Purpose: Toxins produced by Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) can cause enteritis and diarrhea. Although the number of pediatric CDI cases is increasing, the clinical management of pediatric CDI, including patient characteristics and prognosis, remains unclear. This study aimed to elucidate the background and clinical course of patients with CDI and evaluate the reliability of diagnostic tests in a tertiary pediatric hospital in Japan. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of children diagnosed with CDI between 2011 and 2021 at the Saitama Children’s Medical Center in Saitama, Japan. Results: During the study period, 1,252 C. difficile antigen/toxin tests were performed, and 37 patients were diagnosed with CDI. The main underlying diseases among the patients were hematological and malignant disorders and gastrointestinal diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) (59.4%). Two patients (5.4%) had an unremarkable medical history. Among the 37 patients, 27 (73.0%) were immunocompromised, 25 (67.6%) had a history of antibiotic use within the past two months, and 6 (16.2%) were negative on the initial test but were positive on the second test. Finally, 28 patients (75.7%) required primary antibiotic therapy only, and two patients with IBD required additional antibiotic therapy as secondary treatment. Conclusion The number of pediatric patients with CDI is increasing. Both a comprehensive interview, including underlying diseases and history of antibiotic use, and an understanding of the features of clinical examinations should be emphasized to appropriately diagnose and treat CDI.

To investigate the effects of training focused on the movement velocity of the lower limbs (movement velocity training) on short sprint performance in young female non-athletes. Twenty-nine healthy young females (mean age: 20.1 ± 0.9 years) participated in this study. The subjects were randomized into a movement velocity training group (MV group, n=15) and a resistance training group (R group, n=14). MV group performed six lower limb exercises at high velocity (as fast as possible) with no load. R group performed five lower limb strength exercises using a resistance band. Both training programs were applied for 20 minutes per session, 5 days a week for 6 weeks. The following outcomes were measured at baseline and after 6 weeks of training: 30 m sprint time, 20- 26m running velocity, step length, step frequency, and muscle strength and movement velocity of knee extension. Significant group × time interactions were observed for the 30-m sprint time with the MV group exhibiting a significant improvement on simple main effect analysis. For the other parameters (step length, step frequency, and muscle strength and movement velocity of knee extension), group × time interactions were not observed and a significant main effect was observed. These findings suggest that training focused on the movement velocity of the lower limbs can be effective for improving sprint performance.

Ankle exercises are useful for preventing deep vein thrombosis, as they increase venous blood flow velocity. The cause for the increased venous blood flow velocity during ankle exercises may be the skeletal-muscle pump, but the mechanism is not clearly understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the dorsiflexion angle and gastrocnemius muscle contraction on venous blood flow velocity during ankle exercises and to investigate the mechanism of the increase in venous blood flow velocity. The blood flow velocity in the popliteal vein, ankle joint angle, and surface electromyographic activity of the gastrocnemius muscle were measured at rest and during ankle exercises in the prone position in young healthy volunteers. The significant increase in venous blood flow velocity was observed during dorsiflexion phase, max dorsiflexion and during planter flexion phase. The peak venous blood flow velocity was different in each subject and classified into four types. The correlations of venous blood velocity to ankle joint angle and with the surface electromyographic activity of the gastrocnemius muscle were not statistically significant. These findings suggest that venous blood flow velocity increases not only during plantar flexion and dorsiflexion.