Kenta Murotani

Kurume University · Biostatistics Center

We investigated whether baseline foveal intraretinal fluid (IRF) localization affects the visual prognosis of branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). Fifty eyes from 50 patients were included in this retrospective study. We classified the eyes with IRF involving and not involving the central foveola on the vertical optical coherence tomography (OCT)...

Background: Amino acid metabolism is essential for tumor cell proliferation and regulation of immune cell function. However, the clinical significance of free amino acids (plasma-free amino acids (PFAAs)) and tryptophan-related metabolites in plasma has not been fully understood in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who receive immun...

Aims Although palliative radiotherapy for gastric cancer may improve some symptoms, it may also have a negative impact due to its toxicity. We investigated whether symptoms improved after radiotherapy with adjustment for the Palliative Prognostic Index (PPI) considering that patients with limited survival tend to experience deterioration of symptom...

Background/objectives Texture-modified diets (TMDs) may affect nutritional status and sarcopenia in patients after stroke. This study aimed to investigate the association of food texture levels consumed by patients after stroke with the prevalence of malnutrition and sarcopenia. Subjects/methods This was a two-center cross-sectional study. A total...

Purpose: To evaluate the oncological outcomes and genitourinary and gastrointestinal adverse events in acute and late-phases of iodine-125 low-dose-rate brachytherapy for localized prostate cancer. Material and methods: We retrospectively evaluated 334 patients treated for localized prostate cancer with low-dose-rate brachytherapy. Bio-chemical...

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in integrating evidence using network meta-analysis. Unlike conventional meta-analysis that integrates evidence from direct comparisons, network meta-analysis is a methodology that enables indirect comparison using a network of direct comparisons between treatment groups. In this paper, we discuss...

Introduction Multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDRP) is a waterborne pathogen that occasionally causes hospital-acquired infection in immunocompromised or critically ill patients. Urine is frequently collected to evaluate renal function or to perform hormonal examinations, but the procedure involves risk due to the possibility of healthca...

Objective Gastric-type mucinous carcinoma (GAS) is a novel variant of uterine cervix mucinous carcinoma. GAS is a distinct entity that can be distinguished from typical endocervical adenocarcinoma (UEA). In Japan, postoperative adjuvant therapy for cervical cancer includes not only radiation therapy (RT) or concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) but a...

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated associations between gut microbiota, microbial metabolites, and cognitive decline. However, relationships between these factors and lipopolysaccharides (LPS; molecules of the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria) remain controversial. Objective: To evaluate associations between plasma LPS, gut m...

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated associations between gut microbiota, microbial metabolites, and cognitive decline. However, relationships between these factors and neurofilament light chain (NfL; a disease-nonspecific biomarker of neural damage) remain controversial. Objective: To evaluate the associations between plasma NfL, gut...

Abstract: Microaneurysms (MAs) with hyperreflective rings are sometimes detected in eyes with refractory macular edema (ME) associated with branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) for more than 12 months after onset when examined using optical coherence tomography (OCT). We proposed that these MAs could result in refractory ME secondary to BRVO and hy...

530 Background: For borderline resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (BR-PDAC), upfront surgery was standard in the past, and the usefulness of neoadjuvant treatment (NAT) has been reported in recent years. However, few studies have been conducted to date on whether there is a difference in optimal treatment between BR-PDAC invading the porta...

Data Availability Statement We are unable to share the data at this time because the study began enrolling patients before January 1, 2019, and the informed consent does not specify data sharing, although it does mention secondary use.

Background Real-life evidence on the quality of treatment with brodalumab in patients with plaque psoriasis based on patient-reported outcomes remains limited. Objective To assess the effectiveness of brodalumab in achieving treatment satisfaction for real-life Japanese patients with psoriasis. Methods As part of a single-arm, open-label, multice...

Objectives The effectiveness of the use of carbonation in preventing penetration/aspiration or enhancing swallowing function in adults remains unclear. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of carbonation on improving swallowing function in adult subjects. Methods Literature published before March 2021 was inspected using MEDL...

