Rehabilitation after lumbar spine surgery in adults: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

Background: The role of rehabilitation after surgery in patients with low back pain is well recognized. The aim of this systematic review is to summarize and update the existing evidence according to the type of clinical condition and rehabilitation approach.

Methods: This systematic review included RCTs on the effectiveness of rehabilitation after surgery for lumbar disc herniation, spinal stenosis, and spondylolisthesis.

Surveillance of endemic foci of tick-borne encephalitis in Finland 1995-2013: evidence of emergence of new foci.

The geographical risk areas for tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Finland remained the same until the beginning of the 21st century, but a considerable geographical expansion has been observed in the past 10 years. In order to support public health measures, the present study describes the number of laboratory-confirmed TBE cases and laboratory tests conducted and the associated trends by hospital district, with a particular emphasis on the suspected geographical risk areas. An additional investigation was conducted on 1,957 clinical serum samples throughout the country taken from patients with neurological symptoms to screen for undiagnosed TBE cases.

A literature review of clinical tests for lumbar instability in low back pain: validity and applicability in clinical practice.

Background: Several clinical tests have been proposed on low back pain (LBP), but their usefulness in detecting lumbar instability is not yet clear. The objective of this literature review was to investigate the clinical validity of the main clinical tests used for the diagnosis of lumbar instability in individuals with LBP and to verify their applicability in everyday clinical practice.

Methods: We searched studies of the accuracy and/or reliability of Prone Instability Test (PIT), Passive Lumbar Extension Test (PLE), Aberrant Movements Pattern (AMP), Posterior Shear Test (PST), Active Straight Leg Raise Test (ASLR) and Prone and Supine Bridge Tests (PB and SB) in Medline, Embase, Cinahl, PubMed, and Scopus databases.

Characterization of a novel flavivirus from mosquitoes in northern europe that is related to mosquito-borne flaviviruses of the tropics.

A novel flavivirus was isolated from mosquitoes in Finland, representing the first mosquito-borne flavivirus from Northern Europe. The isolate, designated Lammi virus (LAMV), was antigenically cross-reactive with other flaviviruses and exhibited typical flavivirus morphology as determined by electron microscopy. The genomic sequence of LAMV was highly divergent from the recognized flaviviruses, and yet the polyprotein properties resembled those of mosquito-borne flaviviruses.

Diagnostics of Pogosta disease: antigenic properties and evaluation of Sindbis virus IgM and IgG enzyme immunoassays.

Sindbis virus (SINV) is a mosquito-borne causative agent of a fever-rash arthritis, Pogosta disease, as verified recently by virus isolation from acutely ill patients. Pogosta disease occurs annually, but it emerges as unique epidemics every 7 years in Finland; over 10,000 patient samples have been analyzed for SINV antibodies, with over 2000 diagnosed acute SINV infections. However, the performance of these serological tests with a large number of samples has not been described before.