[Chronic low back pain : Comparison of mobilization and core stability exercises].

Background: For the treatment of chronic low back pain (cLBP), both core stability and mobilization exercises were introduced. The aim of this prospective randomized clinical pilot study was to compare the efficacy of mobilization and core stability exercises with regard to objective and subjective outcome measures in patients with cLBP.

Method: After a per-protocol analysis, the data of 27 patients with cLBP, who were randomly allocated to one of the two groups, were analyzed.

Low contrast dose voiding urosonography in children with phase inversion imaging.

Voiding urosonography (VUS) using a microbubble contrast agent has been introduced as an alternative technique in the diagnosis of vesicoureteral reflux (VUR). This study was undertaken to assess if phase inversion ultrasound (PIUS), a recent microbubble specific imaging technique, has advantages over fundamental in VUS and if it allows a reduction of contrast agent dose. Forty-three children with suspected VUR (aged 3 days-12 years, average of 3.

Magnetic resonance measurements of the deviation of the angle of force generated by contraction of the quadriceps muscle in dogs with congenital patellar luxation.

Objective: To measure the quadriceps angle (Q-angle) in dogs with congenital patellar luxation using magnetic resonance (MR) methods.

Study Design: Prospective clinical study.

Animals: Thirty-eight client-owned dogs.

The correlation of canine patellar luxation and the anteversion angle as measured using magnetic resonance images.

Measurements from magnetic resonance (MR) images can be used to examine the anteversion angle (AT-angle) and its influence on the lateromedial or mediolateral luxating forces on the patella. The AT-angle of the femoral neck was measured with the aid of MR imaging in 45 pelvic limbs without patellar instability, in 33 limbs with patellar luxation and in 6 limbs with rupture of the cranial cruciate ligament. The limbs with medial patellar luxation were divided into three groups based on clinical examination.

Successful treatment of active ankylosing spondylitis with the anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha monoclonal antibody infliximab.

Objective: Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) has been detected in sacroiliac joint biopsy specimens from patients with spondylarthropathy. The present open pilot study was undertaken to test the efficacy of the anti-TNFalpha monoclonal antibody infliximab in the treatment of active ankylosing spondylitis (AS).

Methods: Eleven patients with AS of short duration (median 5 years, range 0.

[Intramural pseudodiverticulosis of the esophagus].

Esophageal intramural pseudodiverticulosis is a rare benign condition with the cardinal symptom of dysphagia mostly due to inflammatory strictures. The disease frequently develops in connection with alcohol abuse and esophageal reflux, candidiasis or motility disorders. Characteristic is the radiological visualization of intramural saccular contrast accumulations.

Follow-up of the use of local health department clinics for preventive care among young children.

We followed 18,490 infants from their first visit to a county child health clinic (CHC) in Maryland through visits through their third year of age to investigate whether their continued use of the CHCs was related to their characteristics or to the services they were provided as an infant. We classified as provided services immunization, an Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment Program (EPSDT) recommended screening, and number of visits. Immunization was associated with an increased percentage of infants who returned to the CHCs at two and three years of age.

Gestational age reporting and preterm delivery.

This study examines recent trends in the reporting completeness and quality of gestational age estimates derived from the date of the last normal menses (DLNM) as reported in South Carolina vital records from 1974 to 1985. Noteworthy improvements in the completeness of reporting emerged during this period with a decline from 31.1 percent missing information in 1974 to 6.

Racial disparities in pregnancy outcomes: the role of prenatal care utilization and maternal risk status.

Distinct black-white differences in pregnancy outcome and prenatal care utilization have been a persistent feature of U.S. natality-related statistics.

Prenatal care utilization: its measurement and relationship to pregnancy outcome.

This study proposes a redesigned measure of prenatal care utilization based on modifications made to a preexisting index of the adequacy of such care. Six prenatal care utilization groups were delineated: intensive, adequate, intermediate, inadequate, no-care, and missing/unknown. Using 430,349 cases from South Carolina and North Carolina vital records from 1978 to 1982 (live birth-infant death cohort files for white resident mothers), this proposed prenatal care utilization measure was examined by maternal sociomedical risk characteristics (age-parity, marital status, education, complications of pregnancy, and previous pregnancy terminations) and by pregnancy outcomes (birth weight, gestational age, and birth weight- and gestational age-specific neonatal mortality).

Maternal perinatal risk factors and child abuse.

A retrospective matched pair study was designed to compare maternal perinatal factors such as abnormal pregnancy history and labor and delivery experience in families who subsequently were reported as physically abusive to one or more of their children as compared to non-abusive families. The study population consisted of the mothers of 532 children reported to the Baltimore (Maryland) Department of Social Services as physically abused during the years 1975-77. The comparison group was handmatched to the study group from State of Maryland birth certificates on the basis of the abused child's birth year and sex, maternal race, education and hospital of delivery.

Interdisciplinary training for child welfare and health.

Recognition of the symbiotic relationship of the child welfare and child health disciplines led to a project that developed and tested health concepts and methods curricula for child welfare administrators and research staff.