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Objectives: This study aimed to investigate workplace measures implemented in response to COVID-19 during the outbreak in Japan from T1 (March 2020) to T2 (May 2020), focusing on the disparities by company size and industry. Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted using a cohort of full-time employees, starting with the baseline online survey on March 19–22, 2020 (T1). An online follow-up survey was conducted on May 22–26, 2020 (T2). The McNemar test was used to assess differences between T1 and T2 in the proportion of implemented measurements. Analysis of covariance was performed to compare the differences in the number of implemented measures across groups classified by company size or industry, adjusting for sex and age. Results: A total of 1,032 participants (response rate: 72.6%) completed the follow-up questionnaire. The final analytic sample comprised n=987. The workplace measures involving the delivery of information on COVID-19 were 88.4% at T2, which significantly increased from T1 (increased 8.6%, p

On a mid-summer day, a middle-aged man with severe pectus excavatum died unexpectedly in his bed one to two weeks after the onset of dyspnea, which had been followed by bedrest and restricted drinking and eating. Computed tomography (CT) and autopsy demonstrated an eccentrically hypertrophied heart (weight 600 g), which was displaced, rotated, and occupied a large space in the left thoracic cavity due to a deeply depressed sternum. The pulmonary artery was bent and extended across the left thoracic cavity to the right hilum. Anatomical abnormalities in the heart and pulmonary artery obstructed the right ventricular outflow, dilated the right ventricle, and induced restrictive hemodynamics. The left lung was atelectatic due to compression by the heart, while the right lung was enlarged and partly expanded to the left upper thoracic cavity. Histology confirmed pulmonary infarctions at different stages in the upper and middle lobes of the right lung. Restrictive hemodynamics promoted right ventricular dilation, causing spatial limitation of the left thoracic cavity. It is presumed that diastolic right ventricular dysfunction would have rapidly progressed along with pericardial effusion (150 mL), and intra-cardiac thrombi were formed due to stagnation, arrhythmia, bedrest, and dehydration. Consequently, the thrombi would be repetitively embolized in the right lung, thereby aggravating respiratory dysfunction and right-sided heart failure. This is the first autopsy report on the unexpected death of an untreated adult patient of pectus excavatum, with systematic pathophysiological analyses on the basis of the postmortem CT, macroscopic, and microscopic findings.

A middle-aged woman with unrepaired congenital heart disease died suddenly from asphyxia due to hemoptysis. Postmortem computed tomography, autopsy, and histological examinations revealed the presence of an aneurysm and dissection of the right main pulmonary artery with intraluminal thrombus. The observed congenital heart diseases included patent ductus arteriosus, ventricular septal defect, and right-sided aorta. These anomalies predisposed her to left to right shunt, resulting not only in pulmonary artery hypertension and right ventricular hypertrophy, but also pulmonary artery aneurysm and dissection. Histological examinations confirmed the presence of medial degeneration and elastic fiber disruption, as well as muscular hyperplasia of the vasa vasorum and follicular infiltration of the lymphocytes and plasma cells in the main pulmonary artery. These changes may have contributed to the pathogenesis of the aneurysm and dissection through the induction of arterial wall fragility. Histology demonstrated, in addition to findings of pulmonary hypertension, such as plexiform lesions, medial-intimal hyperplasia, and veno-occlusive lesion, unique findings related to multiple dissections of the intra-pulmonary elastic arteries, which may have caused the lethal hemoptysis.

ニワトリの血液中の成長ホルモン(GH)とインスリン様成長因子(IGF)-I濃度およびIGF-I結合活性に対するインスリンの影響を調べる目的で,24時間絶食した白色レグホーン種雄鶏(6週齢)にインスリン(20μg/100gB.W)を腹腔内注射して経時的に採血し,血清中の血糖値,GH濃度,IGF-I濃度,IGF-I結合活性を測定した。インスリン投与によって血糖値とGH濃度はただちに減少して60分後に最低となり,180分後までその低値は持続した。IGF-I濃度はインスリン投与20分後では変化が見られなかったが,その後に減少して60分後に最低となって180分までその低値は持続した。IGF-I結合活性はインスリン投与40分まではほとんど変化しなかったが，その後に増加して90分後に最高となり,その後に減少して180分後には投与前および対照区のレベルになった。