Background: The symptoms of rotator cuff tear vary and may even be absent. Thus, the symptoms cannot be explained solely by the presence of rotator cuff tear, and other factors are thought to be involved. Because the ...Background: The symptoms of rotator cuff tear vary and may even be absent. Thus, the symptoms cannot be explained solely by the presence of rotator cuff tear, and other factors are thought to be involved. Because the rotator cuff comes in contact with the coracoacromial ligament, the elasticity of the ligament may be a factor of the symptoms. The purpose of this study was to clarify the elasticity of the coracoacromial ligament in live shoulders with rotator cuff tears. Methods: Forty-one shoulders in 24 persons were enrolled in this study. The average age was 52 years old (range, 15 - 84 years old). We investigated the presence of rotator cuff tear and measured the elasticity of the coracoacromial ligament by ultrasound elastography (EUB-7500, HITACHI, Japan). Ultrasound elastography was a useful method to quantify the strain of soft tissue when pressure was added. The strain ratio (the ratio of strain of the coracoacromial ligament to that of the rotator cuff) was used as the index of the elasticity of coracoacromial ligament. Thus, the higher the strain ratio was, the softer the ligament was. Results: The strain ratio of the coracoacromial ligaments without rotator cuff tear showed a negative correlation to the age (r = ﹣0.825, P 0.01). The strain ratio of the ligaments with rotator cuff tear (23.75 ± 15.05, 69.6 years old) was higher than that of the older ligaments without cuff tear (12.62 ± 7.94, 64.6 years old) (P = 0.0486). In shoulders with rotator cuff tear, the strain ratio of the ligaments with pain (14.37 ± 10.15, 66.7 years old) was lower than that of ligaments without pain (33.12 ± 13.59, 69.1 years old) (P = 0.0221). Conclusions: The coracoacromial ligament became stiffened with aging but softened with the existence of rotator cuff tear. The ligaments with symptomatic cuff tear are more stiffened than the ligaments with asymptomatic cuff tear.展开更多
Background: In snowy agricultural areas, weeding and snow shoveling are essential activities, and sports activities are common recreational activities. Clarifying the relationships between the degrees of these activit...Background: In snowy agricultural areas, weeding and snow shoveling are essential activities, and sports activities are common recreational activities. Clarifying the relationships between the degrees of these activities after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and the clinical outcomes may enable us to predict the results of THA for high-load activity patients. Methods: The subjects were 227 post-THA patients who were followed up between 2012 and 2014. Patient-reported outcomes were investigated by the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip Disease Evaluation Questionnaire (JHEQ) and a questionnaire on postoperative activity. In addition, the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip Score (JOA score) was used to quantify hip function. Results: Patients who resumed activities had significantly higher JOA and JHEQ scores than patients who had given up their activities. However, 25.8% of patients had not resumed weeding with a squatting posture. Furthermore, 20% had not resumed sports activities. The most common reason for giving up these activities was fear of implant failure. Conclusions: If the patients were informed that there is no problem restarting their activities after THA, the patients could resume activities and their clinical outcomes may be improved.展开更多
The use of hair roots as experimental samples has been a research focus for understanding the effects of spaceflight on astronauts, because it has many advantages, one of which is the fact that hair matrix cells activ...The use of hair roots as experimental samples has been a research focus for understanding the effects of spaceflight on astronauts, because it has many advantages, one of which is the fact that hair matrix cells actively divide in a hair follicle and sensitively reflect the physical conditions of the human body. In 2009, a research program focusing on the analysis of astronauts’ hairs was initiated to examine the effects of long-term spaceflight on the gene expression and mineral metabolism in the human body. Since the number of samples per astronaut is limited to 5 strands of hairs at each sampling point, due to the ethical viewpoint of astronauts or limited resources in space, it is important to develop an effective method for the molecular analysis of small amounts of hair roots. In this study, mRNA successfully extracted from 1, 5, and 10 hair follicles was amplified and subjected to the DNA microarray analysis to compare the gene expression within subjects. The results indicated that (1) it was possible to perform the genetic analysis on hair samples stored at -80℃, even without a fixation buffer and (2) the newly modified method of mRNA extraction and analysis was effective in detecting differential gene expression in samples containing only 5 hairs. In conclusion, RNA was efficiently extracted from 5 hair roots, which is the same number of hair roots used in the space experiment;therefore, this method can be applied to genetically analyze astronauts’ hair samples.展开更多
