Intra-rater reliability and smallest detectable change of compression sonoelastography in quantifying the material properties of the musculoskeletal system.

Musculoskeletal conditions can change tissue elasticity. Knowledge of musculoskeletal elasticity could therefore aid clinical diagnosis and management. Sonoelastography is an ultrasound-based system that examines the material properties of tissues, and it may be useful in musculoskeletal practice.

Changes in Vertebral Artery Hemodynamics Associated With McKenzie Therapeutic Cervical Movements: An Exploration Using Duplex Ultrasound Imaging.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore vertebral artery hemodynamic changes associated with McKenzie therapeutic cervical movements in healthy individuals.

Methods: A single-group repeated-measure design was used to examine 20 healthy participants aged 22.05 (1.

The impact of hypermobility spectrum disorders on musculoskeletal tissue stiffness: an exploration using strain elastography.

Hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSDs) are conditions associated with chronic joint pain and laxity. HSD's diagnostic approach is highly subjective, its validity is not well studied, and it does not consider many of the most commonly affected joints. Strain elastography (SEL) reflects musculoskeletal elasticity with sonographic images.

Importance Attributed to Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Competencies by Public Sector Physical Therapists in Kuwait: A Population-based Exploratory Study.

Background And Purpose: Indications for cardiovascular and pulmonary (CVP) physical therapy competencies are changing with the epidemic of non-communicable diseases in Kuwait, particularly lifestyle-related conditions. The degree to which the country's physical therapists (PTs) perceive the importance of CVP competencies (assessment/evaluation and clinical and laboratory investigation interpretation) in professional practice is relevant. Our study objectives were to (1) explore the importance attributed to specific CVP competencies by PTs to professional practice in Kuwait and (2) establish whether these are related to practitioner traits, for example, age, sex, practice setting and specialty.

Immune responses following McKenzie lumbar spine exercise in individuals with acute low back pain: a preliminary study.

Objective: This study explores the immune responses following 4 weeks of McKenzie lumbar spine exercise in individuals with acute low back pain (ALBP).

Patients And Methods: Fifteen patients with ALBP and 15 healthy individuals volunteered in this study. Ten ml of peripheral blood were obtained from each patient before and after exercise sessions, and from healthy individuals at the beginning of the study.

Smoking impact on grip strength and fatigue resistance: implications for exercise and hand therapy practice.

Background: Grip strength assessment reflects on overall health of the musculoskeletal system and is a predictor of functional prognosis and mortality. The purpose of this study was: examine whether grip-strength and fatigue resistance are impaired in smokers, determine if smoking-related impairments (fatigue-index) can be predicted by demographic data, duration of smoking, packets smoked-per-day, and physical activity.

Methods: Maximum isometric grip strength (MIGS) of male smokers (n = 111) and nonsmokers (n = 66) was measured before/after induced fatigue using Jamar dynamometer at 5-handle positions.

To establish whether McKenzie lumbar flexion and extension mobility exercises performed in lying affect central as well as systemic hemodynamics: a crossover experimental study.

Objective: Examine systemic and central hemodynamic responses following McKenzie lumbar flexion and extension mobility exercises performed in lying (FIL and EIL).

Design: Crossover experimental study.

Setting: Clinical laboratory.

Religious faith and psychosocial adaptation among stroke patients in Kuwait: a mixed method study.

Religious faith is central to life for Muslim patients in Kuwait, so it may influence adaptation and rehabilitation. This study explored quantitative associations among religious faith, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction in 40 female stroke patients and explored the influence of religion within stroke rehabilitation through qualitative interviews with 12 health professionals. The quantitative measure of religious faith did not relate to life satisfaction or self-efficacy in stroke patients.

The reliability of prayer-based self-efficacy scale to assess self-confidence of Muslims with low back pain.

