Internal medicine
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Objective The pharmacodynamic effect of warfarin varies among individuals, and its maintenance dose is widely distributed. Although many formulae for predicting the maintenance dose of warfarin have been developed, most of them are complex and not in practical use. Methods and Materials Among 12,738 new patients visiting the Cardiovascular Institute between 2004 and 2009, we identified 127 patients (66.6±8.8 years, 89 men) with atrial fibrillation for whom warfarin was newly started with an initial dose of 2 mg/day and the international normalized ratio (INR) at 1 year after warfarin was started was within the therapeutic range. ⋯ The maintenance dose showed an exponential correlation to the initial INR: (predicted maintenance dose) =5.522× (initial INR) -1.556 (R2=0.795, p<0.001). Excluding the patients with a poor response to the initial dose (initial INR <1.1, n=32) permitted a simple correlation with a first-order approximation: (predicted maintenance dose) =-2.009× (initial INR) +6.172 (R2=0.706, p<0.001). Conclusion We developed a simple formula for predicting the maintenance dose of warfarin using the initial response of the INR to low-dose warfarin.
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Objective Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is the most frequent autoinflammatory syndrome, and its frequency is reported to be increasing in Japan. We studied the clinical features and genetic background of patients with FMF in our hospital. Methods We analyzed the clinical features and genomic variants of MEFV, as well as 10 genes related to other autoinflammatory syndromes, in 22 Japanese patients with FMF. ⋯ All cases in which the onset occurred before 20 years of age were classified as typical FMF. Conclusion The clinical features of FMF recorded in our hospital coincided with those from the Japanese national epidemiological survey of FMF in Japan. More than 30% of the patients with FMF had non-MEFV genes, related to other autoinflammatory syndromes, thereby suggesting that variants of these genes may act as a disease-modifier in FMF.
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Objective Exercise therapy is used for glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We evaluated the effects of intensive health guidance using the Internet of things (IoT) among Japanese company workers with early T2DM. Methods Fifty-three men (mean age: 54 years) with glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels of >6.5% were enrolled in a 6-month exercise therapy program between August 2016 and January 2017. ⋯ The program failed to improve the body mass index and blood pressure of the participants. The percentage of active stage (action and maintenance stage) in stage of health behavior significantly increased from 48% to 68% (p=0.011). Conclusion Intensive lifestyle intervention using a wearable monitoring system and remote health guidance improved diabetic control in middle-aged company workers.