文摘Background: The symptoms of rotator cuff tear vary and may even be absent. Thus, the symptoms cannot be explained solely by the presence of rotator cuff tear, and other factors are thought to be involved. Because the rotator cuff comes in contact with the coracoacromial ligament, the elasticity of the ligament may be a factor of the symptoms. The purpose of this study was to clarify the elasticity of the coracoacromial ligament in live shoulders with rotator cuff tears. Methods: Forty-one shoulders in 24 persons were enrolled in this study. The average age was 52 years old (range, 15 - 84 years old). We investigated the presence of rotator cuff tear and measured the elasticity of the coracoacromial ligament by ultrasound elastography (EUB-7500, HITACHI, Japan). Ultrasound elastography was a useful method to quantify the strain of soft tissue when pressure was added. The strain ratio (the ratio of strain of the coracoacromial ligament to that of the rotator cuff) was used as the index of the elasticity of coracoacromial ligament. Thus, the higher the strain ratio was, the softer the ligament was. Results: The strain ratio of the coracoacromial ligaments without rotator cuff tear showed a negative correlation to the age (r = ﹣0.825, P 0.01). The strain ratio of the ligaments with rotator cuff tear (23.75 ± 15.05, 69.6 years old) was higher than that of the older ligaments without cuff tear (12.62 ± 7.94, 64.6 years old) (P = 0.0486). In shoulders with rotator cuff tear, the strain ratio of the ligaments with pain (14.37 ± 10.15, 66.7 years old) was lower than that of ligaments without pain (33.12 ± 13.59, 69.1 years old) (P = 0.0221). Conclusions: The coracoacromial ligament became stiffened with aging but softened with the existence of rotator cuff tear. The ligaments with symptomatic cuff tear are more stiffened than the ligaments with asymptomatic cuff tear.
文摘Background: In snowy agricultural areas, weeding and snow shoveling are essential activities, and sports activities are common recreational activities. Clarifying the relationships between the degrees of these activities after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and the clinical outcomes may enable us to predict the results of THA for high-load activity patients. Methods: The subjects were 227 post-THA patients who were followed up between 2012 and 2014. Patient-reported outcomes were investigated by the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip Disease Evaluation Questionnaire (JHEQ) and a questionnaire on postoperative activity. In addition, the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip Score (JOA score) was used to quantify hip function. Results: Patients who resumed activities had significantly higher JOA and JHEQ scores than patients who had given up their activities. However, 25.8% of patients had not resumed weeding with a squatting posture. Furthermore, 20% had not resumed sports activities. The most common reason for giving up these activities was fear of implant failure. Conclusions: If the patients were informed that there is no problem restarting their activities after THA, the patients could resume activities and their clinical outcomes may be improved.
文摘The use of hair roots as experimental samples has been a research focus for understanding the effects of spaceflight on astronauts, because it has many advantages, one of which is the fact that hair matrix cells actively divide in a hair follicle and sensitively reflect the physical conditions of the human body. In 2009, a research program focusing on the analysis of astronauts’ hairs was initiated to examine the effects of long-term spaceflight on the gene expression and mineral metabolism in the human body. Since the number of samples per astronaut is limited to 5 strands of hairs at each sampling point, due to the ethical viewpoint of astronauts or limited resources in space, it is important to develop an effective method for the molecular analysis of small amounts of hair roots. In this study, mRNA successfully extracted from 1, 5, and 10 hair follicles was amplified and subjected to the DNA microarray analysis to compare the gene expression within subjects. The results indicated that (1) it was possible to perform the genetic analysis on hair samples stored at -80℃, even without a fixation buffer and (2) the newly modified method of mRNA extraction and analysis was effective in detecting differential gene expression in samples containing only 5 hairs. In conclusion, RNA was efficiently extracted from 5 hair roots, which is the same number of hair roots used in the space experiment;therefore, this method can be applied to genetically analyze astronauts’ hair samples.
