on behalf of the J-RHYTHM Registry Investigators* Background--To clarify the influence of hypertension and blood pressure (BP) control on thromboembolism and major hemorrhage in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, a post hoc analysis of the J-RHYTHM Registry was performed.

Recently, we demonstrated that islet transplantation from non-heart-beating donors (NHBDs) using the Kyoto islet isolation method (KIIM) successfully reversed patients' diabetes state. In this study, we evaluated the effects of donor-and isolation-related variables on islet isolation results from NHBDs by KIIM. Twentyone islet preparations from the pancreata of NHBDs were isolated by KIIM. Islet preparations that met transplantation criteria and achieved improved patient diabetes control after transplantation were defined as successful isolations. Potential risk factors deemed to affect islet isolation results, such as age, gender, body mass index, hospital stay, donors' blood biochemical tests, a modified pancreata procurement method, and isolation and purification procedure-related variables, were analyzed. Seventeen out of 21 islet isolations (81%) were successful isolations. Postpurification islet yield was 447,639 ± 39,902 islet equivalents (IE) in the successful isolation group and 108,007 ± 31,532 IE in the failure group. Donor age was significantly younger in the success group (41.9 ± 4.0 years old in the success group vs. 57.5 ± 2.2 years old in the failure group, p = 0.003). Chronic pancreatitis significantly decreased islet yields (p = 0.006). Phase I time was significantly shorter (p = 0.010) and undigested tissue volume was significantly smaller (p = 0.020) in the success group. Purity was in positive correlation to postpurification islet yield, while donor age was in reverse correlation to postpurification islet yield. KIIM enables us to perform islet transplantation from NHBDs; however, the decision to use pancreata from older donors or those with chronic pancreatitis requires careful consideration.

An anticoagulation strategy with dabigatran may surpass that with warfarin in reducing both the periprocedural risk of minor bleeding and a hypercoagulable state, and the time to ablation in patients undergoing ablation of AF.

The direct arylation on the thienyl groups of a diarylethene with various aryl iodides efficiently provided arylated dithienylethenes under palladium catalysis. Unsymmetrically substituted dithienylethenes were also synthesized by this protocol. This procedure allows a rapid access to a variety of aryl-substituted dithienylethenes from a single substrate of a simple dithienylethene.

Facile synthesis of meso-aryl-substituted 5,15-dithiaporphyrins and 10-thiacorroles has been achieved by sulfidation of α,α'-dichlorodipyrrin metal complexes with sodium sulfide in DMF. Thiacorrole metal complexes exhibit distinct aromaticity due to 18 π-conjugation including the lone pair on sulfur, whereas dithiaporphyrins are nonaromatic judging from (1)H NMR spectra, X-ray analysis, and absorption spectra. We have found that Ni(II) and Al(III) dithiaporphyrin complexes undergo smooth thermal sulfur extrusion reaction to give the corresponding thiacorrole complexes, whereas free base, Zn(II), Pd(II), and Pt(II) dithiaporphyrin complexes did not exhibit the similar reactivity. The DFT calculations have elucidated a reaction pathway involving an episulfide intermediate, which can explain the markedly different reactivity among dithiaporphyrin metal complexes.