Journal of Modern Rehabilitation
Year:2011 | Volume:5 | Issue:1|Papers Count:12

Background and aim: Spinal injury especially during occupational lifting is one of the most common neuromuscular disorders in the general population of the world. Asymmetric motions of trunk frequent bending and twisting, lifting and forceful activities contribute to spine disorders. Sport as a comprehensive activity might be able to cause less force to the spine and decrease spinal injuries. The purpose of present study was to determine the effect of lifting on motor control pattern during combined symmetric and asymmetric trunk motions on athlete and non-athlete subjects.Materials and Methods: Seventeen non-athlete female subjects and seventeen athlete female subjects performed to lift four loads (5, 7, 9, 12 kilogram) at symmetric and asymmetric conditions. Under each condition temporal parameters of motor control were measured on flexor and extensor of trunk muscles.Result: In two groups of athletes and non-athletes with increasing load, muscles begin their activity faster (P<0.05). No significant change was found at asymmetric condition. Also, in athletes premotor time of muscles during lifting was less than non-athletes.Conclusion: With increasing load, according to the feed forward control mechanism and awareness of subjects from amount of loads, muscles quickly prepared to contract for starting the movement. It seems that the response of movement on the neuromotor system of athletes is preprogrammed and automatic due to sport experience. Actually muscles have anticipation activity.

Background and Aim: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor impairment in childhood and affects 2 in 1000 live births, in which postural and motor control involved. In hemiplegic type, two sides of the body have differences in postural tone that cause weight shift to the intact side. In these children postural disorders appear as postural stability disorder. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of lateral wedge insole on postural control in cerebral palsy children.Materials and Methods:  Sixteen hemiplegic children attended in this program and stood in two conditions on the force plate with and without lateral wedge on the hard plate. Center of pressure displacement measured for medio-lateral and antro-posterio directions. Every test took 20 seconds. It was repeated 3 times.Results: Range of sideways decreased significantly with use of 5o wedge. Also a shoe wedge of 5o provided symmetrical weight distribution.Conclusion: The results represent that a 5o lateral wedge applied to the unaffected limb, can improve factors of postural control and gain the symmetry in hemiplegic children.

Background and Aim: Forces imposed on body members even on light working condition, may gradually result in damages caused by working. Persons engaged at goods sales centers including cashiers, may be to catch exhaustion and neuromuscular damage due to repetition of their wrist, elbow and shoulder joints movement. The aim of this research is to assess the relation between the work factors and personal characteristic in possibility of the above symptoms.Materials and methods: The questioners form propounded at Stanford university question were asked and coded based on the target group, and having been reviewed and surveyed were later used in this research. This questioner included parts such as recording the personal characteristics, history of illnesses, clinical diagnosis and evaluation of the work environment and the hand tools. Selected individuals were randomly employed at goods sales centers from five geographical districts of Tehran.Results: The most complaint of employees was pain and dysfunction in upper limbs, neck and shoulder. Half of subjects had carpal tunnel syndrome. ength of work time and employment duration at sales centers increase probability of neck and shoulder pain.Conclusion: The profession of cashiering at sales centers is one of the most stress causing jobs on the peripheral joints of upper limb, so that the lengths of working in this position and the amount of activity have a positive effect on the increase of neuromuscular disorder. Apply of correct pattern of using the tools and the equipment in this work environment could substantially control the negative effects of this type of job. The most of complains expressed by individuals taking part in this research have been related to sign and symptoms of involvement of median nerve in the wrist and referral pain in the neck, shoulder and arm.

Background and Aim: Upper limb dysfunction is a common and disabling consequence of cerebral palsy. Any functional disorder in the hand can cause a person's independence to be disrupted and therefore his or her social independence is threatened. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of volar static splint on hand function, spasticity and wrist and elbow range of motion of 8 to 12 years old spastic children.Materials and methods: The design of this study was clinical trial and before-after. Fourteen 8 to 12 spastic cerebral palsy children that have the inclusion criteria of study were selected from rehabilitation clinics of Tehran. The patient used a volar static splint (10 degree of wrist extension, full extension of fingers and abduction and opposition of thumb) for 2 mounts (2 hours during day and 4 to 6 hours at night). In this study Jebsen Taylor Hand Function Test was used to evaluate hand function. Modified Ashworth Scale was used to evaluate spasticity. A Goniometer was used to measure range of motion.Results: The results of this study showed significant improvement in hand function, significant reduction in wrist spasticity and elbow spasticity  and significant increase in wrist range of motion The data did not show any significance in elbow range of motion. Conclusion: Our findings suggested that 2 months using of volar static splint in children with spastic cerebral palsy can improve hand function, wrist and elbow spasticity and wrist range of motion.

