The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between different exercise modes and visuospatial working memory in healthy older adults. A cross-sectional design was adopted. A total of 111 healthy older adults were enrolled in the study. They were classified by the exercise-related questionnaire to be in an open-skill group, closed-skill group or sedentary group. In experiment 1, the participants performed a visuospatial working memory task. The results indicated that both closed-skill (p < 0.05) and open-skill (p < 0.01) groups reached a higher accuracy than the sedentary group. Experiment 2 examined whether the exercise-induced benefit of working memory was manifested in passive maintenance or active manipulation of working memory which was assessed by visuospatial short-term memory task and visuospatial mental rotation task, respectively. The results showed that the open-skill (p < 0.01) group was more accurate than the sedentary group in the visuospatial short-term memory task, whereas the group difference in the visuospatial mental rotation task was not significant. These findings combined to suggest that physical exercise was associated with better visuospatial working memory in older adults. Furthermore, open-skill exercises that demand higher cognitive processing showed selective benefit for passive maintenance of working memory.

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OBJECTIVE: To quantify the relationship between strength and endurance of knee extensor and flexor and exercise capacity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).METHODS: A total of 108 patients with stable COPD (age: 65 years, IQR25–75: 59–72) were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Knee extensor and flexor function was evaluated using the isokinetic test, and the parameters attained were considered as independent variables. Exercise capacity was evaluated using 6-minute walking test (6MWT) and 30-second sit-to-stand test (30s SST), and the results were considered as dependent variables. The association between lower-limb muscle function and exercise capacity was assessed using multiple regression analysis.RESULTS: The patients mostly had moderate-to-severe airflow obstruction with a post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) of 57.87 ± 17.71% predicted. In multiple regression analysis, flexor total work (TW), extensor endurance ratio (ER), age and FEV1%pred were significantly associated with 6MWT (adjusted R2 = 0.455, P < 0.001). Flexor TW and age were significantly associated with 30s SST (adjusted R2 = 0.355, P < 0.001).CONCLUSION: Knee endurance has a significant relationship with exercise capacity, and knee flexor endurance seems to be an important factor contributing to exercise capacity in COPD patients.

Background: For acute ischemic stroke (AIS), intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) is an effective but time-dependent therapy. However, patients are usually too late for treatment, mainly because of pre-and in-hospital delays.Method: Papers were identified through the PubMed search, with keywords such as: 'stroke', 'thrombolysis', 'management', 'prehospital delay', 'in-hospital delay'. Results:In pre-hospital stroke management, factors related to pre-hospital delays include demographic characteristics, social factors, clinical factors, behavioral factors, and cognitive factors. Great significance should be assigned to the implementation of stroke preparedness interventions, stroke assessment instruments, the use of emergency medical service (EMS), mobile stroke units (MSUs), and the Stroke Emergency Map. With regard to in-hospital stroke management, there are some tasks related to the inhospital delays, such as registering patients, waiting for the stroke team, CT availability, lab resources, and making a decision for thrombolytic therapy. With good communication between the EMS and the emergency department (ED), delays can be significantly reduced. Conclusions:With the streamlining of all aspects of prehospital and in-hospital thrombolysis processes and the increase of hospital experience, we can achieve a shorter onset-to-treatment time (OTT), and more patients may benefit from timely thrombolytic therapy.