Relationships between trunk muscle activation and thoraco-lumbar kinematics in non-specific chronic low back pain subgroups during a forward bending task.

Background: Trunk muscle activity and thoraco-lumbar kinematics can discriminate between non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP) subgroups and healthy controls. However, research commonly focuses on lumbar kinematics, with limited understanding of relationships between kinematics and muscle activity across clinical subgroups. Similarly, the thoracic spine, whilst intuitively associated with NSCLBP, has received less attention and potential relationships between spinal regions and muscle activity requires exploration.

Factors associated with the outcomes of a novel virtual reality therapy for military veterans with PTSD: Theory development using a mixed methods analysis.

Background: Multi-modular motion-assisted memory desensitization and reconsolidation therapy (3MDR) is a new psychological intervention for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 3MDR is immersive, delivered in a virtual reality environment, and emphasises engagement, recollection and reprocessing.

Objective: Through a theory-driven examination of data relating to 10 out of 42 UK military veterans taking part in a trial of 3MDR, the principal objective was to explore the complex interrelationships between people, interventions and context and to investigate how factors within these domains interacted in specific outcome typologies.

The psychophysiological response during post-traumatic stress disorder treatment with modular motion-assisted memory desensitisation and reconsolidation (3MDR).

: Psychophysiological changes are part of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology and can signal emotional engagement during psychological treatment. : The aim of this study was to explore psychophysiological responses during multi-modular motion-assisted memory desensitization and reconsolidation (3MDR) therapy. Increased self-reported distress, substantially increased heart rate (HR) and breathing rate (BR) were expected at the start of therapy and predicted to improve over time.

The Effect Of Visual Dual-Tasking Interference On Walking In Healthy Young Adults.

Background: Visual dual-task skills are essential for stable ambulation in everyday life such as walking while reading text. Gait analysis in a virtual environment can provide insight into altered walking performance while visual dual-tasking.

Research Question: How visual dual-tasking including cognitive load of reading text and altered optical flow influences walking speed and stability in healthy adults? Also, is there a relationship between the mediolateral centre of mass(CoM) displacement and mediolateral trunk movement?

Methods: Nineteen able-bodied young adults performed self-selected walking on a treadmill in a virtual environment under the following three conditions; single-task walking, walking while viewing scrolling lines, and walking while reading text scrolling on the screen.

Investigating differences in trunk muscle activity in non-specific chronic low back pain subgroups and no-low back pain controls during functional tasks: a case-control study.

Background: Trunk muscle dysfunction is often regarded as a key feature of non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP) despite being poorly understood and variable with increases, decreases and no change in muscle activity reported. Differences in thoraco-lumbar kinematics have been observed in motor control impairment NSCLBP subgroups (Flexion Pattern, Active Extension Pattern) during static postures and dynamic activities. However, potential differences in muscle activity during functional tasks has not been established in these subgroups to date.

Increased use of stepping strategy in response to medio-lateral perturbations in the elderly relates to altered reactive tibialis anterior activity.

Background: The influence of aging on reactive control of balance during walking has been mainly investigated in the sagittal plane, whereas balance control in response to frontal plane perturbations is largely unexplored in the elderly. This is remarkable, given that walking mainly requires active control in the frontal plane. An extensive gait perturbation protocol was used to test whether reactive control of walking balance changes with aging and whether these changes are more pronounced in the frontal than in the sagittal plane.

Frontal plane movement of the pelvis and thorax during dynamic activities in individuals with and without anterior cruciate ligament injury.

Background: For elite athletes with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, reducing pelvis and trunk obliquities is a common goal of rehabilitation. It is not known if this is also a suitable goal for the general population. This study aimed to quantify pelvis and thorax obliquities during dynamic activities in individuals from the general population with and without history of ACL injury.

Modulation of gluteus medius activity reflects the potential of the muscle to meet the mechanical demands during perturbed walking.

Mediolateral stability during walking can be controlled by adjustment of foot placement. Reactive activity of gluteus medius (GM) is modulated during the gait cycle. However, the mechanisms behind the modulation are yet unclear.

Can different seating aids influence a sitting posture in healthy individuals and does gender matter?

This study determined differences in spinal-pelvic kinematics sitting on (i) mat (ii) block and (iii) novel 10º forward inclined wedge (Buttafly) in a same-subject repeated measures cross-over design in 60 healthy individuals (34 females). Repeated measures ANOVA revealed statistically significant differences between sitting conditions and lumbar and pelvic sagittal angles. Both, the inclined wedge and the block seating aids reduced overall flexion, but the inclined wedge had a greater influence in the lumbar region whilst the block induced the greatest change in the pelvis.

A longitudinal study of muscle strength and function in patients with cancer cachexia.

Purpose: Patients with cancer frequently experience an involuntary loss of weight (in particular loss of muscle mass), defined as cachexia, with profound implications for independence and quality of life. The rate at which such patients' physical performance declines has not been well established. The aim of this study was to determine the change in muscle strength and function over 8 weeks in patients with already established cancer cachexia, to help inform the design and duration of physical activity interventions applicable to this patient group.

Patients with established cancer cachexia lack the motivation and self-efficacy to undertake regular structured exercise.

Objectives: Patients with advanced cancer frequently suffer a decline in activities associated with involuntary loss of weight and muscle mass (cachexia). This can profoundly affect function and quality of life. Although exercise participation can maintain physical and psychological function in patients with cancer, uptake is low in cachectic patients who are underrepresented in exercise studies.

Non-specific chronic low back pain: differences in spinal kinematics in subgroups during functional tasks.

