Systemic arterial compliance (C) and vascular resistance (R) regulate effective arterial elastance (Ea), an index of artery load. Increases in Ea during exercise are due primarily to reductions of C and maintain optimal ventricular-arterial coupling. Because C at rest and left ventricular functional reserve are greater in endurance-trained (ET) compared with sedentary control (SC) humans, we hypothesized that reductions of C and increases in Ea are greater in ET than SC individuals. The aim of this study was to investigate C, R, and Ea during exercise in ET and SC humans. C, R, Ea, and cardiac cycle length (T) were measured at rest and during exercise of 40, 60, and 80% maximal oxygen uptake using Doppler ultrasonography in 12 SC and 13 ET men. C decreased in an exercise intensity-dependent manner in both groups, but its reductions were greater in the ET than SC subjects. Consequently, although C at rest was greater in the ET than SC group, the intergroup difference in C disappeared during exercise. Exercise-related changes in R/T were relatively slight and R/T was lower in the ET than the SC group, both at rest and during exercise. Although Ea at rest was lower in the ET than SC group, there were no intergroup differences in Ea at 40, 60, or 80% maximal oxygen uptake. We conclude that the reductions of C from rest to exercise are more marked in ET than SC humans. This may be related to the exercise-associated disappearance of the difference in Ea between ET and SC humans.
We report a case of renal tumor secondary to a breast cancer occurring 16 years after radical mastectomy. This is the sixth report case of renal metastasis from breast cancer of a 51-year-old woman. Percutaneous biopsy of the renal tumor confirmed the diagnosis during the follow-up. The patient was treated with chemotherapy and is alive 8 months after diagnosis. Previously, cases like our case showed long interval from mastectomy to diagnosis of metastasis.
It is very common for intraarterial infusion therapy of some anticancer agent to be effective against hepatocellular carcinoma. In this case, the patient was a 74-year-old man who suffered from very advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with tumor thrombus of the intrahepatic portal vein and IVC. He was treated with intraarterial infusion of CDDP, Etoposide, 5-FU, through a catheter placed in the proper hepatic artery. CDDP (30 mg/day) and Etoposide (60 mg/day) were given once every 5 days, and then 5-FU(250 mg/day) was infused daily for 26 days. The patient underwent this protocol study twice in 3 months. After the intraarterial infusion, transarterial embolization using CDDP (100 mg) powder added to lipiodol and aluminum stearate as suspension was done a month later. The tumor regression rate was 84% after intraarterial infusion of CDDP, Etoposide and 5-FU. The tumor thrombus in the intrahepatic portal vein and IVC had completely disappeared. We could not find lipiodol accumulated in the tumor after TAE. Thus, we assumed that the remaining tumor was a necrotic scar and that a complete response was obtained in the patient. There were some side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, pancytopenia and gastritis but no severe complication occurred.
Two experiments were conducted to identify the role of lyrics and melody in song recognition. Experiment 1 (N = 30) investigated the ratings of familiarity, age of acquisition, retrievability of lyrics or melody, and happiness for 100 Japanese children's songs. In Experiment 2 (N = 31), a familiarity-judgment task was conducted involving three stimulus types-sung lyrics (SONG), spoken lyrics (LYRICS), and sung melody using the syllable/la/ (MELODY)--for two excerpts (beginning and middle locations). The participants were instructed to judge whether an excerpt sounded familiar as quickly as possible. The more familiar the songs, the easier could they be identified from the three stimulus types. SONG-response time (RT) was shorter than MELODY-RT for both beginning and middle, and than LYRICS-RT for the middle. The location effect emerged most prominently for LYRICS-RT. Our results suggest that interactively connected information of lyrics and melody may facilitate song recognition. Lyrics in the beginning might be an index only for certain, very familiar songs, whereas melody may play a facilitative role for song recognition regardless of location.
Foveolar hyperplastic polyps are the most popular polyp of the stomach arise from the mucosa of chronic active gastritis. Recent studies suggested hyperplastic polyp arise from inflammatory process of H.pylori gastritis and disappeared or reduced after H.pylori eradication therapy. We report three cases of foveolar hyperplastic polyps of the stomach, in all cases, foveolar hyperplastic polyps of the stomach disappeared and reduced after H.pylori eradication therapy. Eradication of H.pylori is considered to be the first choice therapy against hyperplastic polyps with H.pylori gastritis because of its effectiveness and non-invasiveness.
