Journal of Modern Rehabilitation
Volume:14 Issue: 1, Winter 2020

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Despite the glowing advancement of Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT), clear evidence about its effectiveness in stroke is still scarce. Hence it is essential to review the current information to provide up-to-date insight. Therefore the aim of this review is to evaluate the effects of VRT on the balance and Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in patients with stroke.

A literature search was done in Google Scholar, PEDro, Cochrane Library, Medline, Web of Science, and PubMed databases.

 We performed a systematic review of randomized controlled trials published from June 2014 to January 2020, evaluating the effects of VRT on the balance and/or HRQoL in stroke. Fourteen eligible trials were analyzed, of which, 7 studies focused on balance and 7 on HRQoL.

Methodological quality and risk of bias were assessed using the Cochrane tool.

Most of the trials supported the effectiveness of VRT in improving balance and HRQoL. However, few trials reported similar improvements in HRQoL using VRT via Nintendo WiiTM games and conventional physiotherapy.

High to moderate evidence supports the effectiveness of VRT use in improving balance and HRQoL in stroke survivors.

This study aimed to investigate the mechanism and incidence of sports injuries in male handball players of the Iran premier league.

The study data were collected by an injury report form filled out based on the video analysis. A total of 46 out of 90 videos of matches were analyzed. The statistical population of this study consisted 120 players of ten teams. Concerning this point that data were non-parametric, the Chi-squared test (P<0.05) was used to analyze the gathered data.

Mean±SD height, weight, and age of the handball players were 184.3±6.5 cm, 85.2±8.5 kg, 23.4±4.2 years, respectively. A total of 105 injuries were recorded; this rate is equal to 164.5 injuries per 1000 h of competition. Most injuries occurred in lower extremities (39.2%), especially in the knee (21%), (χ2=26.92, P=0.001). The injury rate among back players (54.1%) was higher compared to other players (χ2=26.95, P=0.001). The difference in the type of contact that resulted in injury was statistically significant (χ2=60.40, P=0.001). The main mechanisms of injury in different playing positions were blocking (23.8%), being blocked (21%), and face hitting with hand (18.1%) (χ2=1.05, P=0.001). The rate of injury in the dominant side (70.4%) was significantly higher than the non-dominant side (29.6%), (χ2=8.96, P=0.003).

Among handball players of the Iranian premier league, most of the injuries occurred in the knee and ankle regions. Back players suffered more injuries in comparison with other players. Also, blocking was the dominant mechanism of injury.

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of visual and skill training on learning forehand drive in table tennis and motor-perceptual abilities (reaction time, coincidence-anticipation timing, eye-hand coordination, and depth perception).

Forty volunteer female students (Mean±SD age: 21.50±0.78 years) were selected and randomly assigned to one of four groups (each group had 10 participants): visual and tennis training group, visual training group, tennis training group, and control group. Motor perceptual abilities (reaction time, coincidence-anticipation timing, eye-hand coordination, and depth perception) and forehand drive performance were measured before and after the training period, and also after 24 h retention period. After the pretest, including the accuracy of the kicks test for assessment of forehand drive in table tennis and motor-perceptual test, the experimental groups underwent four weeks (three sessions per week) of visual training, table tennis forehand training, or both. The control group followed their normal daily life for the whole study period. Then, they participated in the posttest and 24 h later in the retention test of kick accuracy.

The results revealed that visual and table tennis training, visual training, and table tennis training had a significant effect on the reaction time (P=0.001), coincidence-anticipation timing (P=0.001) and eye-hand coordination (error time) (P=0.01). Moreover, visual and tennis training and table tennis training had a significant effect on the acquisition (P=0.001) and retention of forehand drive (P=0.005). Besides, the post hoc LSD (Least Significant Difference) test showed that visual and tennis training had a more significant impact on the learning forehand drive. Visual training and tennis training had a significant effect on eye-hand coordination (number of errors). The three types of training programs were not effective in the depth of perception.

