Vibration parameters affecting vibration-induced reflex muscle activity.

Purpose: To determine vibration parameters affecting the amplitude of the reflex activity of soleus muscle during low-amplitude whole-body vibration (WBV).

Materials And Methods: This study was conducted on 19 participants. Vibration frequencies of 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 Hz were used.

Validation of Duruöz Hand Index in patients with tetraplegia.

Study Design: Cross-sectional, clinical measurement.

Purpose: To investigate the validity of the Duruöz Hand Index (DHI) in the assessment of hand function in patients with tetraplegia.

Methods: A total of 40 patients with tetraplegia participated.

Effects of whole-body vibration on plasma sclerostin level in healthy women.

Background/aim: To determine whether plasma sclerostin levels are affected by applying whole-body vibration treatments.

Materials And Methods: Following a pilot study, the pretsent prospective, randomized, controlled single-blind study was performed on 16 healthy volunteer women (ages 20 to 40 years). Subjects were randomly divided into 2 groups, and whole-body vibration was applied to the treatment group but not to the controls.

Effects of osteocytes on vibration-induced reflex muscle activity in postmenopausal women.

Background/aim: To assess whether osteocytes have an effect on reflex myoelectrical activity during whole-body vibration (WBV) in postmenopausal women.

Materials And Methods: Participants were classified into 2 groups: the low bone mineral density (BMD) group (n = 37) and normal BMD group (n = 43). Hip BMD was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.

A Randomized Trial on the Effect of Bone Tissue on Vibration-induced Muscle Strength Gain and Vibration-induced Reflex Muscle Activity.

Background: Whole-body vibration (WBV) induces reflex muscle activity and leads to increased muscle strength. However, little is known about the physiological mechanisms underlying the effects of whole-body vibration on muscular performance. Tonic vibration reflex is the most commonly cited mechanism to explain the effects of whole-body vibration on muscular performance, although there is no conclusive evidence that tonic vibration reflex occurs.

Trigemino-cervical reflex in spinal cord injury.

Abnormal enhancement of polysynaptic brainstem reflexes has been previously reported in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). We aimed to investigate trigemino-cervical reflex (TCR) in SCI since it may reflect alterations in the connections of trigeminal proprioceptive system and cervical motoneurons. Consecutive 14 patients with SCI and 16 healthy subjects were included in this study.

Comparison of the data classification approaches to diagnose spinal cord injury.

In our previous study, we have demonstrated that analyzing the skin impedances measured along the key points of the dermatomes might be a useful supplementary technique to enhance the diagnosis of spinal cord injury (SCI), especially for unconscious and noncooperative patients. Initially, in order to distinguish between the skin impedances of control group and patients, artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used as the main data classification approach. However, in the present study, we have proposed two more data classification approaches, that is, support vector machine (SVM) and hierarchical cluster tree analysis (HCTA), which improved the classification rate and also the overall performance.

Risk factors for complex regional pain syndrome in patients with traumatic extremity injury.

Background: It is not clear why complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) develops in some patients but not in others, despite similar initiating events. The aim of this study was to investigate risk factors for CRPS in cases who had suffered traumatic upper extremity injury.

Methods: One hundred sixty-five patients who had suffered a mechanical traumatic injury isolated to their hand or forearm were included in this study.

A quantitative skin impedance test to diagnose spinal cord injury.

The purpose of this study was to develop a quantitative skin impedance test that could be used to diagnose spinal cord injury (SCI) if any, especially in unconscious and/or non-cooperative SCI patients. To achieve this goal, initially skin impedance of the sensory key points of the dermatomes (between C3 and S1 bilaterally) was measured in 15 traumatic SCI patients (13 paraplegics and 2 tetraplegics) and 15 control subjects. In order to classify impedance values and to observe whether there would be a significant difference between patient and subject impedances, an artificial neural network (ANN) with back-propagation algorithm was employed.