Practice pattern of physician's directions of exercise restriction in patients with chronic kidney disease: results from the Chronic Kidney Disease Japan Cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The practice patterns of exercise restrictions for patients with chronic kidney disease have not been adequately evaluated yet; thus, we examined them using a cross-sectional design and explored the factors related with those restrictions. METHODS: The Chronic Kidney Disease Japan Cohort study was a multicentre cohort study of Japanese patients (age 20-75 years) living in Japan. We used the information in the questionnaire on the restriction of physical activities offered by physicians to the patients during enrolment. We initially considered and used the following data as the clinical factors that the physician used for decision making on the directions of restriction of physical activities: age, sex, cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD), comorbid diseases, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and urine albumin. The logistic regression model was used to explore the factors and estimate their adjusted odds ratio with regard to physician's direction of restriction of physical activities. RESULTS: Physician's direction of exercise restrictions was implemented in 9.9% of the participants. In 17 facilities, the proportion of physician's direction of exercise restriction ranged from 2.9 to 17.8%. The logistic regression analysis showed that the proportion of the factors such as younger age, cardiovascular disease, congestive heart failure and lower eGFR was higher in patients with physician's direction of exercise restrictions. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study suggested the factors related with prescribing exercise restrictions. Further studies examining which patients with CKD need direction of exercise restrictions are needed.

Health-related quality of life and psychological distress of breast cancer patients after surgery during a phase III randomized trial comparing continuation of tamoxifen with switching to anastrozole after adjuvant tamoxifen for 1-4 years: N-SAS BC 03.

To investigate whether the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients switching from tamoxifen to anastrozole in a randomized trial is identical to that of those who continued tamoxifen after 1-4 years of adjuvant tamoxifen in Japanese postmenopausal breast cancer patients. Eligible patients for the randomized trial, the National Surgical Adjuvant Study of Breast Cancer 03, were recurrence-free postmenopausal women who had received definitive surgery for primary breast cancer with positive hormone receptor(s), and had been taking tamoxifen for 1-4 years postoperatively. They were randomly assigned to continue tamoxifen or to switch to anastrozole for a total duration of five years. Subjects were asked to reply to a self-administered QOL questionnaire survey to assess HRQOL (FACT-B [breast cancer scale], FACT-ES [endocrine symptom scale]) and psychological distress (CES-D: Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale) at randomization (baseline), 3 months, 1, and 2 years after randomization, respectively. At baseline 694 patients (346 in the tamoxifen group and 348 in the anastrozole group) responded to the survey. The total scores of FACT-G, FACT-ES, and those of the FACT-G physical well-being subscale were statistically significantly better in the tamoxifen group than in the anastrozole group (P = 0.042, 0.038, and 0.005, respectively). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the treatment groups in the CES-D scores. Continuation of tamoxifen treatment after adjuvant tamoxifen for 1-4 years may provide Japanese breast cancer patients with better HRQOL than by switching to anastrozole.

Sitagliptin monotherapy has better effect on insulinogenic index than glimepiride monotherapy in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a 52-week, multicenter, parallel-group randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The 52-week monotherapy with the dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor sitagliptin and the sulphonylurea glimepiride on early-phase insulin secretion in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is not known. METHODS: A randomized, parallel-group, open-label trial was conducted at 18 centers between February, 2011 and March, 2013. 171 outpatients with T2DM were recruited and randomly assigned to glimepiride or sitagliptin by minimization. Doses of glimepiride (0.25-1.0 mg/day) and sitagliptin (25-100 mg/day) were adjusted for hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) > 6.9 %. Analyses were performed on full analysis set (FAS) of randomized subjects taking medications as allocated, and underwent 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTTs) before and after treatment. The primary outcome was insulinogenic index to quantify early-phase insulin secretion after treatment, which was evaluated by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). RESULTS: Of 171 enrolled subjects, 68 in the sitagliptin group and 65 in the glimepiride group were included in the FAS (mean age, 64 years; baseline (HbA1c), 7.4 %). The primary outcome revealed a significantly higher insulinogenic index in the sitagliptin group than that in the glimepiride group (p = 0.036). Sitagliptin also reduced plasma glucose levels at 60 and 120 min during OGTT compared with glimepiride, while achieving a similar improvement in HbA1c during treatment. Body weight did not change in either of the two groups, and one case of hypoglycemia was observed in the glimepiride group. CONCLUSIONS: Sitagliptin shows better effects on insulinogenic index after 52-week treatment compared with glimepiride in Japanese patients with T2DM. Trial registration University hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN) Clinical Trials Registry, No.00004791.

[Linguistic validation of Japanese version of International Prostate Symptom Score and BPH impact index].

PURPOSE: To evaluate linguistic validity of the Japanese version of International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and BPH Impact Index (BII). METHODS: The translation was performed through multi-step procedure. Forward translation was created through the discussion by 5 urologists, 2 Japanese translators and 1 nurse on independent translations of the discussants and the translation published in the Guideline in Japan. Back translation was made by 2 native speakers of American English, and negotiated with the original developers. A person-to-person in-depth interview was carried out on 20 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. RESULTS: The developers generally approved our translation, but had 2 major concerns in the Japanese version; 1) "how often" in every sentence of English version was not translated into Japanese, and 2) the Japanese expression in the response choices of QOL index should be more emotional. The former concern was compromised by placing a sentence at the beginning of the questionnaire explaining that the response should be considered in frequency. The latter concern was examined in a pre-test involving additional 88 patients and compromised by making the translation of some response choices more emotional. CONCLUSION: We evaluated linguistic validity of Japanese translations of IPSS and BII, and proposed a valid Japanese version of these questionnaires.