Background: Low back pain (LBP) may challenge an individual's self-confidence to perform usual daily activities such as Islamic daily prayer. Existing self-efficacy scales may not be appropriate to assess individual's self-confidence to perform Islamic prayers.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a scale to assess self-confidence to prepare and perform Islamic prayer in the presence of LBP, the Islamic Prayer-based Self-efficacy Scale (IpbSeS), and to determine its consistency.

Evaluation of the McKenzie intervention for chronic low back pain by using selected physical and bio-behavioral outcome measures.

Objectives: To assess the bio-behavioral and physical performance characteristics of individuals with chronic low back pain who demonstrated the pain centralization phenomenon and received the McKenzie intervention using selected bio-behavioral and physical performance measures at intake and at 5 weeks and 10 weeks after treatment.

Design: A prospective cohort study with assessment at baseline and 2 follow-ups after completion of the McKenzie intervention.

Setting: Outpatient orthopedic physical therapy clinics.

The First Physical Therapy Summit on Global Health: implications and recommendations for the 21st century.

The First Physical Therapy Summit on Global Health was convened at the 2007 World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT) Congress to vision practice in the 21st century and, in turn, entry-level education and research, as informed by epidemiological indicators, and consistent with evidence-based noninvasive interventions, the hallmark of physical therapy. The Summit and its findings were informed by WHO data and validated through national databases of the countries of the five WCPT regions. The health priorities based on mortality were examined in relation to proportions of physical therapists practicing in the areas of regional priorities and of the curricula in entry-level programs.

Outcome measures and psychomotor skills related to shoulder conditions for clinical orthopedic training.

Objective: This study was designed to assess the ability of physical therapy (PT) students to utilize selected outcome measures such as range of motion (ROM), pain and a number of psychomotor skills and to determine the efficacy of treatment they carried out during orthopedic clinical training.

Materials And Methods: The clinical education booklets in orthopedics of all PT students over a 6-year period were reviewed. Students' application of psychomotor skills such as peripheral joint mobilizations (PJM), proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) techniques, therapeutic exercise techniques as well as utilization of basic outcome measures such as ROM and pain were analyzed with descriptive statistics and paired t test.

The relationship of anticipated pain and fear avoidance beliefs to outcome in patients with chronic low back pain who are not receiving workers' compensation.

Study Design: A prospective, interventional case series design.

Objectives: To determine the degree to which preintervention measures of anticipated pain and fear avoidance beliefs predict outcome after intervention for patients with delayed recovery from low back pain (LBP) for which they are not receiving workers' compensation.

Summary Of Background Data: Anticipated pain and fear avoidance beliefs have been suggested as important factors for the classification and treatment of patients with LBP.

Differences in back extensor strength between smokers and nonsmokers with and without low back pain.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study comparing isometric lumbar extensor strength (ILES) in individuals who smoke and nonsmokers with and without low back pain (LBP).

Objectives: To examine the differences in ILES between individuals who smoke and nonsmokers with and without LBP.

Background: Given the evidence for general muscle weakness in individuals who smoke and in individuals with LBP, we were interested in examining the interrelationships between back strength, in particular ILES, and LBP in individuals who smoke and nonsmokers.

Basic gait parameters: a comparison of reference data for normal subjects 20 to 29 years of age from Kuwait and Scandinavia.

This study obtained measurements of the spatiotemporal gait parameters of healthy young adult Kuwaiti subjects from both genders and compared the data to those collected in a similar study performed in Sweden. Thirty healthy subjects volunteered to participate in the study (which included being asked to walk at their "free," "slow," and "fast" self-selected speeds). We collected the spatiotemporal gait data using an automated system.

The influence of pain and pain-related fear and disability beliefs on walking velocity in chronic low back pain.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of anticipation of pain, sensory perception of pain and pain-related fear and disability beliefs on the gait characteristics of patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Thirty-one individuals with CLBP (16 men and 15 women) and 24 healthy individuals (11 men and 13 women) between 20 to 56 years of age participated in this study. Anticipated pain and the pain actually felt were measured with two separate visual analogue scales before and after preferred and fast walking performances.