Longitudinal changes in life-space mobility and the factors influencing it among chronic community-dwelling post-stroke patients.

Purpose: To identify longitudinal changes in life-space mobility and the factors influencing it among chronic, stable post-stroke patients.

Materials And Methods: This prospective study included Japanese post-stroke patients who received day-care rehabilitation services and could undergo three life-space mobility assessments (at baseline, 12, and 24 months) for over 2 years, using the Life-Space Assessment (LSA) tool. Physical function, cognitive function, and activities of daily living were assessed by self-selected comfortable gait speed, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Functional Independence Measure Motor subscale (FIM motor) scores, respectively, in addition to age, sex, time from onset, stroke type, and comorbidities.

[Flow and inspiratory pressure characteristics of In-Check(tm) and training whistles].

Background: The optimal inhalation effort using dry powder inhalers (DPI's) varies with the specific inhaler. Accordingly, the device used for instruction in the proper use of the specific DPI should have physical characteristics similar to the actual DPI. However, the precision with which these devices mimic the actual DPI's has not been established.

[Efficacy of the MIDCAB doughnut: a new instrument for immobilization and hemostasis during MIDCAB].

A new instrument for the immobilization and hemostasis of an anastomotic site during off-pump bypass is described. The instrument called "MIDCAB doughnut" was used safely and accurately in 31 patients who underwent MIDCAB without CPB. In these, the instrument was applied in 44 anastomotic sites on the beating heart (30 left anterior descending, 7 right coronary, and 7 obtuse marginal arteries).