Journal of Modern Rehabilitation
Volume:13 Issue: 1, Winter 2019

Plantar fasciitis (PF) is an overuse syndrome as it develops over time. It is most frequently seen in both the non-athletic and athletic populations. PF is a multifactorial and self-limiting disorder that several factors are involved in its onset. Many well-established treatments are available for plantar heel pain. The purpose of this review is to determine the effectiveness of dry needling for the management of PF.

This article is a review study, in which we present the studies that compare dry needling with other treatments for the management of plantar heel pain. We included all of the studies on patients with plantar heel pain and plantar fasciitis that investigated the effects of dry needling. Finally, seven articles were included in this review. The study designs were randomized controlled, quasi-experimental, and case-control. The Physiotherapy Evidence-based Database (PED) scale was used to measure the methodological quality of the studies.

The PEDro scoring of the articles ranged between 2.10-7.10. The results of this review show that dry needling may be useful in improving the pain of individuals with plantar heel pain and plantar fasciitis.

Further high-quality research studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of dry needling in the management of plantar heel pain. Because a variety of protocol treatments of dry needling were used in the studies, we cannot recommend dry needling schedule prescriptions for the management of individuals with plantar heel pain and plantar fasciitis.

Recent studies suggest that treatment should be begun immediately in children who have recently started to stutter. The purpose of this study was to design a telehealth application for parents of young children who stutter. It is an evidence-based treatment that can be administered from an early age compared to the current “wait and see” approaches.

This research involved a qualitative content analysis. At first, a comprehensive review was performed on different well-established therapeutic programs, and their main therapeutic components were extracted via several sessions held by our focused group. Subsequently, six independent stuttering experts and five parents of stutter children were asked to rate the program’s items regarding its content and face validities by a 5-point Likert questionnaire. Finally, the entire program was used to form an easy to use, family-friendly software.

Seven therapeutic principles and five common factors were extracted from all available well-established stuttering treatment programs. They were designed in an easy to use software program. The final telehealth program was found to have a high face and content validities.

This program might be used in future clinical practice for stuttering children under the age Four. However, its efficacy has yet to be examined.

Lumbar stiffness is a common complaint of patients with low back pain. The Muscle Energy Technique (MET) is a common intervention to treat the spine and sacroiliac joint dysfunctions and their resulting disability in daily activities. This research aimed to evaluate the effects of MET on pain, functional disability, and lumbar stiffness of patients with sacroiliac joint dysfunctions by considering the type of dysfunction and the orientation of the correcting maneuver.

Fifty women with ant innominate or post innominate dysfunctions were recruited for the research and randomly divided into two groups (n=25). One group received one session of MET, and the other group received the sham position. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), lumbar Stiffness Disability Index (SDI) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) were used for the evaluation of the participants before, 24 hours after and one week after the intervention.

According to the results, MET significantly decreased the mean range of VAS and ODI, 24 hours, and a week after the intervention (P<0.01). We did not see any significant difference in SDI values before, 24 hours, and one week after MET in the patients (P>0.01).

Applying MET regarding the kind of dysfunction may reduce the patient’s pain and disability.

One of the most challenging decisions is to assess the preterm infant’s transition from tube feeding to oral feeding. Thus, we require a reliable tool for determining the time to start oral feeding. This study aimed to measure the interrater and intrarater reliability of the Preterm Infant Oral Feeding Readiness Assessment scale (PIOFRA).

This study was an observational, cross-sectional study. The study participants were preterm infants who had been hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Shariati Hospital affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, between December 2017 and February 2018. The inclusion criteria were absence of neurological and gastrointestinal disorders or major congenital anomalies, Apgar score 3 or more in the first 1 minute, and 5 or more in the first 5 minutes. The exclusion criteria included family’s unwillingness to participate in the study, infant’s death, or a sudden change that affects neonates’ nutritional status, like cerebral hemorrhage or intestinal problems.

The interrater and intrarater reliability of the total PIOFRA scale was good Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC˃0.75). The interrater and intrarater reliability of most items were good and excellent, with weighted kappa more than 0.50, with the exception of lip posture and especially stress sign, with weighted kappa less than 0.40.

Generally, most items of the PIOFRA scale had acceptable interrater and intrarater reliability. Also, the interrater and intrarater reliabilities of the total POFRAs score was good.

Subclinical hypothyroidism is an endocrine disorder that can adversely affect cognitive performance. In this regard, patients with subclinical hypothyroidism may develop poor attention. However, the effects of this endocrine disorder on auditory attention is unclear. This study aims to evaluate the impact of subclinical hypothyroidism on auditory divided attention.

This cross-sectional, case control study was performed on 30 adult patients, aged 20-40 years, who met the study inclusion criteria. Based on their Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) level, the subjects were divided into two case groups (each with 15 patients) with a TSH level of 5˂TSH≤10 and 10˂TSH≤15. A healthy control group was recruited with matched age, sex, and education with the case groups. The participants were evaluated by the Persian version of the Bergen dichotic listening test. Among different experimental situations that included non-forced attention, forced right, and forced left, we chose the non-forced attention. Statistical analysis was done in SPSS V. 25.

There was a significant difference between the subclinical hypothyroid (5˂TSH≤10 group) and controls in the scores of the right and left ear. However, there was no significant difference between scores of right and left ear in subclinical hypothyroid (10˂TSH≤15 group). No significant difference in scores of the right and left ear was found between men and women in three groups.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of shortened-length versus through-range exercise training on upper quarter posture in primary school students with Forward Head Posture (FHP).

Sixty pain-free participants with FHP were randomly allocated to one of three groups; shortened-length training (n=20), through-range training (n=20), and no-treatment control group (n=20). The shortened-length and through-range groups participated in training programs 3 times per week for 8 weeks. Upper quarter postures, including Craniovertebral Angle (CVA), Shoulder Angle (SA), Cranial Angle (CA), and thoracic kyphosis were measured by photogrammetry before and after the training. The confidence level was set at 95% (P<0.05).

After training, both exercise groups showed significant changes in CVA (P=0.001), SA (P=0.001), CA (P=0.001), and thoracic kyphosis (P=0.001) compared to the control group. Besides, CVA changed more in the shortened-length exercise group compared to the through-range exercise group (P=0.003) (effect size =0.446).

Both through-range and shortened-length exercises altered upper quarter alignment. The shortened-length training resulted in a more significant change in CVA. These changes were small, and more studies are needed to investigate the effects of such training programs among people with pain.

Position sense, one of the most accurate senses in the body, makes everyone aware of the state of the body in space. This sense is an essential ability in maintaining physical health and avoiding injury. Deficits in position sense cause balance impairments in people with mild Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Position sense requires instant and coordinated communication between the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system, while in patients with MS, communication between the brain and other parts of the body is disrupted. This study aims to compare the position sense of knee joint in people with MS and healthy subjects.

Ten healthy subjects with the Mean±SD age of 27.6±3.71 years and 10 persons with MS disease and the Mean±SD age of 31.40±3.50 years participated in this study. For evaluating their position sense of knee joint, they flexed their knees (from 90 to 45 degrees) four times, and then a software calculated their repositioning errors.

No significant changes in repositioning errors (constant, variable, absolute) were observed in MS patients, and the control group (P˃0.05).

The results indicate that mild MS disease cannot disturb the position sense of knee joint.