Middle East Journal of Rehabilitation and Health Studies
Volume:5 Issue: 4, Oct 2018

The use of ultrasound (US) as an imaging modality for the evaluation of the musculoskeletal system in the rehabilitation settings has expanded dramatically in the last decade. The resolution of US has improved thanks to the technological advancements, and access is easier due to the lower cost of equipment. The US in the rehabilitation settings adds accuracy on diagnosis and security in dynamic guidance for interventional procedures. These benefits have increased the US use in musculoskeletal clinics and rehabilitation settings, providing clinical, anatomical, and technical integration all in a one-day evaluation. The aim of this review is to instruct beginners in the recognition of different musculoskeletal tissues, commonly seen artifacts, and understanding the basics of musculoskeletal ultrasound.

Sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit positions is a daily living activity in chronic stroke patients that needs acceptable lower extremity function and good postural control. Therefore, the analysis of available knowledge seems necessary in order to introduce the best method for the treatment of patients and recovery of the sit-to-stand task.

This study is a non-systematic review in which databases including PubMed, Ovid, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect were searched for scientific articles of original research published between January 1990 and December 2017. It investigated muscle activity, foot positions, and the effect of exercise on the sit-to-stand task in stroke survivors.

The results showed that there is a delay in the paretic side muscles and asymmetry on the muscle torques between the legs that result from a weakness in the knee joint extensor muscles. Additionally, placing the paretic foot behind the non-paretic foot in sit-to-stand task leads to enhanced muscle activity. Increasing muscle activity leads the legs to be symmetrical and improves the sit-to-stand task.

The legs’ muscle strength, foot positions during the task, and different exercises can be useful in achieving independence and improving the sit-to-stand task in stroke survivors

Recent studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency is more common in women with uterine leiomyomas than in healthy women. Molecular investigations have also confirmed the role of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of uterine leiomyoma. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether vitamin D administration is effective in the treatment of leiomyoma in patients suffering from vitamin D deficiency.

This is a double-blind clinical trial (registration No. IRCT2014121511019N4). Fifty one women diagnosed with uterine leiomyomas who were also suffering from vitamin D deficiency were randomly divided into two groups: the intervention group (n = 26) and the control group (n = 25). The intervention group received vitamin D3 following the guidelines provided by an endocrinologist, while the control group received placebo. For each group, changes in the size of leiomyoma were measured. Furthermore, before the start of treatment and two and four months into the treatment, menstrual blood loss volume was assessed using the pictorial blood loss assessment chart (PBAC), pelvic pain was assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS), and serum hemoglobin level was also determined. These measurements were compared between the two groups.

At the baseline, the median of the total volume of leiomyoma in the intervention and control groups was 731.8 and 440.5 cm3, respectively. After four months of treatment, the aforementioned values were 691.1 and 404.9 cm3, indicating a significantly greater decrease in the volume of leiomyoma in the intervention group than in the control group (P = 0.014). The intervention group showed a significantly greater decrease in PBAC than the control group (P = 0.02). However, there were no significant differences between the two groups in the pain or menstrual blood loss indices.

We conclude that the treatment of vitamin D deficiency in patients with uterine leiomyoma may reduce the size of leiomyoma

Dentistry is considered a difficult occupation. Hence, it could adversely influence the general health and life quality of dentists. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) and its relationship with gender, age, education level, systemic diseases, and job satisfaction among dentists in Semnan in 2015-2016.

This cross-sectional study was conducted among dentists (61 general dentists and 15 dental specialists) in Semnan, Iran, in 2015 - 2016. A checklist was used to collect information including gender, age, education level, systemic diseases, and job satisfaction. The HR-QoL was determined by the SF-36 questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS 17 and t-test (P < 0.05).

Seventy-six dentists including 40 males (52.6%) and 36 females (47.4%) aged 26-69 years with a mean age of 41.5 ± 7.8 participated in the study. The dentists’ HR-QoL was at an appropriate level (total score: 73.2 ± 10.8, physical component: 76.6 ± 12.8, mental component: 64.8 ± 16.0). Gender (males vs. females; P = 0.991), age ( < 35 vs. > 35 years; P = 0.892), education level (general dentists vs. dental specialists; P = 0.590), systemic diseases (with vs. without a systemic disease; P = 0.140), and job satisfaction (satisfied vs. unsatisfied; P = 0.199) revealed no significant effect on the HR-QoL.

This study concluded that the dentists working in Semnan had an approximately high level of health-related quality of life.

Weight gain modifies body geometry by adding mass to different areas of the body.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of body mass index (BMI) groups on postural stability of elderly females in a quiet stance by measuring the center of pressure (CoP) velocity.

This quasi-experimental study consisted of 77 inactive females over 65 years old (67.7 ± 3.5) who had come to the Sports Medicine Center (Kiev, Ukraine) in the summer of 2017. All participants were classified into normal, overweight, and obese groups based on BMI. Postural stability was taken in a quiet stance (static situation) on a foam mat with open (OE) and closed (CE) eyes in anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) directions by the force platform. Each test was performed two times for 30 seconds, and CoP was recorded at a sampling rate of 200 Hz.

In the AP direction, obese females swayed significantly faster than females with normal weight during OE (1.1 cm/s and 0.84 cm/s, respectively) and CE (1.2 cm/s and 0.88 cm/s, respectively) conditions. In the ML direction, higher CoP velocities in females with normal weight were observed than in obese females under OE conditions (0.55 cm/s and 0.43 cm/s, respectively) and CE (0.76 cm/s and 0.56 cm/s, respectively).

