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Platelet number is often used as an indicator of the severity of liver disease. Although inadequate thrombopoietin production and decreased platelet production have been proposed as major causes of cirrhotic thrombocytopenia, the underlying mechanism has not yet been fully clarified. We examined whether the measurement of the immature platelet fraction (IPF) in thrombocytopenic patients with liver dysfunction is useful as a rapid and noninvasive method for the differential diagnosis of chronic liver diseases. We examined 20 liver cirrhosis patients, 56 patients with chronic hepatitis, 9 patients with fatty liver, and 86 patients without liver disease. The percentage value of IPF (IPF%) was measured using an XE-2100 multiparameter automatic hematology analyzer. Using a receiver operating characteristic curve, we found diagnostic significance of the absolute platelet count and the absolute number of the IPF between cirrhotic patients and noncirrhotic patients, and developed a powerful multivariate discriminant analysis (MDA) function based on the platelet count and the IPF%. The diagnostic accuracy obtained by the MDA function was superior to that obtained by the absolute number of platelets and the IPF. We therefore propose our IPF% measurement for the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clear cell acanthoma (CCA) is a rare benign epidermal tumor that is difficult to diagnose by visual inspection. Conversely, its diagnosis by dermoscopy is relatively easy owing to the characteristic serpiginous arrangement of coiled vessels, sometimes described as the "string-of-pearls" formation. However, in few published reports, the dermoscopic diagnosis of mature CCA has been reported. Here, we report the histopathological and detailed dermoscopic findings of two CCA cases. Between these, one case was of early (~6 months) CCA exhibiting the characteristic vascular string-of-pearls formation, whereas the other was of a more mature (~10 years) CCA; although the latter case showed combined thick and thin white intersecting lines with large coiled vessels and/or red clods, it had the string-of-pearls formation. Thus, regardless of CCA maturity, the string-of-pearls formation was present. We propose that the combination of combined thick and thin white intersecting lines along with the vascular string-of-pearls formation reflecting large coiled vessels and/or red clods on dermoscopy is a diagnostic clue to mature CCA., (© 2020 Japanese Dermatological Association.)

Objectives: In our previous study, we built a risk prediction model of vancomycin (VCM)-associated nephrotoxicity using decision tree (DT) analysis. However, this has several limitations in clinical applications. Our objective here was to construct a clinically applicable risk prediction model to be used at the time of initial therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), in patients with uncomplicated infections., Method: A retrospective study was conducted at Hokkaido University Hospital. Subjects that had received VCM were extracted between November 2011 and April 2017. Nephrotoxicity was defined as an increase in serum creatinine of 0.5 mg/dL or 50% or higher from baseline. The additional inclusion criteria in this study were as follows: (1) the target trough level of VCM was set to 10 to 15 mg/L, and (2) the duration of therapy was 7 to 14 days. Patients were assumed to have uncomplicated infections. Risk factors for nephrotoxicity were evaluated, which could be extracted at the initial TDM. In the DT analysis, a chi-squared automatic interaction detection algorithm was constructed., Results: A total of 402 patients were enrolled, and 56 (13.9%) patients developed nephrotoxicity. In the DT analysis, concomitant medications (furosemide, piperacillin-tazobactam, and vasopressor drugs) and an initial VCM trough concentration ≥ 15.0 mg/L were extracted as predictive variables by which patients were divided into six subgroups. The incidence of nephrotoxicity was 5.2% to 70.0%, with subgroups classified as low to high risk of nephrotoxicity. The accuracy of DT model was favourable (87.1%)., Conclusion: We propose that the DT model built in this study is applicable to clinical practice., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Objectives: Several publications concerning decision tree (DT) analysis in medical fields have recently demonstrated its usefulness for defining prognostic factors in various diseases. However, there are minimal reports on the predictors of adverse drug