Personal Authentication Analysis Using Finger-Vein Patterns in Patients with Connective Tissue Diseases—Possible Association with Vascular Disease and Seasonal Change -

Objective

To examine how connective tissue diseases affect finger-vein pattern authentication.

Methods

The finger-vein patterns of 68 patients with connective tissue diseases and 24 healthy volunteers were acquired. Captured as CCD (charge-coupled device) images by transmitting near-infrared light through fingers, they were followed up in once in each season for one year. The similarity of the follow-up patterns and the initial one was evaluated in terms of their normalized cross-correlation C.

Results

The mean C values calculated for patients tended to be lower than those calculated for healthy volunteers. In midwinter (February in Japan) they showed statistically significant reduction both as compared with patients in other seasons and as compared with season-matched healthy controls, whereas the values calculated for healthy controls showed no significant seasonal changes. Values calculated for patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) or mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) showed major reductions in November and, especially, February. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and patients with dermatomyositis or polymyositis (DM/PM) did not show statistically significant seasonal changes in C values.

Conclusions

Finger-vein patterns can be used throughout the year to identify patients with connective tissue diseases, but some attention is needed for patients with advanced disease such as SSc.     

Radical Prostatectomy versus External Beam Radiotherapy for cT1-4N0M0 Prostate Cancer: Comparison of Patient Outcomes Including Mortality

Background

Although radical prostatectomy (RP) and external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) have been considered as comparable treatments for localized prostate cancer (PC), it is controversial which treatment is better. The present study aimed to compare outcomes, including mortality, of RP and EBRT for localized PC.

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed 891 patients with cT1-4N0M0 PC who underwent either RP (n = 569) or EBRT (n = 322) with curative intent at our single institution between 2005 and 2012. Of the EBRT patients, 302 (93.8%) underwent intensity-modulated radiotherapy. Primary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS). Related to these, other-cause mortality (OCM) was also calculated. Biochemical recurrence-free survival was assessed as a secondary endpoint. Cox proportional hazards model was used for multivariate analysis.

Results

Median follow-up durations were 53 and 45 months, and median ages were 66 and 70 years (P <0.0001), in the RP and EBRT groups, respectively. As a whole, significantly better prognoses of the RP group than the EBRT group were observed for both OS and CSS, although OCM was significantly higher in the EBRT group. There was no death from PC in men with low and intermediate D’Amico risks, except one with intermediate-risk in the EBRT group. In high-risk patients, significantly more patients died from PC in the EBRT group than the RP group. Multivariate analysis demonstrated the RP group to be an independent prognostic factor for better CSS. On the other hand, the EBRT group had a significantly longer biochemical recurrence-free survival than the RP group.

Conclusions

Mortality outcomes of both RP and EBRT were generally favorable in low and intermediate risk patients. Improvement of CSS in high risk patients was seen in patients receiving RP over those receiving EBRT.     

Genetic Characteristics of Japanese Clinical Listeria monocytogenes Isolates

Listeria monocytogenes causes foodborne illnesses through consumption of ready-to-eat foods. Although 135-201annual listeriosis cases have been estimated in Japan, the details regarding the clinical isolates such as infection source, virulence level, and other genetic characteristics, are not known. In order to uncover the trends of listeriosis in Japan and use the knowledge for prevention measures to be taken, the genetic characteristics of the past human clinical isolates needs to be elucidated. For this purpose, multilocus tandem-repeat sequence analysis (MLTSA) and multi-virulence-locus sequence typing (MVLST) were used in this study. The clinical isolates showed a variety of genetically distant genotypes, indicating they were from sporadic cases. However, the MVLST profiles of 7 clinical isolates were identical to those of epidemic clone (EC) I isolates, which have caused several serious outbreaks in other countries, suggesting the possibility that they have strong virulence potential and originated from a single outbreak. Moreover, 6 Japanese food isolates shared their genotypes with ECI isolates, indicating that there may be risks for listeriosis outbreak in Japan. This is the first investigational study on genetic characteristics of Japanese listeriosis isolates. The listeriosis cases happened in the past are presumably sporadic, but it is still possible that some isolates with strong virulence potential have caused listeriosis outbreaks, and future listeriosis risks also exist.     

Noninvasive cross‐sectional imaging of proximal caries using swept‐source optical coherence tomography (SS‐OCT) in vivo

The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of swept‐source optical coherent tomography (SS‐OCT) in detecting and estimating the depth of proximal caries in posterior teeth in vivo. SS‐OCT images and bitewing radiographs were obtained from 86 proximal surfaces of 53 patients. Six examiners scored the locations according to a caries lesion depth scale (0–4) using SS‐OCT and the radiographs. The results were compared with clinical observations obtained after the treatment. SS‐OCT could detect the presence of proximal caries in tomograms that were synthesized based on the backscatter signal obtained from the proximal carious lesion through occlusal enamel. SS‐OCT showed significantly higher sensitivity and larger area under the receiver operating characteristic curve than radiographs for the detection of cavitated enamel lesions and dentin caries (Student's t ‐test, p < 0.05). SS‐OCT appears to be a more reliable and accurate method than bitewing radiographs for the detection and estimation of the depth of proximal lesions in the clinical environment. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Backbone 1H, 13C,and 15N assignments of yeast Ump1, an intrinsically disordered protein that functions as a proteasome assembly chaperone

Eukaryotic proteasome assembly is a highly organized process mediated by several proteasome-specific chaperones, which interact with proteasome assembly intermediates. In yeast, Ump1 and Pba1-4 have been identified as assembly chaperones that are dedicated to the formation of the proteasome 20S catalytic core complex. The crystal structures of Pba chaperones have been reported previously, but no detailed information has been provided for the structure of Ump1. Thus, to better understand the mechanisms underlying Ump1-mediated proteasome assembly, we characterized the conformation of Ump1 in solution using NMR. Backbone chemical shift data indicated that Ump1 is an intrinsically unstructured protein and largely devoid of secondary structural elements.