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School Of Medicine
Clinical Medicine
Department of Internal Medicine 3
(Division of nephrology, hypertension, endocrinology, and diabetology/metabolism)
Introduction
The department was founded in 1951, when Prof. Nobuo Kusunoki, a prestigous nephrologist, was elected as the first chairman. During Kusunoki' term (1951-1975), the department was one of pioneer institutions of diagnostic procedures of kidney diseases such as renal biopsy and dialysis therapy in Japan. The next two decades, the department was one of the leading research centers of hypertension and endocrinology (special focus on renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system) under the supervision of Prof. Soitsu Fukuchi, the second chairman and a world-leading researcher in those fields. Since Prof. Tsuyoshi Watanabe was nominated as the third chairman in 1997, the department has been renewed to fit the public demands in the 21st century for academic medical institutions. Eventually, we are stressed on education of medical and graduate students, residents and the public including patient and their family (diabetes educational program and so forth) in the fields of primary patient care, general practice of internal medicine, and public health care. On the other hand, based on the academic tradition for a half-century, we are also focused on high-graded clinical activities and research in the fields of nephrology, hypertension, endocrinology, and metabolism/diabetology. Our staffs at present are a chairman/professor, 3 lecturers equivalent to associate professors, 5 assistant professors, 9 senior residents, 4 junior residents, 4 graduate students, 2 secretaries and 6 laboratory technicians. Each lecturer is a subdivisional leader for nephrology (Tetsuo Katoh), hypertension and endocrinology (Shigeatsu Hashimoto) or diabetes and metabolism (Tsuneharu Baba). We run out-patient-clinics for general internal medicine including those for new patients on every Tuesday & Friday, kidney disease clinic & dialysis clinic, hypertension clinic, diabetes clinic, endocrine clinic on almost everyday from Monday to Friday. We have a cost-free special educational program for diabetic patients & their family and friends every Wednesday afternoon. We take care of in-patients in our board with 50 beds. We have scheduled or short-stay admission programs with critical passes for education and therapy of diabetic patients, pathological diagnosis for kidney diseases with renal biopsy, and low protein diet induction for patients with diabetic nephropathy. Our clinical conferences are open to all the physicians and co-medical staffs of other medical institutions for the collaboration with the community.
Research
The philosophy of our research activity is to perform original researches of global standard to help the advancement of patient care and public health. Thus, our research projects are based on the data from the daily clinical activities. The concept or hypothesis derived from the clinical data should often be extended or confirmed by the bench works using animal disease models and/or cellular &molecular biological techniques. The projects in each of 3 subspecialty research groups are as follows:
1) Nephrology group:
(1) a prospective clinical study on the prognosis of IgA nephropathy (Fukushima Study)
(2) cellular and molecular biological studies on the mechanical stress-induced gene expression and cell proliferation of the mesangial cells, especially in the relation to TGF β-smads system
(3) studies on the roles of prostanoids and/or fatty acid metabolites and its receptor, PPARs, in the pathogenesis of renal diseases and hypertension
(4) studies on the roles of oxidation and carbonyl stress in the complications of chronic renal failure and dialysis therapy
2) Hypertension/endocrinology group:
(1) clinical and molecular biological studies on the mechanisms of hypertension- induced vascular damage
(2) molecular biological studies on the roles of dopamine receptor signaling in the pathogenesis of hypertension
(3) clinical and molecular biological studies on the role of insulin resistance in the pathogenesis of hypertension
(4) clinical studies on the pathogenesis and prognosis of pre-Cushing syndrome and polycyctic ovary syndrome
(5) clinical trials on anti- hypertensive therapy for the prevension of hypertensive brain and/or kidney damages
3) Diabetology/ metabolism group:
(1) studies on the relationship between gene polymorphisms and pathogenesis and/or progression of diabetic complications such as diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy and macroangiopathy
(2) clinical therapeutic trials for blood sugar control to establish our therapeutic guideline in consideration of glucose metabolic status
(3) clinical and molecular biological studies on the roles of homocycteine and other vasoactive substances for development and/ or progression of diabetic complications
(4) Clinical and molecular biological studies on the role of insulin resistance in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications.
(For the references for last one year; see (5) List of Publications)
Education
The first goal of our education of medical students of Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine and junior residents in our university hospital is to grow them up to the general internists with good humanity and ethics, wide-ranged medical and social knowledge, and abilities to make proper clinical decisions based on the scientific logics and epidemiological evidences. For those purposes, we provide 25 lectures and 12 case study courses (90 min/ each) in the fields of general internal medicine, nephrology, hypertension, endocrinology, metabolism/diabetology and infectious diseases for 3rd and 4th grade undergraduate students every year. We also take care of 5-10 medical students in our in-patient board and outpatient clinic for the bedside learning program every week during the school period for 5thand 6th grade students. Clinical training of junior residents in our university hospital is also an essential part of educational obligation for our staffs.
Our graduate students and senior residents are supervised by our staffs to perform their research activities and to obtain the abilities essentials for the specialists in the field of each one's subspecialty such as a general internist, a nephrologist, an endocrinologist or a diabetologist as our secondary educational goal.
We provide a cost-free, voluntary "educational classes on diabetic mellitus" for the public in collaboration with our co-medical staffs such as nurses, dieticians, pharmacists and physical trainers. We also organize 7 study groups for case studies and multi-center clinical researches in the fields of our subspecialties at the prefectural level for the advancement of medical standards in our community.
Publications
>> Publications (Next Page)
Detailed Information
http://www.fmu.ac.jp/home/IM3/3nai top.html
(English version equivalent to Japanese one under construction)
To Contact Us
e-mail: im3@fmu.ac.jp
Phone: +81-24-548-2111 ext. 2320-2322.
Fax: 024-548-3044.
 
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