Publications by authors named "Joana Santos Costa"

Introduction: Lower limb amputees present a high risk of falling. This study aims to characterise fall history in unilateral lower limb amputees that are autonomous in the community, identifying differences between transfemoral and transtibial amputees and assessing fear of falling between fallers and non-fallers.

Material And Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional study of consecutive community-dwelling unilateral lower limb adult amputees of any aetiology, attending outpatient consultation in a Portuguese Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine central and university hospital department.

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Amongst other factors, host behaviour critically determines the patterns with which blood parasites occur in wild host populations. In particular, migratory hosts that sequentially occupy distant sites within and across years are expected to show distinct patterns of blood parasitism depending on their population-specific schedules and whereabouts. Here, we monitored haemosporidian parasitism in two populations of European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster), breeding in Portugal and Germany, with fundamentally different spatiotemporal migration patterns and colonisation histories.

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Background: Stroke is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Early prediction of poststroke disability using clinical models is of great interest, especially in the rehabilitation field. Although some biomarkers and neuroimaging techniques have shown potential predictive value, there are still insufficient data to support their clinical utility in predicting poststroke functional recovery.

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Introduction: Stroke remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality around the world and it is associated with an important long-term functional disability. Some neuroimaging resources and certain peripheral blood or cerebrospinal fluid proteins can give important information about etiology, therapeutic approach, follow-up and functional prognosis in acute ischemic stroke patients. However, among the scientific community, there is currently more interest in the stroke vital prognosis over the functional prognosis.

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A young soccer player was diagnosed with myositis ossificans 6 weeks after a muscle strain in the right thigh. Radiographic and sonographic investigations initially helped to confirm diagnosis and later supported clinical improvement. We present our approach to the case and discuss pathophysiology, prevention and treatment of this rare condition.

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