Background: Functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPD) are a group of functional gastrointestinal disorders with multifactorial etiology and are subclassified using Rome IV criteria into a series of clinically distinct entities represented by irritable bowel syndrome, functional dyspepsia, abdominal migraine and functional abdominal pain that is not otherwise specified. Digestive functional disorders associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) may be mediated by the involvement of complex pathogenic mechanisms, which have been under investigation in children since the beginning of the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). Methods: In this retrospective, observational descriptive and analytical study, we investigated the presence of chronical functional abdominal pain in preschool children (4–6 years old) from the south-west of Romania in the pre-pandemic (18 cases) and COVID-19 pandemic period (34 cases), as well as the association with the COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative statuses, gender, environment origin, and viral infection-associated symptoms. Age-specific Rome IV criteria were used to diagnose functional abdominal pain. We performed an integrated statistical analysis of the results utilizing an electronic database in which we compared the data in order to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the clinical-epidemiological parameters analyzed. Results: In the pre-pandemic group, irritable bowel syndrome predominated (77.8%), followed by functional dyspepsia (22.2%), the other types of functional abdominal pain being absent, while for the pandemic group, irritable bowel syndrome was the most common (79.4%), followed by abdominal migraine (11.8%), abdominal dyspepsia (5.9%) and functional abdominal pain not otherwise specified (2.9%). We found a female/male ratio difference of 0.84 and an urban/rural ratio of 1.83 in favor of the pandemic group. These discrepancies were mainly caused by the differences between the COVID-19 positive and negative pandemic groups, where we observed statistical association of the positive pandemic group with IBS and urban environment, and a tendency of FAPDs diagnostic mainly with males. The predominant symptoms associated with COVID-19 positive cases were digestive (60.9%) or respiratory (39.1%). Conclusions: Our study demonstrates viral-mediated sensitivity of the gastrointestinal tract in preschool children, considering different clinical-epidemiological profiles related to the prevalence of FAPD and according to gender and environment origin, while the contribution of the pandemic context remains to be demonstrated in larger studies

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Treatment of hip pathology has evolved over the last two centuries, ranging from rudimentary surgical procedures to modern hip arthroplasty, with an explosion marked in the last 30 years, considered to be one of the most successful surgeries to date. Hip arthroplasty is a permanent challenge due to the desire to discover the "supreme prosthesis", for which competition is still open. Hip disorders requiring prosthesis show a change in articular morphology. Among the most common medical conditions that have as final therapeutic solution hip arthroplasty are: coxarthrosis, both primary and secondary, followed by traumatic conditions: femoral neck collapse and femoral neck pseudarthrosis, aseptic head necrosis femoral stage III, as well as rheumatic coxitis from rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis or juvenile art. Endoprosthetic arthroplasty can be defined as an intervention of reconstructive surgery with bone sacrifice and prosthetic replacement of the articular components. It is, in the end, an operation aimed at restoring joint mobility and normal functioning of the muscles, ligaments and other periarticular structures that control joint movement. The materials initially used (glass, metal, plastic) did not have the desired bone strength and integration capacity. It followed the development of cemented implants, obtaining different types of cement with better and better quality. Problems arising from cemented arthroplasty (decimation, involving prosthetic revision) have led to a parallel development of the design and materials used for uncured prostheses with the possibility of very good integration of prosthetic material into the bone, raising them to the top of preferences in recent years. Treatment of hip pathology has evolved over the last two centuries, ranging from rudimentary surgical procedures to modern hip arthroplasty, with an explosion marked in the last 30 years, considered to be one of the most successful surgeries to date. The purpose of this study was to obtain the three-dimensional models of the hip joint and the prosthesis for the use of these models for various analyzes and virtual experiments. At the end of the paper important conclusions were drawn based on the results obtained in the simulations using the finite element method.

This paper presents an experimental study of the flexion-extension movement of the human lower limb joints. Measurements were performed on a group of fourteen healthy subjects, experimental data being obtained for flexion-extension cycles during five different walking tests on horizontal and inclined treadmills. Experimental data were obtained using the Biometrics system, which is based on electrogonimeter sensors. Average cycles for each joint were obtained for all subjects in the experimental group and for all experimental tests. The flexion-extension angles at the lower limbs joints have a pronounced increase with the increase of the walking speed, but also with the increase of the treadmill inclination.