Peptic Ulcers in Fukushima Prefecture Related to the Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Accident

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Abstract

Objective

Due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, which occurred in March 2011, many residents of Fukushima Prefecture were affected by a radiation accident in addition to suffering loss or damage from the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami. The aim of this study was to evaluate the actual condition of patients with peptic ulcers related to the disaster.

Methods

Patients with peptic ulcers at six hospitals in three different regions of Fukushima Prefecture during the two months following the disaster and the corresponding period of the year before and the year after the disaster were enrolled in this study. Changes by period and region in the number of esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) examinations and the number of peptic ulcer patients were evaluated as the primary endpoints. Changes in the frequencies of hemorrhagic ulcers were evaluated by period and by region as secondary endpoints.

Results

The numbers of EGDs and peptic ulcer cases compared to the previous year decreased in 2011 and then increased in 2012. However, the ratio of hemorrhagic ulcers to peptic ulcers was higher in 2011 (51.9%) than in 2010 (38.1%) and 2012 (31.1%), and the 2011 hemorrhagic ulcer ratio was the highest at 63.6% in the coastal area. Regarding bleeding cases during 2011, the rate at 1 month after the disaster (64.1%) was higher than the rate at 2 months after the disaster (40.5%) (p=0.033).

Conclusion

The number of patients with peptic ulcers did not increase immediately following the disaster in Fukushima Prefecture. However, the rate of bleeding patients increased soon after the disaster, especially in the coastal area.

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Most cited references 17

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Peptic ulcer disease.

Peter Malfertheiner, Francis Chan, Kenneth EL McColl (2009)

Peptic ulcer disease had a tremendous effect on morbidity and mortality until the last decades of the 20th century, when epidemiological trends started to point to an impressive fall in its incidence. Two important developments are associated with the decrease in rates of peptic ulcer disease: the discovery of effective and potent acid suppressants, and of Helicobacter pylori. With the discovery of H pylori infection, the causes, pathogenesis, and treatment of peptic ulcer disease have been rewritten. We focus on this revolution of understanding and management of peptic ulcer disease over the past 25 years. Despite substantial advances, this disease remains an important clinical problem, largely because of the increasingly widespread use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and low-dose aspirin. We discuss the role of these agents in the causes of ulcer disease and therapeutic and preventive strategies for drug-induced ulcers. The rare but increasingly problematic H pylori-negative NSAID-negative ulcer is also examined.

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Evacuation after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident Is a Cause of Diabetes: Results from the Fukushima Health Management Survey

Hiroaki Satoh, Tetsuya Ohira, Mitsuaki Hosoya … (2015)

The Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 forced the evacuation of a large number of residents and created changes in the lifestyle of the evacuees. These changes may have affected the evacuees' glucose metabolism, thereby leading to an increase in the incidence of diabetes. This study included Japanese men and women who were living near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima prefecture before the disaster. Subjects subsequently underwent annual health checkups with a focus on metabolic syndromes, which were conducted under the Health Care Insurers. Using the Comprehensive Health Check survey, we analyzed changes in the glucose metabolism before and after the disaster. A total of 27,486 subjects underwent follow-up examinations after the disaster, with a mean follow-up period of 1.6 years. After the disaster, the prevalence of diabetes increased significantly, and we observed that the incidence of diabetes was significantly greater among evacuees than among nonevacuees. Furthermore, multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that evacuation was significantly associated with the incidence of diabetes. In conclusion, this is the first study to demonstrate that evacuation is associated with the incidence of diabetes. This information may be used to guide follow-up recommendations for evacuees.

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Changes in seroepidemiological pattern of Helicobacter pylori and hepatitis A virus over the last 20 years in Japan.

T Fujisawa, T Kumagai, T. Akamatsu … (1999)

The age groups most susceptible to infection and the mode of transmission of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) are not yet clear. To contribute to a better understanding of this disease, this study was undertaken to evaluate changes in the seroepidemiological pattern of H. pylori in a group of Japanese people over the last 20 yr sampled in 1974, 1984, and 1994 in comparison with that of the hepatitis A virus (HAV), which was used as a marker of the fecal-oral route of transmission. A total of 1015 serum samples were obtained from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo. All of these samples were from healthy persons aged 0-89 yr (442 male and 573 female; median age 35.6 yr), living in seven prefectures in the central part of Japan in 1974, 1984, and 1994. All serum samples were assayed for H. pylori IgG by means of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Further, anti-HAV antibodies were assayed by blocking ELISA in the same samples. We investigated the prevalence of H. pylori and HAV for all ages, and the positive rate of H. pylori for infants and children separately. The overall prevalence of H. pylori antibodies was 72.7% (CI 95%, 68.0-77.3) in 1974, 54.6% (CI 95%, 49.1-60.0) in 1984 and 39.3% (CI 95%, 34.1-44.4) in 1994. That of HAV was 57.7% (CI 95%, 52.5-62.8) in 1974, 41.7% (CI 95%, 36.3-47.0) in 1984, and 23.4% (CI 95%, 18.9-27.8) in 1994. The prevalence of both H. pylori and HAV was found to increase with age, whereas there have been clear cohort shifts in the seroepidemiological patterns of both infections over the last 20 yr in Japan. This study shows that there is a slight similarity in the concordance of positive and negative populations between H. pylori and HAV. However, it was very difficult to determine the concordance between H. pylori and HAV infection in this study. Our data strongly suggest that the highest infection rates for both H. pylori and HAV occur among infants and children in Japan. This study provides evidence that H. pylori and HAV may share a common mode of transmission but that changes in environmental conditions make this very difficult if not impossible to prove with seroepidemiological data.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Intern Med

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Intern. Med

Title: Internal Medicine

Publisher: The Japanese Society of Internal Medicine

ISSN (Print): 0918-2918

ISSN (Electronic): 1349-7235

Publication date (Electronic): 21 December 2017

Publication date (Print): 1 April 2018

Volume: 57

Issue: 7

Pages: 915-921

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Endoscopy, Fukushima Medical University Hospital, Japan

[2 ]Department of Gastroenterology, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Japan

[3 ]Department of Gastroenterology, Fukushima Rosai Hospital, Japan

[4 ]Department of Gastroenterology, Ohara General Hospital, Japan

[5 ]Department of Gastroenterology, Fukushima Medical University Aizu Medical Center, Japan

[6 ]Department of Gastroenterology, Soma General Hospital, Japan

[7 ]Department of Gastroenterology, Japanese Red Cross Fukushima Hospital, Japan

[8 ]Department of Advanced Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Fukushima Medical University, Japan

Author notes

Correspondence to Dr.　Takuto Hikichi, takuto@ 123456fmu.ac.jp

Article

DOI: 10.2169/internalmedicine.9252-17

PMC ID: 5919846

PubMed ID: 29269647

SO-VID: 4bcbfdde-93be-48da-9e14-d4ca8f233b75

License:

The Internal Medicine is an Open Access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view the details of this license, please visit ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Peptic Ulcers in Fukushima Prefecture Related to the Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Accident

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Abstract

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusion

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Karger: Gastroenterology

Most cited references 17

Peptic ulcer disease.

Evacuation after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident Is a Cause of Diabetes: Results from the Fukushima Health Management Survey

Changes in seroepidemiological pattern of Helicobacter pylori and hepatitis A virus over the last 20 years in Japan.

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