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To investigate the association between preoperative extracellular water–to–total body water ratio (ECW/TBW) and time to walking independence among female patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA). This retrospective cohort study included female patients who underwent primary THA between January and December 2022. Preoperative ECW/TBW was measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis and dichotomized at 0.400. The primary outcome was time to walking independence within 14 postoperative days. Cox proportional hazards models assessed the association between ECW/TBW and walking independence, adjusting for age, comorbidities, nutritional status, skeletal muscle mass index, non-operated knee extensor strength, walking pain, and maximum walking speed. Model performance was evaluated using likelihood ratio tests, Harrell’s C-index, and time-dependent area under the curve (AUC). Among 142 patients, 118 (83.1
Intracerebral hemorrhage is a severe type of stroke with high morbidity and mortality. Accurate assessment of hemorrhage phase is essential for determining treatment strategies, but magnetic resonance imaging evaluation remains subjective and lacks standardized criteria. This study aimed to create an objective method for estimating the phase of intracerebral hemorrhage using multi-sequence magnetic resonance imaging with 6 sequences: T1-weighted imaging, T2-weighted imaging, diffusion-weighted imaging, apparent diffusion coefficient map, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery, and T2 star-weighted magnetic resonance angiography. We retrospectively analyzed 56 patients with intracerebral hemorrhage. Magnetic resonance images used in this study were acquired using GE 1.5T scanners. Relative signal intensities were calculated using the pons as a reference, and a hemorrhage map was generated using color-coding pixels according to the 5 hemorrhage phases. Seven observers performed visual evaluations under 2 conditions: conventional image sets and hemorrhage maps. Diagnostic performance was assessed using precision-recall curves, average precision, and mean average precision. Interobserver agreement was evaluated using Fleiss' κ coefficient. The mean average precision of visual evaluation with the hemorrhage map was significantly higher than that of visual evaluation with original images (0.81 vs. 0.57, p < 0.01). Visual evaluation with hemorrhage map achieved “Almost perfect agreement” (κ = 0.85), whereas visual evaluation with original images demonstrated only “Slight agreement” (κ = 0.06). This study developed a novel diagnostic support method for estimating intracerebral hemorrhage phase using multi-sequence magnetic resonance imaging. By visualizing relative signal intensity as a color-coded hemorrhage map, the proposed method significantly improved both diagnostic accuracy and interobserver agreement compared with conventional visual evaluation.
BACKGROUND:Social environments exert profound influences on behavior and mental states. However, the impact of indirect social stimuli-specifically the visual recognition of opposite-sex conspecifics housed in adjacent cages-on mouse behavior has not been thoroughly investigated. This study aimed to comprehensively examine the sex-dependent behavioral effects of chronic opposite-sex visual exposure. METHODS:Male and female C57BL/6N mice were housed for 21 days in transparent cages placed adjacent to either opposite-sex or same-sex conspecifics. Following this period, a comprehensive behavioral test battery was conducted, including assessments of body weight, nociceptive sensitivity, aggressive behavior, anxiety-like behavior, social interaction, spatial working memory, and depression-like behavior. RESULTS:In male mice, opposite-sex exposure induced significant increases in body weight, heightened nociceptive sensitivity, enhanced aggression, and reduced depression-like behavior. In female mice, opposite-sex exposure resulted in increased aggression, reduced anxiety-like behavior in the open field test, and decreased alternation performance in the Y-maze. No significant differences were observed in social interaction measures in either sex. CONCLUSION:Chronic opposite-sex visual exposure in mice induces distinct behavioral changes in males and females. These findings highlight a novel mechanism by which non-contact social stimuli modulate behavior in a sex-dependent manner and provide insights relevant to understanding the influence of opposite-sex recognition on human psychology and behavior. Furthermore, the results emphasize the necessity of considering opposite-sex exposure when designing housing conditions and behavioral experiments in laboratory settings.
Developing animal models to investigate depression is a major challenge in psychiatric research. Although social defeat stress (SDS) is a well-established method, conventional protocols often involve shared housing that may not fully represent human social stress where physical harm is not constant. This study investigated whether mice exhibit chronic psychological stress when housed in separate, adjacent cages rather than shared cages. Subject and attacker mice were housed in adjacent transparent cages for three weeks, with a 10-minute social defeat task conducted daily. Subsequently, mouse-specific depressive behavior and serum corticosterone levels were measured. Our results showed that SDS without using a shared cage significantly increased depressive behavior and elevated stress hormone corticosterone levels in mice. These results indicate that SDS without using the same cage effectively induces behavioral changes similar to traditional SDS. This suggests that a breeding environment where neighboring cages can be observed is sufficiently stressful for mice, opening new possibilities for SDS research mediated through visual and other sensory information.
