Background: The repetitive overhand throwing can potentially cause physiologic or pathologic changes in musculoskeletal and vascular structures. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of throwing on upper extremity arterial blood flow before and after a controlled pitching session. The hypothesis is that pitchers with physical signs of shoulder laxity would demonstrate differential changes in upper extremity blood flow as compared to those without laxity.

Methods: Eighteen professional male pitchers underwent a detailed shoulder physical evaluation, followed by a wrist/brachial index (WBI) vascular exam and a vascular ultrasound examination before and after a controlled throwing session.

Results: Following a 50-pitch workout, the WBI was significantly lower (0.79-0.86) in pitchers with laxity on exam versus no laxity (P < .05). For all pitchers, the average arterial volume flow increased from 234 ml/min to 482 ml/min after 50 pitches. Pitchers without physical signs of laxity had an average arterial volume flow increase of 115%, while the pitchers with laxity signs increased 35%.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in arterial blood flow in the laxity group compared to the nonlaxity throwers.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jse.2010.09.007DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

blood flow
16
upper extremity
12
shoulder laxity
8
extremity blood
8
arterial blood
8
pitchers physical
8
physical signs
8
pitchers laxity
8
average arterial
8
arterial volume
8

Similar Publications

Background: Carotid webs are rare nonatherosclerotic disorders in the carotid artery and are increasingly recognized as factors of ischemic stroke in the young population. Asymptomatic webs can be treated with antithrombotic therapy, whereas symptomatic cases frequently require surgical interventions, including carotid endarterectomy (CEA). However, guidelines for the optimal timing of these treatments remain unestablished, especially compared to atherosclerotic stenotic lesions, due to the rarity of carotid webs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Timing of treatment of aortic stenosis (AS) is of key importance. AS severity is currently determined by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) with a main focus on mean trans-aortic gradients. However, echocardiography has its limitations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) can be used to non-invasively estimate the blood flow of different organs via compartmental modeling. Out of different PET tracers, water labeled with the radioactive O isotope of oxygen (half-life of 2.04 min) is freely diffusable, and therefore, very well-suited for blood flow quantification.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Septic arthritis (SA) caused by Staphylococcus aureus is a severe inflammatory joint disease, characterized by synovitis accompanied with cartilage destruction and bone erosion. The available antibiotic treatment alone is insufficient to resolve the inflammation that leads to high rates of morbidity and mortality. Among the CD4 T helper lymphocytes, the Th17 and Tregs are key regulators of immune homeostasis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The current understanding of humoral immune response in cancer patients suggests that tumors may be infiltrated with diffuse B cells of extra-tumoral origin or may develop organized lymphoid structures, where somatic hypermutation and antigen-driven selection occur locally. These processes are believed to be significantly influenced by the tumor microenvironment through secretory factors and biased cell-cell interactions. To explore the manifestation of this influence, we used deep unbiased immunoglobulin profiling and systematically characterized the relationships between B cells in circulation, draining lymph nodes (draining LNs), and tumors in 14 patients with three human cancers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!