No abstract

The results of this pilot study suggest that both forms of home-based rehabilitation may improve disease-specific quality of life in homebound patients with COPD.

Although both the flexirule and inclinometer methods are reliable, neither method correlated with the Cobb angle on the radiography, suggesting these methods may measure different aspects of cervical spine alignment.

The outcomes of patients admitted to the hospital following a sport-related concussion are largely unknown. Medical records of patients admitted to the pediatric trauma service between 2008 and 2011 after sustaining a sport-related concussion were reviewed. In all, 59 participants were in the high-velocity activities group, and 21 in the field or court sport group. Abnormal CT scans were found in 14 patients in the high-velocity group and 2 in the field or court sport group. The majority of participants in the field or court sport group were football players, all of whom had normal CT scans. Headache was predictive of an abnormal CT scan. Among the patients, 56% clinically improved and were discharged the following day. Patients with field or court sport-related concussion admitted to a pediatric trauma service appear to be at low risk for clinically significant intracranial pathology and do well in the acute setting.

Ultrasound has been applied therapeutically to accelerate connective tissue healing although there is little direct scientific evidence to support its use. This investigation was conducted to determine the effects of ultrasound on the rate of collagen synthesis and cell proliferation using cultured fibroblasts derived from Achilles tendons of neonatal rats. Ultrasound (intensity = 0.4 W.cm-2; frequency = 1 MHz) was applied to experimental cells growing as monolayers in culture flasks. Ultrasound had no effect on the rate of collagen synthesis by control fibroblasts over a period of 9 d. The addition of vitamin C to culture media stimulated collagen synthesis to the same extent in both control and ultrasound-treated cultures. Partial digestion of cell matrices with collagenase (used to simulate injury) resulted in an approximately 20% increase in the rate of collagen synthesis. Synthesis was further increased with ultrasound treatment (50-67%). For example, after a single ultrasound treatment, the rate of collagen synthesis was 3.0 +/- 0.4 pg.micrograms-1 DNA.h-1 in cultures treated with collagenase, compared with 1.8 +/- 0.3 pg.micrograms-1 DNA.h-1 in collagenase-treated cultures not treated with ultrasound and 1.4 +/- 0.3 pg.micrograms-1 DNA.h-1 in controls. Ultrasound applied to preconfluent cultures resulted in significant increases in the rate of thymidine incorporation and DNA content. Three daily ultrasound treatments caused a 100% increase in the rate of thymidine incorporation and a 28% increase in DNA content. The results indicate that ultrasound stimulates collagen synthesis in tendon fibroblasts in response to an injury of the connective tissue matrix and that ultrasound stimulates cell division during periods of rapid cell proliferation.