The effect of cognitive tasks on reactive stepping in young and older adults.

Background: Divided attention is commonly required in daily life, and to prevent falls, balance must be recovered when a person experiences unexpected perturbations. Previous studies have shown that additional cognitive tasks in postural responses negatively affect automatic postural responses. However, the effect of dual-tasking on reactive stepping performance is still not clearly understood.

Concern about falling is related to threat-induced changes in emotions and postural control in older adults.

Background: Concern about falling is reportedly related to mobility and balance in older adults. While increased concern about falling may be directly related to balance deficits, establishing a causal relationship remains limited. This study aimed to investigate whether concern about falling affects threat-induced changes in emotions and postural control in older adults.

Dual-task interference of reactive stepping kinematics for balance recovery strategies in older adults.

Objective: To characterize the interference of reactive stepping kinematics related to the increase or maintenance of the number of steps in response to a large perturbation during dual tasks among older adults.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that included 52 community-dwelling healthy older adults. Reactive stepping performance was analyzed after forward balance loss during a single task and a second cognitive task.

Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Lateral Reactive Stepping in Individuals with Chronic Stroke.

We compared the spatiotemporal characteristics of lateral perturbation-induced reactive stepping in stroke subjects with those of age-matched controls. We subjected 12 stroke subjects and 17 healthy elderly controls to lateral stepping. We analyzed first-step spatiotemporal parameters during stepping and recorded the selected reactive step types at the stepping threshold.

Effects of Fear of Falling on the Single-Step Threshold for Lateral Balance Recovery in Older Women.

Background And Purpose: Fear of falling is associated with poor physical health and influences postural stability during whole-body movement. The ability to recover from lateral balance loss is required to prevent falls; however, the relationship between lateral balance recovery and fear of falling has not been established. This study aimed to investigate whether fear of falling is associated with the stepping threshold for lateral balance recovery.

Rehabilitation and long-term course of nontraumatic myelopathy associated with surfing.

A nontraumatic spinal cord injury related to surfing is called surfer's myelopathy. The case of a 26-yr-old man who became paraplegic after surfing without apparent traumatic events is described. Physical examination revealed a spinal cord injury at T12 according to the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale A.

Antihypertensive efficacy and safety of fixed-dose combination therapy with losartan plus hydrochlorothiazide in Japanese patients with essential hypertension.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group multicenter study was conducted to evaluate the antihypertensive efficacy and safety of 8-week treatment with one of three fixed-dose combinations-losartan 50 mg plus hydrochlorothiazide 12.5 mg, losartan 50 mg plus hydrochlorothiazide 6.25 mg, or losartan 25 mg plus hydrochlorothiazide 6.