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Bronchitis is very commonly seen in daily pediatric practice. However, its diagnosis has been limited to cases where there have been physical findings on the chest. Therefore, medical terms such as "wheezy cold"' and "wheezy infant"2 are occasionally used.Examination of the cytology and culture of washed sputum is the essential minimum for the diagnosis of bronchitis, as is urinalysis for renal diseases. Up to now, there have been no systematic reports on the examination of the sputum of infants and children affected by bronchial diseases. Under such circumstances, the overall clinical aspects of bronchitis remain unclarified and the classification of the diseases has been confused, especially as regards "asthmatic bronchitis" and chronic bronchitis in infants and children.For the past 20 years, we have been investigating cytological findings in sputum from patients with productive cough and, for more than a decade, the culture of repeatedly washed sputum. Thus, we have been able to diagnose bronchitis, even when there were no physical findings on the chest, and to classify bronchitis in infants and children.In this report, clinical observations regarding "asthmatic bronchitis" and chronic bronchitis in infants and children are presented.

Screening for male-derived biological material from collected samples plays an important role in criminal investigations, especially those involving sexual assaults. We have developed a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay targeting multi-repeat sequences of the Y chromosome for detecting male DNA. Successful amplification occurred with 0.5 ng of male DNA under isothermal conditions of 61 to 67 °C, but no amplification occurred with up to 10 ng of female DNA. Under the optimized conditions, the LAMP reaction initiated amplification within 10 min and amplified for 20 min. The LAMP reaction was sensitive at levels as low as 1-pg male DNA, and a quantitative LAMP assay could be developed because of the strong correlation between the reaction time and the amount of template DNA in the range of 10 pg to 10 ng. Furthermore, to apply the LAMP assay to on-site screening for male-derived samples, we evaluated a protocol using a simple DNA extraction method and a colorimetric intercalating dye that allows detection of the LAMP reaction by evaluating the change in color of the solution. Using this protocol, samples of male-derived blood and saliva stains were processed in approximately 30 min from DNA extraction to detection. Because our protocol does not require much hands-on time or special equipment, this LAMP assay promises to become a rapid and simple screening method for male-derived samples in forensic investigations.

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