Biomedical subjects

Y Kinouchi

Publications and source records attributed to Y Kinouchi.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed2000

Successful treatment of cap polyposis by avoidance of intraluminal trauma: clues to pathogenesis.

"Cap polyposis" is a rarely-encountered condition in which distinctive inflammatory polyps are located from the rectum to the distal descending colon. Microscopically, the polyps consist of elongated, tortuous, and distended crypts covered by a "cap" of inflammatory granulation tissue. Although the pathogenesis is unknown, mucosal prolapse has been postulated to be an important etiological factor, given certain clinical and histological similarities. We describe two cases of cap polyposis with protein-losing enteropathy. One was treated successfully by avoidance of straining at defecation. Another resolved after double-barreled transverse colostomy. Both successful treatments support a causal link of polyposis to prolapse.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Telomere shortening and the clinicopathologic characteristics of human colorectal carcinomas.

BACKGROUND: It has been reported that shortening of telomeres and strong activation of telomerase occur frequently in colorectal carcinomas. In the current study, the authors examined the correlations between the telomere length of colorectal carcinomas and their clinicopathologic characteristics as well as the activity of telomerase to clarify whether telomere length might represent the biologic behavior of tumors and the mode of tumor development. METHODS: Telomere length was examined by Southern blot analysis in 61 invasive colorectal carcinomas and corresponding normal mucosas. Telomerase activity was assayed by the telomeric repeat amplification protocol with minor modifications. RESULTS: Shortening of the telomere was detected in 38 (62.3%) and elongation in 3 (4. 9%) of the 61 carcinomas. The telomere shortening occurred more frequently in nonulcerating polypoid carcinomas than in ulcerating carcinomas (P = 0.0373) and also occurred more frequently in ascending colon carcinomas than in sigmoid colon or rectal carcinomas (P = 0.0259 and P = 0.0407, respectively). However, no significant correlation was found between the activity of telomerase and the length of telomere. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that telomere length may represent the biologic behavior of individual tumors and possibly the mode of development of colorectal carcinomas.

Aged↗

PubMed1999

Turcot syndrome with colonic obstruction and small intestinal invagination: report of a case.

We report herein the case of a 16-year-old boy diagnosed as having Turcot syndrome, otherwise known as glioma-polyposis syndrome. The patient was transferred from the Department of Neurosurgery where he was undergoing investigation of a brain tumor, to the Department of Medicine for investigation of gastrointestinal symptoms. The patient was diagnosed as having Turcot syndrome, and was then transferred to the Department of Surgery for treatment of an obstruction in the sigmoid colon and small intestinal invagination. A subtotal colectomy with side-to-end ileoproctostomy and release of the invaginations was carried out. Multiple polyps were found in the colon, two of which, including a large polyp that obstructed the colonic lumen, were confirmed histologically to be adenocarcinoma. The remaining polyps were adenomas. A biopsy of the brain tumor confirmed a diagnosis of astrocytoma (WHO grade II). This case report describes the characteristic features of Turcot syndrome presented by this patient.

Adenocarcinoma↗

PubMed1999

Crohn's disease is associated with novel polymorphisms in the 5'-flanking region of the tumor necrosis factor gene.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is considered to play an important role in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD). Recently, 3 polymorphisms in the 5'-flanking region of the TNF gene at positions -1031, -863, and -857, which are related to high transcriptional promoter activity, have been identified in the Japanese population. In an effort to understand potential genetic association with CD, we evaluated patients diagnosed with CD and ulcerative colitis (UC) in the presence of other novel polymorphisms. METHODS: Blood samples were obtained from 103 patients with CD and 76 patients with UC. Polymorphisms in the TNF gene at their respective positions were analyzed by direct sequencing, and the allele frequencies were compared with those determined previously in a healthy Japanese population. RESULTS: Allele frequencies of -1031C, -863A, and -857T in normal controls were 16.0%, 14.0%, and 17.7%, respectively. Polymorphic allele frequencies at positions -1031, -863, and -857 were 24.3%, 21.8%, and 27.2% in CD and 11.8%, 11.2%, and 11.8% in UC, respectively. The frequencies at all 3 positions were significantly higher in CD patients than in UC patients or healthy controls. Among the subgroups of CD, small bowel disease showed the highest frequencies. CONCLUSIONS: Although the findings need to be confirmed in other populations with larger numbers of patients, TNF gene polymorphisms -1031C, -863A, and -857T are positively associated with CD; they may influence not only the susceptibility to CD but also the disease location.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

[Epidemiological characteristics and virulence factor of verotoxin-producing Eschericia coli O121:H19 isolated in Akita Prefecture in July 1997].

