Results from health examinations are fundamental information for health care and health promotion activities. It is essential to analyze the relationships between results from health examinations and survival status. Therefore, the purpose of this report was to clarify the relationship between survival and accumulated results of annual health examination on the basis of a follow-up data. The subjects were 2,087 adults (137 death cases and 1,950 alive) in Sashiki-cho, Okinawa, who had participated in annual health examinations during 10 years or less. Findings were as follows ; 1) The lower BMI for males and the higher mean blood pressure for females at the baseline were significantly associated with high mortality. Although not statistically significant, decreased hemoglobin (Hb) and increased hematocrit (Ht) for both sexes were associated with high mortality. 2) In the analyses on annual changes also, decrease in Hb and increase in Ht were significantly associated with high mortality for both sexes. It is interesting that the discrepancy between Hb and Ht was found in the direction for survival, although Hb and Ht are strongly correlated with each other. The Hb and Ht are routinely measured as items of annual health examination and these data can be usually accumulated for many years. The results of this study suggest that it is essential to establish the new method for evaluating the Hb and Ht values at the health examinations, as there may be the difference in the content as the mortality predictors between Hb and Ht.

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The relationship between bone mass and fractures of the lumbar vertebrae and the femoral neck was studied in 322 women aged over 40 years. The subjects were broadly classified into 2 groups: the fracture group and the non-fracture group, and comparison between the 2 groups was carried out. The degree of osteoporosis was determined from the data gathered through lateral lumbar roentgenograms, and the Singh index was measured from the data gathered through frontal hip joint roentgenograms. As for the bone mass, ΣGS/D and MCI were measured using the DIP method. Among patients with osteoporosis, Grade III was seen in a majority of the cases in the vertebral fracture group, and Singh index of Grade 3〜1 was also seen in a majority of the cases in that group. The ΣGS/D value measured by the DIP method was also in the order of the non-fracture group, the group of fracture in the femoral neck, the group of fracture in a single vertebra, the group of fracture in multivertebrae, and the group in which there were combined incidents. The value was 2.0 or less in every group, and there was a significant difference in risk of 5% between the non-fracture group and the group of fracture in multi-vertebrae, and between the non-fracture group and the group in which there were combined incidents. Thus, it is concluded that the DIP method is useful for foreseeing the occurrence of a decrease in bone mass, by which the fracture of the vertebrae and the femoral neck may be brought about concomitantly, as well as for foreseeing the occurrence of fracture due to a decrease in bone mass.

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The cerebral oxygen status and/or concentration changes were measured by a non-invasive technique using the near infrared spectroscopic method for 14 male volunteered subjects. The subjects were exposed to a gradual onset rate run (GOR) and rapid onset rate run (ROR)+Gz acceleration for the purpose of evaluating the cerebral oxygen status and concentration changes until physiological end point (the point when peripheral light loss emerges). The near infrared oxygenation monitor was used in order to measure the concentrations of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO_2), reduced hemoglobin (Hb), oxygenated cytochrome oxidase (CtO_2), and total hemoglobin (tHb) in the brain. It was found that the HbO_2 and tHb were clearly reduced by +Gz acceleration within the brain. On the other hand, the changes in Hb and CtO_2 were inconsistent among the subjects. At the physiological end point, the mean levels of decreased concentration (threshold) of HbO_2 ranged from 9.3 to 29.0 μmol/l (of the brain tissue) among the subjects, suggesting that there may be inter-individual differences in the tolerance for +Gz acceleration. Strong correlation (r=-0.95±0.02, n=18) was noted between the change in the cerebral concentration of HbO_2 and +Gz value for a total of 18 measurements in the 8 subjects during GOR +Gz accerelation. This close relationship suggest that +Gz acceleration may directly affect cerebral blood flow and/or proportions of oxygen-saturated hemoglobin within the brain. The non-invasive technique using near infrared spectroscopic method will be useful for basic research on cerebral circulation or the physical check-up for aviators.

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Pretreatment procedures to improve the results of in situ PCR, such as fixation of tissue, protease digestion and masking nicks or gaps in DNA, were examined in detail with mouse liver sections using a set of DNA primers for Ki-ras oncogene and rTth DNA polymerase. The optimal fixation time in buffered formalin was 15 to 24 hours. The corresponding protease digestion time was 15 to 17min using a pepsin solution (2mg/ml, in 0.1N HCl). Dideoxy blocking treatment using ddNTP with 6 mM Mg^<2+> remarkably decreased the primer-independent signal, which will be derived from the damaging region in DNA caused by fixation and embedding processes.

