Identifying consistent biomechanical parameters across rising-to-walk subtasks to inform rehabilitation in practice: A systematic literature review.

Background: The best approach to rehabilitate the control of everyday whole-body movement (e.g. rise-to-walk) after pathology remains unclear in part because the associated controlled performance variables are not known.

Gait-initiation onset estimation during sit-to-walk: Recommended methods suitable for healthy individuals and ambulatory community-dwelling stroke survivors.

Background: Gait-initiation onset (GI-onset) during sit-to-walk (STW) is commonly defined by mediolateral ground-reaction-force (xGRF) rising and crossing a threshold pre-determined from sit-to-stand peak xGRF. However, after stroke this method [xGRFthresh] lacks validity due to impaired STW performance. Instead, methodologies based upon instance of swing-limb maximum-vertical-GRF [vGRFmaxSWING], maximum-xGRF [xGRFmax], and swing-limb heel-off [firstHEELoff] can be applied, although their validity is unclear.

Parameters that remain consistent independent of pausing before gait-initiation during normal rise-to-walk behaviour delineated by sit-to-walk and sit-to-stand-and-walk.

Background: Rising-to-walk is an everyday transitional movement task rarely employed in gait rehabilitation. Sit-to-walk (STW) and sit-to-stand-and-walk (STSW), where a pause separates sit-to-stand and gait-initiation (GI) represent extremes of rising-to-walk behaviour. Delayed GI can indicate pathological impairment but is also observed in healthy individuals.

Psychosocial Risk Factors and the Association With Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Systematic Review.

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy of the upper limb. Research has shown that associative factors for CTS include occupational and biomechanical elements, sex, and age. To date, no systematic review has been undertaken to determine specifically whether there are any psychosocial risk factors in developing CTS.

Physical activity interventions are delivered consistently across hospitalized older adults but multimorbidity is associated with poorer rehabilitation outcomes: A population-based cohort study.

Background: Older adults live with multimorbidity including frailty and cognitive impairment often requiring hospitalization. While physical activity interventions (PAIs) are a normal rehabilitative treatment, their clinical effect in hospitalized older adults is uncertain.

Objective: To observe PAI dosing characteristics and determine their impact on clinical performance parameters.

Factors associated with physical activity participation in adults with chronic cervical spine pain: a systematic review.

Objective: To determine the factors associated with physical activity participation in adults with chronic cervical spine pain.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted including searches of PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE and CINAHL from inception to June 12th, 2016. Grey literature and reference checking was also undertaken.

Physical activity participation and the association with work-related upper quadrant disorders (WRUQDs): A systematic review.

Background: Workers in various occupations often report work-related upper quadrant disorders (WRUQDs). Research has shown that associative factors for WRUQDs include psychosocial and environmental elements, gender and physical activity levels. To date, no review has investigated whether physical activity participation is associated with and/or predicts the development of WRUQDs, so the present study set out to determine this.

Pain: A Statistical Account.

Perception is seen as a process that utilises partial and noisy information to construct a coherent understanding of the world. Here we argue that the experience of pain is no different; it is based on incomplete, multimodal information, which is used to estimate potential bodily threat. We outline a Bayesian inference model, incorporating the key components of cue combination, causal inference, and temporal integration, which highlights the statistical problems in everyday perception.

Anatomical and functional correlates of persistent pain in Parkinson's disease.

Background: The pathophysiology of pain in Parkinson's disease (PD) is still poorly understood, although it is conceivable that supraspinal mechanisms may be responsible for pain generation and maintenance.

Methods: We examined brain functional and anatomical changes associated with persistent pain in 40 PD patients, 20 with persistent pain and 20 without pain. We also examined 15 pain-free healthy participants of similar age, gender, and cognitive state as a control group.

Sit-to-stand-and-walk from 120% Knee Height: A Novel Approach to Assess Dynamic Postural Control Independent of Lead-limb.

Individuals with sensorimotor pathology e.g., stroke have difficulty executing the common task of rising from sitting and initiating gait (sit-to-walk: STW).

Sit-to-walk and sit-to-stand-and-walk task dynamics are maintained during rising at an elevated seat-height independent of lead-limb in healthy individuals.

Introduction: Sit-to-walk (STW) is a common transitional motor task not usually included in rehabilitation. Typically, sit-to-stand (STS), pause, then gait initiation (GI) before walking is used, which we term sit-to-stand-and-walk (STSW). Separation between centre-of-pressure (COP) and whole-body centre-of-mass (BCOM) during GI is associated with dynamic postural stability.

Perceptual Inference in Chronic Pain: An Investigation Into the Economy of Action Hypothesis.

