Objective：Only 44 of the 82 university medical schools in Japan have rehabilitation medicine departments, although rehabilitation medicine is one of the 19 basic specialties recognized by the Japanese Medical Specialty Board, and many medical doctors are concerned regarding selecting rehabilitation medicine as a basic specialty without sufficient education in the field. The “Let's Become a Physiatrist” Seminar has been organized since 2017 to eliminate such concerns, and this study aimed to investigate how these results are manifested in the number of majors.Methods：We examined the number of past attendees and tracked how many of them became rehabilitation medicine majors.Results：The number of seminar attendees over a 5-year period was 589. The number of on-demand viewers in FY2020 and FY2021, which were held via the web, was 554. A total of 116 of the 471 physicians who began specialty training in rehabilitation medicine after the seminar was planned attended or web viewed the seminar accounting for 24.63％．This percentage has been increasing each year, with 36.81％ of the majors who applied in 2022 attending the seminar, and the number of multiple attendees also increased. The number of majors has increased significantly doubling to 144 in 2022 compared with 74 in 2018.Conclusion：In many cases, the seminar helped the attendees learn more about physiatrists and develop their thoughts while attending multiple times. Thus, they started their majors. Five years have passed since we started planning this seminar, and we believe that the results are now coming to fruition.

Objective：Only 44 of the 82 university medical schools in Japan have rehabilitation medicine departments, although rehabilitation medicine is one of the 19 basic specialties recognized by the Japanese Medical Specialty Board, and many medical doctors are concerned regarding selecting rehabilitation medicine as a basic specialty without sufficient education in the field. The “Let's Become a Physiatrist” Seminar has been organized since 2017 to eliminate such concerns, and this study aimed to investigate how these results are manifested in the number of majors.Methods：We examined the number of past attendees and tracked how many of them became rehabilitation medicine majors.Results：The number of seminar attendees over a 5-year period was 589. The number of on-demand viewers in FY2020 and FY2021, which were held via the web, was 554. A total of 116 of the 471 physicians who began specialty training in rehabilitation medicine after the seminar was planned attended or web viewed the seminar accounting for 24.63％．This percentage has been increasing each year, with 36.81％ of the majors who applied in 2022 attending the seminar, and the number of multiple attendees also increased. The number of majors has increased significantly doubling to 144 in 2022 compared with 74 in 2018.Conclusion：In many cases, the seminar helped the attendees learn more about physiatrists and develop their thoughts while attending multiple times. Thus, they started their majors. Five years have passed since we started planning this seminar, and we believe that the results are now coming to fruition.

Objectives：This study investigated the perceptions of regenerative medicine among individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).Methods：Between October 2019 and February 2020, we interviewed individuals with SCI who had a history of inpatient or outpatient visits to our hospital using a structured questionnaire on regenerative medicine.Results：Ninety-nine participants completed the questionnaires. The mean age was 52.8±14.8 years, with 9.1％ of them being females. The majority of cases included cervical SCI (54.5％), AIS A lesion (63.6％), and traumatic causes (90.9％), and 93.9％ of the individuals had some interest in regenerative medicine for SCI, which is well known to individuals with SCI in the following order：induced pluripotent stem cells (n＝89), bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (n＝25), and autologous olfactory mucosal transplantation (n＝16). Individuals with SCI chose motor function (65.7％), bladder and bowel function (24.3％), and sensory function (9.0％）when asked to choose only one symptom that required improvement. Individuals with cervical SCI had more interest in regenerative medicine than those with SCI (46.3％ vs. 26.7％). In contrast, the majority of respondents with SCI were concerned about the effectiveness (n＝59) and cost (n＝53) of the treatment. Most participants obtained information about regenerative medicine on television (n＝73), followed by the Internet and/or social networking services (n＝54).Conclusion：Approximately half of individuals with SCI hope that regenerative medicine will restore their ability to walk.