Epidemiological characteristics and virulence factors of VTEC O121:H19 strains isolated in July 1997 from a 15 year old female and a 20 year old male patient suffering from bloody diarrhea and severe abdominal pain were examined. The 2 VTEC O121:H19 isolates showed identical antibiotic susceptibility patterns, biochemical characteristics and plasmid profile while slight differences were observed in their Xba I and Not I PFGE patterns, suggesting that closely related 2 VTEC O121:H19 strains evoked the sporadic infectious cases in July 1997. The 2 VTEC O121:H19 isolates, as well as VTEC O157:H7, possessed eaeA gene and a ca. 60 MDa plasmid which hybridised with CVD 419 probe and produced enterohemolysin. In addition, the VTEC O121:H19 isolates produced almost the same amount of VT-2 in vitro as VTEC O157:H7 did. These results suggested that VTEC O121:H19 possesed the virulence factor comparable to that of VTEC O157:H7. Incidence, molecular epidemiology and infectious source of VTEC O121:H19 in this country have not been sufficiently understood. Antiserum for E. coli serogroup O121 should be manufactured to clarify the epidemiology of the highly virulent VTEC strain.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

[Inflammatory bowel disease and pregnancy: clinical study of mutual influence, clinical course and treatment].

We studied the clinical courses of 70 pregnancies in 47 women with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 18 pregnancies in 12 women with Crohn's disease (CD) retrospectively. We concluded as follows. 1. Pregnancy has less influence on the course of UC. 2. The patients with UC who kept remission for more than 1 year before conception have less risk of relapse and severity during pregnancy. 3. The patients with active UC at the time of conception tend to worsen during pregnancy. The patients whose onset of UC is during pregnancy tend to worsen. 4. UC has a little influence on the course of pregnancy except severe active disease. 5. It is not obtained that pregnancy becomes a relapsing factor of CD. 6. CD during pregnancy has little influences on the course of pregnancy, if it is remitted. 7. Salazosulfapyridine and corticosteroids therapy has less influence on the fetus and the course of pregnancy.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗

PubMed1998

Effects of a time-varying strong magnetic field on transient increase in cytosolic free Ca2+ induced by bradykinin in cultured bovine adrenal chromaffin cells.

We tested the effects of exposure to a time-varying magnetic field changing between 0.07 and 1.7 T at an interval of 3 s on transient increase in intracellular Ca2+ stimulated by bradykinin in bovine adrenal chromaffin cells. Addition of bradykinin induced the increase in intracellular Ca2+ within a few minutes. The exposure to the magnetic field perfectly suppressed the increase in intracellular Ca2+ in Ca2+-free medium. The inhibition occurred for 15 min when the maximum magnetic flux density was more than 1.4 T. These results suggest that the exposure inhibits Ca2+ release from intracellular Ca2+ stores.

Animals↗

PubMed1998

Telomere shortening in the colonic mucosa of patients with ulcerative colitis.

Telomere length in human somatic cells gradually decreases with the number of cell divisions and is regarded as a marker of somatic cell turnover. Mucosal cells of the affected colon show rapid turnover in individuals with active ulcerative colitis (UC). Telomere length was determined by Southern blot analysis of terminal restriction fragments (TRFs) from the colonic mucosa of 17 patients with UC in remission, two of whom showed dysplasia, and 17 control subjects without colitis. For each individual, mean TRF length was compared between rectal mucosa and unaffected cecal mucosa. The mean TRF length of the rectal mucosa was significantly less than that of cecal mucosa in UC patients (7.87 +/- 0.36kb versus 8.77 +/- 0.21 kb; P = 0.0015, Wilcoxon signed rank test), whereas no significant difference was detected in the control subjects. The extent of telomere shortening was 10.6 +/- 3.35% in UC patients, compared with 0.8 +/- 0.64% in noncolitis controls (P = 0.0024, Mann-Whitney U-test). Four UC patients, two of whom had dysplasia, showed telomere shortening of more than 20% in the rectal mucosa. These observations suggest that telomere shortening in the colonic mucosa of individuals with UC may represent the history of mucosal inflammation during disease of long duration, and that it may contribute to aneuploidy in UC.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

[A familial outbreak of verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O103:H2 infection in which a calf was the suspected infectious source].

A familial outbreak of Verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) infection occurred in July 1996 in AKITA prefecture. Four VTEC strains harboring VT-1 and eaeA genes were isolated from three patients and a calf, breeding farm for which was located as close as 4 meters from the house where the patients lived in. All of the 4 VTEC isolates were serotyped as O63:H2 using commercially available sera kits. However, a patient isolate, EC-281, was serotyped as 0103:H2 at the International Escherichia and Klebsiella Centre. Titration and absorption tests using rabbit antisera raised against EC-281 confirmed that the serogroup of the remaining 3-VTEC isolates was also O103. Epidemiological characteristics including plasmid profile, antibiotic susceptibility patterns and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns of the 4 VTEC isolates were completely the same, indicating that these isolates originated from a common source. These findings in conjunction with the results of epidemiological survey conducted by the Health Center suggested that a possible infectious source for this outbreak is the calf. Our present results strengthen the significance of calf as an infectious source of VTEC infection.