Objective: The experience of chronic pain critically alters one's ability to interact with their environment. One fundamental issue that has received little attention, however, is whether chronic pain disrupts how one perceives their environment in the first place. The Economy of Action hypothesis purports that the environment is spatially scaled according to the ability of the observer.

The close proximity of threat: altered distance perception in the anticipation of pain.

Pain is an experience that powerfully influences the way we interact with our environment. What is less clear is the influence that pain has on the way we perceive our environment. We investigated the effect that the anticipation of experimental pain (THREAT) and its relief (RELIEF) has on the visual perception of space.

Cerebral analgesic response to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen.

Nonopioid agents, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are the most commonly used class of analgesics. Increasing evidence suggests that cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibition at both peripheral and central sites can contribute to the antihyperalgesic effects of NSAIDs, with the predominant clinical effect being mediated centrally. In this study, we examined the cerebral response to ibuprofen in presurgical and postsurgical states and looked at the analgesic interaction between surgical state and treatment.

Pharmacologic modulation of hand pain in osteoarthritis: a double-blind placebo-controlled functional magnetic resonance imaging study using naproxen.

Objective: In an attempt to shed light on management of chronic pain conditions, there has long been a desire to complement behavioral measures of pain perception with measures of underlying brain mechanisms. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we undertook this study to investigate changes in brain activity following the administration of naproxen or placebo in patients with pain related to osteoarthritis (OA) of the carpometacarpal (CMC) joint.

Methods: A placebo-controlled, double-blind, 2-period crossover study was performed in 19 individuals with painful OA of the CMC joint of the right hand.

The moral experience of the patient with chronic pain: bridging the gap between first and third person ethics.

Background: There has been a widespread call for an ethics in the management of patients with chronic pain which is patient centered and takes into account the lived experience of the patient. It has been argued in literature that current "duty" or principlist-based models of ethics (so-called 3rd person ethics) have not adequately addressed the needs of either patients or practitioners in this area.

Method: Two strands of literature within phenomenology were reviewed: the literature of interpretative phenomenological analysis and the study of the lived experience of the person with chronic pain; and the contribution of phenomenology in neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics (1st person ethics).

Quantifying the test-retest reliability of cerebral blood flow measurements in a clinical model of on-going post-surgical pain: A study using pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelling.

Arterial spin labelling (ASL) is increasingly being applied to study the cerebral response to pain in both experimental human models and patients with persistent pain. Despite its advantages, scanning time and reliability remain important issues in the clinical applicability of ASL. Here we present the test-retest analysis of concurrent pseudo-continuous ASL (pCASL) and visual analogue scale (VAS), in a clinical model of on-going pain following third molar extraction (TME).

Perceptual bias in pain: a switch looks closer when it will relieve pain than when it won't.

Pain is fundamental to survival, as are our perceptions of the environment. It is often assumed that we see our world as a read-out of the sensory information that we receive; yet despite the same physical makeup of our surroundings, individuals perceive differently. What if we "see" our world differently when we experience pain? Until now, the causal effect of experimental pain on the perception of an external stimulus has not been investigated.

Alterations in resting-state regional cerebral blood flow demonstrate ongoing pain in osteoarthritis: An arterial spin-labeled magnetic resonance imaging study.

Objective: Increasing evidence suggests a central nervous system (CNS) component underpinning persistent pain disease states. This study was undertaken to determine regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) changes representing ongoing pain experienced by patients with painful osteoarthritis (OA) of the carpometacarpal (CMC) joint and to examine rCBF variability across sessions. We used pulsed continuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL), a perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique.

An in silico modeling approach to understanding the dynamics of sarcoidosis.

Background: Sarcoidosis is a polygenic disease with diverse phenotypic presentations characterized by an abnormal antigen-mediated Th1 type immune response. At present, progress towards understanding sarcoidosis disease mechanisms and the development of novel treatments is limited by constraints attendant to conducting human research in a rare disease in the absence of relevant animal models. We sought to develop a computational model to enhance our understanding of the pathological mechanisms of and predict potential treatments of sarcoidosis.

Cortical changes in chronic low back pain: current state of the art and implications for clinical practice.

There is increasing evidence that chronic pain problems are characterised by alterations in brain structure and function. Chronic back pain is no exception. There is a growing sentiment, with accompanying theory, that these brain changes contribute to chronic back pain, although empirical support is lacking.

CCL2 is a key mediator of microglia activation in neuropathic pain states.

While neuroimmune interactions are increasingly recognized as important in nociceptive processing, the nature and functional significance of these interactions is not well defined. There are multiple reports that the activation of spinal microglia is a critical event in the generation of neuropathic pain behaviors but the mediators of this activation remain disputed. Here we show that the chemokine CCL2, produced by both damaged and undamaged primary sensory neurons in neuropathic pain states in rats, is released in an activity dependent manner from the central terminals of these fibres.