The blood-epididymal barrier (BEB) is the epithelium lining the epididymal duct, and the epithelial cells are connected by tight junctions. BEB is not only a barrier (the physical or anatomical barrier) to prevent leakage of luminal fluid but also isolates sperm on the luminal side to protect it from the immune system (the immunological barrier). Furthermore, transporters expressed in epithelial cell membranes restrict and regulate the movement of molecules into or out of the lumen (physiological barrier), thus creating a microenvironment suitable for sperm maturation. Interaction by these three barriers is indispensable for the epididymis to demonstrate the maximum function. In this review, we will summarize some basic concepts and recent new findings about BEB.

The present study was conducted to clarify the characteristics of induration caused by intramuscular injection of haloperidol decanoate, and to obtain information that could be relevant to nursing care methods for prevention of such induration.

We performed a case study and an animal experiment. In the animal experiment, we were able to reproduce the induration observed in patients.

Observations of tissue of induration revealed that haloperidol decanoate formed particles in muscle. In addition, an inflammatory reaction developed around the drug solution, and was persistent. It was thought that induration observed by the patient was a change of such a muscle tissue. When induration developed once, it did not disappear immediately.

Therefore, it is important to be made to disperse the drug solution and prevent induration.

The present study was conducted to obtain fundamental data that would allow an investigation of nursing care methods to prevent induration resulting from intramuscular injection of haloperidol decanoate.

This was a basic study using animals. Our observations revealed that particulate components of the drug solution retained at the injection site were not haloperidol itself, but rather sesame oil that had been added to the injection solution. The persistent induration appeared to be due to large grease spots and ambient inflammation.

These findings suggested that the large grease spot should be finely dispersed, and it should be made to devise methods for minimizing inflammation around the large grease spot. Before the large grease spot develops, it is seemed that haloperidol decanoate should be dispersed in the muscle without creating a burden in the tissue.

In future, we intend to examine effective nursing intervention to prevention of induration.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the distribution patterns of fluid in the upper limbs of patients with breast-cancer-related lymphedema by using magnetic resonance images (MRI).

Seven women (mean age ± SD: 55.9 ± 13.6 years) with unilateral breast cancer who subsequently developed lymphedema were recruited for this study. The status of lymphedema was evaluated using four MRI sequences, i.e., T1-weighted images, T2-weighted images without fat suppression, T2-weighted images with fat suppression (STIR), and conversion into fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images. For the quantitative analysis of fluid, areas with hyper-intense signals on the STIR images were calculated for every transverse image slice.

On STIR images, hyper-intense signals indicating the presence of free water were observed in the forearms, particularly in the ulnar half, of all patients. FLAIR images showed no hyperintense signals in this region. In the brachial region, five patients had such signals in the posterior arm(Regio brachii posterior). In the axillary region, no patients displayed hyper-intense signals. In the hands and fingers, the hyper-intense signals on STIR images were detected over the dorsal surface. Quantitative analysis indicated that a large amount of water accumulated in the ulnar half of the forearm.

On the basis of these facts, we suggest that the ulnar half of the forearm should be an important target in lymph drainage therapy.