Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale

Abstract The reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (JY-BOCS) were determined by 20 raters for 12 Japanese patients with obsessive compulsive disorder at four institutions. Interrater reliability for the total JY-BOCS score was excellent, and the intraclass correlation coefficient was high (ICC = 0.960). Internal consistency was also excellent (Cronbach's α= 0.889). Concurrent and discriminant validity of the JY-BOCS was examined by comparing the scores on the JY-BOCS with those on the Maudsley Obsessional Compulsive Inventory (MOCI) and scales for depression and anxiety. A slight correlation was found between scores on the JY-BOCS and MOCI, but no significant correlations were found between scores on the JY-BOCS and those on scales for depression or anxiety.     

11C-choline positron emission tomography in bladder cancer: Report of four cases

Little work has been done with positive emission tomography (PET) in bladder tumors because high urinary excretion of (18)F-FDG makes visualization of the bladder tumor difficult. (11)C-choline has recently been reported as a new tracer which lacks urinary radioactivity. We report the result of (11)C-choline PET in four patients with invasive bladder tumors. In one case, (11)C-choline PET could detect bladder tumor effectively without urinary activity and bone metastasis despite negative bone scintigraphy. On the other hand, an intense accumulation of the tracer in the bladder hampered the interpretation on PET scanning in three patients. The mechanisms of the (11)C-choline accumulation in the bladder were reported to be due to inflammatory and proliferative changes in the mucosa of the bladder from previous catheterization or other factors. Further study is necessary to prove the value of (11)C-choline PET for detecting primary bladder cancer and bone metastasis.     

Prevention of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) by treatment with polyethylene glycol-conjugated type II collagen; distinct tolerogenic property of the conjugated collagen from the native one

Administration of a soluble protein into animals prior to challenge immunization induces immunological tolerance which is specific for the protein. In addition, chemical modification of proteins with polyethylene glycol (PEG) has been reported to convert the immunogenic proteins to become tolerogenic. However, differences in tolerogenic properties between PEG-modified proteins and the native counterparts have never been analysed. The ability of PEG-conjugated type II collagen (PEG-CII) to attenuate CIA, an animal model for rheumatoid arthritis, was compared with the native unconjugated CII. Groups of DBA/1 J mice were treated weekly with i.p. injections with PEG-CII, native CII, or vehicle alone for 3 weeks, before they were challenged with CII in adjuvants. The induction of tolerance was confirmed in both PEG-CII- and CII-pretreated mice when suppression of lymph node T cell proliferation in response to CII was noted. The degrees of suppression of T cell proliferation were comparable between the two pretreated groups. However, induction of arthritis and production of IgG anti-CII antibody were more markedly suppressed in PEG-CII-pretreated mice than in native CII-pretreated mice, although the severity of arthritis and antibody levels in the latter group were also lower than in control mice. IgG2a and IgG2b antibody levels were equally suppressed in the two pretreated groups, whereas the IgG1 level was significantly lower in the PEG-CII-pretreated group than in the native CII-pretreated group. The results provide the first evidence that attachment of PEG to CII renders the protein more tolerogenic.     

The Role of the Biopsy in Diagnosis of Early Gastric Cancer

In order to determine the reliability of endoscopic biopsy indiagnosis of early gastric cancer, and to clarify the problemswith biopsies, preoperative endoscopic biopsies from 771 earlygastric cancer cases were reviewed and analyzed clinicopathologicallyin comparison with surgically resected specimens. The 771 cancerswere surgically resected at the National Cancer Center Hospitalduring the period from 1972 to 1982. Definite histological diagnosiswas obtained in 87.4% of the carcinomas at the initial biopsies.Repeated biopsy raised the percentage of correct definite diagnosesto 96.1%. False-negative (including suspicion of cancer) diagnosiswas most frequent in the case of depressed lesions (50 lesions).Half of the false negatives were found to be due to samplingerrors by the endoscopists. The other half of these 50 lesionswere diagnosed as "suspicious of malignancy" because of thehistological difficulty in differentiating early gastric cancerfrom regenerative atypia with intestinal metaplasia, or becausethere was not enough information, or for the other reasons.Most of the 31 false-negative diagnoses at the initial biopsyfrom elevated lesions were reported as adenoma (group III) orsuspicious of carcinoma (group IV), indicating that differentialdiagnosis between well-differentiated adenocarcinoma and adenomais very difficult. The result of the present study suggeststhat repeated biopsy from correct sites and discussion of thelesions between clinicians and pathologists are very important. ^**Present affiliation: Toranomon Hospital, Toranomon 2-2-2,Minato-ku, Tokyo 105, Japan.     

