This study examined the relationship between pharyngeal morphology measured with cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and maxillary morphology measured from lateral cephalograms. The subjects comprised 45 women, with a mean age of 27.9 years (range, 16-50 years), who attended the Department of Orthodontics at Showa University. The evaluation of pharyngeal morphology was based on 9 variables measured by CBCT: pharyngeal space volume, pharyngeal vertical length, pharyngeal sagittal length, pharyngeal coronal length, epiglottis length, epiglottis width, the distance from the genion to the hyoidale, the distance from the hyoidale to the aditus larynges base, and the distance from the aditus larynges base to the genion. Maxillary morphology was evaluated from 5 measured sites: SNA, S'-Ptm', A'-Ptm', the occlusal plane angle, and the palatal plane angle. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to detect associations between pharyngeal and maxillary morphological variables. There were significant correlations between pharyngeal coronal length and SNA, the distance from the genion to the hyoidale and the occlusal plane angle, pharyngeal coronal length and A'-Ptm', pharyngeal vertical length and the palatal plane angle, as well as the aditus larynges base to the genion and the occlusal plane. This information has potential clinical value for better understanding obstructive sleep apnea in adult patients, and for structurally based treatments such as surgical orthodontics.

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Cigarette smoking has been reported to cause endothelial dysfunction, increased arterial stiffness, modified plasma lipids, and insulin resistance. These conditions precede the apparent structural and clinicopathological manifestations of atherosclerosis. This study had two aims : to examine how smoking affects coronary endothelial vasodilatory function and the arterial stiffness of the peripheral arteries, and to identify which of the foregoing effects appears earlier in smoking-related atherosclerosis. The following parameters were compared between 9 asymptomatic active smokers (mean age 34.2±4.4 years) and 9 non-smokers (mean age 32.8 ± 6.8 years) : coronary flow velocity reserve (CFR) calculated as the ratio of hyperemia (during drip infusion of adenosine triphosphate) to basal coronary flow velocity with transthoracic color Doppler echocardiography, carotid intima-media thickness, and the stiffness parameter (β) determined by carotid ultrasound. There were no differences between the smokers and non-smokers in baseline characteristics, serum levels of glucose, insulin or lipids, or arterial stiffness parameters. The CFR, however, was significantly lower in smokers than in non-smokers (3.13 ± 0.59 vs. 4.01 ±0.22, P < 0.01) despite similar coronary flow velocities at baseline. The results suggest that smoking promotes coronary vasodilator dysfunction before the occurrence of structural or functional changes in the arterial stiffness of the peripheral arteries of young healthy men.

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Maspin expression was examined immunohistochemically in 127 patients with colonic adenomas and in 95 patients with early colon cancer (43 with mucosal cancer [m cancer] and 52 with submucosal invasive cancer [sm cancer] ) . The rate of maspin expression was high in patients with adenoma (mild atypia : 83%, moderate atypia : 88.2%, and severe atypia : 92.7%) and in those with mucosal cancer (88.4%) . Although maspin expression was also observed in > 50% of patients with submucosal invasive cancer (65.4%), this rate was significantly lower than in those for adenoma and mucosal cancer. An investigation of the relationship between maspin expression and clinicopathological factors in patients with submucosal invasive cancer showed that those with low maspin expression had significantly higher rates of lymphoduct invasion than those with high maspin expression. A high expression of maspin was observed in protruded-type, flat-type, and depressed-type megascopic tumor forms at rates of 80.8%, 53.8%, and 46.1%, respectively, showing a significant difference between the protruded and depressed types. Maspin expression also varied between the surface layer and the infiltrated region. Collectively, these findings implicated maspin in the early stages of colon cancer, and the different expression between megascopic forms might reflect the various types of colon cancer. Maspin may therefore be a useful prognostic marker and potential therapeutic target.

