Biomedizinische Technik. Biomedical engineering
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Long periods of quiet sitting is considered a cause of low back pain. It is often assumed that spinal loads are high, especially when sitting erect. Modern office chairs with a tiltable back permit changes in the seated posture. ⋯ In the end-tilt position of the chairback, loads were always lower than when the chairback was upright. Even when the lordotic curvature of the lumbar spine was "corrected", loads on the fixator were lower than when the subject was seated in the upright position. In a modern chair, spinal loading is no higher than with non-adjustable office chairs.
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Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRO 300, Hamamatsu Photonics, Japan) was used to monitor human cerebral function in the central region during manual acupuncture needle stimulation of the large intestine 4 (LI.4) point in 16 adult volunteers (9 females, 7 males; mean age 23.9 +/- 6.0 (SD) years, range 19-45 years). We found a significant (p < 0.001) decrease in oxyhaemoglobin after needle insertion and stimulation (duration 20 sec.), accompanied by an increase (p = 0.003) in deoxyhaemoglobin. ⋯ Cytochrome oxidase aa3 remained unchanged during stimulation. The results demonstrate that near-infrared spectroscopy may be a noninvasive method of measuring regional changes in cerebral haemodynamics resulting from peripheral acupuncture stimulation.