This study was conducted to identify challenges experienced by chief physical therapists newly appointed as line managers and the support they require. The study included 15 chief physical therapists who had been promoted to the position in the preceding 4 years and were working at the physical therapy department of JA Shizuoka Kouseiren-affiliated hospitals. A mail-based survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire consisting of 7 domains. In the “worries” domain, the most common answers were “It is difficult to carry out performance evaluations of subordinates”, “I don’t know what I need to learn as chief physical therapist”, “There is too much work to do”, and “The expected achievements of chief therapists are unclear”. Regarding learning opportunities, “In-house training programs provided by the workplace (including organizations and hospitals)” was most frequently chosen, with 93.3％ of the respondents expressing a desire for a phased continuous education system focused on management/administration at their workplaces. The challenges experienced by newly appointed chief physical therapists identified in this survey included ambiguity of role sharing, heavy workload, and psychological conflict. The survey results also suggest the need for immediate response programs and support systems to promptly address problems and ensure smooth management operations.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of patient characteristics on popliteal aortic contrast enhancement at lower extremity CT angiography (LE-CTA) scanning. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prior informed consent to participate was obtained from all 158 patients. All were examined using a routine protocol; the scanning parameters were tube voltage 100 kVp, tube current 100 mA to 770 mA (noise index 12), 0.5-second rotation, 1.25-mm detector row width, 0.516 beam pitch, and 41.2-mm table movement, and the contrast material was 85.0 mL. Cardiac output (CO) was measured with a portable electrical velocimeter within 5 minutes of starting the CT scan. To evaluate the effects of age, sex, body size, CO, and scan delay on the CT number of popliteal artery, the researchers used multivariate regression analysis. RESULTS: A significant positive correlation was seen between the CT number of the popliteal artery and the patient age (r = 0.39, p < 0.01). A significant inverse correlation was observed between the CT number of the popliteal artery and the height (r = −0.48), total body weight (r = −0.52), body mass index (r = −0.33), body surface area (BSA) (r = −0.56), lean body weight (r = −0.56), and CO (r = −0.35) (p < 0.001 for all). There was no significant correlation between the enhancement and the scan delay (r = 0.06, p = 0.47). The BSA, CO, and age had significant effects on the CT number (standardized regression: BSA −0.42, CO −0.22, age 0.15; p < 0.05, respectively). CONCLUSION: The BSA, CO, and age are significantly correlated with the CT number of the popliteal artery on LE-CTA.
Angiography* ; Body Mass Index ; Body Size ; Body Surface Area ; Body Weight ; Cardiac Output ; Humans ; Informed Consent ; Lower Extremity* ; Popliteal Artery ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the effect of various patient characteristics and time-density curve (TDC)-factors on the test bolus-affected vessel enhancement on coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA). We also assessed the value of generalized linear regression models (GLMs) for predicting enhancement on CCTA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed univariate and multivariate regression analysis to evaluate the effect of patient characteristics and to compare contrast enhancement per gram of iodine on test bolus (ΔHUTEST) and CCTA (ΔHUCCTA). We developed GLMs to predict ΔHUCCTA. GLMs including independent variables were validated with 6-fold cross-validation using the correlation coefficient and Bland–Altman analysis. RESULTS: In multivariate analysis, only total body weight (TBW) and ΔHUTEST maintained their independent predictive value (p < 0.001). In validation analysis, the highest correlation coefficient between ΔHUCCTA and the prediction values was seen in the GLM (r = 0.75), followed by TDC (r = 0.69) and TBW (r = 0.62). The lowest Bland–Altman limit of agreement was observed with GLM-3 (mean difference, −0.0 ± 5.1 Hounsfield units/grams of iodine [HU/gI]; 95% confidence interval [CI], −10.1, 10.1), followed by ΔHUCCTA (−0.0 ± 5.9 HU/gI; 95% CI, −11.9, 11.9) and TBW (1.1 ± 6.2 HU/gI; 95% CI, −11.2, 13.4). CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that the patient's TBW and ΔHUTEST significantly affected contrast enhancement on CCTA images and that the combined use of clinical information and test bolus results is useful for predicting aortic enhancement.
Angiography* ; Body Weight ; Cardiac Output ; Heart ; Humans ; Iodine ; Linear Models* ; Multivariate Analysis