Masahiro Kitamura

Activities of daily living at different levels of renal function in elderly hospitalized heart failure patients

BackgroundRenal function (RF) and activities of daily living (ADL) are risk factors for heart failure (HF) patients.AimsWe evaluated differences in motor and cognitive ADL in relation to RF in elderly hospitalized HF patients.MethodsParticipants were selected from 414 consecutive hospitalized HF patients based on certain criteria. We investigated patient characteristics including Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Subjects were divided into three groups by RF level and analyzed with one-way ANOVA and Chi-square tests and two-way ANCOVA and multiple comparison tests.ResultsOf the 414 patients, 165 met the inclusion criteria (high RF: 41, moderate RF: 84, low RF: 40). There were significant differences between the three groups in age, eGFR, hemoglobin level, mobility, cognitive function, and length of hospital stay (p < 0.05). Motor FIM showed an interaction between term and group, and cognitive FIM showed a main effect on the group (p < 0.05). In the multiple comparisons, motor FIM of all groups indicated significant recovery, but it was significantly lower after 1 week in the low RF versus moderate/high RF groups (p < 0.05). Cognitive FIM showed no significant recovery in the low RF group; the FIM score after 2 weeks was significantly lower than that in the moderate/high RF groups (p < 0.05).ConclusionsIn elderly hospitalized HF patients, the motor ADL recovery process in the low RF group was delayed compared to the high RF group. Cognitive ADL in hospitalized HF patients is difficult to recover, especially in those with low RF.

Study of promotion of freeze-drying process by a blower using thermal edge flow

A blower using the thermal edge flow was proposed, which consists of thin plates in which there are several cuts and the one side of each cut is rounded, and one-way flow is realized. This blower was shown to promote the freeze-drying process in a low-pressure environment. Using a freeze-drying equipment which has a cold trap and heating plate that supplies the latent heat to materials, several sponge blocks and chemical powder were frozen and dried, and the drying time was shortened to almost a half by this blower.

A Study of Promotion of Sublimation Phenomenon of Freeze Drying by Using Thermal Edge Flow

A blower driven by the thermal edge flow was shown to be possible to use for freeze drying. First, the pressure rise by the thermal edge flow was confirmed by using an accumulation unit. The pressure rise of 5Pa was given. Next, the effect of the blower for sublimation from frozen material was confirmed by using frozen sponges containing some water. The necessary time for drying by using the blower was roughly half compared with a drying time by not using the blower and the effect of the blower for sublimation depended on the surrounding vacuum pressure.Copyright