Obesity had a negative influence on postural stability in the AP direction. However, given the expansion of the support base, obese females were more stable than normal-weight females along the ML direction. Study outcomes can be useful for obese people, medical staff, and healthcare decision-makers.

Myofascial trigger points are known as the main reasons for the neck pain. Myofascial trigger points may change the coordination of cervical muscles and cause impaired proprioception.

The aim of this study was to investigate the onset of shoulder and cervical muscles activity and muscles recruitment pattern in patients with an active myofascial trigger point in the upper trapezius.

15 patient subjects (aged 26.80 ± 2.67 years) with one active myofascial trigger point in the upper trapezius and 15 control subjects (aged 27.73 ± 3.43 years) participated in this study. The subjects flexed their arms in response to a sound stimulus. The onset time of anterior deltoid was chosen as the initial point in showing the onset time of cervical paraspinal, lumbar paraspinal, upper trapezius, sternocleidomastoid, and medial head of gastrocnemius muscles.

The patient group represented a delay in the onset of muscles activity and altered muscle recruitment pattern compared to the control subjects (P < 0.001). However, the sternocleidomastoid muscle showed no delay in this group (P = 0.67).

These results showed latency in the onset of muscles activity and altered muscles recruitment patterns. The altered muscles recruitment pattern may lead to changes in motor control strategies and poor control of movement. Finally, these changes can cause a poor control of movement and increase the possibility of damage to the shoulder and cervical muscles in patients with an active myofascial trigger point in the upper trapezius.

Nowadays, school administrators and designers are increasingly convinced that the quality of school buildings, spaces, and learning environments can influence students’ health and learning. It makes sense to them that, when classrooms are clean, healthy, and well-lit, students are more comfortable, less prone to illness, and more focused on their studies. The current study aimed at investigating the environmental health and safety status in primary schools of Garmsar city, Iran with the recommended standards.

The statistical population of the current descriptive, cross sectional study was selected by the census method. To accomplish this, a checklist related to the school environmental health inspection provided by the Ministry of Health, was completed through direct observation.

Most schools had favorable conditions in terms of the medical examinations (75%), appropriate drinking fountains (69%), standard toilets (87%), window height (90%), natural lighting (65%), safety in the installation of the heater (84%), electrical and lighting (72%), fire extinguisher (68%), sewage disposal (100%), and daily waste collection (72%). However, most of the schools had no health care rooms (66%), standard first aid kit (57%), emergency exit (69%), hygienic tuck-shops (59%), standard bench and desk (53%), favorable ventilation (54%), and the appropriate distance of the board (53%).

It was concluded that the physical status of the primary schools of Garmsar was approximately in accordance with the required standards of School Health Regulations. However, some school buildings needed repair, which should be considered in government programs. In order to guarantee the safety of schools, it is more important to evaluate the defects of the environmental health status of schools

Fulfilling the activities of daily living requires skilfulness. Knowledge of the skill level of healthy people helps therapists evaluate and treat patients. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine spatial resolution of children aged six to eleven years old by Box and Block and Nine Hole Peg test.

This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 90 healthy children aged six to eleven years old. The ability of healthy children was once measured after becoming familiar with how they performed the Box and Block test and Nine Hole Peg test.

In this study, Children in the age range of eleven to twelve, nine to ten, and seven to eight years in the Box and Block test presented a mean ± SD of 71.23 ± 8.14, 63.21 ± 2.93, and 57.90 ± 3.78 blocks in the right dominant hand, and 67.87 ± 6.33, 64.21 ± 4.47, and 56.94 ± 4.41 blocks in the left dominant hand, respectively. Using the Nine Hole Peg test obtained a mean ± SD of 19.87 ± 1.61, 19.83 ± 2.26, and 22.84 ± 2.38 seconds in the right dominant hands and 21.83 ± 2.27, 21.38 ± 2.55, and 27.74 ± 2.36 seconds in the left dominant hand.

The study found that using the Box and Block test and the Nine Hole Peg test can distinguish between skills of healthy children with children, who have special needs at any age and, they receive interventions based on the difference in range.

One of the relatively common symptoms in non-fluent aphasia is agrammatism. Agrammatism is characterized with low syntactic complexity and deficits in verb inflection, especially tense markers. Verbs as the main core of sentences in the Persian language have vital functions for people to have effective communication.

The current study aimed at evaluating the effect of morphosemantic method on verb-tense inflection in Persian-speaking patients with aphasia and agrammatism.

Morphosemantic treatment was conducted in five stages in a case report study. The material was 46 black and white line-drawing pictures related to 23 verbs including 10 training, 10 expansion, and three exemplar verbs drawn in present and past tenses. In three phases, the percentage of correct verb inflection in the training and expansion verbs was measured and also the graph examination of level, slope of trend, and C statistic, 2-standard deviation band, effect size (percentage of non-overlapping data), and d statistic were used to analyze the data.

Both participants demonstrated significant changes in training and expansion verbs during therapeutic sessions in comparison with the baseline. The effect of therapy was maintained for a three-week follow-up.

Therapy for verb inflection in spontaneous speech is clinically important. The current study demonstrated that morphosemantic method can be successfully used for tense marker deficits in Persian-speaking patients with aphasia and agrammatism.