SUMMARY A stroke registry was established in Shibata City, Nilgata Prefecture, Japan (population 75,000) in 1976. WHO recommendations for criteria were followed. This paper reports stroke incidence for die initial 3 years of the registry: 1976 dirough 1978. All liring padents were examined clinically by a staff physician. Only patients with a diagnosis of first stroke were included in die study. Sensitivity of the referral system was estimated at 85 + %, comparable to that in American studies.Arerage annual incidence per 1,000 in residents ^20 years was 2.61 for all strokes (3.42 for males; 1.88 for females), 0.20 for subarachnoid hemorrhage, 0.61 for cerebral hemorrhage, 1.51 for cerebral infarctionrates similar to those reported 10-20 years previously for the United States.The male-female ratio STROKE has been the leading cause of death in Japan since 1951.1 -* According to international comparisons, Japan has the highest mortality rate from stroke of any developed country.'"* Because mortality rates can be affected by factors such as access to medical care and survival, incidence is a more reliable measure of frequency. There have been few reports, however, on the incidence of stroke in Japan. Incidence rates would be helpful for studying the natural history of the disease and for developing appropriate health care facilities. To meet this need, a stroke registry was developed in Shibata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, beginning in 1976. This paper presents data from the stroke registry during the initial 3-year period and compares the incidence rate in Shibata with incidence rates recorded from other areas of Japan and from the United States. Methods Study PopulationShibata was selected as the city in which to develop a registry because Niigata Prefecture has one of the highest age-adjusted death rates from stroke in Japan." The city of Shibata covers an area of 434 square kilometers and is located in the northern part of the prefecture ( fig. 1). Shibata includes a central From the Department of Public Health, Osaka City University Medical School, 1-4-54 Asahi-Machi Abeno-Ku, Osaka 545, Japan (Drs. Tanaka, Ueda, Yamashita, Owada, Messers Date, Baba, Hayashi, and Shoji). Niigata-Ken Medical Association, Niigata, 961 Japan (Dr. K-I Baba). Shibata-Shi, Toyosaka-Shi, KitaKambara-Gun Medical Association, Shibata, 957 Japan (Dr. Shibuya). The Department of Public Health, City of Shibata, Shibata, 957 Japan (Dr. Kon). Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024 (Dr. Detels).Reprints: Dr. Tanaka, Dept. Public Health, Osaka City University Medical School, 1-4-54 Asahi-Machi Abcno-ku, Osaka, 545 Japan.

Our results suggest that autofeedback from US assessment provides quick improvement in palpation skills for identifying joint swelling in patients with RA.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) are small non-coding RNAs that mainly function in the post-transcriptional regulation of genes. miRNA that is secreted outside of cells, and which circulates in the peripheral blood, is called circulating microRNA. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a typical autoimmune connective tissue disease and is mainly treated with immunosuppressive drugs. Therapeutic apheresis is often used to eliminate autoantibodies and cytokines. We have previously shown that circulating miRNAs in the blood of patients with SLE can be separated and removed from the blood using a plasma separation membrane. In the present study, we further separated circulating miRNA from three SLE patient's blood plasma by passing it through a plasma adsorption membrane, and then measured changes in miRNA levels using miRNAs microarray chip. Although the levels of many miRNAs were unaffected after passage through the plasma adsorption membrane, expression of some miRNAs, including miR-1246, miR-4732-5p, and miR-6088 are declined.

Our study suggests that patients with SLE have experienced high prenatal testosterone and low prenatal estrogen. To our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the association between 2D4D ratio and SLE.

We investigated mortality and relapse-free survival and their predictive factors in elderly Japanese patients with severe MPA. Age, disease severity, the 1996 FFS, and the 2009 FFS at diagnosis were prognostic factors for both mortality and relapse-free survival.