Visual training can be used as a supplementary program in the athletes’ training schedule.

Alzheimer Disease (AD) is a neurological disorder associated with the progressive damage of memory and problems in communication and language skills. The examination of language in AD was less studied; therefore, this research aimed to compare linguistic characteristics between AD patients and their healthy counterparts.

A total of 32 patients with AD (16 women and 16 men) with an Mean±SD age of 77±7.41 years, and their healthy peers (19 women and 13 men) with an Mean±SD age of 81.34±6.04 years participated in this study. Both groups were evaluated with the Persian bedside version of western aphasia battery. The results were assessed by the Independent t test. The significance level was set at less than 0.05.

The mean scores of each test and the general criterion for the adversity quotient index were significant between the two groups (P<0.001). The highest difference was in continuous and naming indices, and the least difference was seen in the repeat index.

The AD considerably affects all oral language skills; therefore, patients are significantly weaker than healthy individuals.

Wernicke and Broca are two essential types of aphasia in which patients’ productive and comprehensive abilities are affected, respectively. Although the lexico-semantic knowledge, as the heart of language comprehension, has been investigated in many research studies, there are still some controversies regarding the nature of probable lexical deficits in these patients. This study tried to delve into this issue and provide a plausible explanation in the Persian setting.

In doing so, 6 patients with Broca Aphasia (BA), 6 patients with Wernicke Aphasia (WA), and 12 healthy age- and education-matched monolingual controls were selected. Conducting a lexical decision task, each patient was required to decide whether the third word of an auditory presented triplet was meaningful or not. The first and last words of the triplet were related or unrelated to the ambiguous middle word.

The results showed the similarity of the performance of WA patients to that of healthy control. That is, the context shaped by the first word facilitated the activation of the third word. Thus, they exhibited selected access to different meanings of ambiguous words as the healthy controls did. In contrast, semantic facilitation was not observed in BA patients.

Our results supported the previous findings asserting the intactness of semantic representation in WA patients.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of Kinesio Taping (KT) on low back/pelvis pain, disability, and trunk Range of Motion (ROM) in individuals with nonspecific chronic low back pain (CLBP) after 72 h.

Eighteen patients with nonspecific CLBP participated in this study. Pain intensity, Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire, and lumbar ROM were evaluated once before the intervention (KT with 50% tension) and then 72 h after. For statistical analysis, we used the paired sample t-test.

Pain intensity was significantly reduced (P<0.01). But KT did not improve disability and lumbar ROM (P>0.05).

Based on the results, 72 h KT over the lumbopelvic area did not improve disability and lumbar ROM in people with nonspecific CLBP while there was a significant reduction in pain intensity. The proposed mechanism of the KT effects is inconsistent with these results.

Developing children’s skills in producing oral narratives can reflect their linguistic and cognitive abilities. However, to evaluate these abilities appropriately, it is necessary to find and apply an efficient narrative assessment tool. This study primarily aimed to assess the reliability and validity of a picture story, as a narrative eliciting tool, based on Persian-speaking children’s narratives. This assessment is going to be done at the microstructure and macrostructure levels. Furthermore, to evaluate the power of the assessment tool, we explored the effect of age and gender variables on using different narrative elements at the microstructure and macrostructure levels.

We used a picture story, “Frog, where are you?” to elicit oral narratives in 48 subjects, including 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old boys and girls. The reliability and validity of the tool were respectively assessed by test-retest and factor analysis.

The findings indicated a significantly high correlation between the evaluated features based on test-retest. Besides, factor analysis revealed four categories: sentence structures, references, conjunctions, measures of story length. They were valid indicators for assessing Persian-speaking children’s narratives. The results also showed a statistically significant difference among different age groups, but an insignificant effect of gender on using discursive features in the tales.

The picture story “Frog, where are you?” can be used as a reliable and valid narrative eliciting tool for Persian data at the microstructure and macrostructure levels. Also, the age factor, but not the gender one, affects the stories recited by Persian children.