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Biomedical subjects

S Okamura

Publications and source records attributed to S Okamura.

At least 325 records · Page 18Linked to original sources

Endoscopic sonography in the diagnosis of xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis.

Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis (XGC) is an unusual inflammatory disease of the gallbladder that may simulate gallbladder cancer. We report the findings with conventional sonography, endoscopic sonography (EUS), and CT in 3 cases of XGC. EUS could visualize hyperechoic nodules in the gallbladder wall, probably representing xanthogranulomas, but loss of the multilayered structure of the gallbladder wall and infiltration into adjacent organs make differentiating XGC from gallbladder cancer difficult with EUS alone.

Aged↗

HCV infection and its clinical features in recipients of blood screened for HCV (C100-3) antibody.

After adoption of the anti-hepatitis C virus (C100-3) test, the incidences of definite and suspected cases of post-transfusional hepatitis (PTH) were 3.3% (7/209) and 7.2% (15/209), respectively. Four patients with definite PTH and seven patients with suspected PTH became positive for hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related antibodies or HCV-RNA after transfusion. These cases that became positive for anti-HCV or HCV-RNA showed a peak of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) more than 4 weeks after operation. Only rare cases that showed ALT peaks within 4 weeks after operation became positive for HCV-related antibodies or HCV-RNA. The peak ALT levels in cases showing positive conversion tended to be higher than those in cases showing no conversion. Judging from these results, cases of suspected PTH include those of transient liver disease attributable to surgery as well as clear cases of HCV infection. Thus new diagnostic criteria are required including data on HCV antibodies or HCV-RNA.

Alanine Transaminase↗

Protein kinase C activity in human gastric carcinoma.

Protein kinase C (PKC) is believed to play an important role in tumorigenesis, so we measured PKC activities of human gastric carcinomas and adjacent normal mucosae to elucidate its role for gastric carcinogenesis using PegTagtrade mark non-radioactive protein kinase C assay. The mean activities of microsomal PKC in carcinoma and normal mucosa were 449+/-179, 661+/-264 pmol/min/mg, respectively (p=0.001). Cancerous microsomal PKC activity decreased when the tumor was small, node-metastasis was negative, the depth of invasion was shallow and the histological type was differentiated. Our results suggested that PKC activity would be down-regulated in membrane of the early stage of gastric carcinoma.

Adult↗

Phospholipase D activity in human gastric carcinoma.

Growth factor-stimulated phospholipase D (PLD) catalyzes the hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine, generating phosphatidic acid which may act as a second messenger during cell proliferation, therefore PLD is believed to play an important role in tumorigenesis. Thus we measured PLD activity in human gastric carcinoma to evaluate its role in gastric carcinogenesis. PLD activity was assayed by a unique transphosphatidylation reaction using microsomal fraction of 21 pairs of surgically resected human gastric carcinomas and adjacent noncancerous mucosas. The mean PLD activities in gastric carcinoma and adjacent noncancerous mucosa were 63.0 +/- 69.5, 44.2 +/- 60.1 pmol/min/mg, respectively (p < 0.01; Wilcoxon signed rank test). The mean ratio of PLD activity in gastric carcinoma and adjacent noncancerous mucosa was 1.63. This ratio was significantly higher in patients with larger tumors (> or = 5 cm) (p < 0.01; Mann-Whitney U-test). Our results indicate that the elevation of PLD activity plays an important role in the promotion of gastric carcinoma.

Adenocarcinoma↗