BACKGROUND Recent advances in cancer chemotherapy have increased not only the survival rate but also the treatment cost, although there has been little interest in cost analyses in Japan. METHOD The actual cost of pancreatic cancer treatment was surveyed especially with respect to the difference after April 2001, which was the date that gemcitabine was introduced in Japan. RESULTS A total o...

OBJECTIVE To find out the satisfaction of clinical units with laboratory services in a university hospital, to point out the most important problems and defects in services, to carry out corrective actions, and thereafter to identify the possible changes in satisfaction. SETTING and STUDY PARTICIPANTS Senior physicians and nurses-in-charge of the clinical units at Oulu University Hospital, ...

The sharing of information between the lay public and medical professionals is crucial to the conduct of personalized medicine using genomic information in the near future. Mass media, such as newspapers, can play an important role in disseminating scientific information. However, studies on the role of newspaper coverage of genome-related articles are highly limited. We investigated the covera...

OBJECTIVE In 2007 and 2008, the Japan Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology issued a recommendation for single embryo transfer (SET). Thereafter, SET was implemented in 73% of in vitro fertilization (IVF) cases in Japan. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of compliance with the SET recommendation on perinatal outcomes. METHODS ...

ARTERIOVENOUS MALFORMATIONS AVM Incidence Since only 12% of AVMs cause symptoms, the incidence of AVM in the United States is not fully known. The incidence is thought to be around 1 per 100,000, equaling 300,000 cases. As technology advances and early detection increases, these numbers may rise. The average age of AVM diagnosis is 33 years, with 64% being identified before age 40 (Greenburg, 2...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the changing frequency of HIV/AIDS amongst medical admissions as well as the spectrum and outcome of clinical diseases among these patients. DESIGN Retrospective study. SETTING Tertiary hospital in Nigeria. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred and six People Living With AIDS (PLWA) admitted at the medical wards during the period 1992 to 2002. INTERVENTION Treatment was sympto...