Pathologic myopia is a major cause of low vision and blindness worldwide. Its social and economic burden has been demonstrated by epidemiological studies. There have been recent advances in the classification system for myopic maculopathy that enables clinicians to describe different types of lesions, including tessellated fundus, diffuse/patchy chorioretinal atrophy, macular atrophy, lacquer cracks, choroidal neovascularization (CNV), and Fuchs' spot, in a standardized format. From a therapeutic point of view, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy has been established as first-line choice for myopic CNV. For myopic retinoschisis and macular holes with/without retinal detachment, pars plana vitrectomy has been generally accepted as an efficient strategy. Studies are being conducted to determine how to avoid the development of a postoperative macular hole and to improve the quality of vision after surgery. In recent years, studies have revealed preventive measures that can be taken against myopia progression, including low-dose atropine eyedrops and contact lens wearing with peripheral myopic defocusing.

Patients with unresectable advanced or recurrent gastric cancer have a poor prognosis with overall survival times increasing by only a few months after anti-cancer drug therapy in the last four decades. The survival times from previous clinical trials for untreated metastatic gastric cancer in Japan are generally better than those reported from trials in European and North or South American countries. Therefore, the proportion of Japanese patients enrolled in recent global trials of novel anti-cancer drugs should be increased in order to identify drugs that specifically prolong the survival of such patients. S-1 plus oxaliplatin (SOX) therapy is the most commonly used standard first-line treatment for advanced gastric cancer in Japan. SOX induces mild nausea and vomiting, even in elderly patients, that can be treated by maintaining oral intake with adequate anti-emetic treatment usually given in an outpatient clinic. Neutropenia, nausea, and vomiting in SOX therapy were more frequently observed in female patients compared with males. Intensive toxic chemotherapy such as triplet therapy never prolonged overall survival or maintained a favorable quality of life. The current strategies used against metastatic gastric cancer need to be modified in regard to innovative treatments with current drugs, keeping in mind each categorized treatment population. In a real world of a diverse society even if the same treatment is performed, the outcome of the individual patient is different. It is important for each society to implement established treatment, knowing that the evidence from global trials aimed at drug approval does not necessarily show external validity.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is currently a global health threat. Many countries have issued their own national action plans following the publication of the Global Action Plan on AMR by the World Health Organization. The government of Japan established its own National Action Plan on AMR in 2016; however, Japan's AMR countermeasures are still in the developmental stage. Recently, the AMR Clinical Reference Center (AMR CRC) in Japan estimated the disease burden of AMR in the form of number of deaths attributed to blood-stream infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant organisms. However, a more extensive and precise assessment is needed to understand the disease burden of AMR more clearly and enable us to compare these indicators with those published by other countries. Cassini and colleagues from the World Health Organization estimated the disease burden of AMR in the European Union as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2018. Their study could be considered an important milestone in terms of its thoroughness. If we hope to estimate the disease burden of AMR in a more precise manner, age-stratified patient data is needed in conjunction with a surveillance report. At present, AMR CRC is attempting to establish such data for examination at the national level – a challenging but worthwhile task.

Allowing patients to access their electronic health records (EHR) online, that we call the patient open-EHR, may help patients better understand and remember their health information, leading to improved health outcomes. In Japan, such solution is not yet widespread, and general patients' expectations for such solution are not known. The OpenNotes initiative in the United States of America (USA) had done various studies concerning the intervention of sharing doctors' notes, which are part of the EHR, with patients. Our study objective is to explore general patients' expectations toward potential benefits and risks of the patient open-EHR solution if given chance to use in Japan. A cross-sectional study was done using an online questionnaire. One hundred and eighty-three general patients without previous experience using the patient open-EHR service, responded to our survey after being recruited through SNS and posters at a university hospital not offering the solution. Comparison with the result of the OpenNotes original study, conducted in a similar setting, was also done. The results showed that participants were, similarly to the OpenNotes results, positive about the system's potential benefits; 90% agreed on the system ability to help them better understand their condition and remember their healthcare plan. On the other hand, they were much concerned about the potential risks especially privacy; 62% agreed they would be worried about their privacy. Adequate measures to provide highly secured systems and to allow patients to be better informed about the use of their personal health records should be taken to comfort future users.

Since the initial report of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from the City of Wuhan, China in December 2019, there have been multiple cases globally. Reported here are 11 cases of COVID-19 at this hospital; all of the patients in question presented with relative bradycardia. The severity of the disease was classified into four grades. Of the patients studied, 3 with mild COVID-19 and 3 with moderate COVID-19 improved spontaneously. Lopinavir/ritonavir was administered to 3 patients with severe COVID-19 and 2 with critical COVID-19. Both patients with critical COVID-19 required mechanical ventilation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Both patients with critical COVID-19 had a higher fever that persisted for longer than patients with milder COVID-19. The respiratory status of patients with critical COVID-19 worsened rapidly 7 days after the onset of symptoms. Relative bradycardia may be useful in distinguishing between COVID-19 and bacterial community-acquired pneumonia. In patients who have had a fever for > 7 days, the condition might worsen suddenly.

