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Volume 54 (2005)
- Issue 6 Pages 827-
- Issue 5 Pages 723-
- Issue 4 Pages 625-
- No.3
- Issue 2 Pages 91-
- Issue 1 Pages 1-
Volume 54, Issue 5
Displaying 1-9 of 9 articles from this issue
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ARTICLE
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Makoto UTSUMI2006 Volume 54 Issue 5 Pages 723-733
Published: 2006
Released on J-STAGE: March 28, 2006
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSAs of July 3, 2005, the total number of HIV-infected patients in Japan came to 11,664. However, the actual figure was estimated to be several times as large as the official number. During the previous year 1,165 HIV-positive patients were newly registered. It was the largest ever recorded in one year. There is every indication that HIV infection is spreading outward from major metropolitan areas to suburban and rural parts of the nation. By mode of transmission, heterosexual contacts account for the largest number amongst the cases documented. In recent years, homosexual transmission has increased. In view of the rapidity with which HIV infection has spread abroad, it is urgently necessary for Japan to take effective measures against the virus, because this nation has several factors favorable for the spread of HIV disease. Nevertheless, the public is yet to be provided fully with correct information about HIV infection/AIDS. To implement prophylactic programs effectively, we, health care providers, must endeavor to diffuse the knowledge of the disease. HIV-infection, if diagnosed in an early stage before it develops into AIDS, has now been reduced to a chronic illness manageable with anti-HIV drugs. Therefore, early diagnosis by means of HIV screening has become more important than ever. Consequently, the establishment of a screening system available easily is essential not only from the viewpoint of treatment but also from a prophylactic perspective because safe-sex practices are expected to be established with public understanding of the nature of HIV deepened. Healthcare professionals have still plenty of catching-up to do in terms of arresting the spread of HIV infection.View full abstractDownload PDF (78K)
ORIGINALS
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Koji HATTORI, Nahoko MOCHIZUKI, Keiji KOSHIBU, Yukihito MINATO, Tatsuo ...2006 Volume 54 Issue 5 Pages 734-739
Published: 2006
Released on J-STAGE: March 28, 2006
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSWe examined the usefulness of serum leptin concentration as an index for the diagnosis of fatty liver. Twenty-two patients diagnosed with fatty liver by abdominal ultrasonography, participated in this study together with 7 indinduels as controls. As laboratory findings showed, body fat percentage (29.5±1.4 vs 19.1±1.6%, P<0.001), BMI (25.7±0.7 vs 20.8±1.0 kg/m2, P<0.005), procollagen III peptide (P III P) (0.58±0.04 vs 0.42±0.04 U/ml, P<0.05), and serum leptin levels (7.3±1.0 vs 2.9±0.5 ng/ml, P<0.001) were significantly higher in the fatty liver group than in the control group. Serum leptin levels were correlated significantly with body fat percentage (r=0.76, P<0.0001) and BMI (r=0.61, P<0.001), though there was a significant correlation between serum leptin levels and liver-kidney contrast (r=0.47, P<0.05) only in males. In addition, when the fatty liver group was classified into two groups by GPT levels, m-GOT (mitochondrial glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase) (8.6±1.0 vs 5.7±1.0 IU/l/37°C, P<0.05) and P III P (0.65±0.06 vs 0.49±0.04 U/ml, P<0.05) were significantly higher in the elevated GPT group than in the normal GPT group.
These results suggest that serum leptin levels may be indicative of fatty liver and that fatty liver is not always a reversible disease.View full abstractDownload PDF (55K) -
Takeshi KONDO, Toshikazu WATANABE, Shousui MATSUSHIMA, Shinji ASANUMA, ...2006 Volume 54 Issue 5 Pages 740-748
Published: 2006
Released on J-STAGE: March 28, 2006
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe incidence of fluorosis, believed to arise from the burning of coal, has been frequently reported in the highlands in the southern part of China. With a lot of rain and a climate of low temperature, the hilly region produces coal and inhabitants use it as a fuel for cooking and heating. The fossil fuel used by them is mostly powdery. It is mixed with dirt and rolled up into bolls. In that way,the people make the briquettes that burn a long time.
Ordinary houses have no chimneys to belch forth smoke, so that it stagnates indoors for a while. Soot and smoke, before flowing out via the openings in the roof shingle of the loft, spoils farm produce stored there. Because the smoke contains high concentrations of fluoride derived from coal and dirt, it is believed that eating farm produce exposed to the smoke is one of the major factors for fluoride poisoning. Many researchers have thus far analyzed farm products for fluoride content and confirmed that high levels of fluoride were contained in their samples.
In the present study, we measured fluoride concentrations in some samples of corn and capsicum produced in a rural area of Sichuan, China on one hand and on the other examined the water-solubility of fluoride. Furthermore, screening tests for chronic endemic dental fluorosis were performed on students to survey the fluoride contamination in the past as compared with the present state.
