Interrupting Effect of Social Distancing on Ischemic Heart Disease, Asthma, Stroke, and Suicide Attempt Patients by PM2.5 Exposure.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine the interrupting effect of social distancing (SD) on emergency department (ED) patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD), stroke, asthma, and suicide attempts by PM2.5 exposure in eight Korean megacities from 2017 to 2020. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study used National Emergency Department Information System and AirKorea data. A total of 469014 patients visited EDs from 2017 to 2020. Interrupted time series analysis was employed to examine changes in the level and slope of the time series, relative risk, and confidence intervals (CIs) by PM2.5 exposure. The SD level was added to the sensitivity analysis. RESULTS: The interrupted time series analysis demonstrated a significant increase in the ratio of relative risk (RRR) of IHD patients in Seoul (RRR=1.004, 95% CI: 1.001, 1.006) and Busan (RRR=1.007, 95% CI: 1.002, 1.012) post-SD. Regarding stroke, only patients in Seoul exhibited a significant decrease post-SD (RRR=0.995, 95% CI: 0.991, 0.999). No significant changes were observed for asthma in any of the cities. In the case of suicide attempts, Ulsan demonstrated substantial pre-SD (RR=0.827, 95% CI: 0.732, 0.935) and post-SD (RRR=1.200, 95% CI: 1.057, 1.362) differences. CONCLUSION: While the interrupting effect of SD was not as pronounced as anticipated, this study did validate the effectiveness of SD in modifying health behaviors and minimizing avoidable visits to EDs in addition to curtailing the occurrence of infectious diseases.

Influence of constraint-induced movement therapy upon evoked potentials in rats with cerebral infarction.

Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) is an effective treatment promoting motor recovery of upper extremity function in stroke patients. The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of CIMT on the evoked potentials in rats with focal cerebral cortical ischemia induced by endothelin-1 (ET-1). Thirty rats were randomly assigned to the sham, infarct or CIMT groups. ET-1 was injected stereotaxically into the forelimb area of the cerebral cortex in the dominant hemisphere. Custom-made constraint jackets were applied to limit movement of the unaffected forelimb in the CIMT group. Motor and sensory function of the forelimb was evaluated by a pellet retrieval task and forearm asymmetry test. Electrophysiologic changes were evaluated by motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) and somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs). The location and extent of cerebral ischemia were confirmed and compared histologically. The CIMT group showed better recovery in the pellet retrieval task. Forelimb use was more symmetrical in the CIMT group. The waveform of the SEP was reversed and delayed in the infarct group, but it was preserved in the CIMT group with amplitude decrease only. The estimated volume of infarction was smaller in the CIMT group, although statistically not significant. The results demonstrate that CIMT can promote recovery of motor function in focal cerebral cortical infarcts, and that recovery may be related to reorganization of the cerebral neuronal network in the somatosensory pathway.