Anticipatory postural adjustments in older versus young adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) are a feedforward mechanism triggered in advance to a predictable perturbation, to help the individual counteract mechanical effects that the disturbance may cause. Whether or not this strategy is compromised in the elderly is not a consensus in the literature.

Methods: In this systematic review with meta-analysis, we investigated aging effects on postural control, based on anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs).

Postural Adjustments in HTLV-1 Infected Patients during a Self-Initiated Perturbation.

Background: Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infection can be associated with tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP/HAM), which causes neurological myelopathy and sensory and muscle tone alterations, leading to gait and balance impairments. Once trunk perturbation is predicted, the motor control system uses anticipatory and compensatory mechanisms to maintain balance by recruiting postural muscles and displacement of the body's center of mass.

Methods: Twenty-six participants (control or infected) had lower limb muscle onset and center of pressure (COP) displacements assessed prior to perturbation and throughout the entire movement.

Wearable Inertial Sensor Approach for Postural Adjustment Assessments during Predictable Perturbations in Sport.

Introduction: Evidence supports the importance of efficient postural control to improve performance in sports. This involves the use of strategies such as anticipatory posture adjustments and compensatory adjustments. Technology makes analysis and assessments in sports cheaper, while being valid and reliable compared to the gold-standard assessment equipment.

Postural Adjustments and Kinematic Index Finger Features in Frail Older Adults under Different Equilibrium Constraints.

Anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) are significantly affected by age and may represent restrictions on functional independence. Previous studies in young adults have already highlighted that changing postural stability (i.e.

Gait patterns in ischemic and hemorrhagic post-stroke patients with delayed access to physiotherapy.

Objectives: (1) To assess the effects of a conventional, delayed physiotherapy protocol used by Ischemic Stroke (IS) and Hemorrhagic Stroke (HS) post-stroke patients, in their electromyographic activation patterns during hemiparetic gait; and (2) to study whether this protocol may improve the functional abilities in this population.

Methods: This is an observational, descriptive, and analytical quasi-experimental trial. Forty patients with unilateral IS ( ) and HS ( ) stroke were recruited; the stroke involved the motor cortex or sub-cortical areas, and the patients were able to walk independently.

Postural adjustments impairments in elderly people with chronic low back pain.

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is associated with postural control impairments and is highly prevalent in elderly people. The objective of this study is to verify whether anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) and compensatory postural adjustments (CPAs) are affected by CLBP in elderly people by assessing their postural control during a self-initiated perturbation paradigm induced by rapid upper arm movement when pointing to a target. The participants' lower limb muscle onset and center of pressure (COP) displacements were assessed prior to perturbation and throughout the entire movement.

Chemoradiation induced multiple sclerosis-like demyelination.

We report the case of a 28-year-old man, diagnosed with a non-secreting, non-metastatic suprasellar germinoma treated with chemoradiation who developed, four months after completion of radiation therapy, multiple discrete demyelinating lesions mimicking multiple sclerosis (MS). The patient had no previous diagnosis of MS and the neuroimaging studies performed both at the time of diagnosis and after chemotherapy, pre-irradiation, showed no evidence of white matter lesions. He remained asymptomatic, with no focal neurological deficits.

Paroxysmal pain as the only presentation of focal epilepsy.

Painful seizures can be the only feature of focal epilepsy. Its localization on a limb favors the epileptic etiology, while abdominal or cephalic paroxysmal pain is not so specific. Painful somatosensory seizures arise from operculo-insular cortex.

Challenges of New Approaches in Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma.

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare and aggressive cutaneous tumor, and the use of checkpoint inhibitors immunotherapy is a recent indication in its metastatic setting, both first and second line. However, the widespread use of immunotherapy is associated with an increase of acute and late immune-mediated adverse events. We present a case of an elderly fit patient with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma treated with pembrolizumab who developed diabetic ketoacidosis, a severe immune-mediated adverse event.

ATP1A3: an unusual antigen to consider in patients with subacute ataxia and vertical gaze palsy.

The anti-ATP1A3 antibody seems to be directed against a neuronal and cardiac surface protein of the proton ATPase. It was recently identified in a patient with a paraneoplastic syndrome characterized by cerebellar, neuro-ophthalmologic and other neurological symptoms. We report another patient with a similar clinical and radiological syndrome but with a different associated tumor and outcome.