Background: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an independent risk factor for myocardial ischaemia, cardiac arrhythmia, sudden death, and heart failure, all common findings in patients with type 2 diabetes. Aim: To determine the prevalence of, and risk factors for, LVH in normoalbuminuric type 2 diabetic patients not taking antihypertensive treatment. Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: From 1994 to 1998, M-mode echocardiography was performed by one experienced examiner in 262 consecutive, normoalbuminuric Caucasian type 2 diabetic patients, all with blood pressure <160/95 mmHg and not taking antihypertensive medication. Mean ± SD age was 54 ± 10 years, 109 were women, and median known duration of diabetes was 4 (range 1–28) years. Body mass index (BMI) was 28 ± 5 kg/m², and blood pressure 134 ± 13/79 ± 8 mmHg, all means ± SD. Median urinary albumin excretion rate was 9 (range 2–30) mg/24 h. Results: The prevalence of LVH indexed to height^2.7 was 43% (95%CI 38–50%), and was similar in men and women. BMI, HbA_1c and log urinary albumin excretion were significantly associated with left ventricular hypertrophy in a logistic regression model, whereas sex, age, known duration of diabetes and blood pressure were not. Similar results were obtained for left ventricular mass index. Discussion: LVH was frequent in our normoalbuminuric type 2 diabetic patients not taking antihypertensive treatment. Several potentially modifiable risk factors, such as raised BMI, poor glycaemic control and elevated urinary albumin excretion rate, were associated with LVH.

Background: To promote glycated albumin standardization, the Committee on Diabetes Mellitus Indices, Japan Society of Clinical Chemistry published the recommended reference method and is supplying the reference standard material (JCCRM 611). In this study, we evaluated the basic performance of ‘standardized enzymatic method’ that is traceable to JCCRM 611 and established a unit conversion formula from standardized glycated albumin value (mmol/mol) to the routinely used glycated albumin value (%). Methods: To evaluate the accuracy and within-run reproducibility of the ‘standardized enzymatic method’, JCCRM 611 was measured 20 times. To establish the unit conversion formula, serum specimens with known HbA1c concentrations were collected, and their glycated albumin (%) and glycated albumin (mmol/mol) were measured. Results: The accuracy of glycated albumin value of the ‘standardized enzymatic method’ was 100.8–103.0%. The within-run reproducibility CV (coefficient of variation, %) of glycated albumin value was 0.6–0.9%. In total, 240 serum specimens were collected, and the distribution of their HbA1c values was HbA1c ≤ 4.9% ( n = 23), 5.0–5.9% ( n = 50), 6.0–6.9%, ( n = 44), 7.0–7.9% ( n = 40), 8.0–8.9% ( n = 37) and ≥9.0% ( n = 46). The unit conversion equation was defined as: GA (%) = 0.05652 × GA (mmol/mol)–0.4217 ( r = 0.999). Glycated albumin (%) calculated by the equation was in close agreement (96.6–104.2%) with the actual measured glycated albumin (%). Conclusions: The glycated albumin unit conversion formula was established from mmol/mol to %. This formula provides an easy method to convert the unit and is expected to be useful for the standardization of glycated albumin measurement.

Aims/Introduction: Resting energy expenditure was associated with a serum bone turnover marker in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes (T2DMPW) in the present cross‐sectional study. To clarify the fundamental pathological factor for the correlation of bone metabolism and basal metabolism in type 2 diabetes, a 6‐month prospective follow‐up study was carried out with supplementation of vitamin D.Materials and Methods: A total of 44 T2DMPW were enrolled. The following factors were evaluated at the beginning and the end of the summer: procollagen type 1 N‐terminal propeptide, carboxy‐terminal collagen crosslinks‐1, intact parathyroid hormone and 25‐hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D), as well as diabetic complications, body composition, respiratory quotient and resting energy expenditure. A total of 23 patients with low 25(OH)D levels (˂20 ng/mL) were instructed to increase vitamin D levels by lifestyle change. Among them, 15 patients with osteoporosis were also administered alfacalcidol.Results: Serum 25(OH)D increased in 25 patients and decreased in 19 patients. Patients who did not receive the study intervention at the start tended to have a decreased 2525(OH)D level; therefore, the average 25(OH)D level of all patients was not changed. Changes in resting energy expenditure were positively correlated with those of procollagen type 1 N‐terminal propeptide/carboxy‐terminal collagen crosslinks‐1. Changes in the respiratory quotient correlated with the mean glycated hemoglobin levels; procollagen type 1 N‐terminal propeptide levels positively correlated with serum 25(OH)D after the intervention. These correlations were prominent in patients with increased 25(OH)D and those with alfacalcidol supplementation.Conclusions: Restoration of vitamin D level might be a prerequisite for a normal correlation between bone and basal metabolism in T2DMPW. Lifestyle intervention for retention of vitamin D level is important even in summer, in T2DMPW.

