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Biomedical subjects

M Higurashi

Publications and source records attributed to M Higurashi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

[Utilization of Maternal and Child Health handbook in Japan].

OBJECTIVES: In Japan, Maternal and Child Health (MCH) handbook have been widely used for more than fifty years. However, there has been no evaluation research from the users' point of view. We therefore conducted a questionnaire survey of guardians to evaluate how they utilize MCH handbooks. METHODS: A well-structured questionnaire survey was carried out in 231 municipalities, towns and villages of four prefectures (Gifu, Hiroshima, Niigata and Shizuoka) and one city (Yokohama) in November and December 1999. The targets were 13,271 guardians who visited health stations for 18-month examinations of their children and agreed to participated in our research. The questionnaire covered situation of usage and loss by guardians, utility from the users' perspective, and suggestions for improvement. RESULTS: We obtained answers from 10,900 guardians. As for reading rate and writing rate, 98.3% of respondents had read and 97.8% of them had written down something in relation. Only 0.9% of respondents had lost this MCH handbook. Generally, 87.0% of respondents answered that MCH handbook was helpful for child bearing and 81.6% of them said the record for immunization was useful. However, 34.1% of respondents answered it was not simple to utilize MCH handbook and 60.6% of them requested more detail on child bearing. As for dental health, the completion rate for information was low and only 21.3% of respondents reported for the dental record was useful. CONCLUSIONS: The research shows MCH handbook are highly utilized in Japan by almost all guardians. However, there are still problems to be solved; many guardians feel that they are not simple to use and the section on dental health is not highly particularly helpful. Improvements should be made in future in light of the viewpoints of guardians and parents.

Child Rearing↗
PubMed2001

[A study of the relation between providing healthcare information and behavior changes of people in Japan. Parental behavior changes after receiving information about the sudden infant death syndrome].

OBJECTIVE: Considering the lack of evidence concerning the relationship between providing healthcare information and behavior of people in Japan, we utilized a questionnaire to survey the parents of infants to evaluate behavior change after receiving information about the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). METHODS: A questionnaire about SIDS information was administered in 234 municipalities in Niigata, Gifu, Shizuoka, and Hiroshima Prefectures and in Yokohama City in November and December of 1999 to 14,879 parents who visited for the 18-month health examination of their children. The questionnaire did not ask for the participants' names. Logistic regression analysis was used to study the connection between behavior change and SIDS information sources. RESULTS: 10,900 parents returned the questionnaire to give a 73.3% response rate, 19.0% of these receiving information about SIDS risk factors from hospitals or clinics, 3.7% from public health centers, and 9.2% from their friends. More received information from the mass media such as TV programs, which provided the main source for 71.1% of the parents. The degree of behavior change was evaluated after adjustment for variables concerning a variety of information sources and other appropriate factors such as the age and sex of parents and the number of their children. We found that receiving information from hospitals or clinics significantly influences behavior changes for all kinds of risk factors. Information from public health centers, baby-care groups, and friends influenced behavior changes relevant to the risk factors for feeding methods, sleeping position, and parents' smoking. There was no relation between receiving information from the mass media and behavior change of parents. CONCLUSIONS: The mass media provide far more information than do medical facilities, public health centers, baby-care groups and personal contacts but the latter played much more effective roles in making parents change their baby care behavior. These results point to an obvious discrepancy between efficiency in providing information and the degree of behavior change elicited. We should thus take the source of information and the target population into consideration when we examine the best way to provide healthcare information for people in the future.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Emerging and entraining patterns of the sleep-wake rhythm in preterm and term infants.