Objectives Knee-ankle-foot orthosis (KAFO) is sometimes used for gait training in stroke patients. The impact of the time of wearing KAFO on activities of daily living (ADL) recovery has not been clarified. This study aimed to examine the relationship between the days from onset to KAFO wearing and functional prognosis in patients after stroke. Ma...

The HECT-type ubiquitin E3 ligases including ITCH regulate many aspects of cellular function through ubiquitinating various substrates. These ligases are known to be allosterically autoinhibited and to require an activator protein to fully achieve the ubiquitination of their substrates. Here we demonstrate that FAM189A2, a downregulated gene in bre...

Aims/Introduction: Differences in the glucose-lowering mechanisms of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) have been noted. Clarifying these differences could facilitate the choice of optimal drugs for individuals with type 2 diabetes and requires investigation in a clinical setting. Materials and Methods: A single-arm, prospective,...

Purpose/Objective(s) In the largest prospective study to date, we examined the effectiveness of palliative radiation therapy for bleeding gastric cancer, and the association of the biologically effective dose (BED) with survival, bleeding response, or re-bleeding. Materials/Methods We recruited patients with incurable gastric cancer for whom palli...

In Japan, esophagectomy after two courses of 5-fluorouracil plus cisplatin is regarded a standard strategy for treating resectable stage II or III esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, 5-fluorouracil plus cisplatin does not benefit cohorts with clinical stage III ESCC, suggesting the requirement for a more effective regimen. We are co...

PurposesThis study aimed to evaluate the estimation of the physiological ability and surgical stress (E-PASS) scoring system for predicting the short- and long-term outcomes in gastric cancer (GC) surgery.Methods We analyzed a multi-institutional dataset to study patients who underwent gastrectomy with a curative intent between 2010 and 2014. This...

Background: This study examined the association between parenteral energy/amino acid doses and in-hospital mortality among inpatients on long-term nil per os (NPO) status, using a medical claims database in Japan. Methods: Hospitalized patients with aspiration pneumonia, aged ≥65 years and on >7-days NPO status, were identified in a medical clai...

IntroductionTCR and BCR repertoire diversity plays a critical role in tumor immunity. Thus, analysis of TCR and BCR repertoires might help predict the clinical efficacy of anti-PD-1 treatment.Methods Blood samples from 30 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with anti-PD-1 antibody were collected before and six weeks after treat...

PurposeThe influence of pre-radiotherapy pain duration on post-treatment outcomes was assessed.Methods Patients that received palliative radiotherapy were analyzed in a prospective observational study investigating curative and palliative radiotherapy. Brief Pain Inventory data were acquired at baseline and 1, 2, and 3 months after commencing irrad...

Objective Previous studies have shown associations between the gut microbiota, microbial metabolites, and cognitive decline. However, the effect of the dietary composition on such associations has not been fully investigated. Methods We performed a cross-sectional sub-analysis of data from our prospective hospital-based cohort study. We assessed t...

Background Palliative radiotherapy seems to be rarely performed for incurable gastric cancer. In this first multicenter study, we examined the effectiveness of palliative radiotherapy and investigated whether biologically effective dose (BED) is associated with survival, response, or re-bleeding.Methods Eligibility criteria included blood transfusi...

Purpose: Osteosarcopenia and cognitive frailty are both risk factors for falls and fractures. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between osteosarcopenia and cognitive frailty. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional secondary data analysis of the Frailty Registry Study with outpatients aged ≥65 years who visited a...

Anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms are observed in approximately 20%–50% and 30% of patients with psoriasis, respectively.1,2 To date, however, evidence for the association of these symptoms with patients’ direct perception of their disease (called patient‐reported outcomes [PROs]) remains limited. We assessed the association of anxiety sympt...

Objective: In many cases, swallowing function is impaired after the onset of stroke and gradually improves. However, delayed dysphagia has been reported in some post-stroke patients. Recently, several studies have reported that low muscle strength and decreased muscle mass cause dysphagia. This study aimed to investigate whether these conditions ar...