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Recently, ecological systems in Tanzawa mountains have been heavily damaged probably due to environmental impact. For the environmental evaluation of the mountains, some possible relationship between stream water chemistry and geology was researched with water samples, collected in four river basins ; Nakatsugawa, Kurokuragawa and Mizunashigawa located on northeastern, western and southwestern slopes zoned by the main ridge line, respectively, and Oyamagawa on the southeastern slope of Mt. Oyama at the eastern edge of the mountains. Water chemistry of each sample, determined by ion-chromatography, ICP-atomic emission spectroscopy and total carbon analysis, suggested that the chemistry of each water system is chararacteristic of respective catchment in the basins concerned. Rainwater in the mountains, collected at five different points, suggested that, with deposition of anthropogenic species, Cl^- and NO_3^- increased along the directions from west to east and from north to south and, on the other hand, the relative contribution of SO_4^<2-> increased along the directions from southeast to northwest also with an increase in altitude. Compositional ratios of each species to chloride in rain were annually averaged and applied to eliminate depositional contributions to the water chemistry of each catchment, thus estimating concentrations of dissolved species of chemical weathering(cw)origin. Combinations of ratios among _<cw>Na^+, _<cw>Mg^<2+>, _<cw>Ca^<2+> and Si were classified into almost seven groups corresponding zonally to the geological map of Tanzawa mountains, though some irregularities were found in detail. Present method offers useful informations on geological characteristics including chemical weathering state of the catchment basins concerned.

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Differential display (DD) is a very useful method that provides an effective approach to identify eukaryotic genes differentially expressed by a non-stringent RT-PCR with 3'-anchored oligo-dT primers and arbitrary PCR primers. However, it is difficult to perform reverse transcription of bacterial mRNA using oligo-dT primers because of the low level of polyadenylation of the mRNA. To identify extremely unstable mRNA species in E. coli, we selected six primers which have no homology to rRNA from commercially provided 10-mer arbitrary primers, and performed DD using these 36 primer sets. Six cDNA fragments which were almost completely degraded within 1 min after addition of rifampicin were obtained by DD. Three of them were originated from mioC mRNA and one was from a spacer region between tRNA and rRNA in rrnB operon.

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Relationship between serum BNP (brain natriuretic peptide) and each item of health check records related to cardiovascular function was analyzed in order to find significance of serum BNP in annual health examination for habitants ("Jumin kenshin") in Sashiki-cho, a town in suburban area of Naha, Okinawa in 1998 and for past 13 years. Serum BNP value showed higher in the elderly people than in the younger people. Serum BNP value of female showed higher than that of male. Analysis of variance on 13 year observation data base revealed that high value of serum BNP was related with low value and reduction of total cholesterol (for both sexes), ischemic finding of ECG (for both sexes), and high pulse pressure (for female). Relation of high serum BNP with both of ischemic finding of ECG and high pulse pressure indicates that serum BNP might be useful for early detection of slight impairment of cardiovascular function among apparent healthy people. But it is hard to explain the relation between total cholesterol and serum BNP so far. Further analyses are required on this point.

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In the present study, inhibitory effect of aphidicolin (APC) on DNA Repair Synthesis was investigated. Human peripheral blood lymphocytes were pretreated with one of the following chemicals : mitomycin C (MMC), 1-(4-amino-2-methyl-5-pyrimidinyl)methyl-3-(2-chloroethyl)-3-nitrosourea hydrochloride (ACNU), methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) or 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4NQO). After the pretreatment, lymphocytes were washed twice by medium and were posttreated with APC in the medium containing phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and [methyl-^3H] thymidine for 15h. Quantities of UDS in lymphocytes were measured by the numbers of silver grains in nucleus by using autoradiography. The results showed that APC has an inhibitory effect on the DNA repair synthesis in the G_1 phase of human peripheral blood lymphocytes with MMC, ACNU, MMS and 4NQO. The present study was supported by Project Research Grant of Kyorin University.

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A 47-year-old man suffered from headache, nausea, dyspnea and disturbance of consciousness on the next day after his arrival at Bolivia located in an altitude of 4,200m on May 16th, 1996. His illness was diagnosed as acute mountain sickness(AMS). Although he received treatment in a hospital, hypobulia, confusion and bradykinesia remained. He was admitted to our hospital on June 3rd, the next day of his return to Tokyo. A slight reduction of intelligence as evidenced by neuropsychological tests was observed, in addition to hypobulia and bradykinesia. MRI examined on June 5th, 20th day of the illness disclosed lesions in the pallidum. SPECT showed a decreased blood circulation in the bilateral frontal lobes, temporal lobes and basal ganglia. His symptoms, neuropsychological tests and SPECT findings were improved after hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO), initiated on June 14th, 29th day of the illness. There are only 4 reported cases, including this case, of AMS with pallidum lesion in the literature. HBO should be carried out in patients with AMS, even if the initiation of the therapy is not in early stages.

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