Objective The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) has been increasing in Japan. To determine epidemiological characteristics of NAFLD and suspicious NASH over the past 10 years, changes in the prevalence of ultrasound diagnosed nonalcoholic fatty liver and their ALT abnormality rates were analyzed.
Methods The study included 45, 328 men and women who underwent general health check-ups in 1994 and 2004 at PL Tokyo Health Care Center. Changes in the prevalence of ultrasound diagnosed non-alcoholic fatty liver and non-alcoholic fatty liver with ALT abnormality such as suspicious NASH and their body mass index (BMI) were analyzed according to gender and age-specific grouping.
Results There was a definitive increase over the past 10 years in the prevalence of ultrasound diagnosed non-alcoholic fatty liver. The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver has risen significantly among men in their 30s to 60s and among women in their 60s to 80s. ALT abnormality rates such as suspicious NASH significantly increased among men in their 30s and 40s and women in their 60s and 70s. The BMI of ultrasound diagnosed non-alcoholic fatty liver showed an increase among men in their 30s and 50s and among women in their 60s and 70s. Increases of BMI were distinct in the age groups in which ALT abnormality rates had risen.
Conclusions Over the past 10 years, the prevalence of ultrasound diagnosed non-alcoholic fatty liver and suspicious NASH has significantly increased. The age groups of 30s and 40s in men and 60s and 70s in women were at risk of suspicious NASH with increase of BMI, indicating that changes in age related intravital condition and/or lifestyle habits over lifespan are important.

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Background: The association between body mass index (BMI) and the occurrence of colorectal polyp (adenoma) has been reported to differ between men and women. However, no adequate scientific basis for the relationship between obesity and colorectal adenoma among the Japanese has been provided. Therefore, to determine whether obesity is a risk factor for colorectal adenoma, we analyzed the detection rates of colorectal adenoma.
Subjects and Methods: The risk factors for colorectal adenoma were studied in 7, 497 subjects (3, 444 men, 4, 053 women) who were firs-time examinees and were examined by colonoscopy from April 1998 to March 2004 at our‘Human Dry Dock’Eligible examinees were 26-84 years old (mean age±SD: 48.3±8.1) and were free of invasive cancer, hyperplasia and familial polyposis. Adenomatous polyps were found in 717 (482 men, 235 women) subjects. The odds ratio (OR) of detection of colorectal adenoma in relation to obesity was determined for these 717 cases by multivariate analysis consisting of logistic regression after adjusting for gender and age.
Result: The OR for obese subjects (BMI≤25) vs. Non-obese subjects (BMI<25, OR=1) was 1.44 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18-1.76, p<0.01) in men and 1.26 (95% CI 0.98-1.69, p=0.13) in women. As the BMI increased by one, the OR in men increased significantly to 1.08 (95% CI 1.04-1.11, p<0.01) but in women the OR increased to 1.03 (95% CI 0.99-1.07, p=0.19), which was without significance.
Conclusions: We conclude that obesity in men is the risk factor for colorectal adenoma. It is very useful for the prevention of colorectal polyp to avoid the obesity, and consequently cancer. To prevent colorectal adenoma and consequently cancer it is important, especially for men, to avoid obesity. The results of this study indicate that colorectal adenoma share a risk factor with other life style related diseases. These results need to be confirmed by additional epidemiological studies.

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The purpose of the study was investigating the mood state of elderly people who participated in a fitness program. All participants were 65 years old and above. They attended the program twice a week; the program made up of two kinds of exercises: aerobic dance in the pool, and aerobic dance and recreational sports in the gym. The total number of days they attended the program was 57. The rate participation rate was 84.2%. The result was that one (vigor) of six parameters of mood states was higher than normal people's T score. It indicates good mood state. This mood state persisted before and after the exercise program.

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Background and Purpose: Recent studies have suggested that Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection is the major cause of gastric cancer and that gastric cancer is not found in the normal gastric mucosa without HP infection. Efficacy in the interpretation of gastric X-ray screening for gastric cancer is important. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that gastric X-ray examination can detect“normal gastric mucosa without Helicobacter pylori infection”.
Methods: The systemic HP status was determined by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for specific IgG-HP circulating antibodies. One hundred and fifty nine subjects were evaluated serologically and by X-ray examination. Criteria used in evaluation of normal gastric mucosa without HP infection included: “smoothness of gastric surface; evenness of barium coating; almost no depiction of gastric area, particularly in gastric corpus; measurements of gastric folds less than 4 mm; and an abundance of smooth folds”. Two observers, blinded to the clinical information, reviewed all images. The results were statistically compared with the serological HP antibody titers.
Results: The sensitivity, specificity, total predictive value, negative predictive value, positive predictive value were 79.6%, 96.2%, 90.6%, 91.5%, 90.2% for one observer and 79.6%, 90.5%, 86.8%, 81.1%, 89.6% for the other. The sensitivity, and specificity, total predictive value, negative predictive value, positive predictive value were each in a 95% confidence interval. In addition, there was no statistically significant difference between two observers in all values. Furthermore, the kappa ratio of the two observers was 0.621 suggesting high agreement between reviewers. The likelihood ratio and odds ratio for detecting normal gastric mucosa without HP infection were 20.9 and 10.7 for the doctor and 8.4 and 4.3 for the technician.
Conclusion: Gastric X-ray examination can be used in the diagnosis of normal gastric mucosa without HP infection by the above criteria.

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