No abstract

Background It is well known that the incidence of developing hepatocelluler carcinoma (HCC) is increased in liver cirrhosis of different etiologies. However, comparison of HCC incidence in various liver diseases has not yet been estimated. We surveyed this comparison. Methods The PubMed database was examined (1989‐2017) for studies published in English language regarding the prospective follow‐up results for the development of HCC in various liver diseases. A meta‐analysis was performed for each liver disease. Results The annual incidence (%) of HCC in the non‐cirrhotic stage and cirrhotic stage, and the ratio of HCC incidence in the cirrhotic stage/non‐cirrhotic stage were as follows. (a) hepatitis B virus liver disease: 0.37%→3.23% (8.73‐fold), (b) hepatitis C virus liver diseases: 0.68%→4.81% (7.07‐fold), (c) primary biliary cholangitis (0.26%→1.79%, 6.88‐fold), (d) autoimmune hepatitis (0.19%→0.53%, 2.79‐fold), and (e) NASH (0.03%→1.35%, 45.00‐fold). Regarding primary hemochromatosis and alcoholic liver diseases, only follow‐up studies in the cirrhotic stage were presented, 1.20% and 2.06%, respectively. Conclusions When the liver diseases advance to cirrhosis, the incidence of HCC is markedly increased. The development of HCC must be closely monitored by ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging, and computed tomography, irrespective of the different kinds of liver diseases.

One hundred and one consecutive patients with hypertensive cerebellar hemorrhage were analyzed to determine the criteria for surgery. New criteria based on the patient's Glasgow Coma Scale score at admission and the maximum diameter of the hematoma, as disclosed by computed tomography, are proposed from a retrospective analysis of 52 earlier cases. The criteria are as follows: 1) patients with Glasgow Coma Scale scores of 14 or 15 and with a hematoma of less than 40 mm in maximum diameter are treated conservatively; 2) for the patients with Glasgow Coma Scale scores of 13 or less at admission or with a hematoma measuring 40 mm or more, hematoma evacuation with decompressive suboccipital craniectomy should be a treatment of choice; and 3) for the patient whose brain stem reflexes are entirely lost with flaccid tetraplegia or whose general condition is poor, intensive therapy is not indicated. The validity of these criteria was tested and confirmed in 49 recent cases.

Identifying objects is one of the most important agendas for animals in their daily lives. Quick and correct identification of foods or predators decreases risks to their lives. However, in the natural environment, objects are not always fully visible: They are often occluded by other objects and only partly visible. Therefore the ability to complete invisible parts of objects is an essential aspect of perceptual or cognitive processes. Nevertheless, this kind of perceptual completion has not been investigated intensively in nonhuman animals. It is necessary to investigate such an ability in order to clarify its phylogenetic origin and its ecological significance. In the present study, we examined a kind of perceptual completion, called "perception of object unity."When two objects move in synchrony with the gap between them occluded, they appear to be one object rather than two. This phenomenon has been investigated not only in human adults but also human infants Kellman & Spelke, 1983;Kellman, Spelke, & Short, 1986;Slater, Morison, Somers, Mattock, Brown, & Taylor, 1990). For example, Kellman and Spelke (1983) demonstrated this phenomenon by using a habituation/dishabituation procedure in 4-month-old infants and called it "perception of object unity." This perception is not limited to real objects, as used in their Japanese Psychological Research 1997, Volume 39, No. 3, 191-199 Abstract: Perception of object unity was studied in an 18-year-old female chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) using a two-choice delayed matching-to-sample task. The subject was trained with two rod-shaped figures which were exactly identical except that one of them had a small gap at its center. After mastering this baseline task, she was shown the figure with its center occluded by a colored rectangle. We examined the perception of the subject's matching response on either the complete or the broken rod to investigate how she perceived these partly invisible figures. In four separate experiments, the alignment and the movement of the portions above and below the occluding rectangle were manipulated. She matched the partly occluded stimuli to the complete rod as long as the alignment was sufficient. The results suggest that like human adults, the chimpanzee can perceive unity of physically separated figures.

No abstract