Background: Extraction of the mandibular third molar, the most frequent and important surgical procedure in the clinical practice of oral surgery, is associated with the risk of injury of the lingual nerve. Neuropathy of the lingual nerve poses diagnostic challenges regarding the transient or permanent nature of the injury. No consensus or criteria have been established regarding the diagnosis of lingual nerve neuropathy. We applied both Tinel’s test and clinical neurosensory testing together, which can be easily used at the bedside in the early stages of injury. Therefore, we propose a new method to differentiate between lesions with the ability to heal spontaneously and those that cannot heal without surgery. Results: Thirty-three patients (29 women,  4 men; mean age, 35.5 years) were included in this study. For all patients, the median interval between nerve injury and initial examination was 1.6 months and that between nerve injury and the second examination before determining the need for surgical management was 4.5 months. The patients wereassigned to either group A or B. The spontaneous healing group (group A, n = 10) revealed a tendency for recoverywithin 6 months after tooth extraction. In this group, although there were individual differences in the degree of recovery, a remarkable tendency for recovery was observed based on clinical neurosensory testing in all cases. None of the patients were diagnosed with allodynia. In seven cases, the Tinel test result was negative at the first inspection,and in three cases, the result changed to negative at the second inspection. Conversely, in group B(n = 23), no recov-ery trend was observed with regard to clinical neurosensory testing, and nine patients had allodynia. Further, the Tinel test result was positive for all patients in both examinations. Conclusions Our findings indicate that in case of transient lingual nerve paralysis, clinical neurosensory testing findings deteriorate immediately after tooth extraction and gradually recover, while Tinel’s test shows a negative result.Using Tinel’s test and clinical neurosensory testing together enabled early and easy identification of the severity of the lingual nerve disorder and of lesions that would heal spontaneously without surgical management.

  [Objectives] The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) concentrations during 15 min of combined hot bath and bicycle ergometer endurance exercise in healthy young men.  [Methods] The experiment was conducted in a parallel design. The subjects were 10 healthy men (aged 23.7±0.8 years). The experimental group performed a combination of head-out water immersion (HOI) at 40°C and bicycle ergometer exercise (40°C HOI-ex), while the control group performed only HOI at 40°C (40°C HOI). After 30 min of rest, 40°C HOI-ex or 40°C HOI was performed for 15 min, followed by a 30 min recovery period. During the experiment, heart rate, blood pressure, and core temperature (esophageal temperature) were continuously measured. Blood samples were collected at four time points: after rest, immediately after intervention, 15 min after recovery, and 30 min after recovery. Serum BDNF, P-selectin, platelet count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, plasma cortisol, and lactic acid were then measured.  [Results] A significant increase in serum BDNF concentrations was observed immediately after intervention and 15 min after recovery in the 40°C HOI-ex group compared with the values taken after resting. No changes in serum BDNF concentrations were observed in the 40°C HOI group. Core temperatures significantly increased immediately after intervention, 15 min after recovery, and 30 min after recovery compared with resting for both 40°C HOI-ex and 40°C HOI groups, with between-group differences. Platelet counts were unchanged in both 40°C HOI and 40°C HOI-ex groups. A significant increase in P-selectin was observed immediately after intervention and 15 min after recovery in the 40°C HOI-ex group compared with when at rest. No changes in P-selectin were observed in 40°C HOI.  [Discussion] The combination of hyperthermia and exercise can increase serum BDNF in a short time of 15 min by an additive effect, and the increase in serum BDNF in this study may be platelet-derived.

  [Objectives] The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) concentrations during 15 min of combined hot bath and bicycle ergometer endurance exercise in healthy young men.  [Methods] The experiment was conducted in a parallel design. The subjects were 10 healthy men (aged 23.7±0.8 years). The experimental group performed a combination of head-out water immersion (HOI) at 40°C and bicycle ergometer exercise (40°C HOI-ex), while the control group performed only HOI at 40°C (40°C HOI). After 30 min of rest, 40°C HOI-ex or 40°C HOI was performed for 15 min, followed by a 30 min recovery period. During the experiment, heart rate, blood pressure, and core temperature (esophageal temperature) were continuously measured. Blood samples were collected at four time points: after rest, immediately after intervention, 15 min after recovery, and 30 min after recovery. Serum BDNF, P-selectin, platelet count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, plasma cortisol, and lactic acid were then measured.  [Results] A significant increase in serum BDNF concentrations was observed immediately after intervention and 15 min after recovery in the 40°C HOI-ex group compared with the values taken after resting. No changes in serum BDNF concentrations were observed in the 40°C HOI group. Core temperatures significantly increased immediately after intervention, 15 min after recovery, and 30 min after recovery compared with resting for both 40°C HOI-ex and 40°C HOI groups, with between-group differences. Platelet counts were unchanged in both 40°C HOI and 40°C HOI-ex groups. A significant increase in P-selectin was observed immediately after intervention and 15 min after recovery in the 40°C HOI-ex group compared with when at rest. No changes in P-selectin were observed in 40°C HOI.  [Discussion] The combination of hyperthermia and exercise can increase serum BDNF in a short time of 15 min by an additive effect, and the increase in serum BDNF in this study may be platelet-derived.