Animals↗

PubMed1997

Temporal integration and duration tuning in the dorsal zone of cat auditory cortex.

The present study examined auditory cortical neurons, the responses of which depended on the duration of noise bursts. We recorded from 150 neurons with response latencies exceeding 30 msec and from 28 neurons with OFF responses to auditory stimuli in the dorsal zone of cat auditory cortex. Of 150 long-latency neurons, 132 displayed some form of duration selectivity. Seventy-eight were classified as selective for long durations. Among the long-duration-selective neurons, 30 responded only to noise burst stimuli with durations longer than a minimal threshold and were classified further as duration threshold neurons. Of 132 duration-selective neurons, 41 responded selectively to noise bursts of short duration; 13 showed maximal responses to noise bursts of a particular duration and could be regarded as duration-tuned neurons. OFF-response neurons included ones that were long-duration-selective, duration-tuned, and nonduration-selective. Duration tuning has been described previously only at the midbrain level in amphibians and bats. The present finding of sensitivity to sound duration in at least one region of cat auditory cortex indicates that this form of neural tuning may be important for hearing in all vertebrates, and for processing of sound at multiple levels in the auditory pathway. The duration tuning in the cat auditory cortex was much broader, and the best duration was distributed over a wider range than in the bat inferior colliculus. We suggest that the duration selectivity of the long-latency neurons results from integration along the time domain of a stimulus during the latent period.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1997

Relationship between glucocorticoid receptor and response to glucocorticoid therapy in ulcerative colitis.

PURPOSE: To clarify the relationship between the glucocorticoid receptor and the effectiveness of glucocorticoid therapy in patients with ulcerative colitis, we investigated the number and apparent dissociation constant of glucocorticoid receptor in peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes of patients with ulcerative colitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eleven patients with ulcerative colitis (5 who responded to intravenous glucocorticoids and 6 who did not) and ten control subjects were studied. The number and apparent dissociation constant of glucocorticoid receptor were measured using a whole-cell binding assay. Results were expressed as a median (interquartile range). RESULTS: The number of glucocorticoid receptors from the six nonresponders, five responders, and ten healthy controls were 4922 (range, 4484-5643), 3413 (range, 3183-4450), and 3610 (range, 2594-3979) binding sites/cell, respectively. The apparent dissociation constant of the glucocorticoid receptors from the nonresponders, responders, and healthy controls were 7.03 (range, 5.66-10), 4.27 (range, 4-5.13), and 6.18 (range, 5.86-6.74) nM, respectively. Nonresponders had a significant increase both in the number of binding sites and in the apparent dissociation constant compared with responders (P = 0.045; P = 0.029). CONCLUSIONS: The increased number and apparent dissociation constant of glucocorticoid receptor are closely associated with the effectiveness of glucocorticoid therapy. The measurement of the number and apparent dissociation constant of glucocorticoid receptor may be useful in predicting response to glucocorticoids.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Fast in vivo measurements of local tissue impedances using needle electrodes.

The objective of the research is to show an in vivo, fast method of measurement of local tissue bio-impedance in the beta dispersion region (0-200 kHz). A needle electrode is used for the purpose. The performances with respect to circuits, electrodes, measurement area and electrical representations are evaluated. A measurement example is shown, and the electrical representations are discussed and compared using it. The method discussed, although invasive, is considered to be useful for local tissue diagnoses concerning structures and physiological functions.

Body Composition↗

PubMed1997

Blood flow in the carotid artery during breath-holding in relation to diving bradycardia.

The present study investigated the mechanism of diving bradycardia. A group of 14 healthy untrained male subjects were examined during breath-holding either out of the water (30-33 degrees C), in heat-out immersion, or in whole-body submersion (27-29 degrees C) in a diving pool. Blood velocity, blood volume flow in the carotid artery, diastolic blood pressure and electrocardiogram were measured and recorded during the experiments. The peak blood velocity increased by 13.6% (P < 0.01) and R-wave amplitude increased by 57.1% (P < 0.005) when the subjects entered water from air. End-diastolic blood velocity (Ved) in the carotid artery increased significantly during breath-holding, e.g. Ved increased from 0.20 (SD 0.02) m.s-1 at rest to 0.33 (SD 0.04) m.s-1 (P < 0.001) at 50.0 s in breath-hold submersion to a 2.0-m depth. Blood volume flow in the carotid artery increased by 26.6% (P < 0.05) at 30 s and 36.6% (P < 0.001) at 40 s in breath-hold submersion to a 2.0-m depth. Diastolic blood pressure increased by 15.4% (P < 0.01) at 60 s during breath-holding in head-out immersion. Blood volume flow, Ved and diastolic blood pressure increased significantly more and faster during breath-holding in submersion than out of the water. There was a good negative correlation with the heart rate: the root mean square correlation coefficient r was 0.73 (P < 0.001). It was concluded that an increased accumulation of blood in the aorta and arteries at end-diastole and decreased venous return, caused by an increase in systemic peripheral resistance during breath-holding, underlies diving bradycardia.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

[Effects of NSAIDs and PGE1 analogue on the permeability of human small intestine].