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We evaluated galectin-3 as a marker of malignancy in thyroid follicular tumors using 29 tumors that had been surgically removed at our facility and related facilities from 1991 to 2005. We also investigated the cell growth fraction (Ki-67-LI) . The samples were categorized according to the convention for thyroid cancer : 11 cases of follicular carcinoma (“cancer”), 12 cases of follicular adenoma (“adenoma”), and 6 cases of adenomatous goiter (“hyperplasia”) . Immunohistochemistry revealed a high level of galectin-3 expression in 5111 cancer cases, 3/12 adenoma cases, and 016 hyperplasia cases. There was a statistically significant difference between cancer and hyperplasia, but not between cancer and adenoma. Ki-67-LI was 13.4% in the cancer cases, 4.00% in the adenoma cases, and 1.78% in the hyperplasia cases, showing a significant difference between cancer and hyperplasia, as well as between adenoma and hyperplasia. No significant difference was observed between cancer and adenoma (P = 0.051) . The cancer and adenoma groups with high galectin-3 expression thus showed significantly higher Ki-67-LI than the low galectin-3 expression group. The results suggested that galectin-3 might be useful in distinguishing hyperplastic lesions from neoplastic lesions. Moreover, galectin-3 expression and Ki-67-LI together might be useful in determining the biological malignancy of tumors.

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Human papillomavirus (FIPV) infection plays a role in the development of Bowen's disease (BD) . The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between HPV infection and Bowen's disease (BD), Bowen carcinoma (BC) and Bowenoid papulosis (BP) . We investigated the occurrence of low-risk mucosal HPV (low-risk HPV) and high-risk mucosal HPV (highrisk HPV) in histological specimens obtained from 67 patients with BD in 52, BC in 13, and BP in 2 lesions by in situ hybridization (ISH) . Low-risk HPV was detected in 4 lesions, whereas high-risk HPV was detected in 47 (70.1%) lesions. Using clinical data, high-risk HPV infection of BD and BC was observed in 27 of 32 lesions (84.4%) in males and in 18 of 33 lesions (54.5%) in females. Significant differences in the thickness of keratosis and the epidermis were evident between lesions positive for high-risk HPV and those negative for high-risk HPV infection. These findings show that there is a high level of high-risk HPV infection in BD, BC and BP lesions. The level of high-risk HPV was lower in BC than in BD, but not to a significant degree, therefore high-risk HPV may not participate in tumor cell invasion of dermis. Although a higher occurrence of high-risk HPV was observed in males than in females, the cause was unknowen. There was no correlation between the level of high-risk HPV and clinical features, including lesion location, size, disease duration and patient age. HPV increases keratinocytes, therefore the corneum and epidermis may be thicker in HPV-positive high-risk lesions than in HPV-negative lesions in BD and BC. It is highly likely that HPV infects more corrnified lesions.

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The effect of fractions extracted from green tea and catechins on lipid peroxidation induced by rose bengal and blue light exposure were investigated using porcine retinal homogenate. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were measured as lipid peroxide and expressed as nmol malondialdehyde (MDA) per milligram protein. In the presence of 10μM rose bengal and after 30-minute exposure to blue light, the levels of TBARS in 5 % porcine retinal homogenates was 72.1±5.7 nmol MDA/mg protein. Addition of fractions (25μg/mL) extracted from green tea significantly decreased the production of TBARS to 32.2±2.7 nmol MDA/mg protein. The inhibitory rates were directly proportional to the concentrations of epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in the fraction extracted from green tea, but were not proportional to the concentrations of (+) - catechin, epicatechin (EC) or caffeine. The 50 % inhibitory concentration (ICso) of the purified ECG, EGCG, EC and (+) - catechin were 3.8, 5.3, 39.0 and 98μM, respectively. These results confirm that ECG and EGCG extracted from green tea are mainly responsible for the inhibition of the lipid peroxidation in this system.

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We evaluated the efficacy of endoscopic hemoclipping of bleeding gastric varices with regard to initial hemostasis. We reviewed 8 patients with bleeding gastric varices that were treated with endoscopic hemoclipping over a 9-year period. The clinical and endoscopic findings and the clinical courses were analyzed retrospectively. Initial hemostasis for gastric variceal bleeding was achieved with endoscopic hemoclipping in all 8 cases with no immediate postclipping hemostatic failure. Follow-up endoscopy one day after the initial hemostasis revealed no tissue injury at the gastric varices (such as ulceration around the hemoclips) . There was no significant decrease in Child-Pugh class after hemoclipping. In 5 cases, additional treatments were required to eradicate gastric varices after the initial hemostasis with hemoclipping : 4 cases were treated with balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration (B-RTO) and one case was treated with shunt-occluded endoscopic injection sclerotherapy. Three months after gastric variceal obliteration, endoscopic examinations revealed variceal eradication in all 5 cases. Endoscopic hemoclipping of bleeding gastric varices is a safe and efficient procedure to achieve initial hemostasis. B-RTO after initial hemostasis is an effective treatment for eradication of gastric varices.

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