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PURPOSE Total aortic arch replacement (TAR) with frozen elephant trunk (FET) is the standard operation for treating aortic dissection (AD) patients involving aortic arch with high operative risk due to long circulatory arrest (CA). We used aortic balloon occlusion technique that safely reduced the CA time to 5 min in average and investigated whether it can improve the clinical endpoints. METHODS All patients diagnosed with AD and underwent TAR with FET operation (123 with aortic balloon occlusion and 221 with conventional method) in Fuwai Hospital during August 2017 and February 2019 was reviewed in this retrospective observational study. RESULTS After propensity score matching, the 30-day mortality of aortic balloon occlusion group and conventional group was 4.88% and 11.38% (P = 0.062), respectively. In multivariate analysis, aortic balloon occlusion is one of the factors that reduced the risk for renal and hepatic injury, shortened postoperative conscious revival time, and reduced red blood cell (RBC) transfusion during operation. CONCLUSIONS The aortic balloon occlusion technique, as a perfusion strategy during operation, could alleviate postoperative complication. This method deserves further attention in future clinical practice for its value in treating patients with higher operative risks.BACKGROUND Long QT syndrome type 8 (LQT8) is a rare genotype of long QT syndrome. Late-appearing T-waves (LaT) are often documented in patients with LQT8, as in long QT syndrome type 3 (LQT3); however, the frequency of LaT and its relevance to the clinical severity of LQT8 remains unclear. This study investigated T-wave morphology (TWM) in LQT3 and LQT8 patients and compared the phenotypes of different TWMs.Methods and ResultsTWMs were classified into 3 types early onset T-waves (EoT), LaT, and bifid T-waves (biT). Electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements, symptoms, and topology were compared among TWM types. The study cohort comprised 25 patients with LQT8 (14 mutations) and 25 patients with LQT3 (14 mutations). LaT was detected in 17 (68%) and 13 (52%) LQT8 and LQT3 patients, respectively. There were no significant differences in ECG measurements or the severity of symptoms between patients with LaT and those with other TWMs in either the LQT8 or LQT3 group. However, only patients with LaT experienced cardiopulmonary arrest. Compared with the LQT3 group, in the LQT8 group there was a tendency for mutations in patients with LaT to be located in domain-linking regions. CONCLUSIONS In this study, two-thirds of patients with LQT8 exhibited LaT on ECG, and nearly one-third of those experienced cardiopulmonary arrest. Further investigations are warranted to differentiate between LQT3 and LQT8 in patients exhibiting LaT to optimize therapy.OBJECTIVES In this study, we aim to establish supportive measures for sustaining a healthy diet in students and young adults after graduating from high school by examining possible factors leading to changes in their daily nutrient consumption. METHODS A questionnaire survey was conducted among university, college, and vocational school students throughout the main island of Japan (total numbers of respondents with valid responses, 1,256) to evaluate their diets using a five-point scale. PHTPP antagonist Two groups were selected based on the status of daily nutrient consumption. One group comprised 258 students who had maintained high nutrition scores (scored ≥ 4 points in all six primary food groups) since their third year in high school (maintained high-score group) and the other group comprised 250 students whose nutrition scores declined after high school (decreased-score group scored high in the third year of high school but the scores decreased after admission to universities, colleges, and other institutes). By comparing these two groups, we investigated the possible factors affecting the decrease in nutrition scores. RESULTS As the number of students in “the period of solitary living” and with the behavior of “skipping breakfast” increased, the proportion of students in the decreased-score group was found to increase. The eating behaviors that significantly differed between the students in the third year and those after graduating from high school were “skipping breakfast”, “eating out”, and “instant food intake” in the decreased-score group in both genders. CONCLUSION Results of this study indicate that we must promote measures that address the factors affecting nutrition intake after high school graduation.OBJECTIVES In Japan, the vaccination for mumps has been on a voluntary basis since 1993 because of safety concerns arising from the high incidence of aseptic meningitis associated with Japanese mumps vaccine strains. However, recent reports on the voluntary mumps vaccination have described the decreased incidence of postvaccination aseptic meningitis for unknown reasons. To explore the underlying reason for this decrease, we analyzed the influence of echoviruses, the most common causative viruses for community-acquired aseptic meningitis, on the previously reported incidence of aseptic meningitis following mumps vaccination. METHODS We used available data on the yearly number of cases of echovirus detection from the Infectious Agents Surveillance Reports issued by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases as well as previously reported nationwide data on the incidence of postvaccination aseptic meningitis. RESULTS The incidence of postvaccination aseptic meningitis tended to be higher during the period of an echovirus epidemic and lower during the period without such as epidemic. CONCLUSIONS The present ecological trend analysis suggests the influence of echovirus epidemics on the previous reported incidence of aseptic meningitis following mumps vaccination. It is necessary to carry out a differential diagnosis of echovirus infection to identify the true causative viruses in aseptic meningitis following mumps vaccination.This study was conducted to assess the association of the visceral adiposity index (VAI) with insulin resistance and beta cell function in Korean adults with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus. The study was carried out using data from the 2015 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VI-3) and included 4,922 adults, aged 20 or older. There were several key findings in the present study. First, in subjects without type 2 diabetes mellitus, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (p less then 0.001) and beta cell function (HOMA-B) (p less then 0.001), insulin (p ‍ less then ‍0.001), fasting blood glucose (FBG) (p less then 0.001), and metabolic syndrome (MetS) score (p less then 0.001) were positively associated with quartiles of VAI. Second, in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus, HOMA-IR (p = 0.038), FBG (p = 0.007), and MetS score (p less then 0.001) were positively associated with quartiles of VAI, but associations with HOMA-B (p = 0.879) and insulin (p = 0.