Purpose: A multidimensional classification approach suggests that motor control impairment subgroups exist in non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP). Differences in sitting lumbar posture have been identified between two such subgroups [flexion pattern (FP) and active extension pattern (AEP)] and healthy individuals; however, functional spinal movement has not been explored. This study will evaluate whether NSCLBP subgroups exhibit regional spinal kinematic differences, compared to healthy individuals, during functional tasks.

Whole Body Coordination and Knee Movement Control During Five Rehabilitation Exercises.

Knee rehabilitation exercises to improve motor control, target movement fluency, and displacement variability. Although knee movement in the frontal plane during exercise is routinely assessed in clinical practice, optimal knee control remains poorly understood. In this study, 29 healthy participants (height: 1.

A mixed-method systematic review to investigate the effect of group singing on health related quality of life.

Objective: To investigate the effect of group singing on health related quality of life (HRQoL) for adult, amateur singers with chronic health conditions.

Methods: A literature search for experimental and observational studies and qualitative studies published before February 2014 was undertaken using the following databases: ASSIA (Proquest), CINAHL (Ebsco), EMBASE (OVID), HMIC (OVID), MEDLINE (OVID), MEDLINE in Process (OVID), OpenGrey, PsycINFO (OVID) and PubMed for Epub ahead of print studies. Social Science searches included: Web of Science, Proquest, and Scopus (Elsevier).

Three-dimensional kinematic and kinetic gait deviations in individuals with chronic anterior cruciate ligament deficient knee: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Altered joint motion that occurs in people with an anterior cruciate ligament deficient knee is proposed to play a role in the initiation of knee osteoarthritis, however, the exact mechanism is poorly understood. Although several studies have investigated gait deviations in individuals with chronic anterior cruciate ligament deficient knee in the frontal and transverse planes, no systematic review has summarized the kinematic and kinetic deviations in these two planes.

Methods: We searched five electronic databases from inception to 14th October 2013, with key words related to anterior cruciate ligament, biomechanics and gait, and limited to human studies only.

TRAK App Suite: A Web-Based Intervention for Delivering Standard Care for the Rehabilitation of Knee Conditions.

Background: Standard care for the rehabilitation of knee conditions involves exercise programs and information provision. Current methods of rehabilitation delivery struggle to keep up with large volumes of patients and the length of treatment required to maximize the recovery. Therefore, the development of novel interventions to support self-management is strongly recommended.

The clinical effectiveness of self-care interventions with an exercise component to manage knee conditions: A systematic review.

Objective: Treatment of knee conditions should include approaches to support self-care and exercise based interventions. The most effective way to combine self-care and exercise has however not been determined sufficiently. Therefore the aim was to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of self-care programmes with an exercise component for individuals with any type of knee conditions.

Assessing participation in the ACL injured population: Selecting a patient reported outcome measure on the basis of measurement properties.

Background/aim: A return to pre injury activity participation remains a common but often elusive goal following ACL injury. Investigations to improve our understanding of participation restrictions are limited by inconsistent use of insufficiently investigated measurement tools. The aim of this study was to follow the consensus based standards for the selection of health measurement instruments (COSMIN) guideline to provide a comparative evaluation of four patient reported outcomes (PROMs) on the basis of measurement properties.

A novel clinical approach for assessing hop landing strategies: a 2D telescopic inverted pendulum (TIP) model.

Purpose: Single leg hop for distance is used to inform rehabilitation and return to sport following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. However, impairment of landing mechanics may persist after the recommended performance parameter (hop distance) has been met; therefore, alternative methods are required. This study follows the COSMIN guideline to investigate the measurement properties of data from a new instrument (2D TIP).

Motor control strategies during double leg squat following anterior cruciate ligament rupture and reconstruction: an observational study.

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injured individuals often show asymmetries between the injured and non-injured leg. A better understanding of the underlying motor control could help to improve rehabilitation. Double leg squat exercises allow for compensation strategies.

Activity progression for anterior cruciate ligament injured individuals.

Background: Functional exercises are important in the rehabilitation of anterior cruciate ligament deficient and reconstructed individuals but movement compensations and incomplete recovery persist. This study aimed to identify how tasks pose different challenges; and evaluate if different activities challenge patient groups differently compared to controls.

Methods: Motion and force data were collected during distance hop, squatting and gait for 20 anterior cruciate ligament deficient, 21 reconstructed and 21 controls.

Altered biomechanical strategies and medio-lateral control of the knee represent incomplete recovery of individuals with injury during single leg hop.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury can result in failure to return to pre-injury activity levels and future osteoarthritis predisposition. Single leg hop is used in late rehabilitation to evaluate recovery and inform treatment but biomechanical understanding of this activity is insufficient. This study investigated single leg hop for distance aiming to evaluate if ACL patients had recovered: (1) landing strategies and (2) medio-lateral knee control.

Classification-guided versus generalized postural intervention in subgroups of nonspecific chronic low back pain: a pragmatic randomized controlled study.

Study Design: Pragmatic randomized controlled single-blinded study.

Objective: To compare the effects of the classification system guided postural intervention (CSPI) with generalized postural intervention (GPI) in subgroups of nonspecific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP).

Summary Of Background Data: Spinal motor control impairments and the associated alterations in spinal postures adopted by patients with NSCLBP are highly variable.

TRAK ontology: defining standard care for the rehabilitation of knee conditions.

In this paper we discuss the design and development of TRAK (Taxonomy for RehAbilitation of Knee conditions), an ontology that formally models information relevant for the rehabilitation of knee conditions. TRAK provides the framework that can be used to collect coded data in sufficient detail to support epidemiologic studies so that the most effective treatment components can be identified, new interventions developed and the quality of future randomized control trials improved to incorporate a control intervention that is well defined and reflects clinical practice. TRAK follows design principles recommended by the Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) Foundry.