It is well known that schizophrenic patients have high incidence of metabolic syndrome and life-style related diseases. There are reports that the rates of these diseases are increased more in outpatients than inpatients, but are also reports that the rates are not different between both patient groups. These differences might be related to the length of hospitalization. Hospitalization of Japanese psychiatric patients is about 300 days, much longer than western countries (below 50 days). Therefore, we investigated lipid and glucose metabolism of schizophrenic patients transferred from hospitalization to outpatients at Kohnodai hospital with a mean of 80 days hospitalization period to clarify metabolic characteristics in Japanese patients. Study participants were 144 schizophrenia inpatients and 109 outpatients at Kohnodai Hospital. These 109 outpatients were followed for approximately 2 years, without changes of administrated drugs, and from 144 inpatients. Data from outpatients were obtained at 6 months, 1 year and 2 years after their discharge. Outpatients 2 years after discharge had significantly higher levels of total cholesterol, triglyceride and non-high density lipoprotein (non-HDL) cholesterol than inpatients, accompanied with an increase of body weight. Serum HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels had no significant difference between both groups. These lipids and glucose levels also showed the same tendency in outpatients 0.5 year and 1 year after discharge as those after 2 years. We found that schizophrenic patients in our study appeared to have changes of lipid metabolism 2 years after their discharge, but no significant changes of glucose metabolism, such as FPG and HbA1c.

Lagos State, Nigeria, Africa’s largest city with an estimaed 21 million population, continues to face challenges in its attempts to reduce maternal mortality (555 deaths per 100,000 live births) and deaths of children under five (59 per 1,000 live births). These deaths are more common among women and children living in poverty, many of whom rarely utilize health services. This paper describes the trend in the use of maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) services in the State in the past decade and shows barriers to the use of the services. Significant improvement in the coverage of the services were not observed. We identified the following five types of barriers to the use of MNCH services: i) financial barriers, ii) physical barriers, iii) cognitive barriers, iv) organizational barriers, and v) psychological and socio-cultural barriers. To address these interrelated barriers, the Lagos State Ministry of Health should prioritize regular outreach health services including health promotion, and realize the current initiative for massive recruitment of health personnel and appropriate deployment of them.

Hypercoagulation and anticoagulation treatment have become new challenges in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. We herein suggest an algorithm for an anticoagulation treatment with unfractionated heparin in moderate to severe COVID-19 cases in Japan, and report a case of COVID-19 pneumonia with anticoagulation treatment. Although several promising drugs for COVID-19 are being tested in clinical trials, definitive treatments have not yet been established. In this report, we demaonstrate that anticoagulation treatment with unfractionated heparin has the possibility of becoming at least a supportive treatment for COVID-19 patients.

Severe COVID-19 is associated with a hyperinflammatory state, and corticosteroid therapy may be effective. We review the recent literature and discuss the appropriate dose and duration of corticosteroid therapy. Low-dose corticosteroid therapy is often used to treat COVID-19. However, several doses of methylprednisolone (or prednisolone) have been attempted, ranging from about 40 mg/day to 2 mg/kg/day. Doses may need to be adjusted depending on severity. Corticosteroid therapy is generally administered for a short period over several days. However, COVID-19-induced respiratory failure is often prolonged, so longer administration may be considered. Careful monitoring for complications due to corticosteroid therapy is vital.

After the initial description of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, Italy was hit first in Europe and the impact has been rapidly enlarging. In early April 2020, at the epidemic peak, there were more than 33,000 patients hospitalized including more than 4,000 in Intensive Care Units (ICU). On May 15, the confirmed cases in Italy approached 224,000 patients (5^th highest number worldwide), with more than 31,000 deaths (3^rd highest number worldwide). Non-urgent, non-cancer procedures were stopped to reallocate nurses and anesthetists to face the COVID-19 emergency. The timeline of the progressive involvement by COVID-19 patients of 36 hospitals referrals for surgical oncology in Italy was shown in this article. Only emergency, and elective oncological procedures were allowed with obvious limitations in terms of numbers of operable cases. Criteria for prioritizing oncologic patients waiting for surgery were released by each region, mainly issuing main factors for decision making, biological aggressiveness or symptomatic disease, the interval from the latest treatment, and the risk of un-resectability if delayed. However, the lack of facilities mostly influenced the decision or not to proceed. The risk of operating on oncological patients with ongoing SARS-CoV-2 syndrome is real, and a preoperative flowchart for ruling out this occurrence has been promoted. In our center, the day before surgery, chest CT and swab testing have been introduced, and a similar behavior has been recommended prior to patients' discharge. The care of patients addressed for surgical oncology should be featured by dedicated paths to secure proper and prompt disease management.