Effects of Participating in Martial Arts in Children: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: The application of various martial arts programs can greatly contribute to improving the of physical fitness of preschool and school children. The purpose of this review paper was to determine the effects and influence that martial arts program intervention has on children's physical fitness, which includes motor skills and the aerobic and anaerobic abilities of children. METHOD: We searched the following electronic scientific databases for articles published in English from January 2006 to April 2021 to gather data for this review paper: Google Scholar, Pub Med, and Web of Science. RESULTS: After the search was completed, 162 studies were identified, of which 16 studies were selected and were systematically reviewed and analyzed. Eight studies included karate programs, four studies included judo programs, two studies contained aikido programs, and two studies contained taekwondo programs. The total number of participants was 1615 (experimental group = 914, control group = 701). Based on the main findings, karate, judo, taekwondo, and aikido programs showed positive effects on the physical fitness of the experimental group of children. According to the results, the effects of these programs showed statistically significant improvements between the initial and final measurements of most of the examined experimental groups. CONCLUSION: We concluded that martial arts programs were helpful for improving the physical fitness of preschool and school children, especially for parameters such as cardiorespiratory fitness, speed, agility, strength, flexibility, coordination, and balance.

Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke Previously Vaccinated Against COVID-19.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine the clinical characteristics of patients with acute ischemic stroke which were previously vaccinated against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and determine whether the vaccine had impact on outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this observational cohort study we analyzed the clinical characteristics of 58 patients with ischemic stroke, previously vaccinated against COVID-19. We analyzed demographic characteristics, risk factors, type of stroke and outcome. We also compared outcome of those patients with outcome in stroke patients hospitalized in the same period but not vaccinated, patients hospitalized during the pandemic, before vaccination began, and stroke patients hospitalized before the pandemic. Further, we compared mortality rate with mortality rate in patients who had acute ischemic stroke and COVID-19 simultaneously. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 71.0 years, most were male (58.6%), mostly with risk factors for stroke. In the largest number of patients, 17 (29.3%), the etiopathogenetic mechanism of stroke was atherosclerosis of the large arteries. Mortality in vaccinated patients was identical to mortality in stroke patients before pandemic, without significant difference from mortality in unvaccinated patients (13.8% versus 8.6%; p= 0.23). The mean NIHSS and mRS score at discharge for all examined groups were without significant difference. A significant difference in mortality was found between COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative stroke patients (37.8% versus 18.1%; p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: There are no significant differences in clinical characteristics of stroke in vaccinated compared to unvaccinated patients. We did not find a connection between vaccination and stroke.

Validation and feasibility of ex vivo sentinel lymph node "mapping" by methylene blue in colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: There are currently divided opinions about the usefulness of sentinel lymph node mapping in colorectal carcinoma. This technique can potentially be useful in determining the volume of resection, reducing the number of analyzed lymph nodes limited to sentinel lymph nodes, and re-staging when metastases are detected in the sentinel lymph node. The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility of postoperative sentinel lymphatic node detection (hereinafter referred to as ex vivo sentinel lymph node mapping) in patients with colorectal carcinoma. METHODOLOGY: The clinical study included a total of 58 patients. Thirteen patients were intraoperatively excluded. Ex vivo sentinel lymph node mapping by methylene blue was used in this study to detect the lymphatic micrometastases. Lymph node preparations were also stained with hematoxylin eosin, followed by immunohistochemical staining of serial sections. RESULTS: Ex vivo sentinel lymph node technique was performed in 45 patients, successfully in 41/45 (91.1%). 22.9 lymph nodes (range: 11 to 43) and 1.7 sentinel lymph node (range: 0 to 4) were resected and stained. Sentinel lymph node staining was negative in 15/45 patients (33, 3% false negative results). CONCLUSIONS: Limited histopathology analysis by ex vivo sentinel lymph node mapping can not replace a complete histological analysis of all resected lymph nodes.