Salt reduction is essential for the prevention and treatment of hypertension. Thus, novel strategies for salt reduction measures are necessary. We have developed a “low-sodium system” that is “infinitely rearrangeable” using a menu application, frozen ingredients, and low-sodium retort sauce by utilizing Shimane University’s patented technology. In 10 hypertensive subjects (systolic blood pressure (SBP) greater than 130 mmHg and less than 180 mmHg) that were not administered with antihypertensive treatment continued to consume a reduced-salt diet for 28 days. Throughout the study period, the feeding rate for all subjects was 90.0% (504/560). The completion rate (28 days) of the 10 subjects in the study was 100%. Before and after the intervention, the average SBP for all subjects showed a downtrend (morning SBP; 139.0, 125.3 mmHg: night; 128.8, 121.7 mmHg, respectively) with reductions in the 24-hour urinary sodium excretion and salt checklist score. The continuity and usefulness of the “infinite recipe” salt reduction system was inferred.

This study aimed to develop a model using U-net to extract the whole lung field from pseudo-chest X-ray images, including areas overlapping with cardiac and diaphragm shadows. Training involved pseudo-X-rays and lung label images from CT scans of 140 cases from the LIDC-IDRI dataset.

The extraction performance of the model was evaluated using the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC). We also examined the correlations among patient size, lung volume, and DSC. As a result, the whole-lung field extraction model developed in this study tended to over-extract intestinal gas in some cases, and the extraction performance varied depending on the patient size. However, the DSC between the whole-lung label image and the output image was >0.9 for all the test data, indicating that the whole-lung field can be extracted from the pseudo chest X-ray image.

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influence medication adherence in older patients as assessed by nurses in an acute care hospital in Japan. A total of 3271 nurses with at least 3 years of clinical experience working in an acute care hospital were included in the study. A questionnaire survey was conducted on one case of an older patient for whom the nurses were currently providing medication self-management support. 629 responses were received. The total medication adherence scores of older patients were found to be associated with age, use of neuropsychiatric medications, and caregiver intervention. The subfactors of medication adherence had different influencing factors and were associated with factors such as age, use of neuropsychiatric medications, pharmacist intervention, number of types of medications, and previous diseases.

Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment for schizophrenia, the treatment response rate is only approximately 50%. In addition, it is not clear what the optimal conditions are for maximizing ECT responsiveness. Meanwhile, an association between gut microbiota and the pathophysiology of schizophrenia has recently been reported. Therefore, we explored whether gut microbiota might predict the therapeutic efficacy of ECT. We examined the bacterial percentage of the gut microbiota of 11 patients with schizophrenia who received ECT treatment. Linear regression analyses showed that high Bifidobacterium and low Lactobacillus levels in stools before ECT were associated with a decrease in symptom severity, as measured by the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, after ECT. No bacteria showed significant changes in proportion before and after ECT. Our results suggest that Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus levels could predict the responsiveness to ECT but not changes in the severity of schizophrenia.