No abstract

8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) is one of the products which are excreted in urine as a result of oxidative damage to DNA. We investigated the feasibility of using 8-OHdG in urine as an index for oxidative damage to DNA in atopic dermatitis (AD). Seventeen patients with long-standing AD and 17 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. The severity of AD was evaluated by SCORAD index. Eosinophils, total IgE and lactate dehydrogenase-5 in peripheral blood were measured as clinical parameters for AD. A newly developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method was used to measure urine 8-OHdG. The AD patients showed significantly higher levels (P < 0.0001) of 8-OHdG in their urine than corresponding controls. Urine 8-OHdG levels showed as strong a positive correlation as other haematological parameters did using the SCORAD index. Thus, we conclude that the urine 8-OHdG levels can also serve as a biochemical index of tissue damage and can act as a useful tool in the clinical evaluation of AD.

Related factors of low back pain (LBP) among school personnel were investigated. We designed a cross-sectional study employing questionnaires, which included a Japanese version of the Job Content Questionnaire. Subjects consisted of 3306 male and 3184 female school personnel in all public schools and kindergartens operated by Nagoya City, Japan. Prevalence of LBP in each work category was compared to that in general teachers of each gender after adjusting for age. Male teachers at schools for the handicapped and in classrooms for the handicapped showed significantly higher LBP prevalence. Among female participants, teachers at schools for the handicapped, physical education teachers, kindergarten personnel and school nurses displayed higher LBP prevalence. In work categories which demonstrated high LBP prevalence, low social support and low job satisfaction were related to LBP of school nurses despite low physical loads. High job demand and physical loads correlated to LBP in kindergarten personnel.

No abstract

Objectives To analyse and present the literature describing the health consequences of falsified medicines, focusing on mortality and morbidity, as well as the scale of the issue, the geographic extent, the medicines affected, and the harm caused at both the individual and population levels. Methods We searched for articles in PubMed, using pre‐optimized keywords ‘(counterfeit OR fake OR bogus OR falsified OR spurious) AND (medicine OR drug)’. Searches up to February 2017 yielded 2006 hits, of which 1791 were full‐length articles in English. Among them, we found 81 papers that qualitatively or quantitatively described 48 incidents in which falsified medicines caused patients to suffer serious adverse effects, injury, symptoms or death. Results The distribution of incidents was examined according to the economic status of the countries involved, regional location in the world, therapeutic category of the medicines, number of incidents and victims by year, and characteristics of the falsified medicines. Among the 48 reported incidents, 27 (56.3%) occurred in developing countries and 21 (43.7%) in developed countries. These incidents involved a total of approximately 7200 casualties including 3604 deaths. Conclusions Despite the poor quality of much of the reported data, the results of this study indicate that all types of medications have been targeted for falsification, and falsified medicines have had a serious impact on the health of both adults and children worldwide, with similar numbers of incidents in developing and developed countries.