reactions. We attempted to use DT analysis to discover combinations of multiple risk factors that would increase the risk of nephrotoxicity associated with vancomycin (VCM). To demonstrate the usefulness of DT analysis, we compared its predictive performance with that of multiple logistic regression analysis., Method: A single-centre, retrospective study was conducted at Hokkaido University Hospital. A total of 592 patients, who received intravenous administrations of VCM between November 2011 and April 2016, were enrolled. Nephrotoxicity was defined as an increase in serum creatinine of ≥0.5 mg/dL or a ≥50% increase in serum creatinine from the baseline. Risk factors for VCM nephrotoxicity were extracted from previous reports. In the DT analysis, a chi-squared automatic interaction detection algorithm was constructed. For evaluating the established algorithms, a 10-fold cross validation method was adopted to calculate the misclassification risk of the model. Moreover, to compare the accuracy of the DT analysis, multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted., Results: Eighty-seven (14.7%) patients developed nephrotoxicity. A VCM trough concentration of ≥15.0 mg/L, concomitant medication (vasopressor drugs and furosemide), and a duration of therapy ≥14 days were extracted to build the DT model, in which the patients were divided into 6 subgroups based on variable rates of nephrotoxicity, ranging from 4.6 to 69.6%. The predictive accuracies of the DT and logistic regression models were similar (87.3%, respectively), indicating that they were accurate., Conclusion: This study suggests the usefulness of DT models for the evaluation of adverse drug reactions., (© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Basal forebrain cholinergic neurons (BFCNs) are involved in cognitive functions such as learning and memory, and are affected in several neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer's disease). Despite their importance, the molecular mechanisms of their development are not fully elucidated. A recent report demonstrated that some BFCNs in adult rat are positive for L3/Lhx8, a LIM homeobox transcription factor. To examine the function of L3/Lhx8 in the development of BFCNs, we generated L3/Lhx8 gene-disrupted mice. In these mice, cells expressing cholinergic neuron markers, such as choline acetyltransferase, vesicular acetylcholine transporter and p75 low-affinity NGF receptor, were markedly reduced in the basal forebrain, whereas other cholinergic neurons including brain stem and spinal motor neurons expressed the markers. Neurotransmitter phenotypes other than cholinergic in the basal forebrain appeared intact. From these results, we suggested that L3/Lhx8 has a pivotal and specific role in the development and/or maintenance of BFCNs.

Background: The ammonia-monochloramine system plays an important role in Helicobacter pylori-associated gastric mucosal injury. Polaprezinc, a new antiulcer agent, has a scavenging action against monochloramine. The aim of the experiment was to investigate the inhibitory effects of polaprezinc on the H. pylori-induced gastritis in Mongolian gerbils., Materials and Methods: Mongolian gerbils fasting for 24 hours were orally given culture broth containing 2-4 x 10(8) colony-forming units of H. pylori ATCC 43054 per milliliter. From 4 hours after inoculation until the end of the experiment, gerbils were given chow pellets with or without 0.02% polaprezinc. All gerbils were killed 12 weeks later. The grades of H. pylori density and histologic features of gastritis were evaluated in accordance with the Updated Sydney System. The scavenging effect of polaprezinc on monochloramine was investigated spectrophotometrically., Results: Polaprezinc had little or no influence on the H. pylori density in both pyloric and fundic mucosae. However, it significantly attenuated the development of polymorphonuclear neutrophil activity, mononuclear infiltration, and surface epithelial erosion in both pyloric and fundic mucosae compared with those of the control group. H. pylori inoculation significantly increased the heights of both pyloric and fundic mucosae (mainly due to the increased height of foveolar hyperplasia), but polaprezinc inhibited the increase of mucosal thickness in both pyloric and fundic mucasae. No intestinal metaplasia was detected in this study. Spectrophotometric examination revealed that polaprezinc scavenged monochloramine., Conclusions: Polaprezinc inhibited the development of H. pylori-induced gastritis through its scavenging action against monochloramine.