Lower Limb Fatigue Research Articles

Effects of petrissage massage on fatigue and exercise performance following intensive cycle pedalling

Objective:Petrissage is assumed to influence circulation as well as interstitial drainage of both superficial and deep tissues. To study its effect it was applied between consecutive bouts of supramaximal exercise...

Surveillance study for creating the national clinical database relating to ECG-gated myocardial perfusion SPECT of asymptomatic ischemic heart disease in patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus: J-ACCESS 2 study design

Diabetes mellitus is an independent risk factor for acute myocardial infarction. Thus, a surveillance study was conducted as part of studies to create a national database related to electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) of ischemic heart disease. Single-photon emission computed tomography was conducted in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and their prognoses will be followed for 3 years, stratified by patients' clinical background and SPECT findings. A total of 513 patients from 50 institutions were enrolled in this study, 297 of whom were men (age 66.2 +/- 0.4 years, mean +/- SEM) and 261 women (age 67.8 +/- 0.5 years). They have a history of retinopathy (25.3%), neuropathy (19.9%), cerebrovascular disorder, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and photocoagulation. Major risk factors for present disease were hypertension (82.3%) and hyperlipidemia (79.7%). In 244 patients (129 men and 115 women), body mass index (BMI) was 25 or more. Fifty-two of them (10.1%) underwent coronary angiography; of these, 26 (50.0%) had no coronary artery lesions with 75% or more stenosis, and only 1 (1.9%) had a left main trunk with 50% or more stenosis. An overwhelming majority of patients (94.3%) underwent SPECT imaging by a 1-day stress-followed-by-rest procedure. Stress procedure was exercise in most (70.8%) patients, followed by dipyridamole infusion in 14.6%, adenosine infusion in 6.6%, and adenosine triphosphate infusion in 5.7%. Endpoint of stress examination was most often fatigue in lower limbs (40.7%), followed by completion of pharmacological stress protocol (28.7%), and achievement of target heart rate (26.3%). The largest number of patients (198, 38.6%) received (99m)Tc-tetrofosmin at an initial dosage of 200-300 MBq (mean 331 +/- 3 MBq) followed by a second dosage of 700-800 MBq (mean 748 +/- 8 MBq). Among them, 491 (95.7%) received some kind of therapeutic drug: hypoglycemic drugs were used by the largest number (83.2%), followed by hypotensive (66.7%), hypolipidemic (40.7%), and antiplatelet drugs (27.7%), vasodilators (5.5%), and antioxidants and others (2.3%). This study was designed to clarify the correlation between coronary artery disease and diabetes mellitus as its risk factor based on the clinical and imaging findings. Patient enrollment was closed on September 30, 2005, and follow-up is now under way.

Can lower limb fatigue be reliably induced in male athletes?

Basketball, soccer and volleyball players incur a high incidence of lower limb overuse injuries, which have been attributed to factors including player fatigue and repetitive jumping movements typical of these sports. As fatigued muscles are less able to absorb the loads generated during landing, it is thought that fatigue may contribute to the development of overuse knee injuries by increasing the repetitive shock transferred to patellar tendon during landing. However, before the relationship between fatigue and lower limb injuries can be systematically investigated, it is imperative to establish a reliable protocol to induce lower limb fatigue.

Reasons for Terminating an Exercise Test Provide Independent Prognostic Information: 2014 Apparently Healthy Men Followed for 26 Years

