Background: Low back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide. It is also the main cause of the limitation of activities and absence from work in much of the world and a cause of great economic burden. The greatest percentage of low back pain is classified as nonspecific (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Orthop Belg
March 1994
Forty patients with Sudeck's atrophy were assessed in order to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of x-ray, scintigraphy and telethermography in staging the 3 phases of the disease. The dynamic and early static phases of scintigraphy were the most sensitive and specific instrumental tests for detecting the early stage, whereas telethermography was fairly sensitive but not very specific. Radiographic examination was not sensitive in detecting slight changes in bone density, but it was the most reliable index for recognizing the transition to stage II of the disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper analyses the effect of mechanical loading on bone remodelling under both physiological and pathological conditions. The sensitivity and the type of the biological response of bone to the changes in mechanical loading are conditioned by several factors: individual race and age, pattern of stress, systemic and local metabolic conditions, etc. Therefore, bone remodelling following mechanical stress is not only a simple repair process, but a complex mechanism of functional adaptation which is controlled by the strain magnitude of bone structure rather than the extent of the stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn in vitro study assessing the metabolic response of growth-plate cartilage explants to mechanical stress was performed. Cultured explants were exposed to two types of stress: (a) single high-compressive force (SHC), and (b) multiple intermittent low-compressive force (MILC). Proliferative activity and matrix synthesis were determined with liquid scintillation counting after explants were labeled with [3H]thymidine and [35S]-sulfate.
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