Content - Volume 44, Issue 10

Objective: To compare the clinical implications of electro-diagnostic study with those of magnetic resonance imaging in patients with lumbosacral intervertebral herniated disc or spinal stenosis. Design: Retrospective study of clinical data. Patients: Patients with lumbosacral intervertebral herniated disc or spinal stenosis, diagnosed by clinical assessment and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ...

Background: To optimize patient functioning, rehabilitation professionals often rely on measurements of functioning as well as on classifications. Although the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) are used, their joint use has yet to become an established practice. To encourage their joint use in daily pract ...

Objective: To determine the effects of physiotherapy interventions on balance in people with multiple sclerosis. Data sources: A systematic literature search was conducted in Medline, Cinahl, Embase, PEDro, both electronically and by manual search up to March 2011. Study selection: Randomized controlled trials of physiothe-rapy interventions in people with multiple sclerosis, with an outcome mea ...

Objective: To describe the dose of lower limb exercise completed during admission to a stroke unit, establish predictors of dose and explore the relationship between dose and walking outcomes. Design: Inception cohort study. Participants: Two hundred consecutively-admitted people with stroke. Methods: Repetitions of exercise completed throughout the admission were tallied. Possible predictor ...

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of segmental neuromyotherapy combined with standard hospital therapy relative to standard therapy alone in patients with hemiplegic shoulder pain. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Patients: A total of 24 patients with positive Neer’s and hand-behind-neck tests received standard therapy for shoulder pain. Half of them received additional segmental neu ...

Objective: To describe the timing and factors associated with the occurrence of sentinel events (financial strain, difficulty accessing therapy, return to work, accommodation change and independent transport use) during transition to the community for individuals with traumatic brain injury. Design: Longitudinal cohort design with data collected pre discharge and at 1, 3 and 6-month follow-ups. ...

Objective: To compare the clinical implications of electro-diagnostic study with those of magnetic resonance imaging in patients with lumbosacral intervertebral herniated disc or spinal stenosis. Design: Retrospective study of clinical data. Patients: Patients with lumbosacral intervertebral herniated disc or spinal stenosis, diagnosed by clinical assessment and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ...

Objective: To investigate the inter-tester reliability of a non-specific low back pain examination procedure, for sub-classifying non-specific low back pain. Design: Reliability study. Participants: Thirty patients with non-specific low back pain (12 males, 18 females, mean age: 27.7 years (standard deviation 10.3) and 7 physiotherapists (raters). Methods: Based on a health professionals’ c ...

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of low back pain among caregivers of patients with spinal cord injury and to investigate the risk factors for LBP among this population. Design: A cross-sectional study. Subjects: A total of 100 spinal cord injured patients and their caregivers, and 87 healthy control subjects. Methods: Caregivers and control subjects completed a questionnaire about demogra ...

Objective: To establish whether proprioception and varus-valgus laxity moderate the association between muscle strength and activity limitations in patients with early symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. Design: A cross-sectional study. Subjects: A sample of 151 participants with early symptomatic knee osteoarthritis from the Cohort Hip and Cohort Knee study. Methods: Regression analyses were perf ...

Background: The Measure of Activity Performance of the Hand (MAP-Hand) is reliable and valid in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Objective: To assess the validity and responsiveness of the MAP-Hand in patients with hand osteoarthritis. Methods: Patients were recruited from 2 rheumatology centres. The internal consistency of the MAP-Hand was assessed by Cronbach’s α. Content validity wa ...

Objective: To compare the accuracy of combinations of clinical examination findings for predicting a positive response to injection of local anaesthetic into the subacromial bursa. Design: Prospective, cohort, diagnostic validity design. Subjects: Consecutive patients with shoulder pain recruited from primary care physiotherapy and general medical practices. Methods: All subjects underwent a s ...

Objective: To assess whether children/adolescents with unilateral congenital below elbow deficiency experience activity or participation limitations and how they deal with those limitations. Methods: A qualitative study using online focus group interviews was held with 42 children/adolescents (in 3 age groups: 8–12, 13–16, and 17–20 years), 17 parents and 19 health professionals. Questions ...

Objective: To determine whether regular interval training on a seated double-poling ergometer can increase physical capacity and safely improve performance towards maximal level in individuals with spinal cord injury. Methods: A total of 13 subjects with spinal cord injury (injury levels T5–L1) performed 30 sessions of seated double-poling ergometer training over a period of 10 weeks. Sub-maxi ...