It has been repeatedly reported that the sleep-wake rhythm in infants entrains around 3-4 months of age after a transient free-run rhythm. To clarify the emerging and entraining patterns of the sleep-wake rhythm, the sleep and wakefulness of 84 infants (44 preterm and 40 term infants) were longitudinally recorded at home for more than 16 weeks by the day-by-day plot method. Our results showed that the entrained sleep-wake rhythm emerged after transient manifestation of either ultradian or irregular sleep-wake patterns for 3-4 weeks in 75% of the infants. Only 7% of the infants showed a free-running sleep-wake rhythm before the entrainment. These facts suggest that most infants would be entrained to an ordinary daily schedule of mothers without expression of overt free-running rhythm of the biological clock. The mean age of the entrainment was 44.8 postconceptional weeks. There were no significant differences in either frequency of each pattern or the mean age of the entrainment, between preterm and term infants. In conclusion, the entrained sleep-wake rhythm emerges around 1 corrected month, after ultradian patterns in the majority of infants.

Circadian Rhythm↗
PubMed1999

[Effects on health status in students from attending a "juku"].

Between November and December 1993 a questionnaire survey concerning the lifestyle and health status was performed on 1.314 elementary school children living in Tokyo and its suburbs. In this study the following items were included: 1) sleeping habits, 2) physical activity, 3) playing habits, 4) eating habits, 5) attending a "juku", private cram school to prepare children for entrance examinations, 6) commuting hours, 7) 20 subjective symptoms regarding health, and so on. The results were as follows: 1. 61.9% of students were attending a "juku". 2. The number of hours of sleep, playing after school and watching TV decreased with the frequency of attending a "juku". The students who were attending "juku" more than 3 times a week had the shortest number of those hours, and the students who did not attend any "juku" had the longest of those hours. 3. To determine health status, 20 subjective symptoms were scored. The average number of subjective symptoms was 5.0. That of the students who were attending "juku" more than 3 times a week was 5.5. 4. Of the 20 subjective symptoms, 7 items were correlated to the frequency of attending "juku". To remove the effect of other factors, multiple logistic regression analysis was applied to determine correlation of 7 subjective items and other factors including attending "juku". As a result attending "juku" more than three times a week were associated with the two symptoms of "sleepy" and "eye fatigue".

Child↗
PubMed1996

Sister chromatid exchanges in the peripheral lymphocytes of newborns with Down syndrome after in vitro exposure to blue or green light.

This study determines whether irradiation by blue or green light has an adverse effect on the DNA of Down syndrome (DS) cells by examining the sister chromatid exchange (SCE) frequency of peripheral lymphocytes obtained from five neonates with DS and five karyotypically normal neonates (control). Lymphocytes in G0 of the cell cycle were irradiated with blue or green fluorescent light for 1, 2, 4 or 6 h, and then cultured using a conventional method. Our results revealed that the induction of SCEs per cell in both groups increased in a dose-dependent manner, although more SCEs were respectively induced by the blue light. In addition, after 6 h of blue light irradiation, the net-induced SCEs in the DS groups were higher than those in the control groups.

Cells, Cultured↗
PubMed1996

[Health and welfare of foreign children and pregnant women overstaying their visas in Japan].

In recent years, the problems of foreign nationals who are working in Japan without proper visa status, or who are illegally staying in Japan (overstaying) have been actively discussed by the mass media as constituting a major social problem. The rapid increase in number of "stateless" children suggests that the issue of foreign mothers and children, in particular, can no longer be neglected. Obtaining accurate knowledge of the current state of this problem is, however, difficult as almost no nationwide surveys have been conducted. Our study was conducted among welfare centers throughout Japan for the purpose of determining the current state of overstaying foreign children and pregnant women, and to reveal problems in the health and welfare of these mothers and children. At the same time, future directions were examined. A questionnaire was mailed to welfare centers throughout Japan in August 1993, and 562 responses were received with the following information: 1) About 10% of the welfare centers investigated have been consulted by overstaying foreign children and pregnant women. 2) About 70% of the welfare centers consulted by overstaying foreigners have helped them as far as possible. 3) About 20% of the welfare centers have asked for the cooperation of individual volunteers and nongovernmental organizations to provide solutions in such cases. 4) Of the consultations related to children, infants of less than three years of age accounted for about 90%. 5) Common problems related to pregnant women were the cost of childbirth and guarantee of visa status. 6) Some of the problems in these cases were solved by application of the Livelihood Protection Law, the Child Welfare Law, and the Child and Maternal Health Law. 7) Individual cases were reported by welfare centers throughout Japan, and revealed the existence of various health and welfare problems. Mechanisms for welfare centers to handle these cases and provide assistance poses a significant challenge for the future.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

[Current status of the use of Welfare Centers Japan by foreign children and pregnant women living in Japan].

