A digital teaching material on the cardiac cycle, which discretely illustrates only the left heart system, not the right, and shows the pressure of each section clearly with an illustration of a water pipe pressure gauge, as proposed by G. Doman et al., was presented to medical students, who had not previously learned circulatory physiology. Many formative questions were also provided to promote active learning. After learning the material, the students were given an anonymous questionnaire comparing the present material with a standard textbook of physiology as the control. When asked the overall impression, 86% of the students supported the present material.

A digital teaching material on the cardiac cycle, which discretely illustrates only the left heart system, not the right, and shows the pressure of each section clearly with an illustration of a water pipe pressure gauge, as proposed by G. Doman et al., was presented to medical students, who had not previously learned circulatory physiology. Many formative questions were also provided to promote active learning. After learning the material, the students were given an anonymous questionnaire comparing the present material with a standard textbook of physiology as the control. When asked the overall impression, 86% of the students supported the present material.

A digital teaching material on the cardiac cycle, which discretely illustrates only the left heart system, not the right, and shows the pressure of each section clearly with an illustration of a water pipe pressure gauge, as proposed by G. Doman et al., was presented to medical students, who had not previously learned circulatory physiology. Many formative questions were also provided to promote active learning. After learning the material, the students were given an anonymous questionnaire comparing the present material with a standard textbook of physiology as the control. When asked the overall impression, 86% of the students supported the present material.

A digital teaching material on the cardiac cycle, which discretely illustrates only the left heart system, not the right, and shows the pressure of each section clearly with an illustration of a water pipe pressure gauge, as proposed by G. Doman et al., was presented to medical students, who had not previously learned circulatory physiology. Many formative questions were also provided to promote active learning. After learning the material, the students were given an anonymous questionnaire comparing the present material with a standard textbook of physiology as the control. When asked the overall impression, 86% of the students supported the present material.

A digital teaching material on the cardiac cycle, which discretely illustrates only the left heart system, not the right, and shows the pressure of each section clearly with an illustration of a water pipe pressure gauge, as proposed by G. Doman et al., was presented to medical students, who had not previously learned circulatory physiology. Many formative questions were also provided to promote active learning. After learning the material, the students were given an anonymous questionnaire comparing the present material with a standard textbook of physiology as the control. When asked the overall impression, 86% of the students supported the present material.

A digital teaching material on the cardiac cycle, which discretely illustrates only the left heart system, not the right, and shows the pressure of each section clearly with an illustration of a water pipe pressure gauge, as proposed by G. Doman et al., was presented to medical students, who had not previously learned circulatory physiology. Many formative questions were also provided to promote active learning. After learning the material, the students were given an anonymous questionnaire comparing the present material with a standard textbook of physiology as the control. When asked the overall impression, 86% of the students supported the present material.

A digital teaching material on the cardiac cycle, which discretely illustrates only the left heart system, not the right, and shows the pressure of each section clearly with an illustration of a water pipe pressure gauge, as proposed by G. Doman et al., was presented to medical students, who had not previously learned circulatory physiology. Many formative questions were also provided to promote active learning. After learning the material, the students were given an anonymous questionnaire comparing the present material with a standard textbook of physiology as the control. When asked the overall impression, 86% of the students supported the present material.

“Cardiac Cycle: The First Step, ” which discretely, non-ambiguously, and accurately presents basic essential information on the cardiac cycle, was compared with conventional material in terms of educational efficiency. Twenty-six first-year medical students were randomly assigned to either material. The conventional group was presented with a standard textbook with a typical figure and text. The students were blinded as to the origin of the materials. After self-study, the same quiz (30 two-item choice questions asking basic essential information) was given to both groups and was scored by a blinded rater. The number of correct answers was 25.7±3.7 (mean±SD) in the conventional group and 29.4±1.1 in the ‘first-step group’(p<0.01).

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is 1 of the 2 major phenotypes of chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which afflicts millions of individuals throughout the world with debilitating symptoms that impair function and quality of life. Further, IBD often affects women during childbearing age. Indeed, UC activity frequently increases during pregnancy, and the medications used to induce remission may adversely affect the health of the mother and the unborn child. We report successful induction of a remission in a UC case who experienced a flare-up in the first trimester of pregnancy. Upon relapse, she was treated with steroids and adsorptive granulomonocytapheresis (GMA) with the Adacolumn plus tacrolimus. This combination therapy induced a stable remission that was maintained during her entire pregnancy. She gave birth to a healthy child at 36 weeks of pregnancy with no maternal or fetal complications. Our experience indicates that GMA, as a non-drug therapeutic intervention with a favorable safety profile, plus tacrolimus might be a relevant treatment option for patients with active IBD during pregnancy. A future study of a large cohort of pregnant patients should strengthen our findings.
Child ; Cohort Studies ; Colitis, Ulcerative* ; Female ; Humans ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Mothers ; Parturition ; Phenotype ; Pregnancy Trimester, First ; Pregnancy* ; Quality of Life ; Recurrence ; Steroids ; Tacrolimus* ; Ulcer*