Functional hemispheric asymmetry in female prefrontal hemodynamics corresponding to changes in auditory sense during pregnancy and child raising.

We carried out further research into the prefrontal hemodynamics corresponding to changes in a women's auditory sense during pregnancy and child raising. A total of forty-six volunteers took part in our experiment, and we divided them into several groups in accordance with the progress of their child raising. For the auditory tasks performed by the volunteers, we used two auditory stimulations: the sound of baby crying, and a classical music as a control. Hemodynamic changes at the prefrontal regions were measured using a 2 ch functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) along with a 47 ch fNIRS instrument equipped with 3×5 probes (22 ch). Judging the results of the female groups about their prefrontal hemodynamics, there were almost no significant differences across the groups in the dynamics with the music task. However, in the section of the baby crying task, their hemodynamics were regarded as significant compared to the control. Concerning the time scale of the changes in the hemodynamic response to the two tasks, especially in the postnatal group, we took notice of the possibility that higher activations were clearly observed at the right sides of their brains than their left sides. Our experimental results not only demonstrated that postnatal women within one and a half years of their childbearing might have acute ears, but also revealed the hemispheric asymmetry in their prefrontal hemodynamics, as compared to pregnant and nonpregnant volunteers. We inferred that the pregnancy-inducing expression of such women's special capabilities is definitely due to a boost-up of a built-in female disposition, which is destined for expressions of maternal love.

Effectiveness of a Computer-facilitated, Pharmacist-driven Antimicrobial Stewardship Program for Infection Management.

In recent years, hospitals have routinely implemented antimicrobial stewardship (AS) programs, and it is important that these programs are effective. Consequently, we utilized a customized computer system to support infection management and implemented a pharmacist-driven AS program in our hospital. Using this computer system, a pharmacist monitored the daily usage of carbapenems and agents against anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and generated a patient database. With the use of this computer system, we found that the patient database entry time significantly decreased from 24 to 12 min (p<0.01). Subsequently, we were also able to monitor tazobactam/piperacillin usage owing to the increased efficiency of our AS program. As a result, the average number of monitored patients significantly increased from 51 to 72 per month (p<0.01) and the number of proposed prescriptions increased from 189 to 238 per year. Additionally, the usage of carbapenems and tazobactam/piperacillin significantly decreased (p<0.01) after implementation of this computer support system. In summary, we recommend that pharmacists utilize computer systems to implement AS programs because they increase the efficiency of interventions and monitoring of patients and promote appropriate antibiotic use.

Economic evaluation of adjustments of levofloxacin dosage by dispensing pharmacists for patients with renal dysfunction.

Since April 2011, a dosage adjustment program has been implemented at Gifu Municipal Hospital. In this program, upon receiving a prescription for renally eliminated drugs, pharmacists verify patients' serum creatinine concentrations by using a computerized medical record system to evaluate the patient's kidney function and suggest the appropriate dosage to doctors, if necessary. In our study, we used questionnaires that were administered to pharmacists and doctors at the hospital to investigate their respective working times and the cost of the program, in order to comprehensively analyze the clinical resource costs of the hospital and evaluate the economic burden of the program for levofloxacin. In addition, we studied the pharmacists' and doctors' attitudes toward the program and the circumstances of prescriptions for patients with renal dysfunction. The questionnaire comprised items such as time required for the program; attitude toward the program, including satisfaction; and attitude toward the circumstances of prescriptions for patients with renal dysfunction. The pharmacists' and doctors' working times and cost of the program were obtained from the questionnaire responses. For cost estimation, we used data from this study as well as those of our previous study that suggested that the levofloxacin program was economically beneficial. Furthermore, their attitudes toward the program and circumstances of prescriptions for patients with renal dysfunction were clarified. Regarding the pharmacists' tasks and interventions, we need to not only investigate attitudes toward them but also perform a cost analysis by the method of the economic evaluation of the medical techniques used in our study.