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Biomedical subjects

T Tango

Publications and source records attributed to T Tango.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Therapeutic effects of stronger neo-minophagen C at different doses on chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis.

Stronger neo-minophagen C (SNMC), a glycyrrhizin (GL) preparation, has been extensively used with considerable success in Japan for the treatment of chronic hepatitis. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the efficacy of administering massive doses of 100 ml/day to patients in whom standard administration (40 ml/day) for 2 weeks did not show sufficient improvement. A comparative study was conducted by dividing at random 100 cases (56.2%), out of a total of 178 enrolled, into two groups, one for the administration of 100 ml/day for 3 weeks (group A) and the other for administration of 40 ml/day for 3 weeks (group B). Cases were rated 'markedly improved'or 'improved' according to their ALT levels (defined respectively as <1.2 times and 1.2-1.5 times the normal upper level 3 weeks after treatment). Except those who dropped out or were otherwise not eligible for analysis, 44 and 46 cases were analyzed. In group A, 23 of 44 cases (52.3%) were rated 'improved' or better whereas only 12 of 46 (26.1%) in group B were 'improved' or better. Group A showed significant improvement compared to group B (P=0.017), thus documenting the greater efficacy of administering SNMC at 100 ml/day compared to only 40 ml/day.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

[A proposal for a new definition of excess mortality associated with influenza-epidemics and its estimation].

PURPOSE: As methods for estimating excess mortality associated with influenza-epidemic, the Serfling's cyclical regression model and the Kawai and Fukutomi model with seasonal indices have been proposed. Excess mortality under the old definition (i.e., the number of deaths actually recorded in excess of the number expected on the basis of past seasonal experience) covers the random error for that portion of variation regarded as due to chance. In addition, it disregards the range of random variation of mortality with the season. In this paper, we propose a new definition of excess mortality associated with influenza-epidemics and a new estimation method, considering these questions with the Kawai and Fukutomi method. RESULTS: The new definition of excess mortality and a novel method for its estimation were generated as follows. Factors bringing about variation in mortality in months with influenza-epidemics may be divided into two groups: 1. Influenza itself, 2. others (practically random variation). The range of variation of mortality due to the latter (normal range) can be estimated from the range for months in the absence of influenza-epidemics. Excess mortality is defined as death over the normal range. CONCLUSION: A new definition of excess mortality associated with influenza-epidemics and an estimation method are proposed. The new method considers variation in mortality in months in the absence of influenza-epidemics. Consequently, it provides reasonable estimates of excess mortality by separating the portion of random variation. Further, it is a characteristic that the proposed estimate can be used as a criterion of statistical significance test.

Epidemiologic Methods↗
PubMed2000

A test for spatial disease clustering adjusted for multiple testing.

Tango (1995) proposed a test statistic C for detecting spatial disease clusters. However, like most other methods, it requires a value of the scale parameter which adjusts for the size of cluster to be detected in advance of its use. When an appropriate size of cluster cannot be predicted and many clustered areas are expected, we usually repeat the procedure by changing the size parameter, but this practice clearly faces a multiple testing problem. In this paper, to ameliorate this problem, we propose an extended test statistic which searches the minimum of the profile P-value of C for the parameter on cluster size which varies continuously from a small value near zero upwards until it reaches to about half the size of the whole study area. Monte Carlo simulation study shows that the power of the proposed method is shown to be reasonably high compared with the best power attained by C unadjusted for multiple testing in all the cluster models considered. The proposed procedure is illustrated with some disease maps simulated in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.

Humans↗
PubMed2000

Physical and personality traits of preschool children in Fuzhou, China: only child vs sibling.

Concern about the healthy growth and development of an only child has been voiced since the 1970s, when the Chinese government launched the only child policy. In this study, the physical and personality traits of rural Chinese preschool only-children (onlies) whose age ranged from 3 to 6 years old were evaluated. The sample included 197 onlies and 367 children with siblings who came from seven kindergartens in rural areas in Fuzhou, Fujian province. The results showed no statistically significant differences in height, mass or BMI between the onlies and siblings. Regarding the personality traits, the significant difference was that the onlies exhibited more somatic complaints, however, the data didn't indicate any other undesirable personality traits for the onlies. These results suggest that Chinese preschool children grow normally with or without siblings.

Body Height↗
PubMed2000

[Validity and reproducibility of a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire for nutritional education of patients of diabetes mellitus (FFQW65)].

