The Kurume Medical Journal
Online ISSN : 1881-2090
Print ISSN : 0023-5679
ISSN-L : 0023-5679
Volume 54, Issue 1+2
Displaying 1-6 of 6 articles from this issue
Original Contribution
  • ATSUKO ISHII, MAKOTO NAKIRI, KAORI NAGATOMI, YOSHIYASU TSUJI, MICHIKO ...
    2007 Volume 54 Issue 1+2 Pages 1-8
    Published: April 01, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 11, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The present study aimed to investigate the potential use of the transtheoretical model (TTM) by clarifying the program's effects on workers at a small-scale company. Subjects were 22 male workers at a communication system company. They were divided into two physical activity improvement program groups, the TTM-based assistance group (TTM group, n=12) and the control group (n=10). During the study period each subject was asked to wear a calorie counter and to record daily exercise. Changes in number of steps per day and body weight were measured before, immediately after, and 1 month after the intervention ended. Stage of exercise behavior, health protective behavior, and self-efficacy were also examined by means of self-administered questionnaires. In the control group, the number of steps per day tended to increase immediately after the intervention and then decreased at 1 month after the program ended. In both groups, physical activity peaked during commuting and lunch hours. This peak persisted for 1 month after the intervention in the TTM group, but not in the control group. Moreover, the stage of exercise behavior tended to progress in the TTM group, whereas regression in the stage of exercise behavior was observed in the control group. In the control group, although the exercise self-efficacy score after intervention was higher than that before intervention, the health protective behavior score decreased at 1 month after the program ended. This study suggested that physical activity improvement programs based on TTM may be useful for workers at small-scale companies. However, further study of larger numbers of workers will be needed to confirm the validity and usefulness of these results.
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  • TAKESHI HIRAO, TSUYOSHI SAGA, JINGO KUSUKAWA, KOH-ICHI YAMAKI
    2007 Volume 54 Issue 1+2 Pages 9-24
    Published: April 01, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 11, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    We used an embryological approach to investigate development and microvasculature of lingual papillae, and expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the rat tongue. Temporal changes in the rat tongue at each developmental stage from embryonic day 13 (E13) to postnatal day 7 (P7) were observed by intravascular injection of India ink and immunohistochemistry using a VEGF antibody. At E13, the primordium of circumvallate papilla was observed among various lingual papillae. VEGF was widely expressed at E16 on the proliferated epithelium and the connective tissue core of circumvallate papilla. Invasion by capillary sprouts forming the lingual papillae was observed at E17. The primordium of fungiform papillae was observed at E14. VEGF was strongly expressed around the basal cells of proliferated epithelial tissues of fungiform papillae at E17. At E18, blind-ended capillary sprouts invaded into connective tissue cores from subepithelial sinusoidal capillaries by sprout angiogenesis. At P1, the invading capillary sprouts formed loops by vascular remodeling. The primordium of foliate papillae was observed at E16. VEGF was slightly expressed, but uniformly at E17 on the epithelium, muscle cells, and fibroblasts of foliate papillae. At E18, vascular density was increased by angiogenesis. The primordium of filiform papillae was observed at E17. It was the last to develop among the lingual papillae. VEGF was expressed in the cytoplasm of grown epithelial cells of filiform papillae at E19, and in blind-ended capillary sprouts formed by angiogenesis in the connective tissue cores at E20. The capillary sprouts formed loops by vascular remodeling at P1. Consequently, VEGF was expressed on the papillary epithelium and connective tissue cores of papillae during development of the papillary epithelium, and invasion by capillary sprouts into each papillae was observed thereafter. These results suggest a close relationship between expression of VEGF and angiogenesis of lingual papillae in the rat.
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  • GO MATSUO, KIMIO USHIJIMA, ATSUHIKO SHINAGAWA, SYUN-ICHI TAKAHASHI, NA ...
    2007 Volume 54 Issue 1+2 Pages 25-29
    Published: April 01, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 11, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    To reduce chemotherapy induced gonadotoxicity, co-treatment with gonadotropin releasing hormone against analogue (GnRHa) was tested using rat model. Leuprorelin acetate (Leuplin) with or without cisplatin (CDDP) was given subcutaneously at a dose of 9.4 μg/ml to Wistar strain female rats. The total number of follicles was counted and the maturation of follicles was evaluated at the largest section of the ovary on the 5th and 10th day after administration. Leuplin led the ovary to a resting phase in which primordial follicle occupied 80% of all follicles in only 5 days after administration. The serum E2 level was also down by the 5th day and maintained a low level to the 10th day. In co-treatment with GnRHa and CDDP rats, the primordial follicle occupied 90% of all follicles and the total number of follicles was higher than in CDDP alone rats. This rat model verified that GnRHa co-treatment well minimized CDDP induced gonadotoxocity by desensitization of the ovary. These results were promising for the clinical application introducing GnRHa co-treatment as ovarian protection in cancer chemotherapy in young women.
