Takuya Minagawa

ADAM12 and ADAM17 are essential molecules for hypoxia-induced impairment of neural vascular barrier function.

Neural vascular barrier is essential for the life of multicellular organisms, and its impairment by tissue hypoxia is known to be a central of pathophysiology accelerating the progression of various intractable neural diseases. Therefore, the molecules involved in hypoxia-induced impairment of vascular barrier can be the targets to establish new therapies for intractable diseases. Here, we demonstrate that a disintegrin and metalloproteinases (ADAMs) 12 and 17 expressed in endothelial cells are the molecules responsible for the impairment of neural vascular barrier by hypoxia. Brain microvascular endothelial cells in vitro lost their barrier properties immediately after hypoxic stimulation through diminished localization of claudin-5, a tight junction molecule, on cell membranes. Hypoxic disappearance of claudin-5 from cell membranes and the consequent loss of barrier properties were completely suppressed by inhibition of the metalloproteinase activity which was found to be attributed to ADAM12 and ADAM17. Inhibition of either ADAM12 or ADAM17 was sufficient to rescue the in vivo neural vasculature under hypoxia from the loss of barrier function. This is the first report to specify the molecules which are responsible for hypoxia-induced impairment of neural vascular barrier and furthermore can be the targets of new therapeutic strategies for intractable neural diseases.

Face-direction estimating system using stereo vision

We developed the system which can estimate the face-direction of a person with two cameras using stereo vision. In this system, the eyes and the mouth are extracted in each image for measurement of their 3D position by matching each feature in the one image with the other. Then, face direction is obtained from the normal of the plane which is determined by the 3D coordinates of the features. This system can track face-direction in semi-real time.

Endoscopic biliary drainage as a bridging procedure to single-stage surgery for perforated choledochal cyst: a case report and review of the literature

Choledochal cyst (CC)—a congenital anomaly of the bile duct—is rare. We report a 28-year-old woman complaining of epigastralgia who was transferred to our hospital. Physical examination revealed severe tenderness to abdominal palpation without symptoms of diffuse peritonitis. Urgent contrast-enhanced abdominal computed tomography indicated the dilated common bile duct (CBD) was perforated, with a presumed diagnosis of perforated CC. Endoscopic external biliary drainage was performed immediately as a bridging procedure to the definitive surgery. Additional evaluations confirmed a type IVa CC, according to Todani’s classification, but no signs of malignancy. Twenty-two days after biliary drainage, laparotomy was performed. A large cystic mass was found in the CBD with a perforated scar on the right-side wall. Because inflammation around the pancreas head was too severe to perform cyst excision safely, the patient underwent subtotal stomach-preserving pancreatoduodenectomy. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient was discharged on the 29th postoperative day. Pathologic examination of a specimen showed no malignancy, and the patient has remained well during the 3-year follow-up. Our experience with this case suggests that definitive single-stage surgery for perforated CC in an adult can be performed safely owing to external biliary drainage as a bridging procedure, if manifestation of diffuse peritonitis is not evident.

Camera pose estimation of a smartphone at a field without interest points

An Augmented Reality (AR) system on mobile phones has recently attracted attention because smartphones have increasingly been popular. For an AR system, we have to know a camera pose of a smartphone. A sensor-based method is one of the most popular ways to estimate the camera pose, but it cannot estimate an accurate pose. A vision-based method is another way to estimate the camera pose, but it is not suitable to a scene with few interest points such as a sports field. In this paper, we propose a novel method of a camera pose estimation for a scene without interest points by combining a sensor-based and a vision-based approach. In our proposed method, we use an acceleration and a magnetic sensor to roughly estimate a camera pose, then search the accurate pose by matching a captured image with a set of reference images. Our experiments show that our proposed method is accurate and fast enough to apply a real-time AR system.

Phase I study of neoadjuvant S-1 plus cisplatin with concurrent radiation for biliary tract cancer (KOBTC02).

353 Background: Although surgery plays a key role in the curative treatment for biliary tract cancer (BTC), the prognosis is not satisfactory because of frequent postoperative recurrence. Multimodal treatment has been warranted in order to improve this situation. The aim of this study was to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and recommended dose (RD) of cisplatin as neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with S-1 and external beam radiation for BTC. Methods: Patients with resectable BTC at initial diagnosis were eligible for inclusion. The planned dosages of cisplatin (mg/m2)/S-1 (mg/m2/day) were as follows: 40/80 (level 0); 50/80 (level 2); 60/80 (level 3). S-1 was orally administered twice daily from day 1 to 14 and day 29 to 42. Cisplatin was administered intravenously over 2 hours in each dosage of level at day 1 and 29. Radiation was delivered as a total dose of 50.4 Gy (28 fractions to 1.8 Gy). Dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) was a delay factor of the schedule due to incomplete recovery. (Response rate...

Laparoscopic hepatectomy in cirrhotic patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: technical aspects and potential benefits

Since the late 1990s, laparoscopic surgery has gained popularity, resulting in a paradigm shift in liver surgery. Laparoscopic hepatectomy is thought to be a less-invasive procedure than open hepatectomy.[6] The benefits of laparoscopic hepatectomy may be particularly advantageous for reducing intraoperative blood loss and retaining postoperative ascites. In matched-paired comparative studies and a comprehensive meta-analysis, laparoscopic hepatectomy was found to have several perioperative advantages with no differences in oncological outcomes.[7-11] Recent technological advances and accumulation of surgical experience have gradually expanded the indications for laparoscopic hepatectomy to include treatment for HCC. Laparoscopic hepatectomy has now been performed even in cirrhotic patients with HCC. There are several tips and techniques for safely performing laparoscopic resection on the cirrhotic liver, as described below.

Vehicle make and model recognition by keypoint matching of pseudo frontal view

We propose a vehicle make and model recognition method for the smart phone, and implemented it onto them. Our method identifies the make and model from the variety of viewpoints while the conventional methods for VMMR work only for the frontal or rear view images. This method enables the users to take the pictures from a certain range of angles. Our method uses SIFT, that has scale and rotation invariance to solve the alignment issue. It creates the pseudo frontal view images by homography matrix and extracts the keypoints. Homography matrix is calculated with the position of the license plate. Our experimental result shows our method enables to recognize up to 60-degree angle.