Tomohiro Mizuno

BACKGROUND: Anticholinergic burden, reflecting the cumulative impact of medications with anticholinergic properties, significantly predicts adverse drug reactions and geriatric syndromes in older adults. Although anticholinergic risk scales (ARS) have been developed and validated in various countries, none have been tailored specifically for Japan. The Japanese Anticholinergic Risk Scale (JARS) was developed to adapt the existing ARS frameworks to the Japanese context, considering unique medication profiles and cultural factors. PROCESS: First, a systematic review was performed to follow the protocol registered in PROSPERO (CRD42017076510). A PubMed search from October 2017 to March 2023 was conducted to identify ARS publications post-September 2017. Based on two algorithms, average scores from the existing scores were used to develop JARS. The Delphi method, an expert consensus approach, was applied to determine the scores for medications that were not established by the algorithms. Sixteen articles identified in our systematic review contributed to JARS development. JARS categorizes 158 medications into three potency groups: 37 drugs scored as 3 (strong), 27 as 2 (moderate), and 94 as 1 (weak). CONCLUSION: JARS, the newly developed ARS, could be a critical tool for anticholinergic burden assessment in older Japanese populations. Developed through a systematic review and Delphi-based expert consensus, it encompasses 158 medications, offering a comprehensive anticholinergic burden assessment. Future studies and updates should be conducted to improve the accuracy and clinical applicability of this scale. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; ••: ••-••.

AIM: Interprofessional collaboration between medical professionals is an essential aspect of caring for Japan's super-aging population, but studies on the subject have been geographically limited in scope. Therefore, we aimed to determine the factors necessary for pharmacists to achieve interprofessional collaboration in home-based care in Japan. METHODS: Our online questionnaire survey was conducted from February 1, 2023 to February 15, 2023. The Japan Pharmaceutical Association introduced this survey to their membership, and survey letters were sent to hospitals and community pharmacies that were not included in this association. RESULTS: The study involved 1156 and 36 participants working in a community pharmacy and a hospital, respectively. These participants were divided into the collaboration group and the non-collaboration group. Enough time for visiting patients and for preparing the first visiting plan was important to achieve interprofessional collaboration in home-based care for a hospital pharmacist. More than 5 years of experience working in home-based care and participation in pre-visit conferences, discharge conferences, meetings with persons in charge of services were independent factors in collaborating with other medical staff for a community pharmacist. CONCLUSION: Hospital pharmacists with enough time to prepare and visit for home-based care and community pharmacists working in home-based care for more than 5 years and who share information on home-based care with medical staff achieved interprofessional collaboration in home-based care. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; ••: ••-••.

OBJECTIVE: The risk factors for residual liver recurrence after resection of colorectal cancer liver metastases were analyzed separately for synchronous and metachronous metastases. METHODS: This retrospective study included 236 patients (139 with synchronous and 97 with metachronous lesions) who underwent initial surgery for colorectal cancer liver metastases from April 2010 to December 2021 at the Fujita Health University Hospital. We performed univariate and multivariate analyses of risk factors for recurrence based on clinical background. RESULTS: Univariate analysis of synchronous liver metastases identified three risk factors: positive lymph nodes (p = 0.018, HR = 2.067), ≥3 liver metastases (p < 0.001, HR = 2.382), and use of adjuvant chemotherapy (p = 0.013, HR = 0.560). Multivariate analysis identified the same three factors. For metachronous liver metastases, univariate and multivariate analysis identified ≥3 liver metastases as a risk factor (p = 0.002, HR = 2.988); however, use of adjuvant chemotherapy after hepatic resection was not associated with a lower risk of recurrence for metachronous lesions. Inverse probability of treatment weighting analysis of patients with these lesions with or without adjuvant chemotherapy after primary resection showed that patients with metachronous liver metastases who did not receive this treatment had fewer recurrences when adjuvant therapy was administered after subsequent liver resection, although the difference was not significant. Patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy after hepatic resection had less recurrence but less benefit from this treatment. CONCLUSION: Risk factors for liver recurrence after resection of synchronous liver metastases were positive lymph nodes, ≥3 liver metastases, and no postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. Adjuvant chemotherapy is recommended after hepatic resection of synchronous liver metastases.

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia is often a use-limiting adverse reaction to gemcitabine and cisplatin (GC) combination chemotherapy, reducing therapeutic intensity, and, in some cases, requiring platelet transfusion. OBJECTIVE: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on patients with urothelial cancer at the initiation of GC combination therapy and the objective was to develop a prediction model for the incidence of severe thrombocytopenia using machine learning. METHODS: We performed receiver operating characteristic analysis to determine the cut-off values of the associated factors. Multivariate analyses were conducted to identify risk factors associated with the occurrence of severe thrombocytopenia. The prediction model was constructed from an ensemble model and gradient-boosted decision trees to estimate the risk of an outcome using the risk factors associated with the occurrence of severe thrombocytopenia. RESULTS: Of 186 patients included in this study, 46 (25%) experienced severe thrombocytopenia induced by GC therapy. Multivariate analyses revealed that platelet count ≤ 21.4 (×104/µL) [odds ratio 7.19, p < 0.01], hemoglobin ≤ 12.1 (g/dL) [odds ratio 2.41, p = 0.03], lymphocyte count ≤ 1.458 (×103/µL) [odds ratio 2.47, p = 0.02], and dose of gemcitabine ≥ 775.245 (mg/m2) [odds ratio 4.00, p < 0.01] were risk factors of severe thrombocytopenia. The performance of the prediction model using these associated factors was high (area under the curve 0.76, accuracy 0.82, precision 0.68, recall 0.50, and F-measure 0.58). CONCLUSIONS: Platelet count, hemoglobin level, lymphocyte count, and gemcitabine dose contributed to the development of a novel prediction model to identify the incidence of GC-induced severe thrombocytopenia.