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Biomedical subjects

K Okamura

Publications and source records attributed to K Okamura.

At least 415 records · Page 23Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Acid thyroglobulin protease activities in human diseased thyroid glands.

The lysosomal acid protease is thought to be a main enzyme in hydrolysis of thyroglobulin. The protease activity of lysosome-rich fractions of various diseased thyroid glands were assayed by the sensitive and reproducible method developed in our laboratory. They included 78 diseased thyroid glands; 37 thyrotoxic goitres, five irradiated thyroids, five Hashimoto's thyroiditis, one granulomatous thyroiditis, six multinodular goitres, 14 'cold' adenomas, four 'hot' adenomas with three paranodular tissues, and six carcinomas. Fifteen paranodular tissues of cold and solitary thyroid nodules were served as controls. The protease activities were significantly increased in thyroid tissues of thyrotoxic goitres, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, adenomas and adenocarcinomas. In thyrotoxic goitres, the protease activity correlated well with the mean area size of colloid follicles. The 'hot' adenomas had higher protease activity than 'cold' ones. The protease activity of multinodular goitres was nearly normal. Only the irradiated thyroid glands had low protease activities. Therefore the high protease activities in hyperfunctioning goitres seem to reflect hormone secretory activities. On the other hand, cold neoplastic goitres seem to have lysosomal protease activities which are not associated with thyroidal secretory process. The assay of acid protease activity will be useful to understand the pathophysiology of lysosomal system in diseased thyroid glands.

Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases↗
PubMed1987

Reevaluation of the effects of methylmercaptoimidazole and propylthiouracil in patients with Graves' hyperthyroidism.

The effects of methylmercaptoimidazole (MMI) and propylthiouracil (PTU) were compared in patients with Graves' hyperthyroidism. Firstly, the duration of action of the drugs was studied by the perchlorate discharge test, which was performed 2, 12, or 24 h after administering a single dose of 15 mg MMI or 300 mg PTU. After 2 h, the 9 MMI-treated patients who were tested had marked discharge (mean +/- SD, 65.0 +/- 15.8%), as did the 6 patients treated with PTU (57.6 +/- 26.6%). The mean values for the percent discharge 12 and 24 h after drug administration were 34.9 +/- 31.9% (4 patients) and 36.5 +/- 26.9% (69 patients), respectively, in the MMI group and 19.1 +/- 11.7% (11 patients) and 8.6 +/- 10.5% (7 patients) in the PTU group, indicating that the effect of MMI lasted longer. Secondly, the clinical effects of long term administration of the drugs were compared in a different group of patients with Graves' hyperthyroidism. Within 5 weeks after the onset of treatment, 34 (52%) of 66 patients treated with MMI (10 mg, 3 times daily) were euthyroid, while only 1 of 17 patients treated with PTU (100 mg, 3 times daily) was euthyroid. The average time required to achieve euthyroidism, namely normal serum T3 and T4 levels, was significantly shorter in the MMI group [6.7 +/- 4.6 (+/-SD) weeks] than in the PTU group (16.8 +/- 13.7). In spite of the well known effect of PTU on the extrathyroidal conversion of iodothyronines, the serum T3 level normalized much faster with MMI than with PTU. These results indicate that in our patient population 15 mg MMI had a longer inhibitory effect on the organification of iodide than did 300 mg PTU, and that MMI was more rapidly effective in the treatment of Graves' hyperthyroidism.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Exercise-induced changes in branched chain amino acid/aromatic amino acid ratio in the rat brain and plasma.

Central fatigue was induced by running rats on a treadmill. Amino acid and ammonia metabolism in the brain and blood were followed with time to correlate its changes with physical exhaustion. The blood ammonia level did not change during running, but was prominently increased at exhaustion. The brain level of ammonia was also prominently high at the end of exercise with a time course of change similar to that of the blood level. Plasma concentrations of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) and aromatic amino acids (AAA) increased as the animals continued to run; however, the plasma BCAA/AAA ratio was definitely depressed at exhaustion. This was also true with the brain BCAA/AAA ratio. A positive correlation was demonstrated between the plasma and brain BCAA/AAA ratios at r=0.5040 and P less than 0.05. These exercise-related changes suggest that physical exercise-induced central fatigue involves not only an increase in brain ammonia, but also a disturbance in brain amine metabolism accompanying plasma and brain BCAA/AAA ratio depression. Furthermore, the ammonia level and BCAA/AAA ratio in the brain correlated with those in the blood. It is reasonable to consider that the blood ammonia concentration and plasma BCAA/AAA ratio may serve as important indices of the clinical condition of exercise-induced central fatigue.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1987

Quantitative NBT reduction test with or without stimulation of peripheral polymorphonuclear cells from pregnant women.

We performed the nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction test to investigate the function of polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) from prenatal, intrapartal, postpartal and nonpregnant women with or without stimulation by phorbol myristate acetate (PMN). The capacity for NBT reduction of PMN was significantly increased in pregnancy, followed by a further increases during labor without any stimulation. On the other hand, when stimulated with PMA, there were no differences between pregnancy and labor in the reactivities of PMNs, although they were still significantly higher than those of nonpregnant women. Kallikrein increased the activity of PMN in an in vitro study, suggesting that it may be associated with the change in PMN function in labor.

Dinoprost↗
PubMed1987

[The course of pyuria after transurethral resection of the prostate and factor analysis of its duration].