Incidentally, indoor air-borne fluoride concentrations in this area averaged out at0.047mg F/m3 (15 times as high as the mean in a community that was free of fluoride contamination). The fluoride content of the drinking water from a spring in the nearby hill, measured with use of a fluoride-specific electrode method,was within the range from 0.2 to 0.3μg/ml.View full abstractDownload PDF (71K)
REPORTS
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Hiroyuki OHBAYASHI, Takenori HARADA, Fusao HIRAI, Tsugiyou MATSUSHITA, ...2006 Volume 54 Issue 5 Pages 749-755
Published: 2006
Released on J-STAGE: March 28, 2006
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSTo review the outcome of our vaccination program against influenza, an investigation was made into the incidence of this acute infectious disease in our community from 2002 through 2004.
Enrolled for this retrospective study were 1) all vaccinated individuals, 2) those who underwent nasal examinations by use of the swab, and 3) patients diagnosed as contracting influenza.
The number of those administered with influenza virus vaccines increased year after year during the period under review. Over 70% of them were those aged 65years or above. The mean age of those who caught influenza was 42.9±21.3 in 2002, 34.9±20.4 in 2003 and 45.4±20.2 in 2004. Compared with unvaccinated old people, many unvaccinated young and middle-aged people contracted influenza, but among the vaccinated old people, there were some who came down with the flu.
Morbidity was low for the old people whose vaccination rate was high.Therefore, it can be said that vaccination was effective in achieving adequate immunity. Nonetheless, for all the preventive injection, the fact that people of advanced age could be infected should be taken note of.View full abstractDownload PDF (41K) -
Tetsuo HATTORI, Hiroyuki OHBAYASHI, Masanori NISHIO, Hirohiko YAMASE2006 Volume 54 Issue 5 Pages 756-761
Published: 2006
Released on J-STAGE: March 28, 2006
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis paper reports the findings of a follow-up survey on non-smoking carried out in 2005. The previous survey was conducted in 2004 by distributing questionnaires to public facilities, schools, nursery schools and post offices in Mizunami. Method:The questionnaires consisted of the same questions as the previous ones and were sent to the same 64 facilities. Results:The questionnaires were recovered from 59 facilities(92.2%). Compared with the results of the previous survey, the number of public facilities, schools, offices and resting rooms where smoking is totally prohibited increased. In post offices, smoking corners disappeared. Progress was also made remarkably in division of public space and a workplace into smoking and nonsmoking areas. The smoking ratio of employees in these facilities surveyed decreased from 20% to 17%. Conclusion:Our survey confirmed that nonsmoking has steadily won public acceptance in a matter of one year.View full abstractDownload PDF (58K) -
——Let's Bask in the Rising Sun!——Kyoko OZAKI, Yasuko KAWAI, Mayumi KOKUBO2006 Volume 54 Issue 5 Pages 762-766
Published: 2006
Released on J-STAGE: March 28, 2006
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSInsufficient nocturnal sleep often triggers off various forms of psychosomatic diseases in the aged. The result is that we turn to medication. However, nurses and caregivers should try to seek other ways to cope with the situation without depending on drugs so that the old people could lead a safe and comfortable life. Not a few users of our facility suffer from circadian rhythm sleep disorders in addition to cerebrovascular disease, senile dementia and other impairments. They are asleep during the daytime and awake by night. Homa 1) says one of the principal causes of sleep-wake rhythm disorders is inadequate environmental light. We were also interested in the study by Mito et al. that sleep disorders were ameliorated by sunbathing because sunlight helps restore the damaged adjustment function of the biological clock. Hama et al. have observed that two-hour exposure to light stimulation (over 25,000 Lux) in the morning is effective in adjusting sleep-wake rhythm. Based on these observations, we tried experiments in our facility. This paper is a report of our findings thus far obtained about the benefit of the morning sunlight.View full abstractDownload PDF (50K)
NURSING RESEARCH REPORT
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Mitsuko MIYASHITA, Mariko SAKAI, Hiromi IITSUKA, Reiko MACHIDA, Mitsue ...2006 Volume 54 Issue 5 Pages 767-773
Published: 2006
Released on J-STAGE: March 28, 2006
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis study was conducted to shed light on the actual conditions of home care and quality-of-life factors related to the burdens on families. For this purpose, a survey was carried out on main caretakers in the families who were using our home care support service. Fundamental information about the main caretakers and those who need care were garnered. In addition, WHO/QOL-26 and burdens for main caretakers were checked up on.
The survey found that those who have looked after the sick or invalid for less than six months and those over five years keenly felt that they were shouldering a heavy burden. With the progression of dementia, the caretakers increasingly felt the burden getting heavier. Physical factors in QOL were linked to the burden which caretakers feel has to be borne, but psychological and social factors were not. This finding might have been ascribed to the fact that the persons surveyed were residents of the provincial city, part of which is rural. They were mostly old women and must have gained the support of their relatives. It is easy to assume that their role perception and sense of responsibility together with regional characteristics were reflected in psychological and social QOL factors.View full abstractDownload PDF (54K)
REGIONAL MEETING
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2006 Volume 54 Issue 5 Pages 774-806
Published: 2006
Released on J-STAGE: March 28, 2006
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (149K)
EDITORIAL
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——Why did cows come to eat meat and born meal——Youko YAMAZAKI2006 Volume 54 Issue 5 Pages 807-818
Published: 2006
Released on J-STAGE: March 28, 2006
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (137K)
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