Assessment and treatment of liver disease in Japanese haemophilia patients

Summary. We studied the prevalence of the hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and GB virus C or hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV), and characteristics of infections in Japanese haemophilia patients. Haemophilia patients were highly infected with HCV (88.2%) because of frequent use of unheated blood concentrates. Analysis for HCV genotypes revealed characteristics of HCV infection in haemophilia patients. Japanese haemophilia patients were highly infected with rare genotypes in Japan: genotype 1a (26.5%), genotype 3 (14.5%) and genotype 4 (2.4%). HIV infection was observed in 32.3% of haemophilia patients. HCV quasispecies (clones) and direct sequencing were investigated in patients with a single HCV genotype in the hypervariable region 1 of HCV, which resulted in a high degree of diversity. This indicates that even a single genotype of HCV might have multiple origins. GBV-C/HGV infection was noted in 20.9% of Japanese haemophilia patients. Over 40 haemophilia patients with chronic hepatitis C have been treated with interferon alpha for 6 months at total doses of 480–720 million units. About 38% showed clearance of HCV RNA from serum. Six patients with HIV infection were included in the study and they did not show eradication of HCV from the serum. This might derive from that they had high serum HCV RNA titers and genotype 1a or 1b. Histologic assessment was performed in 36 haemophilia patients with HCV. No case showed a histologically normal liver. Hepatic fibrosis in the biopsy specimens was classified into five stages of fibrosis and compared with serum hepatic fibrosis markers. Serum hyaluronic acid mostly correlated with hepatic fibrosis (γ= 0.78, P < 0.0001) followed by type IV collagen (γ= 0.38, P < 0.05). This suggests that estimation of serum fibrosis markers might be substituted for liver biopsy in haemophilia patients.     

Epidemiology of school urinary screening over a 30 year period in Tokyo

BACKGROUND: A school urinary screening (SUS) system has been conducted for 30 years in Japan, but the cross-sectional data have never been reported or analyzed. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the data epidemiologically. METHODS: All elementary and junior high school children in public school in Tokyo who had SUS performed by the Tokyo Health Service Association from 1974 to 2002 (approx. 400,000-600,000 children per year) were involved. The cross-sectional data were analyzed with Pearson's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: During the first 10 years of SUS, the prevalence of abnormal urinalysis in both the first and second screenings varied widely, and the result of the second screening was affected by that of the first screening. The results of both first and second screening were highly correlated with the prevalence of hematuria, especially microhematuria, in both elementary and junior high school children. They were also correlated with the prevalence of proteinuria in junior high school children. Important factors that affected the prevalence of hematuria and/or proteinuria were reagent strips and sampling method of urinalysis. CONCLUSIONS: In order to validate SUS, attention should be paid to quality controls of the screening method, such as the selection of reagent strips, and the participants should be instructed to strictly adhere to the sampling method.     

Stromal cell-derived factor-1α improves infarcted heart function through angiogenesis in mice

BACKGROUND: Local delivery of stromal cell-derived factor-1alpha (SDF-1) has been demonstrated to improve hind limb ischemia through enhanced neovascularization in animals. It was hypothesized that local administration of SDF-1 also contributes to neovascularization of ischemic heart. METHOD: Acute myocardial infarction was created by left coronary artery ligation in C57BL/6J mice. Immediately after infarction induction, mice were treated by injection directly into the center of ischemic myocardium either with saline (control group) or SDF-1 (SDF-1 group). Cardiac function was measured on echocardiogram 2 and 4 weeks after infarction. On week 4 mice were killed to evaluate infarction size and capillary vessel density. To determine the contribution of bone marrow cells to angiogenesis, the same procedures were performed on C57BL/6J chimeric mice reconstituted with green fluorescent protein-positive bone marrow cells. RESULTS: Fractional shortening was greater in the SDF-1 group at 4 weeks (0.31 +/- 0.06% vs 0.23 +/- 0.03%, P = 0.037). The infarct area was smaller in the SDF-1 group compared to the control group (9.31 +/- 2.76% vs 18.07 +/- 5.69%, P = 0.028). Green fluorescent protein-positive cells accumulated predominantly at the peri-infarction site, and were located with the capillary vessels. Capillary vessel density was significantly increased in the SDF-1 group (13.08 +/- 4.11 vessels/mm(2) vs 34.50 +/- 7.59 vessels/mm(2), P = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS: SDF-1 protects against deterioration of cardiac function after acute myocardial infarction by promoting angiogenesis. The safety and long-term prognosis of this treatment remains to be determined.     

