Journal of Clinical Physiotherapy Research

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to investigate the immediate effect of time (30 and 90 seconds) trigger point compression techniques in the latent trigger points of upper trapezius muscle. Methods and Materials: A total of 39 women, aged between 20-30 who were diagnosed with latent MTrPs in the upper trapezius muscle, participated in the present study. Participants were randomly assigned to 3 groups, 13 each, using block randomization method: trigger point compression (30 sec), trigger point compression (90 sec), and control group. In all groups, the measurements were carried out before and after the intervention. Results: The duration of 30 and 90 sec trigger point compression techniques were observed to decrease the pain and increase the pain pressure threshold (P<0.001). Significant differences were found between the duration of 30 sec trigger point compression technique and control group in terms of pain magnitudes (P<0.001) and pain pressure threshold (P<0.01). Also, there were significant differences between the duration of 90 sec trigger point compression technique and control group regarding pain magnitudes and pain pressure threshold (P<0.001). Moreover, significant differences were observed between these 2 treatment groups in terms of pain magnitudes (P<0.05) and pain pressure threshold (P<0.001). The duration of 90 sec trigger point compression technique was observed to have more effects compared with that for duration of 30 sec. Conclusions: The results of the present study indicated that each of the 2 treatments decreased pain and increased pain pressure threshold. The results introduce the duration of 90 sec trigger point compression technique as a more effective treatment compared with that of the duration of 30 sec for latent MTrPs.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a serious and prevalent health condition, with many patients ultimately requiring ventilation support. Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) has been suggested as a therapeutic option for improving pulmonary function in these patients. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of NIV for improving pulmonary function.

Methods: Fifty hemodynamically stable patients with stage 3 or 4 COPD presenting to our center were randomly assigned into two groups of rehabilitation with (n=25) or without NIV (n=25). NIV was administered using I=12 and E=4 with BiPAP settings. Echocardiography, spirometry, six-minute walk test (6MWT), COPD Assessment Test (CAT), and venous blood gas (VBG) analysis were performed at baseline and after 4 weeks of rehabilitation and compared using appropriate statistical tests.

Results:  The mean age of the participants was 60.8±10.6 years and 84% were males. The two groups were similar regarding baseline variables, except for the higher number of stage 4 patients in the NIV group. The mean ejection fraction and pulmonary artery pressure were 53.6±4.3% and 37.2±9.6 mmHg, respectively, with no significant difference between the study groups (P>0.05). All pulmonary function indices by spirometry, 6MWT, and VBG values improved significantly after rehabilitation in each group (P<0.05), but NIV patients showed no advantage over the control group. However, NIV significantly increased the CAT scores after rehabilitation: 29.32 vs. 25.04, in the NIV and control groups, respectively (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Despite having multiple health benefits in COPD patients including decreasing the mortality rate and the need for invasive ventilation, NIV showed superiority compared with rehabilitation alone only in improving the CAT score.

Introduction: The Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease causes the significant muscular deficits in the affected patients, inhibits activities daily living, and involves a severe disability. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of concurrent use of a knee-ankle foot orthosis along with a body jacket orthosis to improve activities daily living in a person with CMT. Methods and Materials:  A boy aged 16 years old with CMT was evaluated in this case report. He had a sever Kypho-scoliosis deformity in his spine and sever equines in his feet with unstable knee. In order to control of knees and ankles simultaneously, an ankle foot orthosis with the supracondylar trimline was designed. The control of his sever spinal deformity was also provided by a body jacket over shoulder. To evaluation of activities daily living, subject was asked to filled Barthel index out during a week. After one month, the individual was asked to fill the Barthel index out again.  Finally, user friendly of orthotics were evaluated by a satisfaction questionnaire. Results: The results indicated that the orthoses was capable to improve activity daily living (25 percent increase after using orthosis in Barthel index). Also, results showed 30 percent increase after using orthosis for the QOL questionnaire. The mean of scale in satisfaction questionnaire were 4.5 based on Likert scale. Conclusion: This single-case study demonstrated the control of spinal and lower limb is simultaneously necessary for the improvement of activity daily living.

