen in the chronic rejection group, three out of seven patients in the non-chronic rejection group showed improvement in proteinuria, and one exhibited improved kidney function. In one of the improved proteinuria cases, a reduction in nephrotoxicity of the immunosuppressor FK506 was suggested.<br>According to these results, Sairei-to may be effective in the treatment of proteinuria in renal transplanted patients without chronic rejection.