This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the accuracy of the Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ) and the SNAQ for Japanese Elderly (SNAQ-JE) for the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM)-defined malnutrition and sarcopenia screening in older persons. We included 380 inpatients aged ≥65 years (mean age, 79.3 ± 7.9;...

We hypothesized the smoothness of the border between the inner nuclear layer (INL) and outer plexiform layer (OPL) associates with the frequency of macular edema (ME) recurrences secondary to branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). Thirty-seven consecutive eyes with BRVO treated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections at 1-year...

Purpose: Patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) may develop large submacular hemorrhages (SMHs), which may result in severe visual loss. This study was performed to determine the visual outcomes and prognostic factors of large SMHs secondary to PCV. Patients and methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients...

Purpose: We analyzed the effect of a microscopic positive margin on survival outcomes after gastrectomy for gastric cancer METHODS: We analyzed a multi-institutional dataset to study patients who underwent gastrectomy with curative intent between 2010 and 2014. We used propensity score matching to strictly balance the patients' oncological feature...

Purpose: The Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019 (AWGS 2019) proposed a simple assessment of sarcopenia called ”possible sarcopenia“ for the purpose of early detection and intervention of sarcopenia. The purpose of this study was to report the accuracy of possible sarcopenia against definitive sarcopenia and the characteristics of false-negativ...

Introduction Few studies have discussed whether physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) provide temporal and geographical benefits for patients in remote locations compared to ground emergency medical services (GEMS). Our study seeks to clarify the significance of HEMS for patients with severe trauma by comparing the mortalit...

Aims/Introduction This 6-month, single-center, prospective, open-labeled, randomized trial was designed to investigate whether physician’s diabetes self-management education (DSME) using an education tool developed by the Japan Association of Diabetes Education and Care (JADEC) and a self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) analyzer improves glycemi...

Background Splenectomy for proximal gastric cancer was found to have no survival benefit in a randomized trial clarifying the role of splenectomy (JCOG0110 study). However, since tumor with invasion to the greater curvature and Type 4 tumor were excluded in JCOG0110, the benefit of splenectomy for these tumors is not known.MethodsA multicenter data...

The authors would like to make an addendum to their published paper [...]

Background FLAURA, the prospective trial of osimertinib as a first-line therapy compared with first-generation epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs), did not show superior survival benefit for osimertinib in either the subgroup of Asians or the subgroup with the L858R mutation. In addition, the superiority of osime...

Objective This study aimed to clarify the association between texture-modified diets and poor appetite in older adults, as it is not fully understood. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting and Participants We included 208 inpatients who were aged ≥65 years (mean age 78.9 ± 7.6 years, 57.7% female) and admitted to a rehabilitation unit with stroke...

Background and Aims Patients with predialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) events than the general population. Anaemia is the most frequent comorbidity in pre-dialysis CKD patients and is associated with an increase in CVD events. Iron deficiency is the most frequent cause of erythropoi...

Gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel (GnP) is widely used in clinical practice, despite a lack of prospective data to validate its efficacy in locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). We conducted a phase II study of GnP for LAPC to assess its efficacy and safety.We performed a single-arm, single-institution study with GnP in 24 patients with LAPC. Th...

Purpose Rapid eye movement (REM) obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a prevalent clinical phenotype. However, the literature focusing on the pathophysiology of REM OSA is limited. This study compared the proportion of individuals with a low respiratory arousal threshold between patients with REM and non-REM OSA. Methods REM OSA was defined as having...

PurposeThis study aimed to develop a Japanese version of the Low Luminance Questionnaire (LLQ-J) and to evaluate its reliability and validity.Study designCross-sectional study.MethodsLLQ-J was developed by standardized methods. A total of 101 patients comprising 55 with age-related macular degeneration, 25 with glaucoma, 15 with regressed prolifera...

Our policy has been to administer granulocyte colony-stimulating factors (G-CSF) for the mobilization of peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) on an outpatient basis. We evaluated the safety of G-CSF-administered PBSC donation in outpatients and inpatients. Subjects : PBSC donations from 86 healthy donors (78 related, 8 unrelated) between January 2011...

