Intensive care unit survivors experience prolonged physical impairments, cognitive impairments, and mental health problems, commonly referred to as post-intensive care syndrome (PICS). Previous studies reported the prevalence, assessment, and prevention of PICS, including the ABCDEF bundle approach. Although the management of PICS has been advanced, the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) posed an additional challenge to PICS. The prevalence of PICS after COVID-19 extensively varied with 28–87% of cases pertaining to physical impairments, 20–57% pertaining to cognitive impairments, and 6–60% pertaining to mental health problems after 1–6 months after discharge. Each component of the ABCDEF bundle is not sufficiently provided from 16% to 52% owing to the highly transmissible nature of the virus. However, new data are emerging about analgesia, sedation, delirium care, nursing care, early mobilization, nutrition, and family support. In this review, we summarize the recent data on PICS and its new challenge in PICS after COVID-19 infection.

In-patient step count appears to be a risk factor for cardiac re-hospitalization within the first year following cardiac surgery. Further studies are needed to clarify the clinical significance of step count both preoperatively and following discharge.

The numbers of elderly patients with heart disease and with dementia in Japan are increasing and are becoming public health problems [1][2][3]. Moreover, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is strongly associated with cognitive dysfunction [4], and cognitive dysfunc-tion in patients with heart disease is associated with increased short-and mid-term progression to death and hospital readmission [5,6] and with functional disability [7].Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is thought to be a transitional state between the normal decline in cognitive function that occurs with aging and dementia [8], and early intervention is necessary to prevent dementia from the time of MCI onset or before because 5-10 % of healthy elderly people with MCI will develop dementia [9].In the daily clinical setting, we have observed that in Japanese heart disease patients with cognitive dysfunction, brush pressure is low when writing Japanese calligraphy with a brush on a piece of paper. Previous studies reported that finger dexterity can reflect a

Background Heart failure is one of the world’s most frequently diagnosed cardiovascular diseases. An important element of heart failure management is cardiac rehabilitation, the goal of which is to improve patients’ recovery, functional capacity, psychosocial well-being, and health-related quality of life. Patients in cardiac rehabilitation may lack sufficient motivation or may feel that the rehabilitation process does not meet their individual needs. One solution to these challenges is the use of telerehabilitation. Although telerehabilitation has been available for several years, it has only recently begun to be utilized in heart failure studies. Especially within the past 5 years, we now have several studies focusing on the effectiveness of telerehabilitation for heart failure management, all with varying results. Based on a review of these studies, this paper offers an assessment of the effectiveness of telerehabilitation as applied to heart failure management. Objective The aim of this scoping review was to assess the effects of telerehabilitation in the management of heart failure by systematically reviewing the available scientific literature within the period from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2020. Methods The literature search was carried out using PubMed and EMBASE. After duplicates were removed, 77 articles were screened and 12 articles were subsequently reviewed. The review followed the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for scoping reviews) guidelines. As measures of the effectiveness of telerehabilitation, the following outcomes were used: patients’ quality of life, physical capacity, depression or anxiety, and adherence to the intervention. Results A total of 12 articles were included in this review. In reviewing the effects of telerehabilitation for patients with heart failure, it was found that 4 out of 6 randomized controlled trials (RCTs), a single prospective study, and 4 out of 5 reviews reported increased quality of life for patients. For physical capacity, 4 RCTs and 3 systematic reviews revealed increased physical capacity. Depression or depressive symptoms were reported as being reduced in 1 of the 6 RCTs and in 2 of the 5 reviews. Anxiety or anxiety-related symptoms were reported as reduced in only 1 review. High adherence to the telerehabilitation program was reported in 4 RCTs and 4 reviews. It should be mentioned that some of the reviewed articles described the same studies although they employed different outcome measures. Conclusions It was found that there is a tendency toward improvement in patients’ quality of life and physical capacity when telerehabilitation was used in heart failure management. The outcome measures of depression, anxiety, and adherence to the intervention were found to be positive. Additional research is needed to determine more precise and robust effects of telerehabilitation.

An association between respiratory muscle weakness and sarcopenia may provide a clue to the mechanism of sarcopenia development. We aimed to clarify this relationship among community-dwelling older adults. In total, 117 community-dwelling older adults were assessed and classified into 4 groups: robust, respiratory muscle weakness, sarcopenia, and respiratory sarcopenia. The respiratory sarcopenia group (12%) had a significantly higher percentage of males and had lower BMI, skeletal muscle index, skeletal muscle mass, phase angle, and oral function than the robust group (32.5%). All physical functions were significantly lower. The respiratory muscle weakness group (54.7%) had a significantly lower BMI and slower walking speed, compared with the robust group. The sarcopenia group (0.8%) was excluded from the analysis. The percent maximum inspiratory pressure was significantly lower in both the respiratory muscle weakness and respiratory sarcopenia groups, compared with the robust group. Almost all participants with sarcopenia showed respiratory muscle weakness. In addition, approximately 50% had respiratory muscle weakness, even in the absence of systemic sarcopenia, suggesting that respiratory muscle weakness may be the precursor of sarcopenia. The values indicating physical function and skeletal muscle mass in the respiratory muscle weakness group were between those in the robust and the respiratory sarcopenia groups.

Preoperative CKD stage correlated significantly with the progress of early postoperative CR after cardiac surgery. Independent determinants of achieving JCS early postoperative CR guideline goal were postoperative AKI in patients with or without CKD, and POFB/PBW only in patients without CKD.

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Background: As few studies have examined physical functioning changes after cardiac surgery, the factors related to the decline in physical functioning remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the factors related to physical functioning decline after cardiac surgery in older patients. Methods: The final study sample consisted of 523 older (!65 years) patients (age 74.2 AE 6.1 years, 66% male) who underwent cardiac surgery at 8 Japanese institutions. We excluded patients who were unable to walk independently or had a slow gait speed (<0.8 m/s) before surgery, and those who were unable to regain independent walking after surgery. We divided the patients into two groups, a decline-in-gaitspeed group and a non-decline-in-gait-speed group, according to whether their gait speed was less than 0.8 m/s at discharge. We analyzed patients' clinical characteristics to identify the factors that predicted the postoperative decline in gait speed. Results: Eighty-nine patients (17.0%) showed a postoperative decline in gait speed. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the following factors predicted a postoperative decline in gait speed: age [odds ratio (OR) 1.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02-1.11]; estimated glomerular filtration rate (OR 0.98, CI 0.96-0.99); preoperative gait speed (OR 0.01, CI 0.00-0.08); and the postoperative day on which the patient could walk independently (OR 1.08, CI 1.02-1.14). Conclusions: Physical functioning declined in 17% of patients after surgery. The decline could be predicted by several clinical factors, including some that are modifiable. These results suggest that further interventional research on rehabilitation before and after cardiac surgery for older patients might help overcome the decline in physical functioning.