Spinal cord cross-over serotoninergic fibers increase when the thoracic spinal cord of a rat is hemisected and the recovery of locomotion is stimulated. The purpose of this study was to examine whether muscular overuse affects this increase in spinal cord cross-over serotoninergic fibers. Forty-four Wister male rats (6 weeks old) were divided into a control group (n=13) and an experimental group (n=31). All rats of the experimental group underwent right thoracic spinal cord hemisection (T8), and 18 of them were recovered with no other procedures. The other 13 rats in the experimental group were further underwent denervation of the contralateral left sciatic nerve to bring about a compensatory overuse on the ipsilateral right hindlimb. The rats were then sacrificed every week for 3 weeks after thoracic spinal cord hemisection. Distribution of the spinal cord cross-over serotoninergic fibers in the lumbosacral ventral horn was examined by immunohistochemical methods, and found to be more prevalent in the hemisected with the denervation of contralateral sciatic nerve than in the other hemisected rats. The results of this experiment suggest that the increase of the spinal cord cross-over serotoninergic fibers following thoracic spinal cord hemisection may be encouraged by overuse of the hindlimb.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of hip angles in sagittal plane on the hip abductor force (HAF). Twelve healthy female volunteers (mean age : 20.4 ± 0.5 years, range : 20.0-21.0 years) participated in this study.
Subjects fixed their supine position with the hip joint flexed at the angles of 0゜, 10゜, 20゜, and 40゜, and fixed their prone position with the hip joint extended at the angles of 0゜ and 10゜. The maximum isometric HAFs were measured in a neutral and those six positions.
The mean (± SD) value of HAFs were 7.6 ± 2.0 kg・m at 40゜, 9.0 ± 2.0 kg・m at 20゜, 9.3 ± 1.9 kg・m at 10゜ and 9.5 ± 2.5 kg・m at 0゜ in flexion, and 9.5 ± 2.8 kg・m at 0゜, 9.6 ± 2.7 kg・m at 10゜ in extension. A multiple comparison (Tukey's HSD) was used to test the statistical significance of the mean difference in HAFs between six positions. The HAF at 40゜ in flexion was significantly lower than those at other angles. There were no significant differences in HAFs between angles from 20゜ of flexion and 10゜ of extension.
These results suggest that HAF at 40゜ flexion may mirror the force of tensor fasciae latae.

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A critical pathway was developed and implemented in order to assist the management of patients who had received total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in our hospital. We have been performing physical therapy for the early walking and discharge. In this study, we examined the effects of the critical pathway for TKA by comparing the results between before and after the implementation.
The mean postoperative length of stay was not significantly changed, but the satisfaction of patients and teamwork of every medical section were found to be improved.
These results suggest that further examinations would be necessary for the critical pathway, and that the critical pathway may be worth of development for various diseases.

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The purposes of this study were to clarify the effect of difference in examined muscles on determination of the non-linear increasing point of integrated electromyogram (IEMGT) during incremental cycling exercise, and to examine the relationship between oxygen uptake (VO₂) at IEMGT and ventilatory threshold (VT). Subjects were 10 healthy males, and an expired gas analysis and surface EMG measurements of musculus rectus femoris (RF), musculus vastus lateralis (VL) and lateral head of musculus gastrocnemius (GC) were made during incremental cycling exercise. IEMGT was defined as an intersecting point of two regression lines of the mean integrated values plotted with an increase in time, and the appearance number of IEMGT was compared among examined muscles. Also, the correlation between VO₂ at IEGMT and VT was studied. IEMGT of RF was observed in 9 of 10 subjects, and those of VL and GC in 1 and 4 subjects, respectively. A statistical analysis revealed that a significant correlation between VO₂ at IEMGT of RF and VT, but no significant difference between them. IEMGT is considered dependent on muscle composition and contribution degree to movement of each muscle, and RF is suitable for decision of IEMGT.

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[in Japanese]

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