A 12-week Wheelchair Tai Chi 10 Form (WTC10) intervention was conducted among elderly with disability to examine the effect of this WTC10 intervention on selected physical and mental health variables. Thirteen (age 87.23 ± 6.71) in the WTC10 intervention group and 15 (age 89.73 ± 6.31) in the control group completed the study. Independent t-tests and paired t-tests were employed to examine the differences between groups and within groups, respectively, at pretest and post-test. The WTC10 intervention group showed significant improvements in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, shoulder external rotation, left trunk rotation and total trunk rotation after the intervention. A 12-week WTC10 intervention had positive effects on blood pressure, range of motion at the shoulder and trunk, physical activity, and mental health among the elderly with disability. WTC10 is a feasible and safe exercise for the elderly with disability.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of plasma fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-21 with angiographically significant coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Serum FGF-21 was measured in 120 patients undergoing coronary angiography. Patients were divided into 4 groups based on the presence/absence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and of significant CAD. The atherosclerotic burden was obtained by two angiographic scores: Gensini score (GS) and Extent score (ES). FGF-21 levels were higher in type 2 diabetes mellitus than in non-diabetic patients (P = 0.014). FGF-21 levels were significantly correlated with GS (r = 0.358, P < 0.001) and ES (r = 0.324, P < 0.001) in univariate analysis with all patients. After adjusting for several confounding factors, both GS and ES were associated with FGF-21 in all patients (r = 0.271, P = 0.014; r = 0.217, P = 0.041, respectively). However, FGF-21 lost significant correlation with both GS and ES with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the final model. The patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and CAD feature had elevated FGF-21 levels. Despite of a limited role in diabetic patients, FGF-21 levels are independently associated with angiographic severity and extent of CAD.Graphical Abstract
The study aimed to investigate the pathologic mechanism of functional brain regions in attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patients through making comparisons of normal and ADHD children from the perspective of the network nodes of brain network and the intensity of functional connection between bilateral of hemispheres by resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Thirty‐five ADHD and forty‐two children were examined by resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. Data analysis was done via the degree centrality (DC) and voxel‐mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) approaches. Compared with healthy subjects, the ADHD group exhibited significantly decreased DC values in the right posterior cingulate gyrus, left medial superior frontal gyrus, right inferior parietal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus and right superior frontal gyrus. Children with ADHD also exhibited some areas with increased DC values compared with healthy children. These regions included the cerebellar anterior lobe, right middle occipital cortex, left middle cingulate gyrus and right middle cingulate gyrus. VMHC analysis all revealed positive activation in a range of brain regions when comparing ADHD and normal children, suggesting that the VMHC scores of children with ADHD were higher in the bilateral superior frontal lobe, bilateral middle occipital lobe, and bilateral cerebellar anterior lobes. This work provides a new approach for examining the neural mechanisms underlying ADHD, demonstrating that the DC and VMHC methods enabled more comprehensive analysis that can be cross‐checked.
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