Background and aim: Flexible flat foot is a common deformity in lower extremity, the foot arch collapses and the ground reaction forces does not apply properly to the foot. Backward walking is a common rehabilitive technique and is utilized to improve strength and balance. The purpose of this present study is to compare the salient points vertical ground reaction force measurements in flat foot patients while walking forward and backward with those of healthy subjects using a force plate system.Materials and methods: 10 flexible falt foot female subjects and 10 healthy female subjects were recruited to participate in this study. Each Subject walked 5 times forward and 5 times backward and the vertical ground reaction force was measured by a force platform.Results: The results of this present study suggest a significant difference in kinetic pattern of forward walking compared to backward walking in both healthy and flexible flat foot participants. The force related to first peak of vertical ground reaction force was significantly less in forward walking compared to backward walking (p=0.000). Whereas the force related to trough and second peak of vertical ground reaction force were significantly high in forward walking compared to backward walking (p=0.000).Conclusion: The results of this study show that backward walking changes the ground reaction force compared to forward walking; and the main characteristic of this difference is due to decrease of forces applied to the heel of foot which may be important in flat foot patients.

Background and aim: Visuo-spatial attention is an ability by which a portion of visuo-spatial space is selected for efficient processing of the information orienting from it. people show a normal bias in visuo-spatial attention. The direction of this bias in Attention deficit Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is different from normal people's bias. Some cases diagnosed with ADHD can show a significant inattention in one side of the space, which is called unilateral neglect. The aim of this study is to investigate on how the visou-spatial bias is in children with ADHD.Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, fifteen children (7-10 years) were classified with ADHD-combined type (ADHD-C) and 15 children were matched for age, gender and IQ. Samples had been chosen through simple random sampling and they did Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children(WISC-IV) and also  the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory for assessing whether they had inclusion criteria or not. For participants, visuo-spatial attention was assessed using the Star Cancellation Test.Results: The results suggest that, there is a significant difference between ADHD-C groups performance and control group's performance in the Star Cancellation Test (p<0.05). Unilateral neglect recognized in ADHD-C group and it was in the left half of the space.Conclusion: There is a significant difference in visuo-spatial attention between ADHD group and control group. Moreover, unilateral neglect which has seen in some ADHD-C cases should consider as an important item in this disorder. Further research in this area is needed.

Background and aim: Cognition of fatigue effects on motion response can improve treatment approaches. Determination of mechanism (maximal voluntary contraction and repetition of movement) that cause change of central responses and neuromuscular transmission have specific emphasis in evaluation and treatment of patients. Following fatigue it is arguable which is more important, neural or osteo-ligamental components. Behavior of para spinal muscles due to their roles in control of posture and spinal alignments are more importance. Gesture and motion pattern of neck and lumbar column following fatigue is due to accession of disorder in neuromuscular junction (NMJ) or limitation in reflex response at this system. Reflex influence is not just for muscle fatigue but also it appeared in synergic muscles. It is clear that stimuli and inhibitory ways have important role in this process.Materials and Methods: Twenty normal subjects (10 female and 10 male) contributed in this study. Tests were including: 1- Training and warm up 2- Placement of recording electrodes on neck extensor muscles at second and forth spinal vertebra of dominant side. 3- Five motion of neck flexion and extension in sitting position at full range without external load. 4- Fatigue test, contain; A- Maximal isometric contraction at middle range about 3 minute, which were controlled by a dynamometer until onset of fatigue. B- Fifty dynamic and cyclic motions of neck flexion and extension in full range of it. 5- Perform five motions similar stage 3 immediately after muscle fatigue. Three middle cycles were chosen for evaluation. Degree of off activities in flexion, degree of onset of activities in extension, silent period and mean of muscles activities (RMS), before and after fatigue selected for analysis.Results: Comparison of two type of fatigue indicated that there are significant differences between them. Range of motion and eccentric activity were similar for two conditions. Isometric fatigue showed more effect than cyclic condition.Conclusion: In neck motions flexion relaxation occurred. Dynamic motion and isometric activities caused muscle fatigue and changed silent period. This period reduced and it means that onset of extensor muscle activities occurred very soon and moved to middle and outer ranges. In this manner, naught privilege mechanical of non contractile elements in neck region is cause of this reduction. On the other hand extensor muscles have more responsibility for control and preservation of posture. Comparison of two approaches indicated that isometric activity produce more fatigue and spectral indexes such as median and mean frequency reduced markedly.

Background and aim: Assessment of hip strength needs a reliable method. Hand-held dynamometers are appropriate alternatives for manual muscle testing and isokinetics. Stabilizing the dynamometer with hand will increase error in measurements. The purpose of this study was to compare the test-retest reliability of hand-held dynamometer fixed by hand and fixed to a new stable frame for measuring hip extension, abduction and external rotation strength in healthy female athletes.Materials and Methods: Normalized average and peak values of torque of three successive trials for each muscle group were calculated in two sessions one week apart in ten healthy female athletes. Strength was measured with hand-held dynamometer fixed by hand and fixed to the stable frame in each session. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC), coefficients of variation (CV) and standard error of measurement (SEM) were calculated to determine the reliability.Results: For hip extension, abduction, and external rotation strength measured by hand fixation. The ICC ranged from -1.22 to 0.6, the CV ranged from 8% to 33% and the SEM ranged from 0.007 to 0.04. For strength measurements with stable frame, the ICC ranged from .93 to .96, and CV ranged from 5.26% to 7.94%. The range of the SEM was from .004 to .08.Conclusion: Measurements of hip muscles strength with a dynamometer fixed to a stable frame showed higher reliability than fixation by hand in young female athletes. These findings support the error within hand fixation of dynamometers and the necessity for providing better fixation.