BACKGROUND: A self-administered semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire with 65 food lists (FFQW65) was developed for the nutritional education of patients of diabetes mellitus. METHODS: Relative validity and reproducibility of nutrient intakes as assessed by FFQW65 were investigated in volunteers of 71 males. To assess the relative validity, a one-week diet record was used as a reference. The FFQW65 was administered twice at an interval of 10 month in order to assess the reproducibility. Log transformed data was used to obtain Pearson correlation coefficients. RESULTS: As for the validity, Pearson correlation coefficient of total energy intake of breakfast was 0.74 and the relative difference between predicted value and diet record was relatively small (the difference was -5 kcal and relative difference rate was 1.1%). Compared with breakfast, those for lunch, supper and one-day total energy intakes were relatively lower (0.52, 0.66 and 0.64, respectively) and the relative differences were around 10%, respectively. The one-day intakes of sixteen nutrients (except for potassium and niacin) ranged from 0.28 to 0.64. Energy adjusted correlation coefficients for protein, iron and cholesterol were low (0.16, 0.14 and 0.19, respectively). Those for the other thirteen nutrients ranged from 0.26 to 0.65. As for the reproducibility, the second survey using FFQW65 was administered to 64 males. Pearson correlation coefficient of one-day total energy intake was 0.76 and those for the other nutrients ranged from 0.54 (vitamin D) to 0.81 (calcium). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that FFQW65 can be used for the evaluation of energy intake by usual meals for nutrition education of patients of diabetes mellitus.

Diabetes Mellitus↗
PubMed1999

Rates of endometriosis recurrence and pregnancy 1 year after treatment with intranasal buserelin acetate (Suprecur) (a prospective study).

OBJECTIVES: This multicenter prospective study of buserelin acetate (Suprecur) therapy for endometriosis was performed in order to examine pregnancy rates and the recurrence of endometriosis 1 year after the end of intranasal administration. METHODS: This study was conducted at 349 institutions, including university hospitals and major hospitals in Japan, and 1,284 patients were recruited as participants. Recurrence of symptoms was followed for 1 year after the end of administration of buserelin acetate in patients whose condition as a whole was evaluated as "improved" or better at the end of administration. Furthermore, the pregnancy rate was similarly followed in patients who complained of sterility at the commencement of the administration. Recurrence was defined as either a case in which all of the main symptoms observed before administration returned to the pretreatment state, or a case in which at least one symptom deteriorated compared to the pretreatment state. Kaplan-Meier's method was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Among 459 patients who could be evaluated for recurrence of symptoms, the cumulative recurrence rate was 17.8% 1 year after the end of administration. Among 156 patients who could be evaluated for pregnancy, the pregnancy rate was 23.3% 1 year after the end of administration. CONCLUSION: Intranasal buserelin acetate therapy exhibited not only transient clinical effects during administration or immediately after the end of administration, but also exhibited specific continuing effects after the end of administration.

Administration, Intranasal↗
PubMed1999

[Phase II clinical study of SH L 573 (fludarabine phosphate) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia].

We conducted a multicenter phase II clinical study of fludarabine phosphate, a new purine nucleotide analogue, in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Fludarabine phosphate was administered at a dose of 20 mg/m2/day intravenously for 5 days every 4 weeks as one course. Six courses as a maximum were repeated. The response rate was 38.5% (95% confidence intervals: 20.2% to 59.4%), with 1 complete remission and 9 partial remissions out of 26 treated patients. Major drug-related adverse reactions were fever, nausea, weakness, and paresthesia of the fingers; as a grade-3 reaction, varicella was also reported. Neutropenia and thrombocytopenia were observed as manifestations of hematologic toxicity. Clinical laboratory test results revealed abnormalities in hepatic function, including increased GPT, but none of these was rated grade 3 or 4.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Estimation of age-specific reference ranges via smoother AVAS.

This paper proposes a new non-parametric procedure to estimate age-dependent reference ranges based on Tibshirani's AVAS (additivity and variance stabilization) procedure for non-parametric estimation of transformations for regression. Several examples are given to illustrate the flexibility and applicability of the proposed method; these include alkaline phosphatase in girls, and foot length and head circumference during gestation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Equivalence test and confidence interval for the difference in proportions for the paired-sample design.

