Haemophiliacs who have had to keep a physically inactive lifestyle due to bleeding during childhood are likely to have little motivation for exercise. The purpose of this study is to clarify the effectiveness of the self-monitoring of home exercise for haemophiliacs. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with intervention over 8 weeks at four hospitals in Japan. Subjects included 32 male outpatients aged 26-64 years without an inhibitor who were randomly allocated to a self-monitoring group and a control group. Individual exercise guidance with physical activity for improvement of their knee functions was given to both groups. The self-monitoring materials included an activity monitor and a feedback system so that the self-monitoring group could send feedback via the Internet and cellular phone. The self-monitoring was performed by checking exercise adherence and physical activity levels, bleeding history and injection of a coagulation factor. Both groups showed significant improvements in exercise adherence (P < 0.001) and physical function such as the strength of knee extension (P < 0.001), range of knee extension (P < 0.001), range of ankle dorsiflexion (P < 0.01), a modified Functional Reach (P < 0.05) and 10 metre gait time (P < 0.01). In particular, improvements in exercise adherence (P < 0.05), self-efficacy (P < 0.05), and strength of knee extension (P < 0.05) were significant in the self-monitoring group compared with those in the control group. No increase in bleeding frequency and pain scale was noted. The self-monitoring of home exercise for haemophilic patients is useful for the improvement of exercise adherence, self-efficacy and knee extension strength.

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The objective of the present study was to clarify the relationship between the disabilities of school-aged children with cerebral palsy and the family needs of their mothers, with the aim of making suggestions for future implementation of interventions for the mothers. The disabilities of the children were determined according to the Barthel Index, whereas family needs of the mothers were assesse by "The Family Needs Survey". The findings of the present study indicated that the children's disabilities were related to the family needs of the mothers, particularly two of the six latent variables comprising "The Family Needs Survey", e.g. "Needs for Support" and "Community Services". The present study also showed that every latent variable comprising the family needs indicated to a certain degree some needs. In order to provide for these needs, a counseling system and intervention strategies by specialists need to be devised and implemented for mothers of school-aged children with cerebral palsy, regardless of the severity of the disabilities.

The NDI-J is a valid, reliable, and responsive tool that can be used to assess neck pain in Japanese outpatients.

The Japanese version of the PSFS is a valid, reliable, and responsive instrument to assess Japanese outpatients with neck pain.

Measuring exercise-induced muscle activity is essential in sports medicine. Previous studies proposed measuring transverse relaxation time (T 2 ) using muscle functional magnetic resonance imaging (mfMRI) to map muscle activity. However, mfMRI uses a spin-echo (SE) sequence that requires several minutes for acquisition. We evaluated the feasibility of T 2 mapping of muscle activity using ultrafast imaging, called fast-acquired mfMRI (fastmfMRI), to reduce image acquisition time. The current method uses 2 pulse sequences, spin-echo echo-planar imaging (SE-EPI) and true fast imaging with steady precession (TrueFISP). SE-EPI images are used to calculate T 2 , and TrueFISP images are used to obtain morphological information. The functional image is produced by subtracting the image of muscle activity obtained using T 2 at rest from that produced after exercise. Final fast-mfMRI images are produced by fusing the functional images with the morphologic images. Ten subjects repeated ankle plantar ‰exion 200 times. In the fused images, the areas of activated muscle in the fast-mfMRI and SE-EPI images were identical. The geometric location of the fast-mfMRI did not diŠer between the morphologic and functional images. Morphological and functional information from fast-mfMRI can be applied to the human trunk, which requires limited scan duration. The diŠerence obtained by subtracting T 2 at rest from T 2 after exercise can be used as a functional image of muscle activity.

Abstract.[Purpose] Myofascial release is a manual soft tissue technique that is frequently used in physical therapy, but few reports on the effectiveness of myofascial release are available. We compared the effects of myofascial release and stretching on range of motion, muscle stiffness, and reaction time. [Subjects and Methods] Forty healthy individuals were randomly allocated to four groups: myofascial release for quadriceps; myofascial release for hamstrings; stretch for quadriceps; and controls.[Results] Active range of motion was significantly increased in the two myofascial release groups and the stretch group. Passive range of motion was significantly increased by myofascial release in the quadriceps and stretching groups. No significant differences in muscle stiffness were seen between before and after the interventions. However, premotor time was significantly reduced by myofascial release in the quadriceps and hamstrings groups, with significant differences observed in this parameter between both the quadriceps and hamstrings groups and controls after the interventions. Compared to controls, reaction time was significantly lower after the interventions in the quadriceps and hamstrings groups.[Conclusion] Myofascial release improves not only range of motion, but also ease of movement.