Clinical course and pathological findings of Professor Nobuo Yasuyama

The late Professor Nobuo Yasuyama suffered for several years from chronic renal failure caused by urolithiasis. He recovered through hemodiaiysis, which was begun on July 31, 1976, and he continued to receive treatment as an outpatient from September 1 of that year. Beginning in the middle of March, 1981, however, he would lose consciousness during hemodialysis, although he would recover it afterwards, blood sugar, electrolyte, blood gas, and liver function tests were performed before and after hemodialysis, but with no significant findings as to the cause of his losing consciousness. His EEG showed deep sleep waves or disterbance of consciousness waves. Professor Yasuyama died on April 4, 1981. The autopsy showed that the cause of death was edema in the lungs. There were no specific findings to suggest the cause of his losing consciousness. The autopsy also revealed a nonfunctional pancreas tumor composed of non-β cells, but this also appeared to be unrelated to the loss of consciousness, Thus it is still not known why Professor Yasuyama lost consciousness during dialysis.