Tai chi for enhanced inpatient mobilization: A feasibility study.

Objective: To determine whether utilizing beginner, video-guided tai chi and qigong classes as an adjunct to physical therapy to enhance mobilization among hospitalized patients is feasible and acceptable.

Design: Single-arm feasibility study over a 15½-week period.

Setting: Three medical-surgical units at one hospital.

Measurement of apoptosis of intact human islets by confocal optical sectioning and stereologic analysis of YO-PRO-1-stained islets.

Apoptosis is an established pathway for islet cell demise. Current protocols for assessment of islet cell apoptosis are time-consuming (as with terminal deoxynucleotide transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling reaction) and involve disruption of the islet architecture (as with flow cytometry) or destruction of cell integrity (as with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). The membranes of apoptotic cells, but not those of live cells, are permeant to the DNA-intercalant dye YO-PRO-1.