The current research sought to study the effects of a warm water bath and electrical heating plate on inhibiting the progression of disuse muscle atrophy of the rat soleus muscle. Twenty-two Wistar male rats were divided into a control group of 4 rats and a test group of 18 rats in which disuse muscle atrophy was induced in the soleus muscle through 7 days of hindlimb suspension (HS). The test group was further divided into 1) a group that underwent HS alone (HS group; n=6), 2) a group that had its lower body heated with a warm water bath in the course of HS (HS & Heat-Bath group; n=5), and 3) a group heated with an electrical heating plate in the course of HS (HS & Heat-Plate group; n=4). Heating lasted for 60 minutes a day under anesthesia and was continued for 7 days. With both methods of heating, the load temperature was 42℃. Comparison of body weight at the start and upon completion of the experiment indicated that the weight decreased markedly only for the HS & Heat-Bath group. Additionally, the relative weight ratio of soleus muscle and muscle fiber diameter of type Ⅰ and Ⅱ fiber was significantly greater in both the HS & Heat-Bath group and HS & Heat-Plate group than the HS group, and the muscle fiber diameter of type Ⅰ fiber in the HS & Heat-Plate group was significantly greater than that in the HS & Heat-Bath group. In addition, heat shock protein (HSP) 70 content was significantly higher in both the HS & Heat-Bath group and HS & Heat-Plate group than the HS group, but the difference between these 2 groups was not significant. Based on these findings, even local heating, i.e. with an electrical heating plate, may induce HSP70 in skeletal muscle. Given its effects on the entire body, this form of heating may be more effective as a method of preventing disuse muscle atrophy than a warm water bath.

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The range of flexion motion of the hip joints in a supine position includes both movement of the femur in response to movement of the pelvis and posterior tilt movement of the pelvis, which involves the iliosacral joint, lumbosacral joint, and the lumbar facet joint In this study, rhythm of the pelvis/femur and movement of the iliosacral joint, lumbosacral joint, and the lumbar facet joint, which involves posterior tilt movement of the pelvis, at the time of passive flexion movement of the bilateral hip joints in a supine position and a flexion position of the knee joints, were analyzed by highly precise magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 10 healthy female adults (mean age, 21.2 years). The angle of anterior tilt of the pelvis was 0.8°, when the angle of flexion of the hip joints was 14.1°. After that, the proportion of the angle of posterior tilt of the pelvis in the angles of flexion of the hip joints changed with an increase in the angle of flexion as follows: From 1/60 (0.5°/29.1°) to 1/16 (2.8°/43.9°), 1/14 (4.3°/59.7°), and 1/6 (22.7°/139.0°). The quantity of posterior tilt of the pelvis was larger than that for flexion of the unilateral hip joint. The proportion of flexion of the 3^rd lumbar vertebra in that of the 4th lumbar vertebra (L3/L4) was significantly higher than that for flexion of the unilateral hip joint in a position of the maximum flexion, and there was no movement of the iliosacral joint. These observations suggest that the sacral bone posteriorly inclined en bloc with the pelvis in flexion of the bilateral hip joints and the movement of posterior tilt transmitted to movement of the lumbosacral joint and the lumbar facet joint.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the physiological factor which contributed to the right shift in exercise tidal flow-volume loop (extFVL) observed in patients with chronic heart failure by Johnson BD. Eight healthy volunteers in our college underwent two-step constant load exercise which was composed of 90 and 130% work load of anerobic threshold under the following two conditions, in randomized order: 1) control, and 2) added dead space of 400ml. We compared extFVLs between these two conditions. The ratio of ventilatory dead space to tidal volume during exercise was significantly increased by adding dead space. As a result, extFVLs expanded with an increase in end-inspiratory lung volume, but it did not take on the right shift. This indicates that only the increase in dead space dose not contribute to the right shift in extFVL observed in patients with chronic heart failure. Future investigation will be necessary to examine other contributing factors.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between the characteristics of life style and exercise of body of elderly people with life style related disease, and to make a proposal of assistance program for making them to perform the exercise customarily.
Those who were eligible for the survey were 100 elderly people at home with life style related disease (diabetes, ischemic heart disease and stroke) over 65 years old who had needed to go to hospital for regular treatment, as well as 100 healthy elderly people for comparison. The survey was conducted by mail with a questionnaire sent to the subjects who were able to fill out by themselves.
As a result, physical activities in daily life such as walking distance, going out and recreation of the elderly people at home with life style related disease were remarkably reduced. The results of analysis of life style characteristics by the main component analysis method showed that the elderly people with life style related disease tended to lack human communication like spending happy time with family, and active healthy activities like exercise and sport. These results suggest that it is essential for elderly people at home with life style related disease to change to active life styles in both spiritual and physical aspects through making the human relationship more satisfactory by cooperation of family and social activity.

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We investigated the relationship between clinical symptoms and recovery of patients with facial paralysis to identify the factors associated with recovery and to develop prognostic models. Clinical data were collected from 202 consecutive patients with peripheral facial paralysis. Outcome, which is recovery in 3 months or not, was analyzed with respective to characteristics (age, comorbidities), symptoms (cause of paralysis, first onset or recurrence, associated symptoms) and facial function,; 1) the lowest score after onset, 2) resting symmetry, 3) the number of present voluntary motions and 4) the number of improved items after 2 weeks. Age (over 40 years old), cause of paralysis (Hunt syndrome, tumor, trauma), present associated symptoms (otalgia, hearing loss, vertigo), and lower 4 facial functions are statistically significant risk. Facial function 1), 2) and 4) remained significant independent predictors in the logisitic regression model. The overall accuracy of this model to predict subject who did not recover in 3 months with a predicted probability of 0.5 or greater is 91.4%. The prognostic model consisted of the lowest score after onset, resting symmetry and the number of improved items after 2 weeks. The estimate of recovery from clinilal symptoms is important for clinical practice of physical therapy.

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