Restriction-modification (R-M) systems are exclusive to unicellular organisms and ubiquitous in the bacterial world. Bacteria use R-M systems as a defense against invasion by foreign DNA. Analysis of the genome sequences of Helicobacter pylori strains 26 695 and J99 identified an extraordinary number of genes with homology to R-M genes in other bacterial species. All H. pylori strains possess their own unique complement of active R-M systems. All of the methylases that have been studied so far were present in all major human population groupings, suggesting that their horizontal acquisition pre-dated the separation of these populations. The two most strongly conserved methylase genes of H. pylori, hpyIM and hpyIIIM, are both preceded by alternative genes that compete for presence at their loci, and furthermore these genes may be associated with H. pylori pathogenicity. Further study should investigate the roles of H. pylori R-M systems.
The use of an elemental diet of 900 kcal/day may be effective in avoiding hospitalization in CD patients with ileal lesions. This diet may be useful in improving the long-term convalescence of these patients.
The rate of extramural prescription in Nagoya Memorial Hospital is approximately 90% and most of our patients receive medicine in health insurance pharmacies. However, there are several problems in the prescriptions for outpatients; the patients are sometimes unable to obtain the prescribed drugs because they are out of stock in the family pharmacy. In addition, community pharmacists find it difficult to instruct individual patients when obtaining information only through externally dispensed prescriptions. To improve the cooperation between our hospital and community pharmacists, we performed a questionnaire survey on the present status of cancer patients and then another on pharmacists working in health insurance pharmacies. The first series of questionnaires showed that all patients had a family pharmacy and 92% of them agreed to give their information to it. In addition, the patients being prescribed oral cancer drugs would more often consult the community pharmacists, compared to those receiving parenteral chemotherapeutic agents. The second series of questionnaires for community pharmacists revealed that around 90% were interested in obtaining more information from their hospital, although less than one fifth of them could talk to patients undergoing cancer treatment. Based on these results, we discussed with community pharmacists and designed a communication form of cooperation. The form of cooperation was sent from the hospital to the health insurance pharmacy by FAX, after obtaining informed consent from the patients. This form is to be evaluated from the viewpoints of patients and community pharmacists and then further improved.
A 2-year-old girl with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) showing a t(4;11)(q21;q23) karyotype underwent allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) with the conditioning regimen of L-PAM (70 mg/m2/d for 3 days), busulfan (140 mg/m2/d for 2 days), and total body irradiation (12 Gy). On day 57, the patient developed pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis (PCI) when she received cyclosporin A and corticosteroids for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Because of the presence of massive abdominal free air and the suspicion of peritonitis, she underwent surgical intervention, which, however, revealed neither intestinal perforation nor peritoneal infection. She recovered from PCI in 10 days with nasogastric suction, fasting, and systemic broad-spectrum antibiotics. PCI with massive abdominal free air after BMT should be manageable by conservative therapy alone.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.