Experiments were undertaken in order to verify whether or not a strong magnetic field would have any biological effects on the cell growth, viability and radiation response of mammalian cells. Magnetic field exposures were conducted using a superconducting magnet with freshly-isolated human peripheral blood T-lymphocytes maintained at their normal growing temperature of 37℃. The static magnetic fields with intensities up to 6.3-tesla (T) exerted little influence on the cell growth and viability of actively-growing T-lymphocytes under normal cell-culture conditions. On the other hand, the T cells exposed to the magnetic fields (4 T-6.3 T) during PHA stimulation were inhibited in their cell growth when compared to controls. The effects of the magnetic fields with intensities up to 2 T on cell growth properties, however, were minimal in this system. Also, the radiosensitivity of T-lymphocytes previously exposed to the strong magnetic fields was more sensitive than that of control cells. These results suggest that exposure to a static magnetic field of 4 T or stronger might lead to physiological and growth abnormalities at the cellular level.

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To identify the origin of short latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) to posterior tibial nerve stimulation, direct recordings were made from the cervical cord, the ventricular system and the frontal subcortex during 8 neurosurgical operations. The origin of each component of SSEPs was also studied in 7 selected patients with various lesions in the central nervous system. In addition, SSEPs to median nerve stimulation were investigated in 4 of 8 surgical cases and all 7 cases of the lesion study group. Bilateral posterior tibial nerve stimulation in 10 normal subjects showed spinal N28 on the skin of the posterior neck and far-field P30 and N33 components followed by a cortical P38 component at the scalp. Direct recordings made to the mid-brain through the medulla oblongata showed a negative potential with gradually increasing latency. The peak of the negativity in the vicinity of the dorsal column nucleus showed almost the same latency as that of the scalp far-field P30, and positivity with a stationary peak was found above the dorsal column nucleus. Above the mid-pons, there was a stationary negativity with no latency shift, showing the same peak latency as that of scalp N33. The spatiotemporal distributions of P30 and N33 to posterior tibial nerve stimulation were analogous to those of P14 and N18 by median nerve stimulation. Trans-esophageal and direct cervical cord recordings showed that the spinal N13 phase to median nerve stimulation was reversed between the dorsal and ventral sides of the cervical cord. No such reversal occurred for the spinal N28 potential. Clinical lesion studies showed that changes in P30 and P14, and in N33 and N18 correlated with one another: that is, 1) prolongation of latency of N33 was also observed for N18; 2) absence of P30 was paralleled by the absence of P14. These data suggest that spinal N28 originates from ascending activity such as a dorsal column volley, and scalp P30 comes from activity near the dorsal column nucleus, which is similar to the P14 component of median nerve stimulation. The origin of N33 is thought to be similar to N18 from median nerve stimulation, which originates from brainstem activity below the thalamus.

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In order to evaluate the influence of cigarette smoking on health conditions, the authors analyzed results of the THI (Todai Health Index) questionnaire, which was administered to male employees of a large-sized enterprise in Osaka between 1984 and 1990. The smoking rate of male employees decreased over this period of time from 62.4% (1984) to 58.3% (1990) in this enterprise. Complaints regarding "respiratory organ", "digestive organ", "circulatory organ", "irregularity of daily life", "impulsiveness", and "many subjective symptoms" significantly increased with the amount of smoking. Many items of physical complaints in the THI questionnaire were also associated with smoking. These were coughing, sore throat, sputum, nausea when brushing teeth, loss of appetite, stomach pain, stomach problems, diarrhea, heartburn, gum problems, bad breath, heavy eyelids, itchy skin, face looked pale, shortness of breath, palpitation, feeling flushed or feverish, back pain, going to bed late and getting up late, weakness or fatigue, irregular meals, irritation, sensitive or nervous, eating salty or greasy food, and heavy drinker. It is therefore important in the health education of individual smokers to put special emphasis not only on the many diseases associated with smoking but also these physical complaints.

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As in Europe and the USA, POMS is now going to be widely used in the area of occupational health in Japan. However, the Japanese translation of POMS is still not well established. Therefore, in this study, we translated the POMS into Japanese, and using 261 medical students in their last three years of study, we analyzed whether the fifty-six items of the mood factors of POMS are correctly or differently interpreted compared with the classified mood states in the original POMS. The number of the items, differently interpreted at a higher frequency than 20% among the students, was about 20 on the average of three years. Many of the items fell under the heading of "depression-dejection" and "tension-anxiety". The number of items, differently interpreted at a lower frequency than 5% among the students, was about 15 on the average of three years. Many of these items belonged to "vigor". The Japanese translation of POMS was applied to 106 workers engaged in manufacturing automotive parts. Among male and female workers exposed to organic solvents, a positive correlation (P<0.05) was found between the urinary hippuric acid level and the score of "anger-hostility". Negative correlations (P<0.05-0.001) were found between the age and each score of "tension-anxiety", "depression-dejection", "anger-hostility", "fatigue" and "confusion". However, no significant difference in the score of any mood factors of POMS was found between the group of sixty-one workers exposed to organic solvents and the group of forty-five workers unexposed. For the understanding of workers' subjective psychological aspects, the POMS examination is useful as a part of the neurobehavioral core test battery to be administered to workers exposed to organic solvents.

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We evaluated the relationship between clinicopathological findings and the prognosis of 101 patients who underwent esophagectomy for primary esophageal cancers in our institution, from 1980 to 1991, and investigated the prognostic factors of esophageal carcinoma. There were significant relationships between the prognosis and the depth of cancer invasion (P<0.05), lymph nodes involvement (P<0.05), lymphatic invasion (P<0.01), venous invasion (P<0.05) and histological stages (P<0.01). The stages were decided by the depth of invasion and the lymph nodes metastasis. There were also no positive relationships between the prognosis and lymphatic and venous invasion in the patients groups of both n(-) and n3+4. Therefore, we concluded that the most important prognostic factors were the depth of cancer invasion (invasion into the neighboring structures) and lymph nodes involvement. We suggest that lymphatic and venous invasion may play an important part in the prognosis of the patients in the n1+2 positive group.

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It is commonly known that psychosocial stress influences the immune system. Recent progress in neuroscience and immunology has elucidated the mechanism of stress induced immune changes, as well as brain-immune interactions. Numerous studies suggest that psychosocial stress increases the susceptibility to bacterial and viral infections. Stressful life events, inappropriate coping behavior and disturbed emotional states are associated with decreased phagocytosis, reduced lymphocyte response to mitogen, diminished natural killer cell activity, and with the risk of developing neoplasm. There is increasing evidence for a bidirectional communication system between the immune system and the brain through common receptors and biologically active substances such as cytokines and neuropeptides. Research has demonstrated the direct regulatory effect of the autonomic nervous system on the immune system, as well as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. It has also been shown that immune and allergic reactions can be classically conditioned, cytokines have an effect on the central nervous sysytem, and that lymphocytes can produce neuropeptides. In this article, stress induced immune changes and brain-immune interactions are reviewed and discussed using pertinent literature, including studies by the authors.

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Although a high incidence of occurrence of lung carcinoma is observed nowadays, the increase of survival rate is as low as before. The principal therapy for lung carcinoma has been surgical resection, but in addition to this method, we are using now various types of neoplastic agents for adjuvant combination therapy. In this paper, clinical data of resected lung carcinoma patients in our unit are analyzed, and the role of surgery and chemotherapy for advanced stages is discussed.

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