The effects of an arm lifting movement (ALM) on maximum vertical jumps with all but the ankle joints fixed (propelled only by plantar flexion) were studied in five subjects. ALM increased flight time, but did not alter maximum angular velocity of the ankle before takeoff. Holding 4kg dumbbells in their hands enhanced the effect of ALM on flight time. ALM increased the maximum force and the force at the onset of plantar flexion. Elbow angle recordings showed that both arms were accelerated before or around plantar flexion onset, and decelerated mainly after takeoff. In another series of experiments, we measured the vertical component of head and hand acceleration with accelerometers. ALM produced positive acceleration of the head after takeoff, which was related to negative acceleration of the hand. The results suggest that ALM increased flight time by enhancing plantar flexion torque under suppression of ankle angular velocity before takeoff. We discussed the relationship between this suppression and different acceleration between the arms and the body except the arms.

We describe a young adolescent patient with spontaneous abdominal aortic rupture who was treated successfully. A 14-year-old boy was admitted to our hospital with severe abdominal pain and hypovolemic shock, without any episode of trauma. Computed tomography (CT) revealed massive hematoma in the retroperitoneal space and extravasation of copious amounts of contrast medium in front of the terminal aorta. Neither aortic aneurysm nor dissection was observed in this CT. An emergency operation was carried out. At first, left thoracotomy and clamping of the thoracic descending aorta were performed in order to reduce the aortic bleeding. Midline laparotomy revealed an aortic perforation of approximately 8mm at the bifurcation of the abdominal aorta. The aortic wall surrounding the perforation was nearly normal without any aortic aneurysm or dissection. A segment of the terminal aorta (length, 3cm) including the perforated lesion was excised and reconstruction was performed with a woven Dacron tube graft (10mm in diameter). On microscopic examination, the marginal tissue near the perforation showed diminished elastic fibers and minimal dissection of the medial layer of the aortic wall; however, no cystic medial necrosis or inflammation was seen.

The metabolic rate, HR and thermal responses of 26 children, aged 7-8 years (6 boys, 7 girls) and aged 9-11 years (7 boys, 6 girls), were measured during head-out immersion in water. In the water bath, a bicycle ergometer was set and water temperature wes maintained at 26±1°C. Thirty minutes measurements of heat production (cal⋅min^-1⋅m^-2), HR, rectal (T_re) and skin (T_sk) temperatures were obtained under experimental conditions of resting and bicycling in water.
The rate of decrease in HR and T_re were significantly greater in the younger group than the older, irrespective of sex, in resting condition (P<0.001, P<0.01, respectively), but any differences could not be found in bicycling condition.
Heat conductanc (K) from body surface were calculated. In resting condition in water, older girl group showed K=94.1 (cal⋅m²⋅°C ⋅min^-1) and younger boy group K=142.2 and in bicycling condition in water they were 213.8 and 276.9, respectively.

A 49-year-old man was admitted to another hospital because of exertional dyspnea. He had run an entire 20-km race 33 days before admission. Echocardiograms, MRI and CT scans, and cineangiograms showed a right ventricular tumor arising from the tricuspid valve, which occupied the area from the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) to the pulmonary trunk and extended to the bilateral pulmonary arteries. MRI scans suggested that the tumor had not invaded the normal cardiac structure. The patient was transferred to our hospital for surgery. An operation was performed on the same day, since the tumor could have caused pulmonary embolisms. Under cardiopulmonary bypass, a right atriotomy, pulmonary arteriotomy and incision in the RVOT were made. The tumor had adhered to the chordae of the tricuspid valve, myocardium of the RVOT, and pulmonary valve. It was completely resected macroscopically. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged on the 18th postoperative day. The size of the tumor was 2.0×2.0×10.0cm and the histological diagnosis was angiosarcoma. The patient died 4 months after the operation due to brain metastasis and local recurrence. This appeared to be a case of rapidly progressive cardiac angiosarcoma with an unusual noninvasive growth pattern.

In 31 asthmatic children, we investigated the change of the structure on the time of living, an amount of exercise by pedmeter and measured pulmonary ventilatory function during 28 weeks swimming training.
The result showed 58.07% of contribution factor to the structure on the time of living on children with asthma and dynamic play time after school were significantly shorter in asthmatic than non-asthmatic children (p<0.05) . After 28 weeks, we could not find any significantly differences of dynamic play time between asthmatic and nonasthmatic children.
An amount of exercise in daily life from the point of view of walking step number by pedmeter were significantly less in aged 6-9 years boys and girls, and aged 10-12 years boys than non-asthmatic children (respectively, p<0.05, p<0.01) . However, after 28 weeks, we could not find any differences between asthmatic and non-asthmatic children.
Forced vital capacity (FVC) and rate of forced expiratory volume on one second (% FEV_1.0) were increased after 28 weeks than the begining of swimming, and we found the strength of their breathing muscles.
On according to perform the great swimming distances (averages 220m in boys, 325m in girls), all asthmatic children became very lively and actively.

An 80-year-old man was transferred to our hospital because of blunt traumatic aortic arch injury caused by a fall. Computed tomography (CT) revealed a pseudoaneurysm and mediastinal hematoma around the aortic arch, right hemothorax, left hemopneumothorax, lung contusion and spine fractures. His hemodynamic condition was stable but he required mechanical ventilation because of severe hypoxemia. Surgery was postponed until twelve days after the injury, when his lung function improved and active bleeding decreased. During surgery we found that the intimal disruption extended to half of the circumference of the aortic arch, and thus performed total arch replacement under deep hypothermic circulatory arrest and selective cerebral perfusion. The patient suffered respiratory failure and pneumonia postoperatively as well as multiple cerebral infarctions. He was referred to a rehabilitation center on postoperative day 130.

We have determined the plasma 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) levels during endurance exercise. Eight untrained male subjects completed a 10-km run. Plasma 8-OHdG, total coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), ubiquinol, and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) concentrations were measured after exercise. Plasma 8-OHdG concentrations significantly decreased immediately after (0.21±0.13 ng/ml, p<0.01) and 1 hr after (0.23±0.09 ng/ml, p<0.05) the run compared to the resting values (0.36±0.09 ng/ml). Both plasma CoQ10 and ubiquinol concentrations significantly increased (p<0.05) immediately after the run compared to the resting values. On the other hand, plasma TBA concentrations did not change significantly at any point after the run. These results suggest that, during and after submaximal endurance exercise in this study, an augmented antioxidant defence system such as CoQ10 might thus play a role in the decrease of 8-OHdG in the plasma, and that exercise might stimulate the repair of oxidative damage to DNA.