Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation
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Arch Phys Med Rehabil · May 2004
Use and satisfaction with prosthetic limb devices and related services.
To examine the use and satisfaction with prosthetic limb devices and satisfaction with prosthetist services in a large and diverse sample of persons with limb loss. ⋯ Efforts should be directed at minimizing the interval from surgery to first prosthesis fitting and at improving communication between patients and prosthetists, to improve the quality of care provided to the growing numbers of persons with limb loss.
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Arch Phys Med Rehabil · May 2004
Osteogenesis imperfecta in childhood: impairment and disability. A prospective study with 4-year follow-up.
To study (1). changes in anthropometrics, joint range of motion (ROM), muscle strength, functional ability, caregiver assistance, and level of ambulation in children with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) and (2). the prediction of clinical characteristics at the level of ambulation at follow-up and the prediction of clinical characteristics on progression or regression at the level of ambulation over time. ⋯ Ours is the first study with a long-term follow-up that provides information concerning the natural course of developmental outcome parameters of OI in childhood. Joint ROM and muscle strength did not change significantly over time, possibly because of the biomechanical skeletal properties of the different OI types. Functional ability improved significantly over time, but, especially in types III and IV, did not reach normative values, possibly because of a plateau phase in functional ability. Knowledge of the natural course of the disease is essential to interpret the results from intervention studies.
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Arch Phys Med Rehabil · May 2004
Reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the locomotor capabilities index in adults with lower-limb amputation undergoing prosthetic training.
To assess the reliability, validity, and responsiveness of both the standard and revised Locomotor Capabilities Index (LCI) in people with lower-limb amputation who undergo prosthetic training. ⋯ Both the LCI and LCI-5 captured the global locomotor ability of people with lower-limb amputation during prosthetic training. The new LCI-5 presents similar and sometimes better psychometric properties than the standard LCI.
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Arch Phys Med Rehabil · May 2004
Activation of lumbar paraspinal and abdominal muscles during therapeutic exercises in chronic low back pain patients.
To assess the activities of paraspinal and abdominal muscles during therapeutic exercises for the treatment of patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain (CLBP), and to study the effects of active physical rehabilitation on these activities. ⋯ The CLBP patients performed therapeutic exercises with similar abdominal and back extensor muscle activities in the same way as the healthy subjects in our earlier studies. In this study, active physical rehabilitation had no effect on the abdominal and back muscle activities or on pain and functional disability indices.
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Arch Phys Med Rehabil · May 2004
Transcranial magnetic stimulation for diagnosis of residual limb neuromas.
To analyze the mechanism and examine the potential diagnostic contribution of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in diagnosing painful, clonic, and/or autonomic manifestations in amputees' residual limbs. ⋯ TMS can provoke symptoms in patients who experience spontaneous or evoked symptoms related to a neuroma. Induced symptoms are proportional to spontaneous symptoms. Removing the neuroma can stop stump symptoms and reverse the TMS effect. The response to TMS was negative in the control subjects with clinically silent neuromas; conservative treatment was successful in these cases. TMS-induced abnormal manifestations underlying mechanisms are discussed (ephaptic transmission in neuromas).