Koji Futagami

Ultrasonography improves diagnostic accuracy of acute appendicitis and provides cost savings to hospitals in Japan.

A cost analysis based on changes in patient care was used to evaluate the utility of abdominal ultrasonography in both the clinical management of patients clinically suspected of having acute appendicitis and in reducing expenditure of hospital resources. Among the 200 patients suspected of having acute appendicitis, 57 actually had acute appendicitis. Interpretation of appendiceal ultrasonographic results was 98.5% accurate. The ultrasonographic result led to changes in the treatment of 103 patients. Moreover, ultrasonography led to the prevention of unnecessary appendectomy in 25 patients, providing a savings to the hospital of about Yen 8,013,450 (

Evaluation of flash echo imaging for assessment of blood perfusion in gastric cancer

65,150), and prevented unnecessary hospital admission for 78 patient‐days, thus saving the hospital approximately Yen 1,199,250 (

Clinical Application of Ultrasonographic Diagnosis of Gastrointestinal Disease

9750). The cost of performing the 200 ultrasonographic examinations was about Yen 1,096,176 (

The pathology of reflux esophagitis

8912), and thus the overall savings to the hospital was approximately Yen 40,590 (

Enprostil lacreases transmural blood perfusion of gastric ulcer-human study by Flash Echo Imaging

330) per patient. Ultrasonography performed in patients with suspected acute appendicitis improves patient diagnostic accuracy, thus leading to more appropriate selection of patient treatment and reduced hospital expenditure.

Reduced gastric responses seen in functional dyspepsia to the modified sham feeding

(chromogranin A immunoreactive) and more specifically ECL cell derived (hietidine decarboxylase immunoreactive and Sevier-Munger positive). Moreover, a substantial part of gastric carcinomas from man and especially those classified as diffuse according to Lauren, expressed markers compatible with neuroendocrine (chromogranin A), and more specifically of ECL cell (Sevier-Munger) origin. Whereas the number of positive tumor cells were low in most carcinomas studied by conventional immunohistochemical reaction, the number of positive cells increased markedly when applying the tyramide signal amplification for the chromngranin A immunoitetection. CONCLUSION: ECL ceils give rise to gastric carcinomas not only in rodents, but also in man.