THE EFFECT OF 12 WEEKS CIRCUIT-TRAINING ON HEEL CONTACT VELOCITY AND REACTION TIME IN ELDERLY WOMEN

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of circuit-training on heel contact velocity (HCV) during walking and reaction time (RT) in community-dwelling elderly women. Subjects were 20 healthy independent elderly women who participated in circuittraining which consisted of posture control, strength training and walking training for 12 weeks. Study outcomes included gait test, reaction time test, and 30-s chair stand test. RT and HCV were decreased significantly. The times of the 30-s chair stand test was increased significantly after training. These findings suggest that 12 weeks of circuittraining may attenuate the risks of slips and slip-initiated falls during walking in community-dwelling elderly women

Changes in biceps brachii muscle hardness assessed by a push-in meter and strain elastography after eccentric versus concentric contractions

Changes in biceps brachii muscle hardness assessed by a push-in meter (PM) and strain elastography (SE) were compared between eccentric (ECC) and concentric contractions (CON) of the elbow flexors to test the hypothesis that muscle hardness would increase greater after ECC. Ten men performed 5 sets of 10 ECC with their non-dominant arms and 5 sets of 10 CON with their dominant arms using a dumbbell corresponding to 50% of maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) force at 90º elbow flexion. Before and 1–4 days after the exercise, MVIC force, elbow joint angles, upper-arm circumference, and muscle soreness as muscle damage makers, and biceps brachii muscle hardness at maximally extended elbow joint by PM and SE were measured. Changes in these measures over time were compared between ECC and CON. All muscle damage markers showed greater changes after ECC than CON (p \u3c 0.001). Muscle hardness assessed by PM and SE increased (p \u3c 0.05) and peaked at 4 days post-ECC with 154.4 ± 90.0% (PM) and 156.2 ± 64.2% (SE) increases from the baseline, but did not change significantly after CON. The changes in muscle hardness post-ECC were correlated between PM and SE (r = 0.752, p \u3c 0.001). A correlation (p \u3c 0.001) between the normalized changes in resting elbow joint angle and changes in muscle hardness assessed by PM (r = − 0.772) or SE (r = − 0.745) was also found. These results supported the hypothesis and suggest that the increases in muscle hardness after ECC were associated with muscle damage (increased muscle stiffness), and PM and SE detected muscle hardness changes similarly

Biceps brachii muscle hardness assessed by a push-in meter in comparison to ultrasound strain elastography

© 2020, The Author(s). This study investigated the relationship between push-in meter (PM) and ultrasound strain elastography (USE) for biceps brachii (BB) muscle hardness. BB hardness of 21 young men was assessed by PM and USE during rest and isometric contractions of six different intensities (15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90% of maximal voluntary contraction: MVC) at 30°, 60° and 90° elbow flexion. Muscle hardness (E) was calculated from the force–displacement relationship in PM, and strain ratio (SR) between an acoustic coupler (elastic modulus: 22.6 kPa) and different regions of interest (ROIs) in BB was calculated and converted to Young’s modulus (YM) in USE. In resting muscle, E was 26.1 ± 6.4 kPa, and SR and YM for the whole BB was 0.88 ± 0.4 and 30.8 ± 12.8 kPa, respectively. A significant (p \u3c 0.01) correlation was evident between E and logarithmical transformed SR (LTSR) for the ROI of whole BB (r = − 0.626), and E and converted YM (r = 0.615). E increased approximately ninefold from resting to 90% MVC, and E and LTSR (r = − 0.732 to − 0.880), and E and converted YM for the SR above 0.1 were correlated (r = 0.599–0.768, p \u3c 0.01). These results suggest that muscle hardness values obtained by PM and USE are comparable

Complete Response Using Sorafenib Monotherapy for Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Multiple Lymph Node and Bone Metastases: A Case Report

Hepatocellular carcinoma（HCC）is the sixth most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide. Sorafenib is an oral multikinase inhibitor used in the palliative treatment of advanced HCC. However, there were no reported cases of complete response（CR）from two previous large phaseⅢ clinical trials. Here, we report a case of CR in a patient with advanced HCC with multiple lymph node and bone metastases, treated with sorafenib monotherapy for 8 months. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence showing CR following sorafenib monotherapy for HCC with bone metastasis

Neuromuscular activation of the quadriceps femoris, including the vastus intermedius, during isokinetic knee extensions

Abstract The purpose of this study was to compare the neuromuscular activation patterns of the individual muscles of the quadriceps femoris (QF), including the vastus intermedius (VI), during isokinetic concentric (CON) and eccentric (ECC) contractions. Thirteen healthy men performed maximum isokinetic CON and ECC knee extensions at angular velocities of 30, 90, and 120°/sec at knee joint angles from 80 to 180° (180° = full extension). The surface electromyographic (EMG) activities of the four individual muscles of the QF were recorded. The root mean squares of the EMG signals were normalized by the root mean square (nRMS) during CON contraction at 30°/sec. To investigate the nRMS changes, we classified the range of motion into four subcategories for each CON and ECC contraction. The nRMS of the VI was significantly higher in the flexed position during CON and ECC contractions at all velocities, and gradually decreased toward the extended positions regardless of the type of muscle contraction or angular velocity. These results suggest that the QF undergoes neuromuscular activation in a joint angle-dependent manner. In particular, the VI may contribute greatly during flexed contractions, independent of the type of contraction and angular velocity