Paradoxical contraction of pelvic floor muscles during defecation straining has been said to be a cause of constipation and difficulty in passing feces. Nevertheless, controversies about its clinical significance still remained. Twenty patients with constipation and electromyographic evidence of paradoxical contraction of both puborectalis and external anal sphincter were investigated. An anorectal manometry performed in 17 confirmed the paradoxical contraction in 13 (76%). Electromyography revealed neurogenic signs in 11. Defecography demonstrated the paradoxical contraction in 6 only, but, together with barium enema and colon transit time, showed associated anorectal disorders in 9 patients. Twenty control patients were also studied. None had difficulty defecating. Nevertheless, 8 of them (40%) had paradoxical contraction. These observations suggest that paradoxical contraction of pelvic floor muscles may by asymptomatic and that another cause of emptying difficulties has always to be looked for.
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Sci Rep
January 2025
Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Inadequate information exists regarding physiological changes post-COVID-19 infection. We used smart beds to record biometric data following COVID-19 infection in nonhospitalized patients. Recordings of daily biometric signals over 14 weeks in 59 COVID-positive participants' homes in 2020 were compared with the same participants' data from 2019.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Vet Sci
January 2025
Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked muscle disease with weakness, loss of ambulation, and premature death. DMD patients have reduced bone health, including decreased femur length (FL), density, and fractures. The mouse model has paradoxically greater FL, density, and strength, positively correlating with muscle mass.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Previous studies on public compliance with policies during pandemics have primarily explained it from the perspectives of motivation theory, focusing on normative motivation (trust in policy-making institutions) and calculative motivation (fear of contracting the disease). However, the social amplification of a risk framework highlights that the media plays a key role in this process.
Objective: This study aims to integrate the motivation theory of compliance behavior and the social amplification of risk framework to uncover the "black boxes" of the mechanisms by which normative motivation and calculative motivation influence public policy compliance behavior through the use of media.
Biophys J
January 2025
Department of Pharmacology, University of California Davis, California 95616.
In every heartbeat, cardiac muscle cells perform excitation-Ca signaling-contraction (EC) coupling to pump blood against the vascular resistance. Cardiomyocytes can sense the mechanical load and activate mechano-chemo-transduction (MCT) mechanism, which provides feedback regulation of EC coupling. MCT feedback is important for the heart to upregulate contraction in response to increased load to maintain cardiac output.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCureus
December 2024
Health Data Science, Learning Health Society Institute, Nagoya, JPN.
Background Despite ongoing waves of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections, including significant surges such as the 10th wave, understanding the impact of messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccination on infection risk and associated behavioral changes remains crucial. This study aims to urgently evaluate the effects of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination on COVID-19 infection rates and related behaviors among participants of the Yamato Project, which includes employees of Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Methods A case-control study was conducted using data collected from a survey administered by the Japan Small and Medium Enterprise Management Council in December 2023.
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