RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Poor body composition may affect health status, and better body composition is often associated with better academic performance. Nursing students face heavy academic and practical pressures, and the relationship between body composition and academic performance in this group is not fully understood. METHODS: This cross-sectional observational study used de-identified student data from a university of technology in southern Taiwan to analyze the correlation between body composition characteristics and academic performance using regression models. RESULTS: A total of 275 nursing college students were divided into four groups according to academic performance. The group with the lowest academic performance had a lower percentage of body fat (P < 0.05) but a higher percentage of muscle mass (P < 0.05) than the other three groups. Academic performance was positively correlated with percentage of body fat (R = 0.16, P < 0.01) and body age (R = 0.41, P < 0.01), but was negatively correlated with percentage of muscle mass (R = - 0.16, P < 0.01). Percentage of body fat, visceral fat area, and body age were significant discriminators of academic performance (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between academic performance and body composition among nursing college students is not straightforward. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, students with higher academic performance tended to have a higher percentage of body fat and a lower percentage of muscle mass. Percentage of body fat, visceral fat area, and body age were significant discriminators of academic performance, indicating that body composition should be considered an important factor in nursing education and practice.
RESUMO
Stroke typically occurs in elderly people with a range of comorbidities including carotid (or other arterial) atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. Accordingly, when evaluating therapies for stroke in animals, it is important to select a model with excellent face validity. Ischemic stroke accounts for 80% of all strokes, and the majority of these occur in the territory of the middle cerebral artery (MCA), often inducing infarcts that affect the sensorimotor cortex, causing persistent plegia or paresis on the contralateral side of the body. We demonstrate in this video a method for producing ischemic stroke in elderly rats, which causes sustained sensorimotor disability and substantial cortical infarcts. Specifically, we induce permanent distal middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in elderly female rats by using diathermy forceps to occlude a short segment of this artery. The carotid artery on the ipsilateral side to the lesion was then permanently occluded and the contralateral carotid artery was transiently occluded for 60 min. We measure the infarct size using structural T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 24 hr and 8 weeks after stroke. In this study, the mean infarct volume was 4.5% ± 2.0% (standard deviation) of the ipsilateral hemisphere at 24 hr (corrected for brain swelling using Gerriet's equation, n = 5). This model is feasible and clinically relevant as it permits the induction of sustained sensorimotor deficits, which is important for the elucidation of pathophysiological mechanisms and novel treatments.
