Esophageal cancer is a representative cancer that occur physical deterioration but, physical problems after surgery were not well reported. The purpose of this study is to report on the long thoracic neuropathy after surgery, and to identify the symptoms and effects of physical therapy after esophageal cancer surgery. This is a case of a 61-year-old man who showed winging of the scapula with long thoracic nerve injury on the results of electromyography after an esophageal cancer surgery. Physical therapy programs were implemented 8 sessions during hospitalization. The quality of life, fatigue, shoulder range of motion (ROM), numeric rating scale (NRS), 6-minute walk test, and 30-second chair stand test were assessed. The quality of life, fatigue, shoulder ROM, NRS (pain), 6-minute walk test, and 30-second chair stand test were improved. However, the esophageal-specific symptom was not different after physical therapy program. As esophageal cancer suffers from physical difficulties after surgery, physical therapy programs are thought to be helpful.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disease characterized by extensive loss of synaptic connections, neuronal death, and the presence of extracellular amyloid plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (iNFTs). The extracellular amlyoid plaques are mainly composed of the amyloid beta (Aβ) peptide which formed by proteolytic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). Aβ42peptide oligomerizes, is neurotoxic and readily forms aggregates that accumulate in the brain to form plaques. These oligomers are thought to cause inflammation, oxidative stress and apoptosis, thereby resulting in synaptic and neuronal loss. Although AD is neurodegenerative disorder, current therapies designed to treat it still demonstrate limited efficacy. Silkworm (Bombyx mori) has long been used as food and medicine in Asian countries which is reputed for the treatment of numerous neurological disorders including AD. In this study, we use Drosophila melanogaster which is expressed the human AD-associated protein APP695, BACE and MAPT as the model and initially investigate whether silkworm powder food has positive effect on flies expressing Alzheimer’s status as well as makes the improvement in disease condition by using this AD fly model (This work was carried out with the support of the Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project title: Elucidation the health improvement effects of boiled silk worm larvae, Project No: PJ01082801) Rural Development Administration)
The purposes of this study were to determine the effect of different degrees of severity of diabetic neuropathy on balance function, and to evaluate dynamic balance and functional performance in diabetes patients. Twenty-four subjects with diabetes mellitus were divided into three groups according to results of sensory nerve conduction study. All subjects were evaluated for dynamic balance which was measured using computerized dynamic posturography, and functional performance which was measured using the Berg balance scale. One-way analysis of variance was used to determine whether there were any statistically differences of dynamic balance function and functional performance among the three groups. The Spearrnan's rank correlation was used to determine statistical significance between dynamic balance and age. The results were as follows: 1. Dynamic balance measured using computerized dynamic posturography was significantly lower in the no response group than in the normal amplitude group (p<0.05). 2. Functional performance tested by the Berg balance scale was not statistically different among the three groups (p>0.05). 3. an inverse relationship was found between dynamic balance measured using computerized dynamic posturography and age (r=-0.68, p<0.05). These results suggest that patients with severe diabetic neuropathy have loss of dynamic balance function. Therefore, patients with severe diabetic neuropathy need to have their balance evaluated and receive appropriate education.
Focal myositis is a rare disease associated with inflammatory changes invading the skeletal muscles and may be triggered by nerve lesion. We describe a case of 33-year-old woman who was diagnosed focal denervation myositis of piriformis and gluteal muscles associated with sciatic neuropathy because of severe uterine enlargement due to twin pregnancy misdiagnosed as lumbar herniated nucleus pulposus. MRI is one of the key diagnostic tools in the assessment of focal denervation myositis for differential diagnosis. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are commonly used for treatment of focal myositis. Spontaneous regression is obtained in numerous cases.