This survey was conducted to determine how Welfare Centers throughout Japan were addressing the health care and welfare issues of foreign children and pregnant women living in Japan, and to analyze statistics (1988-1992) on the number of consultations by foreigners living in Japan. Questionnaires were mailed to 1220 Welfare Centers throughout Japan in mid August 1993, and responses from 562 centers were received. The survey conducted among these centers revealed the following information: 1) About half of the Welfare Centers responding had had consultations with foreign children and pregnant women, and about 60% of them had encountered difficulties, including language problems. 2) Comparison of rural and urban areas revealed that a higher percentage of Welfare Centers in the urban areas had had foreigners as clients. Welfare Centers were more likely to be accessed by foreigners when there was a large foreign population in the area under their domain. About 90% of the Welfare Centers in large cities had been consulted by foreigners. 3) Only about 30% of the Welfare Centers responding had employees who were competent in foreign languages, and guidebooks in foreign languages were available at less than 10% of the Welfare Centers. In most of the Welfare Centers that had staff competent in a foreign language, the language of competency was English. About 30% of the Welfare Centers responded that they could obtain the service of interpreters when they were consulted by foreigners who spoke languages which they could not understand. 4) The responding Welfare Centers were found to have had consultations by foreign children and pregnant women from all over the world. Consultations by South American and Asian nationals were found to be increasing rapidly. With respect to visa status, an increase was noted in the number of people who had married Japanese spouses. As to the age of children, the majority of those seen at Welfare Centers were infants. 5) There was an increased number of cases related to application of the Child Welfare Law, and the Maternal and Child Health Law.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Chromosomal translocations in two feline T-cell lymphomas.

Two feline malignant lymphoma cell lines, FT-1 and FT-G, established from cats naturally infected with the feline leukemia virus were analyzed for chromosomal aberrations. Both FT-1 and FT-G cells had a modal number of 38 which is the normal diploid (2n) chromosome number of the domestic cat. G-banding-analysis showed that FT-1 had a translocation involving the short arms of chromosome A2 and D3--t (A2;D3) (p-;p+), and FT-G had a translocation involving the short arms of chromosomes A2 and B2--t (A2;B2) (p-;p+). Our data suggest that the chromosomal translocations were closely associated with the tumorigenesis in malignant lymphoma in cats.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

The protein tyrosine kinase Fyn activates transcription from the HIV promoter via activation of NF kappa B-like DNA-binding proteins.

Protein tyrosine kinase p59fyn (Fyn) associates with the TCR-CD3 complex, which suggests that Fyn plays a significant role in the signal transduction involving TCR complex. In addition to cellular genes, viral promoters such as the HIV long terminal repeat (LTR) are also activated upon T cell activation. To elucidate the functional significance of Fyn in the expression of viral promoters, we transfected a Fyn-expression vector together with a reporter plasmid containing the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene driven by HIV LTR into a human T cell line, Jurkat. In this assay, Fyn stimulated the promoter in HIV LTR when the transfected cells were treated with both concanavalin A and PMA as an antigen-mimic stimulation. This activation required the intact SH2 domain of Fyn. Mutational analysis of HIV LTR showed that the NF kappa B binding sites were responsible for this effect. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays and UV cross-linking experiments showed that activation of T cells by anti-CD3 antibody induced four kappa B-binding proteins (50, 60, 65 and 100 kDa) in Fyn-overexpressing cells more efficiently than in the parental cells. Our results suggested that Fyn was able to regulate expression of a subset of genes via kappa B-binding proteins upon T cell activation.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1995

Determination of salivary cortisol by ELISA and its application to the assessment of the circadian rhythm in children.

