Breathing-coordinated exercise improves the quality of life in hemodialysis patients.

Breathing-coordinated exercise is a traditional Chinese exercise. These exercise maneuvers consist of slow diaphragmatic breathing, end-inspiratory pause, and Kegel's exercise. A total of 30 patients were enrolled in this study, with 12 patients as controls, to evaluate its effect on hemodialysis patients. Exercise was performed for 25 to 30 min twice a day for at least 3 months. Results from the exercise group showed a subjective improvement in appetite and physical strength, and an increase in the frequency of bowel movements, in addition to enhanced sexual activity and a significant increase in Karnofsky scores. Six patients in the exercise group underwent bicycle ergometry and demonstrated a stable maximal oxygen consumption, whereas the control group revealed a decline in maximal oxygen consumption. Photoelectric plethysmography and laser-Doppler flowmetry demonstrated a pulsatile enhancement of the peripheral microcirculation. Abdominal sonography revealed an oscillatory change in the diameter of the inferior vena cava. It was concluded that these gentle exercise maneuvers may improve the quality of life in hemodialysis patients, especially weak dialysis patients. The mechanism may be partly related to an improvement in microcirculation.

Electroejaculation in spinal cord injured males.

Electroejaculation is a newly developed method to retrieve sperm in anejaculatory spinal cord injured (SCI) males. We studied 25 completely traumatic SCI males from August 1990 to May 1991. The patients' ages ranged from 18.7 to 43.3 years, and the interval since injury ranged from four months to 14.1 years. The level of injury varied from C5 to T12. Bi-directional emission was found in 12 patients, antegrade in nine, retrograde in one and failure in three. Electroejaculatory stimulation parameters were 434 +/- 54 mA for mean maximum current, 21.7 +/- 2.7 volts for mean maximum voltage and 35.9 +/- 3.1 degrees C for mean maximum probe temperature. The antegrade semen obtained showed wide variations in sperm quality and quantity between subjects. The total sperm count was 478 +/- 809 x 10(6) in the antegrade portion, and the sperm motility was below 5% in most cases. The retrograde portion was usually worse. There was no correlation between sperm quality and quantity with patient age, injury level or injury period. Bladder management had no effect on the results of electrical stimulation. Epididymitis had a negative impact on the success of retrieval. Low-level injury victims needed analgesia or anesthesia to complete the stimulation. The major side effects were minimal autonomic dysreflexia and mild rectal mucosal change. Repeated stimulation may improve sperm counts, but semen quality deteriorates if the procedure is performed once a week. As a whole, electroejaculation is a safe, effective and simple procedure to retrieve sperm in anejaculatory persons, especially SCI patients.

In vitro screening of antimotility effect on human sperm with polyphenolic compounds purified from Chinese herbal medicines.

PIP: 24 kinds of pure compounds extracted from Chinese herbal medicines were studied for their effects on human sperm motility. 7 were found to inhibit sperm motility at the concentration of 2 mg/ml. These 7 substances were further investigated for their sperm motility-inhibitory effect at the concentration of 3.0 mg/ml, 4.5 mg/ml, and 6.75 mg/ml to test the dose-related response. The results showed that 5 of the 7 extracts, namely casuarinin, cinnamtannin B-1, pedunculagin, epicatchin-(4beta-8)-epicatechin-(4beta-8)-catechin, and catechin have a strong inhibitory effect on sperm motility with dose-response relationship. Since the chemical structures of these extracts have already been determined, further studies should aim at exploring the mechanisms of their antimotility effect on human sperm. It would appear that some traditional Chinese herbal medicines have the potential of becoming new and acceptable forms of male oral contraceptives in the future.^ieng

Antimotility effects of Chinese herbal medicines on human sperm.

Caesalpinia sappan extract from a study of screened Chinese herbal medicines was found to be a potent agent for the inactivation of human sperm in vitro. Exposure of sperm from healthy donors to this agent showed remarkably reduced sperm motility. The antimotility effect of Caesalpinia sappan is concentration-dependent and about 2.5 mg/ml is required to reduce motility to 50% the control medium (EC50). This result suggests that this traditional Chinese herbal medicine possesses an antimotility effect on human sperm in vitro and has the potential of becoming in the future a new and acceptable male oral contraceptive.