The mortality rates of extremely low birth weight infants who were born in 2005 demonstrated definite improvement.

BackgroundWe previously developed a surface-controlled water-dispersible form of curcumin and named it Theracurmin® (Theracurmin; Theravalues, Tokyo, Japan). The area under the blood concentration–time curve of Theracurmin in humans was 27-fold higher than that of curcumin powder. We determined the clinical effects of orally administered Theracurmin in patients with knee osteoarthritis during 8 weeks of treatment.MethodsFifty patients with knee osteoarthritis of Kellgren–Lawrence grade II or III and who were aged more than 40 years were enrolled in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, prospective clinical study. Placebo or Theracurmin containing 180 mg/day of curcumin was administered orally every day for 8 weeks. To monitor adverse events, blood biochemistry analyses were performed before and after 8 weeks of each intervention. The patients’ knee symptoms were evaluated at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks by the Japanese Knee Osteoarthritis Measure, the knee pain visual analog scale (VAS), the knee scoring system of the Japanese Orthopedic Association, and the need for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.ResultsAt 8 weeks after treatment initiation, knee pain VAS scores were significantly lower in the Theracurmin group than in the placebo group, except in the patients with initial VAS scores of 0.15 or less. Theracurmin lowered the celecoxib dependence significantly more than placebo. No major side effects were observed with Theracurmin treatment.ConclusionTheracurmin shows modest potential for the treatment of human knee osteoarthritis.

In 20 of 198 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Doppler color flow imaging revealed diastolic paradoxic jet flow across the obliterated left ventricular apex toward the base that suggested the presence of a discrete apical chamber. This prospective study characterized echocardiographic, ventriculographic and scintigraphic findings in these patients, as well as their clinical features. Although echocardiography did not directly show the apical chamber in 13 of the 20 patients, left ventriculography always revealed a small apical outpouching separated from the major basal cavity. Systolic bulging of the apex was always followed by early diastolic shrinkage together with persistent cavity narrowing between the two chambers. After the systolic jet flow, the paradoxic jet flow lasted for 366 +/- 160 ms after aortic valve closure and always extended into the diastolic filling period. The maximal velocity of the paradoxic jet flow occurred during isovolumetric relaxation and the mean velocity was 2 +/- 0.8 m/s, indicating a higher diastolic pressure in the apical chamber than in the main ventricle. Compared with patients who manifested cavity obliteration alone, patients with a paradoxic jet flow more often developed systemic embolism (p less than 0.01), ventricular tachycardia (p less than 0.05) and thallium perfusion abnormalities localized to the apical region (p less than 0.01). Thus, paradoxic jet flow could be an important marker of concealed apical asynergy and the risk of adverse clinical events. The higher diastolic apical pressure suggested by the flow may contribute to the development of an apical aneurysm, even in the absence of fixed coronary artery disease.

Plasma XOR activity is a novel biomarker of metabolic disorders in a general population.

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