We studied permeability of human small intestine to clarify the following questions. 1) Does indomethacin increase intestinal permeability (IP)? 2) Does ornoprostil (PGE1 analogue) prevent the increased IP due to indomethacin? 3) Does acemetacin (pro-drug) increase IP? Eleven healthy volunteers were studied before and after ingestion of indomethacin, acemetacin, ornoprostil. After an overnight fast, they drank an isotonic solution containing 1.5 g rhamnose and 10.5 g lactulose. IP was estimated with lactulose/rhamnose percentage excretion in urine for 5 hours. An administration of indomethacin (75 mg) for one day increased IP significantly, and the coadministration of indomethacin and ornoprostil showed no significant change in IP compared with those of controls. Pro-drug administration did not increase IP. It is suggested that simultaneous administration of ornoprostil prevent the mucosal damage caused by indomethacin clinically, and that the mechanism of this increase IP is due to lack of mucosal prostaglandins on the small intestine.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Relaxation of imprinting of the insulin-like growth factor II gene in colorectal cancer.

The insulin-like growth factor II gene (IGF2) is imprinted in normal human tissues, and relaxation of imprinting (ROI) of IGF2 is thought to play an important role in human childhood tumors. Taking advantage of an Apa I polymorphism in this gene, allelic expression of IGF2 has now been examined in colorectal cancer. Thirteen of 33 patients studied were informative. Colorectal cancer tissue from 5 of the 13 informative patients exhibited ROI of IGF2; furthermore, normal mucosa from 3 of these 5 patients also showed weak biallelic expression of IGF2. ROI of IGF2 may thus also play a role in colorectal cancer.

Alleles↗

PubMed1996

Theoretical analysis of magnetic field interactions with aortic blood flow.

The flow of blood in the presence of a magnetic field gives rise to induced voltages in the major arteries of the central circulatory system. Under certain simplifying conditions, such as the assumption that the length of major arteries (e.g., the aorta) is infinite and that the vessel walls are not electrically conductive, the distribution of induced voltages and currents within these blood vessels can be calculated with reasonable precision. However, the propagation of magnetically induced voltages and currents from the aorta into neighboring tissue structures such as the sinuatrial node of the heart has not been previously determined by any experimental or theoretical technique. In the analysis presented in this paper, a solution of the complete Navier-Stokes equation was obtained by the finite element technique for blood flow through the ascending and descending aortic vessels in the presence of a uniform static magnetic field. Spatial distributions of the magnetically induced voltage and current were obtained for the aortic vessel and surrounding tissues under the assumption that the wall of the aorta is electrically conductive. Results are presented for the calculated values of magnetically induced voltages and current densities in the aorta and surrounding tissue structures, including the sinuatrial node, and for their field-strength dependence. In addition, an analysis is presented of magnetohydrodynamic interactions that lead to a small reduction of blood volume flow at high field levels above approximately 10 tesla (T). Quantitative results are presented on the offsetting effects of oppositely directed blood flows in the ascending and descending aortic segments, and a quantitative estimate is made of the effects of assuming an infinite vs. a finite length of the aortic vessel in calculating the magnetically induced voltage and current density distribution in tissue.

Animals↗

PubMed1996

Variation of frontal P20 potential due to rotation of the N20-P20 dipole moment of SEPs.

We have applied the artificial neural network method to estimate the N20-P20 dipole from scalp SEP potentials, and have investigated the rotation of the dipole moment caused by the compression effect of a brain tumor (para-Rolandic tumor) adjacent to the central sulcus. The variation of the frontal P20 potential was demonstrated by the rotation of the N20-P20 dipole moment in 8 cases of para-Rolandic tumor. By estimation of the rotation of the dipole moment, it may be possible to obtain preoperative information regarding the relation between the central sulcus and the tumor.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Dipole source localization of MEG by BP neural networks.

The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of BP neural network for source localization of MEG. Since the performance of this method does not depend on the complexity of brain parameters and source models, a homogeneous brain model and a single current dipole source are assumed for convenience. Localization accuracy was examined in relation to the configuration and scale of the network. As a result, average error for position and moment estimations was within 2% while the maximum error was about 5%. It was therefore concluded that the neural network method, was useful for MEG source localization, though some improvements are still necessary.

Brain↗