The course of pyuria and bacteriuria was reviewed in 54 patients undergoing transurethral resection of prostate. Pyuria, which was seen in all cases, lasted for 70.1 +/- 24.7 days and bacteriuria defined as more than 10(4)/ml occurred in 16 patients (30%) postoperatively. To analyze the factors affecting the duration of pyuria, we utilized Hayashi's multidimensional quantification I theory. The factors included age, serum protein, preoperative indwelling catheter, preoperative urinary tract infection, resected weight, postoperative infection, the duration of postoperative indwelling catheter, and the way of antibacterial prophylaxis. The most important factor was resected weight (range 42.8 days), the second was postoperative infection (range 23.9 days) and the third preoperative infection (range 20.9 days). The other factors had no significance. Our analysis showed good correlation between the observed and predicted duration of pyuria (r = 0.82, p less than 0.005).

Aged↗
PubMed1987

[A study on the ability of leukocytes in the cervical mucus of pregnant women to produce superoxide anions using the histochemical nitroblue tetrazolium reduction test].

We performed the histochemical nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction test for leukocytes in cervical mucus and peripheral blood in women in pregnancy to investigate the leukocyte functions in the uterine cervix during pregnancy. The results were as follows. (1) With regard to leukocytes in cervical mucus, the proportion of NBT positive leukocytes was significantly highest in women in the third trimester and was higher in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women. (2) With regard to leukocytes in peripheral blood, the ability of leukocytes to reduce NBT in pregnant women was significantly greater than that of leukocytes in non-pregnant women. These results suggest that the bactericidal activity of leukocytes in cervical mucus during pregnancy is probably more accelerated than that of leukocytes during non-pregnancy.

Cell Survival↗
PubMed1987

[Assessment of obstructive nephropathy using diuretic 99mTc-DTPA renogram and 99mTc-DMSA renoscintigraphy].

99mTc-DMSA and diuretic 99mTc-DTPA renoscintigraphy were performed on 51 kidneys suspected of obstructive nephropathy based on excretory urography to evaluate the residual renal function and the degree of urinary flow impairment respectively. We classified the response to diuretics into 6 patterns: I. normal, IIa. severely damaged renal function, IIb. slow RI excretion without urinary tract visualization (pattern II had no response to furosemide), IIIa. rapid elimination of tracer from the obstructed upper tract, IIIb. slow elimination, and IV. gradual tracer accumulation in the pelvicalyceal system with fairly well preserved renal function but no response. Hydronephrosis varied according to pattern type, in the ascending order of I, IIIa, IIIb and IV (p less than 0.05). Degree of hydronephrosis was inversely related to 99mTc-DMSA uptake, but without statistical significance. 99mTc-DMSA uptake was lower for pattern III as a whole (IIIa + (IIIb) than for pattern I (p less than 0.005), but there was no difference between IIIa and IIIb. Pattern IIa exhibited a significantly lower uptake than any of the other groups. (p less than 0.005) In contrast to previous views, we believe that pattern IIIa indicates a mild obstruction of urinary flow and impaired renal function. Consequently, assessment of obstructive nephropathy should not be based only on urodynamic study but also on differential renal function test.

Humans↗
PubMed1987

[Urological management of female spinal cord injury patients--clinical survey of 28 cases].

Most of the literature about the urological management of spinal cord injury patients is on male patients, and the method of the urological treatment for male spinal cord injury patients is often not useful for female patients. A clinical survey was done on 28 female neurogenic bladder patients after spinal cord injury treated at our Hospital between January, 1980 and January, 1985. At discharge, 11 patients (39.3%) were catheter free, 3 (10.7%) were managed by clean intermittent self catheterization, 1 (3.6%) was managed by clean intermittent catheterization by a helper, and 13 (46.4%) were on indwelling catheters. One of the main reasons that prevents female spinal cord injury patients from becoming catheter free is that there are no effective external collecting devices or devices to prevent urinary incontinence for female neurogenic bladder patients. Another reason is that some female patients can not obtain a high enough ADL level for toilet activities by rehabilitation in spite of lower thoracic or lumbar lesions.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1987

[Two cases of unresectable pancreatic cancer responding to combined chemotherapy with cisplatin, PSK and UFT].

Two patients who had unresectable pancreatic cancer were treated with a combined chemotherapy using Cisplatin, PSK and UFT. A remarkable decrease of tumor size was observed on CT. These two cases corresponded to partial response (PR) according to the response criteria proposed by Koyama-Saitoh. No significant side effects were observed during this therapy. From the results in these two cases, this combination chemotherapy was considered to be one of the most effective antineoplastic therapies available for pancreatic cancer.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols↗
PubMed1987

[A case of giant vesical diverticulum with malignant neoplasm].

We experienced a case of giant vesical diverticulum with a malignant neoplasm in which the preoperative diagnosis was difficult. It simultaneously occurred with a vesical tumor. The patient, a 68-year-old man, visited our hospital complaining of pollakisuria, nycturia and microscopic hematuria. He had urinary retention and his vesical urine volume was 1,450 ml. X-ray examination and ultrasound examination revealed a giant vesical diverticulum and moderate hypertrophy of the prostate. A vesical tumor was suspected. Cystometrogram revealed a flaccid pattern with vesical capacity over 900 ml. Diverticulectomy and resection for a vesical tumor were performed. A malignant neoplasm in the vesical diverticulum was found during the operation. Transurethral resection of the prostate was performed after two months. There has been no evidence of recurrence for 3 years postoperatively.

Aged↗