Rinsho byori. The Japanese journal of clinical pathology
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Cancer is a genetically and clinically diverse disease, and the therapeutic strategies should be optimized for individual cases. Recent advances in pharmacogenomics have generated molecular targeting anti-cancer drugs, and their optimized uses are an emergent challenge. Biomarkers are key tools to assess the malignant potential of tumor cells and to establish risk-stratified therapies. ⋯ These observations suggested the utility of proteomics for biomarker development. Other than the application of advanced technologies, the key points in biomarker studies are the use of an adequate number of clinical materials with problem-oriented experimental designs. Collaborations between basic researchers and clinicians are critical for the effective approach towards realistic biomarkers by proteomics.
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In response to the revision of social medical insurance policy, in which hospital clinics can additionally charge for laboratory testing when the test results are presented to an outpatient in a print-out form on a visiting day, we evaluated laboratory-spending times, so-called turnaround times (TATs). A total of 14,802 outpatients during the period from October 2010 to May 2011 were enrolled. TATs from venipuncture accession to completing blood collection revealed a log-normal distribution with 5 to 6 min of mode and 10(0.95 +/- 0.26) (4.90 to 16.2) min of mean +/- standard deviation. ⋯ In conclusion, the tests determined by immunoassay are rate-limiting for rapid reporting efforts in clinical laboratories. Secondly, TATs of blood collection are mostly influenced by order waiting time depending on days of the week and accession time. At present, there is no target value for TATs, however it is important to recognize the necessity to shorten laboratory-spending TATs.
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I have been involved in medical cooperation programs between Myanmar and Japan for over 10 years. The purpose of the first visit to Myanmar was the investigation of hepatitis C spreading among thalassemia patients. ⋯ The donation of drugs and reagents for laboratory tests is helpful, but it will be more helpful to assist the future leaders to learn modern medicine and develop their own various systems to support modern medicine. Our activity in the cooperation program is described.
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Carotid duplex ultrasonography (CDU) is one of the most well-known imaging methods for arteriosclerosis and ischemic stroke. For neurosurgeons, it is very important for the details of carotid plaque to be thoroughly investigated by CDU. Symptomatic carotid plaque is very fragile and easily changes morphologically, and so requires frequent CDU examination. ⋯ CDU facilitates not only morphological imaging in the B mode, but also allows a flow study with color Doppler and duplex imaging. So, CDU can help assess the presence of proximal and intracranial artery lesions in spite of only having a cervical view, and the patency of the extracranial artery to intracranial artery bypass is revealed with CDU, which shows a rich velocity and low pulsatility index (PI) in duplex imaging. For the examiner, it is necessary to ponder on what duplex imaging means in examinations, and to summarize all imaging finding.