The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society
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Little is known about the effect of rod stiffness as a risk factor of proximal junctional kyphosis (PJK) after adult spinal deformity (ASD) surgery. ⋯ Increasing the rod stiffness by the use of cobalt chrome rod and can prevent rod breakage but adversely affects the occurrence and the time of PJK.
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The relationship between sedentary lifestyle and low back pain (LBP) remains unclear and previous research has not accounted for genetic and early environmental factors. ⋯ Sedentary behavior is associated with concurrent LBP. However, this association is weak; it only appears in females and decreases when accounting for genetics. Future studies using a twin design with larger samples should be conducted to further test these findings.
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Osteoporosis adversely affects disc degeneration cascades, and prophylactic alendronate (ALN) helps delay intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. However, there remains no information regarding whether ALN affects IDD with bone loss. ⋯ ALN has favorable effects on disc degeneration with bone loss and helps to alleviate IDD while enhancing the biological and mechanical properties of vertebrae and end plates.
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Despite a large amount of research investigating physical activity (PA) levels in people with chronic low back pain (LBP), no study has investigated whether people with chronic LBP are meeting the World Health Organization (WHO) PA guidelines. Furthermore, with genetics and the early shared environment substantially influencing the presence of LBP and PA engagement, these factors could confound the association between LBP and PA and need to be controlled for. ⋯ Twins with recent LBP are less likely to meet the PA guidelines than those with no history of chronic LBP, highlighting the importance of incorporating PA promotion in the treatment of these individuals. Genetics and early shared environment appear to be confounding the association between LBP and PA, although this needs to be further tested in larger twin samples.
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Multiple methods are used to measure proximal junctional angle (PJA) and diagnose proximal junctional kyphosis (PJK) after fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS); however, there is no gold standard. Previous studies using the three most common measurement methods, upper-instrumented vertebra (UIV)+1, UIV+2, and UIV to T2, have minimized the difficulty in obtaining these measurements, and often exclude patients for which measurements cannot be recorded. ⋯ This study suggests significant limitations of the three most common methods of measuring and diagnosing PJK. The results of studies using these methods can be significantly affected based on the exclusion of patients for whom measurements cannot be made and choice of measurement technique.