Due to the general aging of society, increasing national medical expenditures are becoming a serious problem. It is thus highly desirable to reduce the need for medical services by maintain­ing the population in good health. Intensive monitoring of health parameters will become a necessary means for attaining good health at all times. Technology for health monitoring, however, is only recently being developed. A concept of home health monitoring is proposed by which health parameters are automatically monitored at home without disturbing daily activities. There are many attempts being made to realize this concept. This article reviews these attempts at developing home health monitoring techniques, which include monitoring during sleep, via the bath tub or toilet seat, as well as during daily activites. Preliminary studies show that home health monitoring can be achieved even by means of simple sensors and instruments. There are also many possible applications for advanced technologies. Potential future technologies for home health monitoring include automatic blood pressure measurement via the toilet seat, automatic blood sampling with a device mimicking a mosquito, and artificial noses for detecting smells.

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Oxidative DNA damage has been implicated in a variety of pathophysiological processes especially cancer and aging. Therefore, considerable interest has recently been given to the chemical structure and repair mechanisms of the damaged sites. In examining types of novel oxidative DNA damage, our group recently found that 2-aminoimida-zolone (Iz) is formed in amounts larger than that of 8-oxo-G during the photoreaction of DNA with riboflavin. Our group also pointed out the intriguing possibility that the Iz thus formed can produce a stable base pair with C, thereby giving rise to a G:C to C:G transversion mutation. In this short review, we focused on the new type of oxidative DNA damage, Iz.

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Multiple transferrin-independent iron uptake (Tf-IU) systems are known to be involved in the internalization of free iron salt in various mammalian cells. However, the characteristics of a Tf-IU system in cortical cells are not clear. In this study, we characterized the Tf-IU systems in both cortical and glial predominant (GP) cells from rat cerebral cortex to investigate the mechanism by which iron (Fe) or aliminum (Al) accumulates in the cerebral cortex. The Tf-IU systems in both cells were temperature- and Ca²⁺-dependent. The upregulation of Tf-IU system in GP cells by Fe- or Al-nitrilotriacetate (Fe- or Al-NTA) was 2- or 4-fold higher than that of cortical cells. Chemiluminescence analysis specific for O₂‾ and ¹O₂ also showed that the production of active oxygen species in Fe-loading GP cells was twice higher than that of Fe-loading cortical cells. These results suggest the existence of Tf-IU systems in both cortical and GP cells similar to those of HeLa cells whose Tf-IU is metal- and Ca-²⁺ dependent, and that the glial cells contribute to metal accumulation in cerebral cortex. The present study may help to explain the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders caused by inducing oxidative stress.

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Propofol is a widely used intravenous anesthetic, which is known to affect cardiac functions. Cardiac effects may be caused by direct actions on ion channels of the heart. While effects of propofol on several ion channels have been studied at the whole cell and single-channel levels, its effects, if any, on anion currents have yet to be examined. Effects of propofol on Ca²⁺-activated Cl^-current (I_cl(ca)) were investigated in single myocytes isolated from rabbit ventricles by the whole-cell patch clamp technique at 36℃.I_cl(ca) was activated by perfusing internal solutions with 0.1 µM free Ca²⁺ in the absence and presence of 10 mM internal Na⁺, eliciting I_ca-dependent and -independent component, respectively. By the application of propofol (0.1-300 µM), I_ca-independent I_cl(ca) was strongly inhibited in a dose-dependent manner with an IC₅₀ of about 5 µM. The blocking effects of propofol were voltage independent. On the other hand, the I_ca-dependent component of I_cl(ca) was little affected by propofol at concentrations of up to 50 µM. The outward Na⁺/Ca²⁺ exchanger current was also blocked by application of 5 µM propofol. We conclude that propofol inhibits cardiac I_cl(ca) in rabbit ventricular myocytes, mainly the I_ca-independent component, at therapeutic concentrations. The inhibition may be due to block of a reverse mode of Na⁺/Ca²⁺ exchange current.

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This study focuses on overt and covert problems experienced by mothers with disabled pre-school children and the resources that are available for coping with them. The aim of this study is to facilitate the coping behaviors of these mothers in order to improve their life-styles and well-being. The scores of the Home Care Resources Inventory (HCRI) of mothers with disabled pre-school children were compared with those of a control group of mothers with normal kindergarten-aged children. The results of the HCRI survey indicated the following： ① The major source of strength for the mothers with disabled children was the availability of a social support network, which consisted mainly of their own mothers and grandmothers，② The mothers with disabled children had insufficient time and little respite for themselves, and ③ Emotional support from mothers who shared the same experiences was effective for coping with problems associated with the acceptance of disabled children. The support of health care professionals, however, had little effect in helping the mothers who were under stress, though they could help to change such mothers' attitudes. There was a possibility to facilitate mothers' coping skills if mothers with disabled children could get effective support at appropriate times. These results support the concept of empowerment (Rappaport 1984, Kieffer 1984)^1,2. Further study is needed on ways to introduce this concept into nursing as well as to systematize procedures in routine nursing practice for releasing maternal behavior.

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The distribution of a readiness potential (RP), i.e., a negative-going slow cortical potential (SCP) preceding the onset of voluntary movements, was studied in association with self-paced voluntary jaw-closing and jaw-opening movements in 4 healthy human subjects. A negative-going SCP starting at ca.1.5-2.0 s preceding the onset of the self-paced jaw-opening and jaw-closing move­ments was found at all the recorded sites of Fz, Cz, Pz, F3, F4, F7, F8, C3, C4, T3 and T4. The RP was maximum in amplitude at Cz (ca.8µV), although there was no significant difference between Cz and either C3 or C4; it was smaller at T3 and T4 than at any of Fz, Cz, Pz, C3, and C4. The polarity, amplitude, and time course of the RP in association with jaw movements was virtually the same as those associated with voluntary unilateral extension of the middle finger, except for a contralaterally-dominant side asymmetry between C3 and C4 in the latter. There was neither rapidly increasing negative potential (NS'） in the RP recorded from any site, nor bilateral difference in the RPs coinciding with unilateral biting of a gauze pad. It is suggested that the motor cortex would be activated bilaterally in coordination even in the case of uni­lateral biting.

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Dental students at Tokyo Medical and Dental University are taught to prepare teeth for full cast crowns with a wall taper of 2 to 5 degrees and an occlusal clearance of 1.2 to 1.5 mm. However, it is difficult to achieve such an ideal taper. The objec­tive of this study was to examine the abutment taper and height of teeth prepared for crowns by final-year dental students under clinical supervi­sion. To evaluate the degree of taper and height of the prepared teeth, shadowgraphs of 63 working stone dies were traced. The angles and height of the abutments were then measured on the same tracing. Only 12.7% (8 out of 63 abutments) of the prepared teeth fell within the ideal range of 2 to 5 degrees, and the average taper was 9.5 degrees (19.0 degrees convergence angle). The average abutment height varied from 4.8 mm to 6.9 mm and showed a close relationship with the abutment taper. The average taper, 9.5 degrees, of the present study was larger than the ideal taper; however, it was thought to be clinically acceptable as it is difficult to achieve the ideal taper intraoral­ly.

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