In 35 young children, circadian rhythms of salivary cortisol levels were determined by ELISA using a commercially available kit with a minor modification. The concentration of labeled cortisol in the serum kit was reduced in order to measure cortisol in 10 microliters of saliva. Intra- and interassay coefficients of variation for salivary cortisol ranged from 2.4 to 9.9 and 3.2 to 8.9%, respectively. Recovery of salivary cortisol was 82.9-107.0%. There was a highly significant correlation between cortisol levels in saliva and serum in adults (r = 0.857). Salivary cortisol levels ranged from 0.01 to 2.252 micrograms/100 ml and showed significant diurnal variation in the children. Our ELISA is a precise, simple, noninvasive and useful method for clinical practice and study in infants and children.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Elevated chromosome aberration frequency after X-ray exposure of cultured fibroblasts derived from patients with porokeratosis.

Porokeratosis (PK) is a rare genetic skin disorder inherited as an autosomal dominant trait and regarded as a disease predisposing to cancer. To evaluate chromosomal radiosensitivity of PK cells, we examined chromosome aberration frequency after X-irradiation of cultured skin fibroblasts derived from PK patients and controls. Without X-ray exposure, frequencies of chromosome-type aberrations (exchanges or deletions) were not different between the patients and controls. Following X-ray irradiation, frequencies of deletions in the patient group were significantly increased, whereas those of exchanges were not elevated. No differences in chromatid-type aberration frequency were found between the patients and controls with or without exposure to X-ray. The observed radiosensitivity, though not as high as in ataxia telangiectasia (AT) cells, agrees well with the previously reported higher radiosensitivity of PK fibroblasts in survival analysis.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1994

Bone turnover and calcium metabolism during 20 days bed rest in young healthy males and females.

Bone is a dynamic tissue that functions not only as a mechanical support, but also as a major component of the metabolic and endocrine systems maintaining mineral homeostasis. It has been shown that immobilization induces decalcification of bone. To evaluate the effect of immobilization on bone mineral density and calcium metabolism, we investigated 9 young healthy males and females during 20 days bed rest. Three methods for measuring bone mineral density were performed to quantify whole body and regional bone changes: 1) dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, 2) quantitative computed tomography, and 3) multiple scanning X-ray photodensitometry, respectively. Bone mineral density showed a rapid decreasing tendency, especially in both lumbar and metacarpal bones (mean +/- SE: 4.6 +/- 0.6% and 3.6 +/- 0.4%, respectively). Urinary daily excretion of deoxypyridinoline, a sensitive marker of bone matrix resorption, tended to increase by day 10, and to decline by day 20 (mean +/- SE: 42.2 +/- 1.4, 27.6 +/- 2.2 nmol day-1, respectively). However, neither alkaline phosphatase nor tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase, both markers of osteoclast and mature osteoblast function, changed. These results showed that in the early stage of immobilization, bone matrix might be resorbed without any activation of osteoclasts, resulting in rapid decalcification of vertebral and cortical bones without any discernible changes in anatomical structure.

Absorptiometry, Photon↗
PubMed1994

Metabolic turnover of bone and peripheral monocyte release of cytokines during short-term bed rest.

Immobilization induces abnormal bone metabolism and rapid decalcification. Measurements of bone mineral content disclosed rapid decalcification, especially in lumbar vertebral and metacarpal bones in our short-term 20-day bed rest study. Many factors could contribute to the marked demineralization. The activities of osteoclasts and osteoblasts were studied by following serum levels of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase, biomarkers for osteocyte activity. There were no alterations in these enzymes during bed rest. However, urinary excretion of pyridinium cross-links, resorption markers of bone matrix itself, increased by day 10 with subsequent decrease at day 20. So decalcification was induced without any relation to osteoclast activity. As cytokines strongly modulate the function of osteoclasts, peripheral monocyte release of interleukin 1 alpha and tumor necrosis factor alpha were assayed to determine the contribution to this rapid demineralization. Cytokines were released transiently by day 7 and later rapidly decreased. However, there was no correlation between cytokine release and bone matrix resorption.

