[Purpose]To clarify the performance characteristics of students who dropped out in the middle or transferred to another department. [Target and method] We targeted 93 students who graduated without repeating a year and 23 students who dropped out or transferred to another department. We calculated GPA-RS that can be calculated from specialized compulsory subjects in 4 periods, the 1st, 1st - 2nd, 1st - 3rd, and 1st - 4th semester and compared both groups. The cutoff value was determined from the ROC curve, and sensitivity, specificity, reliability were sought. [Results] GPA-RS in the drop out group was significantly lower in all four periods. The cutoff value was 1.93 to 2.09, the sensitivity was 63.2 to 83.3%, the specificity was 76.3 to 89.2%, the accuracy was 75.9 to 88.3%, and the false negative rate was 16.7 to 36.8%. [Conclusion] It was indicated in the GPA-RS of the students who dropped out, that there is a possibility to extract students who are likely to drop out in the middle of their 1st or 2nd year.

In this study, the clinical features and outcomes of patients who developed aspiration pneumonia during the acute phase of recovery from hip fracture were analyzed. Sixty dysphagic patients over the age of 60 years who had sustained hip fractures were included in our study. The patients were divided into two groups based on the absence or presence of pneumonia during the recovery phase and a comparison of various clinical parameters were made between the groups. Severe dysphagia associated with central nervous system disease, conservative treatment of fracture, and longer hospitalization with poorer prognosis were seen more frequently in the group with pneumonia. More than half of the patients with pneumonia ultimately did not regain the ability to feed orally. Prevention of aspiration pneumonia following hip fracture is critical to improve prognosis and clinical outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to apply the stepwise method of discriminant analysis to investigate the relationship among hippocampal atrophy, brain blood flow, and neuropsychological tests in patients who experienced forgetfulness. The neuropsychological tests that presented a relationship with hippocampal atrophy were Revised Hasegawa Dementia Scale and Logical memory Ⅱ. Likewise, the test that presented a relationship with the brain blood flow was Frontal Assessment Battery. These results suggest that Revised Hasegawa Dementia Scale, Logical memory Ⅱ, and Frontal Assessment Battery are useful neuropsychological tests to predict the possibility of hippocampal atrophy and decrease in brain blood flow of precuneus and posterior cingulate gyri.

Patients with heart failure undergoing cardiac rehabilitation are aging in accordance with the general Japanese population. It is important to understand the risk of falls in these patients. The aim of this study was to identify factors predictive of fall risk in elderly patients hospitalized for heart failure. We enrolled 33 elderly patients admitted to hospital for heart failure, divided them into two groups (with or without fall risk according to the Berg Balance Scale), and compared patient characteristics, disease severity, and physical function between the groups. We then performed logistic regression analysis to identify the factors related to fall risk, and cut-off values were calculated using receiver operating characteristic curves. Six-minute walking distance (6MWD) was the only independent predictor of fall risk. The cut-off value was 328 m. The results of this study suggest that fall risk is increased in this patient group when 6MWD is < 328 m.

In a sarcomere, actin and myosin filaments act as the contractile unit. Muscle contraction is produced when actin filament slides relative myosin filament. This mechanism is called the sliding filament and cross-bridge theory. While concentric and isometric contractions are well explained by this theory, passive restoring forces arise in eccentric muscle contractions are not. Here, we described the role of third filament, connectin/titin in eccentric muscle contractions.