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A 49 year-old woman with chronic renal failure (CRF) on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) because of Goodpasture Syndrome was admitted to our hospital since she had a high fever and severe abdominal pain. A diagnosis of peritonitis was made from the physical examination and laboratory findings. The peritonitis was refractory to conventional antibiotics therapy. Candida parapsilosis was detected from dialysite. The peritonitis was aggravated although the antibiotic was changed to an antifungal agent (fluconazole 400mg/day). Fluconazole was replaced to micafungin (MCFG) and the catheter for CAPD was removed. The fungal peritonitis improved dramatically and beta-D glucan was decreased from 104 to 12.6 (pg/ml). No adverse effect was observed after using MCFG. It has been known that fungal peritonitis of CRF patients is refractory to treatment and the mortality rate is high. To our best knowledge, there is no report that MCFG was used for CRF patients with fungal peritonitis. However, we used MCFG safely and effectively for CRF patients. Therefore, it is suggested that MCFG is a new effective and safe antifungal agent for Candida parapsilosis peritonitis with CRF.

OBJECTIVE To demonstrate the correlation of six healthy habits with plasma glucose. METHODS Our mnemonic or motto for promoting healthy habits is "none of one, less of two, more of three". The 'one' behavior is smoking. The two things are intake of food and alcohol. The three things are exercise, rest and enjoyable activities. SUBJECTS A questionnaire recording compliance with this motto was completed by 8,113 subjects undergoing medical health check-ups. Subjects under medication were excluded. Fasting plasma glucose was measured. RESULTS Fasting plasma glucose decreased significantly in relation to the number of healthy habits practiced (5.57 mmol/l for one, 5.51 for two, 5.49 for three, 5.41 for four, 5.38 for five, and 5.31 for six) . CONCLUSION Practicing these six healthy habits contributes to the prevention of diabetes mellitus.

Nitramarine (1), which possesses a β-carboline nucleus, was synthesized by two routes. First, we applied an intramolecular thermal cyclization of the 1-azahexatrienesystem in heteroaromatics such as 2. Although no intermediate (9 or 10) could be isolated, heating of 7 in toluene or of 8 in odichlorobenzene in the presence of hydroxylamine gave nitramarine (1) or its derivative (11), respectively. On the other hand, the Pictet?Spengler reaction between (±) -tryptophan ethyl ester (12) and 2-quinoline carbaldehyde (13) gave nitramarine carboxylic acid ethyl ester (11). Subsequent hydrolysis followed by decarboxylation gave 1. Nitramarine carboxylic acid (15) and carboxamide (16) were found to prolong the sleeping time of mice.