Body awareness, which comprises the sense of body possession and action ownership, is essential for the adaptive movement of humans in response to external environments. However, existing body ...cognition assessments include many overt elements of cognitive functional activity, but no assessment captures the latent body cognition necessary for exercise and daily life activities. Therefore, this study aimed to devise a body cognition assessment system (BCAS) to examine the functional basis of body cognition in healthy participants and investigate its usefulness. The BCAS was used to assess body cognition on three occasions, and BCAS values were calculated from the results of the assessment. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to determine reproducibility. Neural activity in the brain during somatocognition assessment while conducting the BCAS was measured by electroencephalogram. Moreover, the functional basis for somatocognition with the BCAS was also investigated. The results demonstrated that the BCAS values varied across the three administrations (ICC (1.3) = 0.372), and changes in the state of neural activity in the brain were observed. The results suggest that assessment using the BCAS may be a new indicator of ever-changing body cognition.
The use of immune-checkpoint inhibitors in cancer treatment has become increasingly common, resulting in an increase in the incidence of related side effects. Diarrhoea and colitis have been ...previously documented as gastrointestinal tract-related side effects of immune-checkpoint inhibitors. Although PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors produce fewer side effects than CTLA-4 inhibitors, diarrhoea and colitis continue to be reported. However, little is known about the endoscopic features associated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. In this report, we describe three cases of colitis induced by a PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab. These cases showed endoscopic findings characteristic of ulcerative colitis (UC). Treatment was in accordance with UC therapy, which resulted in beneficial outcomes.
Three patients with lung cancer treated with nivolumab presented with diarrhoea with (case 2) or without haematochezia (cases 1 and 3). Treatment with nivolumab was ceased and colonoscopy was performed, revealing endoscopic features similar to those of UC. These patients were diagnosed with nivolumab-induced colitis. Case 1 was treated with mesalazine, whereas cases 2 and 3 were treated with corticosteroids. Subsequently, their symptoms improved.
Nivolumab-induced colitis exhibited similar characteristics to UC. Treatment was similar to that for UC and was successful.
We investigated the intervention effect of training using a feedback-type tactile discrimination system on sensorimotor dysfunction of the hand after a stroke. A human male subject with sensorimotor ...dysfunction in his left hand after a stroke was asked to perform peg manipulation practice, a building block stacking task, and a material identification task for 10 min each for six weeks. During the activities, a tactile discrimination feedback system was used. The system is a device that detects the vibration information generated when touching an object with a hand and that feeds back the captured information in real time as vibration information. After the intervention, in addition to the reorganization of the sensorimotor areas, the deep sensation, sense of agency, numbness, amount of use, and quality of the left-hand movement improved. Our results suggest that training with the use of a feedback system could be a new form of rehabilitation for sensorimotor dysfunction of the hand.
Background: Fecal calprotectin has been proposed as a useful biomarker of disease activity in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the role of calprotectin in systemic circulation is not well ...established. Thus, this study aimed to quantify serum calprotectin levels to identify a potential inflammatory marker for IBD. Methods: Ninety-eight patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 105 patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) were prospectively enrolled and clinically scored. Ninety-two healthy, age-matched subjects served as controls. Blood samples from UC and CD patients and controls were analyzed for serum calprotectin levels and routine laboratory parameters. Disease activity was assessed by partial Mayo score and Harvey-Bradshaw index for UC and CD, respectively. Results: Serum calprotectin levels were higher in CD and UC patients than in controls and were higher during active disease than during inactive disease in CD but not in UC. In UC, serum calprotectin levels were correlated with C-reactive protein (CRP) but not with other laboratory parameters or disease activity. In CD, serum calprotectin levels were positively correlated with disease activity, serum CRP, and platelet count. In UC and CD, serum calprotectin and CRP levels increased during the acute phase and decreased towards remission. Conclusions: Serum calprotectin is an inflammatory marker in IBD but might be more effective in evaluating patients with CD than those with UC. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to better determine the specific uses of serum calprotectin in routine practice.
•VPAC2 receptor (VIPR2)-deficient mice showed normal acquisition of fear conditioning.•No differences in contextual and cued fear memory between groups.•VPAC2 receptor-deficient mice showed impaired ...extinction of cued fear memory.•Abnormal pyramidal dendritic morphology in prelimbic and infralimbic cortices.•Results suggest a critical role of VPAC2 receptors in fear extinction.
