Search

Ichiro Morioka, Sota Iwatani, Tsubasa Koda, Miwako Nagasaka, Keiji Yamana, Daisuke Kurokawa, Kaori Fujita, Kosuke Nishida, Kazumoto Iijima Department of Pediatrics, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, JapanAbstract: Neonatal sepsis is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in newborns, particularly in the preterm or low birth weight infant. In this epidemiologic review regarding neonatal sepsis, the recent epidemiology and causative pathogens in Japan are described and compared with data from international organizations. Recent Japanese multicenter studies report the incidence of neonatal sepsis at 0.74%. Although the incidence of early-onset sepsis has been low (0.13%), approximately 5% of very or extremely low birth weight infants develop late-onset sepsis with a high mortality rate. In Japan for such cases, the most predominant causative pathogen is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; internationally, the most commonly reported pathogen is coagulase-negative staphylococci. It is our contention that the incorporation of the strategies to control and to prevent health care-associated MRSA transmission has contributed to the reduction in the incidence of late-onset sepsis.Keywords: coagulase-negative staphylococci, incidence, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, mortality, neonatal intensive care, nosocomial infections

Kei Iijima, Kimiya Shimizu, Yoshiaki Ichibe Department of Ophthalmology, Kitasato University, Kanagawa, Japan Purpose: To investigate the etiology of bilateral disc swelling in Japanese.Methods: Using Kitasato University’s Department of Neuro-Ophthalmology medical records and fundus photographs of the period December 1977 through November 2010, we retrospectively identified 121 outpatients who had been initially confirmed with bilateral disc swelling. Results: The most common cause of the bilateral disc swelling was increased intracranial pressure (ICP) (59%); followed by pseudopapillitis (16%); uveitis (8%); hypertensive retinopathy (5%); bilateral optic neuritis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) and optic disc drusen (all at 2% each); and leukemia (1%). Unknown etiology accounted for 6% of the cases.Conclusion: Although increased ICP is the most common etiology for bilateral disc swelling, it can also be triggered by a variety of other causes. Pseudopapillitis is the most important progenitor of bilateral disc swelling in Japanese. Keywords: bilateral, disc swelling, papilledema, increased ICP, intracranial pressure

For the experimental determination of an average energy to produce an ion pair in gases, W, by heavy ions from accelerators, an apparatus consisting of a particle-energy degrader, an ionization chamber, and a time-of-flight (TOF) energy spectrometer was designed and constructed, where two types of pulse operation modes in an ionization chamber were employed. Using this system, the values of W were measured for He and C ions in pure argon and air as a function of the energy of ions. For the C ions, the energy dependence of W was clearly observed, while W for He ions was approximately constant over a wide rage of energy (the mean value was 26.5 [+ or -]0.9 eV in argon and 34.3 [+ or -] 1.3 eV in air, respectively) and agreed well with the value for 5.49 MeV alpha particles from 241 Am in each gas. The value of W for C ions obtained at the highest energy was also in good agreement with the value for 5.49 MeV alpha particles in each gas. Index Terms--Energy dependence, heavy ions, ionization yield, W-value.