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  • TAKETOSHI KANAZAWA, TAKAHIKO SANNOMIYA, TAKAHIRO OKAWA, MASAFUMI GOTOH ...
    2007 Volume 54 Issue 1+2 Pages 31-34
    Published: April 01, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 11, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Little is known about the influence of simple limbectomy on the growth of the acetabulum. An experimental study was carried out in ten monkeys divided into two groups: limbectomy only (Group A) and limbectomy with concomitant cartilage resection (Group B). After three years and four months postoperatively, monkeys were sacrificed. Excised joints were examined macro-and microscopically. Degenerative changes in the cartilage and hypertrophy in the joint capsule were noted in all five monkeys of Group B, and in none of Group A. The diameter of the acetabulum was significantly enlarged in Group B (longitudinal diameter: p<0.05, transverse diameter: p<0.01, Mann-Whitney's U test), compared with Group A and the contralateral hips as controls. There was no other significant difference in other soft tissue or osseous components, between two groups. Histologically, the injured limbus was healed with irregular and sparse fibrous tissue in both groups. Fibrillation in the superficial layer of the cartilage and cluster formation was frequently noted in group B, while normal appearance was noted in Group A. This study demonstrated that simple limbectomy dose not affect the growth of the acetabulum, but may cause degenerative changes if the adjacent acetabular cartilage was simultaneously injured.
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  • TAKESHI NAGO, YUICHI UMEZU, NAOTO SHIBA, HIROO MATSUSE, TAKASHI MAEDA, ...
    2007 Volume 54 Issue 1+2 Pages 35-40
    Published: April 01, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 11, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Muscle training exercises are needed for muscular endurance during spaceflight. This study was designed to investigate effects of volitional contraction against applied electrical stimulation on the muscular endurance of the proximal upper extremity. Thirteen healthy sedentary men were allocated into two groups. One group participated in a hybrid (HYB) exercise regimen in which the biceps brachii was stimulated as he volitionally extended his elbow, and the triceps brachii was stimulated as the volitionally flexed his elbow. The second group underwent a similar regimen in which the electrical stimulation (ELS) was alternatively delivered to the biceps brachii and then to the triceps brachii with the limb fixed. Forty-second surface electromyography (EMG) recordings at 50% maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) were made as baseline data at just before starting the training regimen, and again conclusion. The median frequency (MF) and mean power frequency (MPF) slopes with time were determined using power spectrum analysis. There were statistical significance only for the triceps in which the MF and MPF slopes in the HYB Group became less negative over the period of study (from -45.7±14.7 and -47.0±8.6%/min at baseline to -36.9±10.7 and -36.8±7.0%/min at the end of training, respectively). The corresponding values for these slopes in the ELS Group showed opposite tends with less marked changes of borderline significance for MF and of statistical significance for MPF. These results suggested that the HYB exercise regimen was capable of producing an improvement in triceps but not biceps brachii.
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  • ATSUHIRO HIDAKA
    2007 Volume 54 Issue 1+2 Pages 41-49
    Published: April 01, 2008
    Released on J-STAGE: March 11, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Of the patients who underwent resection of hilar cholangiocarcinoma, those who received palliative surgery, or could not be followed up clinicopathologically, were excluded from this study. In the remaining 37 patients, the cumulative postoperative survival rate (simply referred to as the cumulative survival rate below) was analyzed according to gross types, histopathological parameters, final stages, and final curability. These patients showed a 5-year survival rate of 17.7% and a 50% survival of 2.2 years. By gross type, patients with a localized papillary or nodular expansion type tended to have a better survival rate than those with an invasive papillary or nodular expansion type. A greater histological depth of invasion tended to be associated with a poorer prognosis: the s(−) group, that is, a group of patients without serosal exposure of cancer (invasion depths of m, fm, and ss) had a significantly better prognosis than the s(+) group, a group of patients with serosal exposure of cancer (invasion depths of se and si). Other histopathological parameters, such as ly, pn, pHinf, pHM, and pEM, were associated with significant prognostic differences. By final stage, the stage I/II group and stage III or higher group showed a particularly significant difference in prognosis. By final curability, the curability A/B group had a significantly better prognosis than the curability C group. Taken together, surgery providing curability A and B promises a good long-term prognosis. Therefore, it is important that efforts are made to detect cancer early, adequately evaluate the degree of cancer extension, and determine the extent of resection and the surgical technique.
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