Acid Phosphatase↗
PubMed1994

Psychological effects of bed rest in young healthy subjects.

In order to evaluate the effect of immobilization during bed rest on mental health, we performed psychosomatic investigations of 6 young males and 3 young females before, during and after 20 days bed rest. The psychological state was repeatedly assessed by measuring the following indices: 1) Zung's self-rating depression scale, 2) Cornell medical index, and 3) the General Health Questionnaire. Zung's self-rating depression scale is a measure of the state of depression, while Cornell medical index and the General Health Questionnaire are utilized for detection of neurosis. Although no influence of bedrest on Cornell medical index was seen, Zung's self-rating depression scale and the General Health Questionnaire displayed a tendency to development of depression and neuroses, respectively. This tendency had disappeared 2 months after the bed rest study. Both Zung's self-rating depression scale and the General Health Questionnaire may be appropriate indices to evaluate the effects of relatively short-term psychological stress due to bed rest. The urinary excretion of 17-hydroxycorticosteroid was used as an indicator of endocrine stress factors, but no significant variation due to bed rest was seen. We concluded that there is a need for further studies combining physiological research with psychosomatic investigations.

17-Hydroxycorticosteroids↗
PubMed1993

Ethics and fetal medicine.

Ethical issues in the clinical practice of fetal medicine are discussed, largely from the point of view of early prenatal medicine. The discussion concentrates on several aspects including the time when human life begins, the pros and cons of fetal medicine, and ethical guidelines for fetal medicine. The emphasis is placed on the importance of informed consent and an increase in genetical knowledge amongst the general public.

Ethics, Medical↗
PubMed1993

A seroimmunological analysis of Down syndrome.

Down syndrome (DS) was studied in terms of immunological function and serological aspects. It was found that antibody levels against rubella and pertussis in the sera from 36 institutionalized DS patients were comparable with those of healthy controls while low antibody levels were detected against mumps and measles. Six tumor markers were also assayed in the serum from DS patients and the serum concentration of alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (alpha 1-AGP) and immunosuppressive acidic protein, an analogous glycoprotein of alpha 1-AGP, were significantly higher than those of the control group. Multivariate discriminant function was constructed based on the concentration of tumor markers. The function could discriminate between the two groups at a sensitivity of 92.3%. Flow-cytometrical analysis has revealed that helper T level of DS patients' sera was lower than that of the control group.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Development of the sleep and wakefulness rhythm in preterm infants discharged from a neonatal care unit.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of constant light in a neonatal care unit on the development of the sleep-and-wakefulness rhythm in preterm infants. Two groups of infants (57 preterm infants without other complications and 58 healthy term infants) were prospectively studied over infancy by a day-by-day plot method, by which sleep-and-wakefulness states were recorded at home for more than 14 d to compare developmental courses of the sleep-and-wakefulness rhythm between the two groups at corrected and postnatal ages. In the two groups, there were no significant differences in distribution of emergence of periodicity of sleep states and wakeful states, total sleep time, nocturnal sleep time, diurnal sleep time, longest sustained sleep period, and longest sustained wakeful period at the same corrected ages. Moreover, the SD of the time of onset of the longest sustained sleep period of each subject diminished with increase in postconceptional weeks. The results suggest that the development of the sleep-and-wakefulness rhythm in preterm infants is not necessarily retarded if they are discharged from the neonatal care unit under constant light before an infant's innate biologic clock is mature enough to respond to an environmental cycle; rather it depends on their corrected ages.

Circadian Rhythm↗