This paper considers a model for the difference of two proportions in a paired or matched design of clinical trials, case-control studies and also sensitivity comparison studies of two laboratory tests. This model includes a parameter indicating both interpatient variability of response probabilities and their correlation. Under the proposed model, we derive a one-sided test for equivalence based upon the efficient score. Equivalence is defined here as not more than 100 delta per cent inferior. McNemar's test for significance is shown to be a special case of the proposed test. Further, a score-based confidence interval for the difference of two proportions is derived. One of the features of these methods is applicability to the 2 x 2 table with off-diagonal zero cells; all the McNemar type tests and confidence intervals published so far cannot apply to such data. A Monte Carlo simulation study shows that the proposed test has empirical significance levels closer to the nominal alpha-level than the other tests recently proposed and further that the proposed confidence interval has better empirical coverage probability than those of the four published methods.

Cannabis↗
PubMed1998

[Maximum likelihood estimation of date of infection in an outbreak of diarrhea due to contaminated foods assuming lognormal distribution for the incubation period].

This paper proposes a new method for estimating the date of infection in an outbreak of diarrhea caused by eating foods contaminated by some sort of foodborne pathogens such as Escherichia coli O-157:H7. Simple methods for calculating maximum likelihood estimator and confidence interval are proposed assuming (1) a common date of infection and (2) the incubation period has a log-normal distribution. Further, this paper shows that all three methods proposed so far for estimating the date of infection under the same assumptions are theoretically inappropriate or computationally imprecise. The proposed methods are illustrated with data from three outbreaks of Escherichia coli O-157:H7 and outbreak due to Escherichia coli O-118:H2 in Japan.

Disease Outbreaks↗
PubMed1996

Cold activation of complement in sera from patients with persistent hepatitis C virus infection on interferon therapy.

The loss of haemolytic activity in sera during storage at low temperature (the cold activation of complement) was observed in 136 of 184 (74%) patients with chronic liver disease associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. This was more frequent than observed in the three of 40 (8%) patients with chronic hepatitis B (P < 0.001) or none in 43 normal controls (P < 0.001). Of 103 patients with chronic hepatitis C who had completed a full course of recombinant interferon-alpha 2a therapy (total dose: 516 x 10(6) U), 40 responded completely and 21 responded partially, as judged by the normalization or decrease of alanine aminotransferase levels 6 months after the completion of therapy; 42 patients did not respond at all. The cold activation of complement persisted in five (13%) complete responders, less often than in 33 (79%) non-responders (P < 0.001). At the completion of interferon therapy, the cold activation of complement persisted in 12 of 54 patients despite the normalization of alanine aminotransferase. Spontaneous exacerbation of hepatitis occurred in seven of 12 (58%) patients with cold activation, which was more frequent than in the four of 42 patients (10%) without it (P < 0.01). The cold activation of complement disappeared along with the loss of HCV-RNA in five of six responders during the 6 month period after the completion of interferon therapy, while both cold activation and HCV-RNA persisted in all eight non-responders. These results indicate that the cold activation of complement may be useful as a marker of HCV viraemia for monitoring the response to interferon in patients with HCV infection.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Prospective study of chemoprevention of hepatocellular carcinoma with Sho-saiko-to (TJ-9).

BACKGROUND: Most hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) arise in patients with cirrhosis, in whom its incidence is high. The prevention of HCC in patients with cirrhosis is important. METHODS: A prospective, randomized, nonblind controlled study was performed to evaluate the preventive effect of Sho-saiko-to (TJ-9) on HCC development. TJ-9 is a Chinese herbal medicine that contains crude extracts of seven herbs; it has antitumor effects in experimental animals. Two hundred sixty patients with cirrhosis were randomly assigned to two groups, matched for age, sex, presence of hepatitis B surface antigen, and the severity of liver damage. The patients in the trial group were given TJ-9 at a daily oral dose of 7.5 g in addition to the conventional drugs given to the control patients. The patients were prospectively monitored for 60 months and the cumulative incidence of HCC and the survival rate in the two groups were calculated. RESULTS: The cumulative incidence curve for 5 years of the trial group was lower than that of the control group (P = 0.071). For the patients without HBs antigen, the difference was significant (P = 0.024). The survival curve for 5 years of the trial group was higher than that of the control group (P = 0.053). For the patients without HBs antigen, the difference was significant (P = 0.043). CONCLUSIONS: TJ-9 helped to prevent the development of HCC in patients with cirrhosis, particularly in patients without HBs antigen.

Adult↗