Metabolic Risk Factors Relate to Worse Tendon Health in Individuals With Achilles Tendinopathy.

A high proportion of individuals with Achilles tendinopathy continue to demonstrate long-term symptoms and functional impairments after exercise treatment. Thus, there is a need to delineate patient presentations that may require alternative treatment. The objective of this study was to evaluate if the presence of metabolic risk factors relates to tendon symptoms, psychological factors, triceps surae structure, and lower limb function in individuals with Achilles tendinopathy.

Minimum Electromyography Sensor Set Needed to Identify Age-Related Impairments in the Neuromuscular Control of Walking Using the Dynamic Motor Control Index.

The dynamic motor control index is an emerging biomarker of age-related neuromuscular impairment. To date, it has been computed by quantifying the co-activity of eleven lower limb muscles. Because clinics that routinely employ electromyography typically collect from fewer muscles, a reduced muscle sensor set may improve the clinical usability of this metric of motor control.

Matching Clinical Profiles with Interventions to Optimize Daily Stepping in People with Stroke.

Background: Individualizing interventions is imperative to optimize physical activity in people with chronic stroke. This secondary analysis grouped individuals with chronic stroke into clinical profiles based on baseline characteristics and examined if these clinical profiles preferentially benefitted from a specific rehabilitation intervention to improve daily step-activity.

Methods: Participants had non-cerebellar strokes ≥6 months prior to enrollment, were 21-85 years old, had walking speeds of 0.

Characterizing vascular and hormonal changes in women across the life span: a cross-sectional analysis.

Vascular dysfunction, marked by lower endothelial function and increased aortic stiffness, is a nontraditional risk factor that precedes the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the age at which these changes in vascular function occur in women and the degree to which reproductive hormones mediate these changes has not been characterized. Women free from major disease were enrolled across the adult life span (aged 18-70 yr, = 140).

Prolonged quadriceps latency during gait early after anterior cruciate ligament injury predicts radiographic knee osteoarthritis 6-years after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

Background: The purpose was to explore quadriceps electromechanical function (quadriceps latency) during gait after anterior cruciate ligament injury as a predictor for radiographic knee osteoarthritis 6-years after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Change in latency after preoperative physical therapy was also examined.

Methods: Quadriceps latency (time between peak knee moment and quadriceps electromyography) was calculated before preoperative physical therapy (2.

Potentially inappropriate medication use among older adults with lower-limb loss.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of, and explore factors related to, prescription of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) among older adults with lower-limb loss (LLL).

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional dataset collected through an interdisciplinary limb loss clinic between September 2013 and November 2022. Self-report medication lists were reviewed during in-clinic face-to-face interviews and compared to the American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria corresponding to the patient's evaluation year.

Immediate and Short-Term Effects of In-Shoe Heel-Lift Orthoses on Clinical and Biomechanical Outcomes in Patients With Insertional Achilles Tendinopathy.

Background: Physical therapists frequently employ heel lifts as an intervention to reduce Achilles tendon pain and restore function.

Purpose: To determine the short-term effect of heel lifts on clinical and gait outcomes in participants with insertional Achilles tendinopathy (IAT).

Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4.

Efficacy and safety of using auditory-motor entrainment to improve walking after stroke: a multi-site randomized controlled trial of InTandem.

Walking slowly after stroke reduces health and quality of life. This multi-site, prospective, interventional, 2-arm randomized controlled trial (NCT04121754) evaluated the safety and efficacy of an autonomous neurorehabilitation system (InTandem) designed to use auditory-motor entrainment to improve post-stroke walking. 87 individuals were randomized to 5-week walking interventions with InTandem or Active Control (i.

Pain, Balance-Confidence, Functional Mobility, and Reach Are Associated With Risk of Recurrent Falls Among Adults With Lower-Limb Amputation.

Objective: The study evaluated whether pain intensity and extent, balance-confidence, functional mobility, and balance (eg, functional reach) are potential risk factors for recurrent falls among adults with a lower-limb amputation.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Research laboratory.

Examining Psychological Factors as Contributors to Pain, Disability, and Physical Function in Geriatric Chronic Low Back Pain: A Prospective Analysis of the Delaware Spine Studies Cohort.

In younger populations, risk factors from psychologically-focused theoretical models have become accepted as primary drivers behind the persistence of low back pain (LBP), but these risk factors have not been thoroughly assessed in older adult populations (60-85 years). To address this knowledge gap, we sought to examine longitudinal associations between both general and pain-related psychological risk factors and future pain intensity, LBP-related disability, and physical function (gait speed) outcomes in older adults with chronic LBP (n = 250). Questionnaires for general (ie, depressive symptoms) and pain-related psychological risk factors (ie, fear-avoidance beliefs, pain catastrophizing, and kinesiophobia) were collected at baseline.

