It has been difficult to maintain abdominal respiration in patients with chronic respiratory diseases by the conventional method of abdominal compression using weights, bands or the palm of the hand. Using acoustic feedback, we created a simple abdominal respirator that permits abdominal respiration in the sitting and standing positions. Changes in abdominal circumference and ventilatory function (oxygen consumption per minute, expired volume per minute, tidal volume and respiration rate) immediately after exercise were also investigated at rest and after fixed loading with a bicycle ergometer. When our respirator was used, the coefficient of variation in abdominal circumference was significantly lower than that of thoracicoabdominal respiration, suggesting that the respirator is effective for the maintenance of stable abdominal respiration.

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Deterioration of pulmonary function generally develops after thoraco-abdominal surgery. Chest physical therapy can avoid perioperative pulmonary complication. In this study, the effect of chest physical therapy was evaluated by respiratory function test pre- and postoperatively. Thirteen patients who had esophagectomy together with extended 3-field lymph node dissection (neck, mediastinum and abdomen) for esophageal cancer were studied. Chest physical therapy was performed once a day from 1 POD. to 14 POD. Pulmonary function test was done before and after physiotherapy on 1, 2, 3, and 14 POD. As results, Tidal volume, FVC, FEV 1.0, and Peak flow were significantly increased after the therapy and the increasing ratio of each parameter was the most remarkable on 1 POD. The improvement of thoracic movability obtained by chest physical therapy was thought to contribute to recover pulmonary function. No pulmonary complication was found in these patients. In conclusion, chest physical therapy is useful to avoid postoperative pulmonary complication by recovering the pulmonary function.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of a scale of functional activity-age for adults with mental retardation based on related activities parallel to daily living, using multiple regression and principal component analyses. Three hundred and thirteen subjects aged above 35 years old were selected for the study from rehabilitation facilities for mentally retarded adults, and 57 variables were selected, including gender, chronological age, level of intelligence, medical diagnosis, and activities parallel to daily living. The multiple regression analysis and principal component analysis were used to examine the correlation between functional activity-age and chronological age. Correlation coefficients of 0.91 and 0.74 were obtained by the multiple regression analysis and principal component analysis, respectively. The results showed that the multiple regression analysis is a more accurate method than the principal component analysis for estimating the correlation between functional activity-age and activities parallel to daily living.

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Gait ability and exercise capacity are often low in cardiac patients who have been bed rest for long periods and in the elderly because the muscle strength in their lower extremities is severely impaired. In the physical training of such patients, it is therefore important to improve the muscle strength in lower extremities.
The present study was conducted to clarify the effect of physical training combined with weight training on indexes of muscle strength in cardiac patients. The subjects consisted of 105 cardiac patients, and were assigned to group I for physical training including weight training (n=40), group II for ordinary aerobic training (n=38), and group III with no physical training (n=27). Physical training was prescribed for 8 weeks, and before and after the training, isokinetic knee extension strength was measured in these three groups.
Increases in isokinetic knee extension strength were 29%, 8% and 4% for groups I, II and III, respectively. In group I, the increase was observed independent of age, severity of coronary stenosis, level of exercise capacity, or improvement exercise capacity.
Physical training combined with weight training is effective for muscle strengthening of cardiac patients.

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The purpose of this study was to determine difficulty in daily living using a difference in fixed forearm position. The twenty-four healthy subjects were evaluated difficulties in 4 activities of daily living (ADL) ; writing, eating, washing face, toileting with forearm pronation of 60°, and 30°, neutral, and supination of 30°, 60°, and 90°. The influence of fixed forearm position on elbow joint motion was also examined. Writing was easy with forearm pronation, and the easiest position was 30° pronation. The other three activities were easy with supination of 30°or 60°.
These results suggest that the supination of 30°is the easiest position of the forearm for eating, washing face and toileting and that there may be no relation between forearm position and elbow motion.

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[in Japanese]

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