Aims We wanted to study whether reasons for terminating an exercise test might influence long-term mortality of healthy men, a previously unreported subject. Methods and results During 1972–75, 2014 men aged 40–59, free from somatic diseases and not using drugs, underwent an examination programme including case history, clinical examination, various blood tests, and a symptom limited exercise ECG-test. The following reasons for test termination were noted: impaired breathing, lower limb fatigue, exhaustion (=combined lower limb fatigue and impaired breathing), high heart rate, abnormal blood pressure response, heart arrhythmias, increasing chest pain during exercise, marked ST-depressions during the test, and refusal to continue. Follow-up was 26 years. When adjusting for age, men who stopped exercising exclusively because of impaired breathing ( n =178) had a 1.86-fold increased risk (95% CI 1.34–2.60; P =0.0002) of dying from coronary heart disease (CHD), a 1.64-fold increased risk (95% CI 1.32–2.03; P <0.0001) of dying from any cause, and a 3.47-fold increased risk (95% CI 2.24–5.12; P <0.0001) of dying from pulmonary causes compared with men having defined exhaustion ( n =1376). After adjustment for age, smoking, total serum cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, systolic blood pressure, and physical fitness, impaired breathing remained significantly associated to an increased risk of dying from CHD, pulmonary disease, or any causes. Conclusion Healthy men who stop bicycle exercising only because of impaired breathing have a high long-term CHD-, pulmonary-, and total-mortality, and such men may need further diagnostic scrutiny and follow-up.

Reasons for terminating an exercise test provide independent prognostic information: 2014 apparently healthy men followed for 26 years

We wanted to study whether reasons for terminating an exercise test might influence long-term mortality of healthy men, a previously unreported subject. During 1972-75, 2014 men aged 40-59, free from somatic diseases and not using drugs, underwent an examination programme including case history, clinical examination, various blood tests, and a symptom limited exercise ECG-test. The following reasons for test termination were noted: impaired breathing, lower limb fatigue, exhaustion (=combined lower limb fatigue and impaired breathing), high heart rate, abnormal blood pressure response, heart arrhythmias, increasing chest pain during exercise, marked ST-depressions during the test, and refusal to continue. Follow-up was 26 years. When adjusting for age, men who stopped exercising exclusively because of impaired breathing (n=178) had a 1.86-fold increased risk (95% CI 1.34-2.60; P=0.0002) of dying from coronary heart disease (CHD), a 1.64-fold increased risk (95% CI 1.32-2.03; P<0.0001) of dying from any cause, and a 3.47-fold increased risk (95% CI 2.24-5.12; P<0.0001) of dying from pulmonary causes compared with men having defined exhaustion (n=1376). After adjustment for age, smoking, total serum cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, systolic blood pressure, and physical fitness, impaired breathing remained significantly associated to an increased risk of dying from CHD, pulmonary disease, or any causes. Healthy men who stop bicycle exercising only because of impaired breathing have a high long-term CHD-, pulmonary-, and total-mortality, and such men may need further diagnostic scrutiny and follow-up.

鉛取扱い者の末梢神経障害に関する電気生理学的検討

In occupational lead poisoning neurological symptoms, especially minor degrees of peripheral nerve damage, seem to be still common, although severe one such as lead palsy is now rare in clinical practice. Neurological and electrophysiological investigations were performed in 59 workers handling lead in 5 factories. The duration of the exposure was from less than one year to 43 years. Their age distribution was 18 to 64 years, with a mean of 38.4 years. Most of them had some of such complaints as joint pain, lumbago, muscle pain, dizziness, fatigue of lower limbs and so forth. Various nerve conduction measurements were done at median and tibial nerve segments of one side for every worker. Routine electromyography revealed neurogenic changes such as slight decrease in NMU, polyphasic potentials and occasional giant spikes in 39 cases. MCV reduced in 6 cases in the median nerve (*) and 2 cases in the tibial nerve. Sensory nerve conduction velocity was reduced in 8 cases in the median nerve. In 2 cases no sensory action potential could be recorded from the median nerve. Mixed nerve conduction velocity was significantly decreased in 11 cases for the median nerve segments (*) and im 9 cases for the tibial nerve segment.The results mentioned above suggested that there was an evidence of abnormality of peripheral nerve functions in the lead workers without marked clinical neurological signs. Besides, present electrophysiological examination revealed moderate disturbances not only of the sensory nerves but of the motor nerves in most cases. There did not appear any association between the electrical findings and urine lead levels or length of exposure to lead. ((*) The meam conduction velocities of both nerves were significantly lower in the group of lead workers as compared with the age-matched control group. p<0.01.)