Internal medicine
-
Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a common clinical manifestation of the systemic atherosclerotic process, and the ankle-brachial index (ABI) is an ideal tool to diagnose PAD. Currently, there have been few long-term follow-up studies focused on the associations of the ABI with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in Chinese MetS patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of ABI to predict the prognosis of CVD in hospitalized Chinese patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS). ⋯ An abnormal ABI value was not only a significant and independent risk factor for CVD, but also for the survival rate in Chinese MetS patients. Routine ABI evaluation could therefore be helpful for identifying high risk patients, especially MetS patients.
-
Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Polymyxin B-immobilized fiber column (PMX) treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with acute exacerbation: a multicenter retrospective analysis.
The prognosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients with acute exacerbation (AE) is reported to be extremely poor. Several clinical studies suggest that direct hemoperfusion with polymyxin B-immobilized fiber (PMX) may have beneficial effects on AE in patients with interstitial pneumonia (IP). The aim of this multicenter retrospective analysis was to investigate whether PMX treatment could provide improvement of oxygenation and survival benefits in IPF patients with AE. ⋯ PMX treatment may improve oxygenation and survival in IPF patients with AE. Prospective, controlled trials of PMX treatment for IPF with AE are warranted to verify this potential benefit.
-
Multicenter Study
Validity and reliability assessment of a Japanese version of the Snaith-Hamilton pleasure scale.
Anhedonia is one of the main non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD); it is assessed using the Snaith-Hamilton pleasure scale (SHAPS). To assess anhedonia in the Japanese population, we prepared a Japanese language version of SHAPS (SHAPS-J), and evaluated its validity and reliability in 8 neurological centers. Seventy subjects (48 patients with PD and 22 healthy subjects) were enrolled in this study. ⋯ These results indicate that SHAPS-J has good validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency, thus establishing an available measure of anhedonia in Japanese.