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Hamazaki K, Higashihara E, Terachi T, et al. In Vivo 2006;20:397-401. The Study of EPA Effects on Prostate Cancer (SEEPC) Group has been conducting a clinical trial with patients who [...]

Previous studies suggested that omega-3 fatty acids (FAs) have therapeutic effects against depression, but there is no evidence in the oncological setting. Our preliminary study reported the association between lower [...]

BACKGROUND: There are only a very limited number of reports of intervention studies on the effects of fish oil on behavior in normal school children. OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of fish oil on behavior and school attendance rates in school children. DESIGN: Fourth to sixth graders (mostly 9-12 years of age) of an elementary school in Lampung Province, Indonesia, were randomly divided into either a docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) group (n=116) or a control group (n=117) in a double-blind manner. The subjects in the DHA group took 6 fish oil capsules per day (0.65 g DHA and 0.10 g eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)/day) for 3 months. Controls took soybean oil capsules. Two questionnaires were administered and blood was taken at the start and end of the study. Two questionnaires were administered at the start and end of the study: Hostility-Aggression Questionnaire for Children (HAQ-C) and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, version 11 (BIS-11), for measurement of aggression and impulsivity, respectively. Attendance was recorded during the study period. OUTCOMES: The concentrations of DHA and EPA in the phospholipid fraction in red blood cells were significantly increased in the DHA group. Behavior checked with HAQ-C or BIS-11 did not show any differences between groups. However, the odds ratio of inability to attend school regularly during the study period was 0.40 (95%CI: 0.23-0.71) in the DHA group compared with controls (p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: DHA-rich fish oil may improve the school attendance rate of children in Lampung, Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: We previously reported that administration of fish oil rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) increased the plasma ratio of epinephrine to norepinephrine (NE) at rest in young adults who were under chronic stress and that this effect was achieved mainly through depression of NE. However, not many reports have documented the effects of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and DHA on blood catecholamine levels in healthy humans. Therefore, we performed another intervention study to test their effect on catecholamines with healthy subjects under no chronic stress. METHODS: Twenty-one healthy young adults (15 men and 6 women) were randomly assigned to an omega-3 group (n = 9) or a control group (n = 12) in a double-blind manner. Twenty capsules of shellfish-derived lipids containing 762 mg of EPA plus DHA per day were administered to the omega-3 group for 2 mo. The controls took the same amount of placebo capsules. Fasting blood samples after a 30-min rest with a catheter in a forearm vein were obtained at the start and the end of the study for catecholamine measurements. RESULTS: EPA but not DHA concentrations in red blood cells significantly increased in the omega-3 group compared with the control group (P < 0.001). Plasma NE concentrations were significantly decreased in the omega-3 group (from 1.49 +/- 0.39 nmol/L to 1.05 +/- 0.14 nmol/L) compared with the control group (from 1.12 +/- 0.24 nmol/L to 1.39 +/- 0.32 nmol/L) with analysis of covariance (P < 0.001). The differences remained significant (P = 0.01) even after deletion of three subjects in the omega-3 group who had the highest baseline NE values and one in the control group who had the lowest baseline NE value to nullify a significant baseline differences in NE between groups. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that EPA plus DHA supplementation lowered plasma NE concentrations in normal volunteers even at the small dose of 762 mg of EPA plus DHA per day. This effect of EPA plus DHA to lower plasma NE concentrations may be important to understand some of the effects of fish oils on diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on a case of heterotopic gastric mucosa in the body of the gallbladder. A 39-year-old man, who was asymptomatic, visited our hospital because of a polypoid lesion in the gallbladder, discovered during a routine health screening. Ultrasonography (US) revealed a broad-based polypoid lesion 1.7 cm in diameter in the body of the gallbladder, which was free of gallstones. The gallbladder mass was faintly enhanced by helical computed tomography. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed because of the possibility of malignancy. The specimen revealed a 1.7 x 1.3 cm polypoid lesion with deep delle in the body, with no gallstones in the gallbladder. Intraoperative frozen examination yielded a diagnosis of hyperplastic polyp of the gallbladder. Histologically, the polypoid lesion consisted of gastric fundic glands located in the whole wall of the gallbladder. The surrounding mucosa consisted of almost normal epithelium without any metaplastic changes. Postoperative technetium 99m-pertechnetate scintigraphy demonstrated no evidence of gastric heterotopia elsewhere in the body. We also review 18 other reports of heterotopic gastric mucosa in the gallbladder in the Japanese medical literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case of asymptomatic membranous obstruction of the inferior vena cava with a rare hemodynamic pattern consisting of large intrahepatic venous connections between the right inframembranous and the middle supramembranous hepatic vein. These remarkably large collaterals obviated significant enlargement of the azygous venous system and the development of a Budd-Chiari syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]