Manual therapy and therapeutic exercise in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the hip: a systematic review.

This systematic review aimed at investigating the role of therapeutic exercise and/or manual therapy in the treatment of hip osteoarthritis (OA). Two independent reviewers (AR, CV) searched PubMed, Cinahl, Cochrane Library, PEDro and Scopus databases and a third one (SP) was consulted in case of disagreement. The research criteria were publication period (from May 2007 to April 2012) and publication language (English or Italian).

The Prolo Scale: history, evolution and psychometric properties.

Background: The Prolo Scale (PS) is a widely accepted assessment tool for lumbar spinal surgery results. Nevertheless, in the literature there is a dearth of consensus about its application, interpretation and accuracy. The purpose of this review is to investigate the evolution of the PS from its introduction in 1986 to the present, including an analysis of different versions of the scale and research on the existing studies investigating its psychometric properties.

Self-reported gait unsteadiness in mildly impaired neurological patients: an objective assessment through statistical gait analysis.

Background: Self-reported gait unsteadiness is often a problem in neurological patients without any clinical evidence of ataxia, because it leads to reduced activity and limitations in function. However, in the literature there are only a few papers that address this disorder. The aim of this study is to identify objectively subclinical abnormal gait strategies in these patients.

Clinical and functional outcomes of the saddle prosthesis.

Background: The implantation of a saddle prosthesis after resection of a pelvic tumor has been proposed as a simple method of reconstruction that provides good stability and reduces the surgical time, thus limits the onset of intraoperative complications. There are no studies in the literature of patients evaluated using gait analysis after being implanted with a saddle prosthesis. The present study is a retrospective case review aimed at illustrating long-term clinical and functional findings in tumor patients reconstructed with a saddle prosthesis.

Ribosomal DNA organization before and after magnification in Drosophila melanogaster.

In all eukaryotes, the ribosomal RNA genes are stably inherited redundant elements. In Drosophila melanogaster, the presence of a Ybb(-) chromosome in males, or the maternal presence of the Ribosomal exchange (Rex) element, induces magnification: a heritable increase of rDNA copy number. To date, several alternative classes of mechanisms have been proposed for magnification: in situ replication or extra-chromosomal replication, either of which might act on short or extended strings of rDNA units, or unequal sister chromatid exchange.

A new protocol for 3D assessment of foot during gait: application on patients with equinovarus foot.

Background: The aim of this study is to assess the clinical value of a recently introduced original protocol for full three dimensional analysis of ankle rotations in patients with equinovarus foot.

Methods: A preliminary study merging the Total3Dgait protocol and the conventional Vicon® Plug-in-Gait marker-sets on five patients with foot deformity was performed to compare the output exactly over the same gait cycles. In the second study, 15 patients with equinus varus foot were assessed retrospectively by means of the Total3Dgait protocol before and after surgery.

Diagnosis of flexible flatfoot in children: a systematic clinical approach.

The goal of this study was to provide measures of symptoms and signs in a consecutive case series of children with flexible flatfoot based on a systematic clinical approach. Fifty-three children (age range, 10-14 years) previously diagnosed with flexible flatfoot were evaluated by a structured interview and clinical assessment. Most patients had foot symptoms (65.

Genetic evidence that nonhomologous disjunction and meiotic drive are properties of wild-type Drosophila melanogaster male meiosis.

We have followed sex and second chromosome disjunction, and the effects of these chromosomes on sperm function, in four genotypes: wild-type males, males deficient for the Y-linked crystal locus, males with an X chromosome heterochromatic deficiency that deletes all X-Y pairing sites, and males with both deficiencies. Both mutant situations provoke chromosome misbehavior, but the disjunctional defects are quite different. Deficiency of the X heterochromatin, consonant with the lack of pairing sites, mostly disrupts X-Y disjunction with a decidedly second-level effect on major autosome behavior.

[A splenic autograft in posttraumatic splenectomies].

Background And Aims: The authors report their experience regarding the use of autologous splenic transplantation in post-traumatic splenectomy unable to be treated using conservative surgery. After reviewing the international literature on the subject, they report a retrospective survey of cases treated from January 1992 to December 1996.

Methods: Owing to the particular logistic location of the hospital in an area with a high density of industry and at the crossroad of major road and rail routes, a total of 56 patients were admitted to the Emergency Ward suffering from abdominal trauma in 4 years.

Kidneys derived from mice transgenic for human complement blockers are protected in an in vivo model of hyperacute rejection.

Purpose: The major obstacle to successful discordant kidney xenotransplantation is hyperacute rejection (HAR). Complement plays a key role in the induction of HRA, defined by endothelial cell activation, loss of vascular integrity, hemorrhage and thrombosis. The activation of complement is tightly controlled by a number of species-specific regulatory proteins which inhibit, at different points, the cascade of events leading to the formation of the membrane attack complex (MAC).

[Development of the steady-state cortical visual evoked response in children].

Steady-state VEPs responses (pattern reversal stimulation) have been studied by the application of frequency analysis with Fourier methods. Authors examined with this method a group of children aged from 4 to 12 years, without ophthalmological or neurological pathologies. Responses evaluation is based on the number of harmonic frequency components and also on the power spectra of the first two components.

The influence of early diabetes on the pattern electroretinogram.

Pattern electroretinogram response and contrast sensitivity were evaluated in two groups of diabetic patients by means of psychophysical and electrophysiological methods. The first group consisted of subjects suffering from diabetic retinopathy in various stages of evolution; the second was composed of diabetic patients with no fundus alterations and with good visual acuity. In both groups of patients, when the pattern electroretinogram was altered, contrast sensitivity was also abnormal.

[Nuclear magnetic resonance study of oculomotor alterations in multiple sclerosis].

The authors employing N.M.R.

Visual evoked potentials and CSF IgG at different stages of multiple sclerosis: a possible correlation.

Visual Evoked Potentials (VEP) have been investigated in 102 patients affected by Multiple Sclerosis (MS), classified both by disease stage and by optic pathway status. VEP abnormalities were significantly correlated with the clinical stage and increased CSF IgG levels. The delay in the VEP latencies and the CSF IgG values proved to be increased in parallel in the worsening phases of MS.