The structurally related neuropeptides vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) have been implicated in stress regulation and learning and memory. Several bodies of research have shown the impact of the PACAP specific receptor PAC1 on fear memory, but the roles of other PACAP receptors in regulating fear stress responses remain to be elucidated. Here we aimed to investigate the effects of genetic deletion of VIPR2 encoding the VPAC2 receptor, which binds both VIP and PACAP, on fear-related memory and on dendritic morphology in the brain regions of the fear circuitry. Male VPAC2 receptor knockout (VPAC2-KO) and littermate wild-type control mice were subjected to Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigm. VPAC2-KO mice displayed normal acquisition of fear conditioning, contextual and cued fear memory, but impaired extinction of cued fear memory. Morphological analyses revealed reductions in cell body size and total branch number and length of apical and basal dendrites of prelimbic cortex neurons in VPAC2-KO mice. In addition, Sholl analysis indicated that the amount of dendritic material distal to the soma was decreased, while proximal dendritic material was increased. In the infralimbic cortex, the amount of apical dendritic material proximal to the soma was increased in VPAC2-KO mice, while other indices of morphology did not differ. Finally, there were no differences in dendritic morphology in basolateral amygdala neurons between genotypes. These findings suggest that the VPAC2 receptor plays an important role in the fear extinction processes and the regulation of the dendritic morphology in the prelimbic and infralimbic cortices.
AIM To investigated characteristics, diagnosis, bowelcleansing preparation, sedation, and colonoscope length and diameter in Japanese pediatric patients receiving total colonoscopy.METHODS The ...present study evaluated consecutive patients aged ≤ 15 years who had undergone their first colonoscopy in Kurume University between January 2007 and February 2015. Data were retrospectively analyzed. We identified 110 pediatric patients who had undergone colonoscopy that had reached the cecum, allowing the observation of the total colon.RESULTS Hematochezia, abdominal pain, and diarrhea were the most common symptoms. For bowel-cleansing preparation, pediatric patients aged ≤ 12 years were treated with magnesium citrate, and patients aged 13-15 years were treated with polyethylene glycol 4000. For sedation, thiamylal with pentazocine, which has an analgesic effect, was used in patients aged ≤ 6 years, and midazolam with pentazocine was used in patients aged ≥ 7 years. Regarding the choice of endoscope, short and thin endoscopes were selected for younger patients, particularly patients aged ≤ 3 years. Positive diagnoses were made in 78 patients(70.9%). Inflammatory bowel disease(n = 49, 44.5%), including ulcerative colitis(n = 37, 33.6%) and Crohn’s disease(n = 12, 10.9%), was the most common diagnosis. CONCLUSION Colonoscopy offers a high diagnostic capability for pediatric patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. The selection of appropriate management the performance of colonoscopy is important in pediatric patients.
Leukocyte apheresis (LCAP) is a safe and effective treatment for active ulcerative colitis (UC) in Japan. Nevertheless, a limitation of LCAP is its requirement for two puncture sites (double‐needle ...DN apheresis), sometimes leading to problems with needle puncture. Single‐needle (SN) apheresis is useful in hemodialysis and reduces needle puncture pain. If SN apheresis were found to be useful in LCAP for UC, it may reduce patient burden. The aim of this study was to compare the safety and efficacy of SN apheresis with that of DN apheresis. Twenty‐four patients with active UC were retrospectively enrolled. They underwent either SN apheresis (n = 12) or conventional double‐needle (DN) apheresis (n = 12) at the Kurume University Hospital from February 2014 to March 2018. At each session, we recorded access problems defined by the time required to initiate apheresis and the frequency of puncture‐related problems, as well as blood circuit clotting, defined as clotting necessitating interruption of apheresis and changing of the circuit. Efficacy was assessed using partial Mayo scores. The number of apheresis sessions was comparable between SN and DN apheresis (9.0 ± 2.0 times vs 9.6 ± 1.4 times, mean ± SEM). SN significantly reduced the time required to start apheresis (10.0 ± 5.4 minutes vs 19.4 ± 11.9 minutes, P < .05) as well as needle puncture troubles (0.9% vs 11.5%, P < .05). SN had comparable frequency of blood clotting episodes (5.6% vs 8.7%). SN apheresis had similar clinical efficacy (P < .001 in SN and P < .01 in DN). The improvement and remission rates were comparable between groups. SN apheresis may be safe and effective and may reduce patient burden during UC treatment. Nevertheless, further comparative studies are needed.
Thin-film epitaxy is critical for investigating the original properties of materials. To obtain epitaxial films, careful consideration of the external conditions, i.e. single-crystal substrate, ...temperature, deposition pressure and fabrication method, is significantly important. In particular, selection of the single-crystal substrate is the first step towards fabrication of a high-quality film. Sapphire (single-crystalline α-Al2O3) is commonly used in industry as a thin-film crystal-growth substrate, and functional thin-film materials deposited on sapphire substrates have found industrial applications. However, while sapphire is a single crystal, two types of atomic planes exist in accordance with step height. Here we discuss the need to consider the lattice mismatch for each of the sapphire atomic layers. Furthermore, through cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy analysis, we demonstrate the uniepitaxial growth of cubic crystalline thin films on bistepped sapphire (0001) substrates.
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