We investigated the effects of Lactobacillus paragasseri OLL2716 on gastrointestinal symptoms in healthy adults with gastric complaints. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 174 healthy Japanese adults were randomly assigned to an OLL2716 or placebo group, and each group consumed 85 g of yogurt containing L. paragasseri OLL2716 or placebo yogurt daily for 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was the change in gastric symptoms from baseline as per the participants’ questionnaires at 6 and 12 weeks. The secondary endpoints were changes from baseline in the short-form Nepean Dyspepsia Index (SF-NDI), the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS), and the Council on Nutrition Appetite Questionnaire-Japanese (CNAQ-J) scores at 6 and 12 weeks. The primary endpoint data showed that the changes in “epigastric pain” at 6 and 12 weeks were significantly decreased in the OLL2716 group compared with those in the placebo group. Additionally, the changes in “epigastric pain syndrome-like symptoms” were significantly decreased in the OLL2716 group compared with those in the placebo group at 6 weeks. The SF-NDI items that improved at 6 weeks were “irritable, tense, or frustrated”, “enjoyment of eating or drinking”, and “tension”, which are sub-scales related to mental stress. The items “Over-all” in the GSRS and “feeling hungry” in the CNAQ-J significantly improved in the OLL2716 group compared with the placebo group at 12 weeks. The results suggest that regular intake of L. paragasseri OLL2716 may improve both gastric discomfort and mental stress in healthy adults with gastric complaints, such as postprandial fullness or early satiety.

Lactobacillus paragasseri OLL2809 has been shown to ameliorate stress. This study employed a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel-group design to assess the efficacy of continuous ingestion of OLL2809 for managing menstrual symptoms in healthy women. Eighty healthy adult women aged 25–40 years who experienced premenstrual and menstrual symptoms were randomly assigned to either the OLL2809 or placebo group (n = 40 each) and ingested tablets containing OLL2809 or placebo for three menstrual cycles. The OLL2809 group exhibited a significantly greater change in premenstrual ‘arousal’ scores on the menstrual distress questionnaire compared to the placebo group after the three menstrual cycles. Specifically, changes in the ‘activity’ subfactor were significantly higher in the OLL2809 group than in the placebo group. Additionally, the OLL2809 group reported significantly lower premenstrual irritability on the visual analog scale than the placebo group. These results suggest that OLL2809 may contribute to enhancing the quality of life of women.

Introduction Close association has been shown between diabetes and atrial fibrillation (AF). We conducted this single-center cross-sectional study to investigate the prevalence and predictors of AF in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes. Patients and methods Patients with type 2 diabetes were eligible if 12-lead electrocardiograms were recorded at the first visit between January 2004 and December 2005. The prevalence of AF in the patients was compared with that in the Japanese general population. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the effect of independent variables on the prevalence of AF and non-valvular AF. Results 1650 patients with type 2 diabetes, 588 women and 1,059 men, with the mean age of 60 ± 13 (SD) years were studied. Among them, 72 patients had AF, accounting for 4.4%, with a sex-specific prevalence of 2.5% in women and 5.4% in men. Of the 72 patients having AF, 12 patients had valvular AF and 60 patients had nonvalvular AF. When compared with the Japanese general population, the age- and sex-adjusted risk ratio for AF was 3.47 (95% confidence interval: 2.77–4.37). The prevalence of combined nonvalvular/valvular AF and nonvalvular AF increased with age. Other relevant factors associated with AF and nonvalvular AF were male sex, presence of hypertension, and decreased platelet count. Conclusion Higher prevalence of AF was observed in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes than the general population. Advanced age, male sex, and hypertension were independent predictive factors for AF.