Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation
-
Low back pain with pain radiating to the lower extremities is common in patients referred to a spine center. Lumbar spine pathology is commonly the etiology of such symptoms, but extraspinal causes of back and leg pain can manifest as a radicular disorder. Extraspinal etiologies must be considered in the workup of back and leg pain. This report describes an unusual case of spontaneously occurring bilateral femoral neck stress fractures presenting as low back pain with seemingly bilateral L4 radicular symptoms.
-
Arch Phys Med Rehabil · Jun 1999
Measurement of mood states in stroke patients: validation of the visual analog mood scales.
The Visual Analog Mood Scales (VAMS) were recently developed by Stern and colleagues to assess mood state in neurologically impaired patients. These brief scales require that a patient place a single pen mark along a 100mm vertical line to indicate how he or she presently feels. Although previous studies have garnered evidence in support of the validity of these brief scales when administered to psychiatric patients and healthy young adult and geriatric control subjects, it is presently unknown whether the VAMS are valid measures of internal mood state in neurologically impaired stroke patients. The purpose of the present investigation was to assess reliability and validity of the VAMS in a stroke-patient population. ⋯ The VAMS possess good convergent and discriminant validity when administered to stroke inpatients, providing further support for the utility of these brief, easily administered scales.