Accreditation of Physiology Educators by the Physiological Society of Japan / 医学教育

　A system for Physiology Educator Accreditation was established by the Physiological Society of Japan in 2013 and then implemented. The accreditation process starts by the applicant participating in the education program during the society’s annual meeting, after which the applicant’s teaching and research experiences are reviewed. The education program consists of model lectures to learn teaching skills and lectures to obtain up-to-date knowledge about physiology. The main purpose of the system is to provide an opportunity to obtain a wide range of knowledge and skills for physiology teaching for teachers working at medical universities and universities of life sciences and for young researchers aiming for a tenure-track academic position.

Single Afferent Nerve Fibers in the Spinal Dorsal Roots Activated by Manual Acupuncture Needle Stimulation in Frog's Hind Limbs / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

The present experiment aimed to determine what kinds of afferent nerve fibers in dorsal roots are stimulated during manual stimulation with an acupuncture needle by using single nerve unit recording techniques in bullfrogs. An acupuncture needle was inserted into a hind limb via the skin to the muscles, and was manually twisted right and left at a frequency of about 1Hz. Dorsal roots of the 8th and 9th spinal nerves were cut close to their entrance into the spinal cord and dissected to record single unitary afferent activity. The conduction velocity of the single nerve fiber was measured. A total of 30 units were successfully dissected, and all of those responded to manual twisting stimulation of the acupuncture needle in a hind limb. All of the dissected fibers had their receptive fields only at the unilateral side ipsilateral, to the recording site never contralateral. The conduction velocities of all 30 units ranged between 5.3 - 40.7 m/s. The reports by Erlanger et al.<SUP>1, 2) </SUP> which showed the maximum conduction velocities of Aa, β, δand C afferent fibers in bullfregs to be about 48.2m/s, 28.7m/s, 13.6m/s and 0.7m/s, respectively, indicated that all 30 units dissected at the dorsal roots and responding to manual acupuncture stimulation were Aα, β, δ fibers. We could not record single nerve unitary activity of C fibers, probably because of technical difficulties. We conclude that manual acupuncture needle stimulation to the hind limbs excites single unitary afferent fibers of Aα, β, and δ fibers in the dorsal roots of bull frogs.

GROWTH OF THE VETRICULAR VOLUMES AND THE CHANGES OF INDICES OF CARDIAC PERFORMANCE / 体力科学

The purpose of this clinical investigation is to analyse the growth of the ventricular volumes and the changes of indices of cardiac performance during infancy and childhood. The materials were composed of 129 healthy infants and children (4 months to 13 years of age), who had a history of Kawasaki disease and without any evidence of coronary artery lesion. All the cases underwent cardiac catheterization and cineangiography under sedation. Volumes of the left and right ventricles were calculated by integration methods in tow frames for end-diastole and end-systole from biplane cineangiograms. Left ventricular mass was calculated in 120 infants and children by Rackley's method.<BR>All the volumes and masses were deviled by body surface area in order to normalize the crude values for infants and children of different size. The mean values of left ventricular end-diastolic volume index (LVEDVI), right ventricular end-diastolic volume index (RVEDVI) and stroke index (SI) for each age were less in the younger children than those in the older children, and abrupt stepwise increase was observed at 1 year, 6 years and 10-11 years of age in the values of LVEDVI, RVEDVI and SI.<BR>The infants and chidren were divided into four groups according to age (under 1 year, 1 to 5 years, 6 to 10 years and more than 11 years) . The values of LVEDVI, RVEDVI, SI and LVmass index were less in the younger age groups than those in the older age groups, and the difference of each age groups was statistically significant. The value of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was less in the youngest group (under 1 year) than those in the another groups (p<0.01) . The value for right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) was not significantly different in the age groups. End-systolic pressure-volume ratio was normalized with left ventricular mass (LVESP/ (LVESV/LVmass) ) . This normalized ratio was the lowest in the youngest group (under 1 year) and the highest in the oldest group (more than 11 years) .<BR>As mentioned before, abrupt stepwise increase was observed in the“normal”values of LVEDVI, RVEDVI and SI in infancts and children. The explanation of this fact may be difficult at present. By the evidence of the normalized end-systolic pressure-volume ratio, it can be said that the contractility of the left ventricle in“healthy”infants and children was increased according to age. The reason why the value of LVEF was less in the youngest group than those in the another groups can be attributed to the lower contrac-tility in the youngest group. A possible factor that the value of RVEF was not significantly different between the youngest group and the another groups is; because the right ventricle works under higher pressure during fetal and neonatal period, then the right ventricular performance developed already in infancy.