Utility of immunohistochemical detection of prostate-specific Ets for the diagnosis of benign and malignant prostatic epithelial lesions

BACKGROUND: Human prostate-specific Ets (hPSE) belongs to the Ets family. It regulates the proliferation, differentiation, and development of prostate epithelial cells. A recent study showed that hPSE can be detected in normal glands but not in cell lines established from prostate cancer (PCA), suggesting a translational disorder of hPSE from mRNA to protein in PCA. Immunohistochemical detection of hPSE could therefore be another method of differential diagnosis of PCA from other proliferative conditions in the prostate. METHODS: An immunohistochemical detection of hPSE was carried out on the whole mounted prostatectomy specimen obtained from 19 cases with PCA. RESULTS: Basal and secretory luminar cells showed a diffuse cytoplasmic staining for hPSE in normal glands, hyperplastic glands, and prostate intraepithelial neoplasia lesions. Whereas approximately 30% of PCA lesions showed a negative staining for hPSE, the positive rate for hPSE between PCA and benign glands or prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN), was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Staining intensities in normal glands, hyperplastic glands, and PIN lesions were similar, but generally stronger than those in PCA lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Negative immunoreactivity for hPSE strongly suggests malignancy in the prostate glands. Decreased immunoreactivities of glands for hPSE could suggest PCA.     

Electrophysiological Findings in Idiopathic Recurrent Ventricular Fibrillation: Special Reference to Mode of Induction, Drug Testing, and Long-Term Outcomes

Electrophysiological studies can be useful in the presence of idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (VF) and may be used when selecting antiarrhythmic drugs. However, the yield, the mode, and the long-term reproducibility of the induction of VF have not yet been fully elucidated. Eight patients with idiopathic VF underwent electrophysiological study. The mean age (± SD) was 45 ± 17 years. Six were males and two were females. Diagnosis was done by exclusion. VF was induced in 6 (75%) of 8 patients using double extra stimuli at coupling intervals of 233 ± 39 and 191 ± 20 ms for the first and second extra stimuli, respectively. Of note, VF was induced by stimulation exclusively at the origin of the premature ventricular beat, which was the first complex of VF in two patients. In another patient, VF was initiated by two premature stimuli and also by a pause produced by rapid pacing. The inducibility of VF was reproduced 9–18 months after the first induction in all of the four patients studied. When the ability of antiarrhythmic drugs to suppress VF inducibility was confirmed, no recurrence was observed during the follow-up period of 40–160 months, but a recurrence of VF was observed in one of two nonresponders. In one patient, amiodarone administration failed in preventing VF induction 9 months after initiation of therapy, and reassessment of long-term drug-efficacy might be indicated in some patients. In conclusion, idiopathic VF was highly inducible (75%) with double extra stimuli. In this study, it was induced from a specific site (2/8) or by a pause (1/8). Induction of VF seemed to be reproduced 9–18 months after the first study. The outcome was considered favorable when the inducibility of VF was suppressed by antiarrhythmic drugs.     

Repetitive Ventricular Responses Induced by Radiofrequency Ablation for Idiopathic Ventricular Tachycardia Originating from the Outflow Tract of the Right Ventricle

In 23 consecutive patients, radiofrequency (RF) ablation was used as treatment for idiopathic ventricular tachycardia (VT) originating from the outflow tract of the right ventricle. In this study, we focused on the repetitive ventricular response (> 5 consecutive QRS beats during RF application). The incidence and clinical implications of the repetitive ventricular response were examined through the results of endocardial mapping and RF ablation. VT origin was mapped as the earliest activation site during VT, and it was determined within 0.5 × 0.5 cm (narrow site) in 13 patients and wider than 0.5 × 0.5 cm (wide origin) in the other 10 patients. The repetitive ventricular response was induced during application of RF current in 14 of 23 patients (61%), and it was more frequently observed in VT from a wide origin (100%) than in the VT from a narrow site (31%). The QRS morphology of the repetitive ventricular response was identical to that of clinical VT. As RF application was continued and/or repeated, the RR interval of the repetitive ventricular response was gradually prolonged, the number of consecutive QRS complexes was decreased, and clinical VT was finally eliminated. The overall success rate of RF ablation was 96% (22/23 patients), and no complications were observed. In conclusion, a repetitive ventricular response was frequently observed in idiopathic right VT. The changing pattern of repetitive ventricular response, slowing, and/or disappearing was consistent with successful RF ablation.