Background: Patients undergoing any type of nasal surgery may experience degrees of postoperative olfactory dysfunction. We sought to investigate "when" the olfactory function recovers to its preoperative levels.

No abstract

Weakness in finger extensors is a common post-stroke deficit that can disturb hand functioning. Despite introducing several powered hand orthoses in literature, most of these devices focused on providing finger flexion. There is a little consideration for providing active hand extension in stroke patients. Moreover, in many devices, the finger extensions were restored passively by spring component. In this study, a new Electromyography (EMG)-controlled powered hand orthosis was designed to improve hand function by restoring and training hand extension in stroke patients with paretic hand. This orthosis was a glove-like device that was developed from two mechanical and electrical sections. After construction and verifying of the orthosis, its applicability was tested on two patients with Cerebrovascular accident (1 woman and 1 man) with paretic hands in an 18-session therapeutic approach. To evaluate the effectiveness of orthosis, Wolf Motor Function Test and Box and Block test were conducted before and after the training sessions. The primary assessment of the prototype was conducted on a healthy subject and three stroke patients. These evaluations showed that the new powered hand orthosis could be effective for finger extension task and training. Furthermore, after the 18-session training approach, significant improvements were seen in the scores of both Wolf and Box and Block tests. The preliminary findings suggested that the first prototype of orthosis could provide a desirable function for stroke patients with paretic hand. Moreover, it could be used as a training device in the rehabilitation of these patients.

Objective Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most prevalent neurological progression that often affects young adults. Cognitive impairment is a frequent symptom of the disease. One cognitive domain is an executive function. Executive function is important in individuals' cognitive skills, adaptive behaviors, and life satisfaction. Thus, accurately recognizing and investigating the factors affecting it greatly helps with improving MS. The current study investigated the relationship between individual and clinical characteristics and executive dysfunction in patients with MS. Materials & Methods This was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study conducted on MS patients referring to Rofeydeh Rehabilitation Hospital in 2017. In total, 71 patients were selected through unpredictable sampling method. MS patients and their families provided written consent forms for participation in the study, and the subjects' data were kept confidential. Moreover, the patients were allowed to discontinue study participation as desired. The inclusion criteria were a diagnosis of MS disease based on McDonald's criteria by a neurologist, the lack of memory impairments, including Alzheimer's disease, non-congenital syndromes like Down syndrome, no thyroid dysfunction, the lack of consuming drugs that affect memory and cognitive function like benzodiazepines, and the lack of severe vision and motor impairments. Exclusion criteria included the lack of patient's cooperation with completing the questionnaire and performing the test, dissatisfaction with continuing the collaboration, and the emergence of an acute problem in the patient that enables him/her to continue cooperation. In this research, instruments such as Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS), Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) test were used. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS. For data analysis, general linear regression was used. Results The obtained results suggested that age, disease duration, and fatigue had a significant reverse relationship with executive functions (descriptive and categorical) (P>0.05). Executive function (classification) had a significant relationship with the first symptom of the onset of disease (P>0.05). Conclusion We investigated the relationship between individual and clinical characteristics and the executive function in MS patients. A significant relationship was observed between the first sign of the disease onset and the level of performance. People who initially demonstrated vision problems had a weaker performance than others. This can be considered as an important finding in the early stages of diagnosis and the development of therapeutic programs to postpone cognitive complications.

Introduction This study aimed to determine the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the Arm Function in Multiple Sclerosis Questionnaire which is a self-report questionnaire for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). Method This methodological study was performed in the following stages: translation, validity, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability of Persian-AMSQ. The Nine-Hole Peg Test (9HPT), Coin Rotation Task (CRT), and Functional Independence Measure (FIM) for construct validity were used. Psychometric testing was done to ascertain the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. Results In this study, 155 people with MS participated. There were no major linguistic or cultural difficulties in the translation of AMSQ. Face and content validity confirmed by experts and people with MS. The internal consistency was high (Cronbach’s α = 0.99). Test–retest reliability, as measured with intra-class coefficient, was 0.98. Correlations with 9HPT (r = 0.54), CRT (r = 0.16), and FIM (r = −0.54) were significant ( p < 0.05). Conclusion The Persian-AMSQ appears to be a valid and reliable questionnaire for measuring upper extremity dysfunction in MS.