Risk Factors for Underreporting of Life-Limiting Comorbidity Among Adults With Lower-Limb Loss.

Peripheral neuropathy (PN) and peripheral arterial disease (PAD) are life-limiting comorbidities among adults with lower-limb loss that may not be adequately addressed in current care models. The objective of this study was to evaluate underreporting of PN and PAD among adults with lower-limb loss. We conducted a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional dataset of community-dwelling adults with unilateral lower-limb loss seen in an outpatient Limb Loss Clinic (n = 196; mean age = 56.

Effects of an Acute High Intensity Exercise Bout on Retention of Explicit, Strategic Locomotor Learning in Individuals With Chronic Stroke.

Background: Exercise priming, pairing high intensity exercise with a motor learning task, improves retention of upper extremity tasks in individuals after stroke, but has shown no benefit to locomotor learning. This difference may relate to the type of learning studied. Upper extremity studies used explicit, strategic tasks; locomotor studies used implicit sensorimotor adaptation (split-belt treadmill).

Increasing activity after stroke: a randomized controlled trial of highintensity walking and step activity intervention.

Background: Physical inactivity in people with chronic stroke profoundly affects daily function and increases recurrent stroke risk and mortality, making physical activity improvements an important target of intervention. We compared the effects of a highintensity walking intervention (FAST), a step activity monitoring behavioral intervention (SAM), or a combined intervention (FAST+SAM) on physical activity (i.e.

Vascular determinants of hippocampal viscoelastic properties in healthy adults across the lifespan.

Arterial stiffness and cerebrovascular pulsatility are non-traditional risk factors of Alzheimer's disease. However, there is a gap in understanding the earliest mechanisms that link these vascular determinants to brain aging. Changes to mechanical tissue properties of the hippocampus (HC), a brain structure essential for memory encoding, may reflect the impact of vascular dysfunction on brain aging.

Adults with lower-limb amputation: Reduced multifidi muscle activity and extensor muscle endurance is associated with worse physical performance.

Trunk muscles may be an overlooked region of deficits following lower-limb amputation (LLA). This study sought to determine the extent that trunk muscle deficits are associated with physical function following amputation. Sedentary adults with a unilateral transtibial- (n = 25) or transfemoral-level (n = 14) amputation were recruited for this cross-sectional research study.

Construct validity of movement-evoked pain operational definitions in older adults with chronic low back pain.

Objective: Movement-evoked pain (MeP) may predispose the geriatric chronic low back pain (LBP) population to health decline. As there are differing operational definitions for MeP, the question remains as to whether these different definitions have similar associations with health outcomes in older adults with chronic LBP.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of an observational study.

A Clinical Measure of Trunk Neuromuscular Function Predicts Falling in Older Adults With Chronic Low Back Pain.

Background And Purpose: Older adults with low back pain (LBP) are at risk for falling, but condition-specific mechanisms are unknown. Trunk neuromuscular function is critical for maintaining balance during mobility tasks and is often impaired in older adults with LBP. The purpose of this study was to assess whether aberrant lumbopelvic movements (or aberrant movements), a clinical index of trunk neuromuscular function, were associated with increased fall risk among older adults with chronic LBP over a 12-month follow-up period.

Movement-Evoked Pain Versus Widespread Pain: A Longitudinal Comparison in Older Adults With Chronic Low Back Pain From the Delaware Spine Studies.

It is currently unknown which pain-related factors contribute to long-term disability and poorer perceived health among older adults with chronic low back pain (LBP). This investigation sought to examine the unique influence of movement-evoked pain (MeP) and widespread pain (WP) on longitudinal health outcomes (ie, gait speed, perceived disability, and self-efficacy) in 250 older adults with chronic LBP. MeP was elicited with 3 standardized functional tests, while presence of WP was derived from the McGill Pain Map.

Differences in Recovery of Tendon Health Explained by Midportion Achilles Tendinopathy Subgroups: A 6-Month Follow-up.

To (1) evaluate whether the defining characteristics of previously reported Achilles tendinopathy subgroups were reproducible in a cohort with midportion Achilles tendinopathy and (2) compare recovery trajectories and outcomes. Prospective single cohort study. Participants (n = 114; 57 women; age [mean ± standard deviation]: 47 ± 12 years) received the Silbernagel protocol and were evaluated at baseline, and at 8, 16, and 24 weeks.