COVID-19 lockdown and the rate of central precocious puberty.

Purpose: The aim of our study was to compare the incidence of idiopathic central precocious puberty (CPP) in our highly specialized Endocrinological Center before and after the onset of COVID-19 lockdown; we also aimed to identify any potential difference between girls with CPP from the two different time periods.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the auxological profile of 49 girls with idiopathic CPP: 30 with pre-lockdown onset and 19 with post-lockdown onset of the disease. We collected patients' characteristics (medical history, physical examination, baseline and dynamic hormonal assessment, bone age, pelvic ultrasound) and compared them between the two groups.

Species interactions mediate thermal evolution.

Understanding whether populations and communities can evolve fast enough to keep up with ongoing climate change is one of the most pressing issues in biology today. A growing number of studies have documented rapid evolutionary responses to warming, suggesting that populations may be able to persist despite temperature increases. The challenge now is to better understand how species interactions, which are ubiquitous in nature, mediate these population responses to warming.

Recognizing primary effort thrombosis in primary care.

Primary effort thrombosis is a noniatrogenic deep vein thrombosis of the upper extremity. The incidence of this condition is 1 to 2 in 100,000 per year. The risk factors and typical patient population differ from other thrombotic events.

Stretch reflex and Hoffmann reflex responses to osteopathic manipulative treatment in subjects with Achilles tendinitis.

Context: Irvin M. Korr, PhD, hypothesized that sensitivity of the monosynaptic stretch reflex (ie, deep tendon reflex) plays a major role in the restriction-of-motion characteristic of somatic dysfunction, and that restoration of range of motion through osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) could be achieved by resetting of the stretch receptor gain.

Objective: To test Korr's hypothesis in the context of Achilles tendinitis, examining whether OMT applied to patients with Achilles tendinitis reduces the strength of the stretch reflex.

Communication for osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT): the language of lived experience in OMT pedagogy.

Questions about the scientific merits of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) and the search for consistent, effective teaching methods for OMT persist in the discourse of the osteopathic medical curriculum. Although grounded on scientific principles, the philosophy of osteopathic medicine in the words of Andrew Taylor Still, William G. Sutherland, and other prominent osteopathic medical scholars advances concepts in metaphoric language that may seem obscure and dated to many of today's students.

An electromyographic study of elbow motion during postexercise muscle soreness.

Postexercise muscle soreness was induced in the elbow flexors of human volunteer subjects through the use of a regimen of eccentric contractions. Physical examination before and 48 h after the exercise included measurements of range of elbow motion at the elbow and of arm diameter. Electromyographic (EMG) observations, utilizing fine wire electrodes introduced into each of the elbow flexors, were carried out before and 48 h after the exercise.