Background The presence of chronic inflammation and nutritional status in cancer patients affects its prognosis. There is a clinical need for a prognostic predictor that is objective and accurate, and that can be easily evaluated by preoperative screening. We evaluated the importance and usefulness of the preoperative modified systemic inflammation...

Background Stigma associated with mental disorders is rooted among many pharmacists, and represents a major barrier to patient support in community-based psychiatry. We developed an assessment scale that is specifically designed to assess the level of stigma that pharmacists may have toward schizophrenia, and then examined the effects of reducing s...

Objective: To review the authors' surgical experience with radical temporal bone resection (TBR) with an emphasis on the classification of skull base osteotomy and transcranial tympanotomy (TCT) that is required for middle ear transection. Methods: We reviewed the records of 25 patients who underwent radical TBR at our facilities between 2011 an...

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is among the most lethal malignancies globally. We have previously explored the clinical efficacy of intraperitoneal (IP) paclitaxel therapy for patients with PDAC and peritoneal metastasis, which demonstrated favourable response and disease control rates. However, the real implications of conver...

Background/Objectives This study aimed to describe real-world nutrition management patterns among inpatients hospitalized for aspiration pneumonia, using a medical claims database in Japan. Methods Patients aged ≥65 years hospitalized for aspiration pneumonia treatment were identified in a medical claims database between January 2013 and December...

Background Previous studies have shown associations between the gut microbiota, microbial metabolites, and cognitive decline. However, the effect of the dietary composition on such associations has not been fully investigated. Methods We performed a cross-sectional sub-analysis of data from our prospective hospital-based cohort study (the Gimlet s...

Background Peripheral sensory neuropathy (PSN) caused by oxaliplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy adversely affects patients' quality of life. This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (CAPOX) with intermittent oxaliplatin use compared with the standard CAPOX in adjuvant therapy for colon cancer. Patients and met...

Osteopenia/osteoporosis and sarcopenia are common geriatric diseases among older adults and harm activities of daily living (ADL) and quality of life (QOL). Osteosarcopenia is a unique syndrome that is a concomitant of both osteopenia/osteoporosis and sarcopenia. This review aimed to summarize the related factors and clinical outcomes of osteosarco...

Background The characterisation of desmoplastic reaction (DR) has emerged as a new, independent prognostic determinant in colorectal cancer. Herein, we report the validation of its prognostic value in a randomised controlled study (SACURA trial). Methods The study included 991 stage II colon cancer patients. DR was classified by the central review...

Background Plaque psoriasis significantly affects patients’ health-related quality of life. To aid treatment decisions, not only objective assessment by physicians but also subjective assessment by patients is important. Objective To assess the significance of Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) evaluation at the time of biologics introduction i...

Background Recent studies have demonstrated an association between the gut microbiome and cognitive function. However, the associations between the gut microbiome and brain parenchyma damage, and their underlying mechanisms, remain unclear. Materials and Methods We performed a cross-sectional sub-analysis using data from our prospective cohort stu...

PurposeTo investigate the efficacy and safety of preemptive analgesia with a transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block versus celecoxib for patients undergoing laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal inguinal hernia repair (LTAPP).Methods Sixty patients scheduled for LTAPP were randomized into three groups: a celecoxib group, given 200 mg celecoxib...

Background: The Functional Assessment for Control of Trunk (FACT) was developed to evaluate trunk function after stroke. However, only a few studies used FACT to show functional outcome. Objective: This study aimed to validate the FACT predictive ability for functional outcome following stroke and create an English version of the FACT. Methods:...

Background: The objective of this study was to investigate the optimal neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) for borderline resectable pancreatic cancer invading the portal vein (BR-PV) or abutting major arteries (BR-A). Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 88 patients with BR-PV and 111 patients with BR-A. Results: In BR-PV patients who underwent upfront surg...

Purpose Oral appliances (OA) are used to treat patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of OA treatment in patients with rapid eye movement (REM)–related OSA. Methods Forty-six patients with REM-related OSA and 107 with non-stage-specific OSA were prescribed OA treatment after diagnosis by...