Key words: ADL, QOF, Charcot-Marie-Tooth, Orthotics And Spinal Deformity

Introduction: Low back pain, knee disorders and rheumatoid arthritis are the most common musculoskeletal diseases in Iran and throughout the world. The studies conducted in the developed countries have shown that this disease has considerable effect on the functional abilities and quality of life of patients. There are a few studies about this issue in Iran. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effect of knee and low back pain on the functional disability and quality of life of patients resident in Tehran. Materials and Methods: 220 musculoskeletal disorders (knee and low back pain and rheumatoid arthritis) from one hospital in Tehran, Iran participated in the study. Persian versions of Arthritis Impact Measurement Scale 2-short form (AIMS2-SF) and Short form health survey (SF-12) were used to measure the functional disability and quality of life. AIMS2-SF questionnaire that has been designed exclusively for rheumatoid arthritis patients measures the functional disability of patients in five dimensions: physical (upper and lower limbs), symptoms, feelings and social condition. Results: mean age and education of patients in this study was 53(low back pain), 45 (knee pain), and 58 (RA) years old, respectively. 59% of subjects were women. Mean of physical dimensions, upper limbs, lower limbs, symptoms, feelings, and social conditions were 1.46, 1.32, 2.12, 3.65, 3.40, and 3.78 (of 10), respectively. The mean of eight dimensions of quality of life based on the SF-12 questionnaire was 43 to 64 (of 100). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the quality of life and functional abilities of musculoskeletal disorders are influenced significantly by diseases. Based on this, the increasing of physical activity and the intensive physiotherapy programs result in improvement of quality of life in these diseases.

Basketball is one of the most popular sport activities in the world and also has a high risk of sports injuries. For applying effective interventions for treatment and prevention of musculoskeletal injuries, reliable and accurate information about injury prevalence is essential. This study was performed with the purpose of evaluating of prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries in basketball players. In this descriptive observational study 36 athletes were participated. All data collected through standardized report and comprehensive evaluation was done for injury diagnosis. Data was collected with excel 2007 and analyzed with SPSS version 16. Ankle injury was recorded as the most common injury which 19 players (52.8% of players) experienced. Knee injury was the second common injury which 15 players suffered from.

Background: Workers usually perform lifting and reaching tasks as part of their daily job. Having proper posture plays a key role for reducing the loads implemented to spine during lifting and prevention of further injuries. We aimed to extend a previously published work on spinal load estimation that used different biomechanical tools, by using artificial neural network (ANN) for posture prediction instead of camera-marker during lifting and reaching.

     Method: In this study, to underline the efficacy of biomechanical models, we examined and compared the results of multiple mathematical tools (loads at L4/L5 and L5/S1 levels) for reach-and-lift in the sagittal plane (i.e., symmetric tasks) and for lifting tasks with  and of back rotation (i.e., asymmetric tasks). In this regard, we employed AnyBody, OpenSim, and 3DSSPP (which are modeling software), a regression equation called Arjmand equation, and finally, McGill, Potvin, and Merryweather that are estimators. Inputs to these models are provided using an artificial neural network (ANN), a posture prediction model introduced by literature for predicting the three-dimensional posture of the spine in various activities, which is trained and tested by experimental data.

     Results: Results showed that while Anybody has the most accurate approximations, Arjmand equation also offers a quite realistic output that is, considering its simplicity, compatible with the biomechanical nature of the problem. Using ANN posture prediction, the results (for 4 symmetric taks) show less than 15% error from a marker-based study in the literature which was considered as a accurate model.

     Conclusion: Arjmand regression along with using ANN for posture prediction may lead to a reliable solution for spinal loads estimation during lifting and reaching, especially when an equipped laboroatory or/and expensive software licenses are not available.

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