Computer work and musculoskeletal disorders of the neck and upper extremity: A systematic review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This review examines the evidence for an association between computer work and neck and upper extremity disorders (except carpal tunnel syndrome).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A systematic critical review of studies of computer work and musculoskeletal disorders verified by a physical examination was performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 22 studies (26 articles) fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Results show limited evidence for a causal relationship between computer work per se, computer mouse and keyboard time related to a diagnosis of wrist tendonitis, and for an association between computer mouse time and forearm disorders. Limited evidence was also found for a causal relationship between computer work per se and computer mouse time related to tension neck syndrome, but the evidence for keyboard time was insufficient. Insufficient evidence was found for an association between other musculoskeletal diagnoses of the neck and upper extremities, including shoulder tendonitis and epicondylitis, and any aspect of computer work.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There is limited epidemiological evidence for an association between aspects of computer work and some of the clinical diagnoses studied. None of the evidence was considered as moderate or strong and there is a need for more and better documentation.</p

Prospective research on musculoskeletal disorders in office workers (PROMO): study protocol

BACKGROUND: This article describes the background and study design of the PROMO study (Prospective Research on Musculoskeletal disorders in Office workers). Few longitudinal studies have been performed to investigate the risk factors responsible for the incidence of hand, arm, shoulder and neck symptoms among office workers, given the observation that a large group of office workers might be at risk worldwide. Therefore, the PROMO study was designed. The main aim is to quantify the contribution of exposure to occupational computer use to the incidence of hand, arm, shoulder and neck symptoms. The results of this study might lead to more effective and/or cost-efficient preventive interventions among office workers. METHODS/DESIGN: A prospective cohort study is conducted, with a follow-up of 24 months. In total, 1821 participants filled out the first questionnaire (response rate of 74%). Data on exposure and outcome is collected using web-based self-reports. Outcome assessment takes place every three months during the follow-up period. Data on computer use are collected at baseline and continuously during follow-up using a software program. DISCUSSION: The advantages of the PROMO study include the long follow-up period, the repeated measurement of both exposure and outcome, and the objective measurement of the duration of computer use. In the PROMO study, hypotheses stemming from lab-based and field-based research will be investigated

A united statement of the global chiropractic research community against the pseudoscientific claim that chiropractic care boosts immunity.

BACKGROUND: In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) posted reports claiming that chiropractic care can impact the immune system. These claims clash with recommendations from the World Health Organization and World Federation of Chiropractic. We discuss the scientific validity of the claims made in these ICA reports. MAIN BODY: We reviewed the two reports posted by the ICA on their website on March 20 and March 28, 2020. We explored the method used to develop the claim that chiropractic adjustments impact the immune system and discuss the scientific merit of that claim. We provide a response to the ICA reports and explain why this claim lacks scientific credibility and is dangerous to the public. More than 150 researchers from 11 countries reviewed and endorsed our response. CONCLUSION: In their reports, the ICA provided no valid clinical scientific evidence that chiropractic care can impact the immune system. We call on regulatory authorities and professional leaders to take robust political and regulatory action against those claiming that chiropractic adjustments have a clinical impact on the immune system

Cholinesterases: Structure, Role, and Inhibition

Acetilkolinesteraza (AChE; E.C. 3.1.1.7) i butirilkolinesteraza (BChE; E.C. 3.1.1.8) enzimi su koji se zbog svoje uloge u organizmu intenzivno istražuju unutar područja biomedicine i toksikologije. Iako strukturno homologni, ovi enzimi razlikuju se prema katalitičkoj aktivnosti, odnosno specifi čnosti prema supstratima koje mogu hidrolizirati te selektivnosti za vezanje mnogih liganada. U ovom radu dan je pregled dosadašnjih istraživanja kolinesteraza i njihovih interakcija s ligandima i inhibitorima te su izdvojene aminokiseline aktivnog mjesta koje sudjeluju u tim interakcijama.Enzymes acetylcholinesterase (AChE; E.C. 3.1.1.7) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE; E.C. 3.1.1.8) have intensively been investigated in biomedicine and toxicology due to important role in organisms. Even if structurally homologous, they differ in catalytic activity, specificity, for substrates, and selectivity in binding to many ligands. This paper compiles the results of research on cholinesterases and their interactions with ligands and inhibitors, and identifies amino acids of active sites involved in these interactions

Hierarchical linear modeling of longitudinal pedigree data for genetic association analysis

Genetic association analysis on complex phenotypes under a longitudinal design involving pedigrees encounters the problem of correlation within pedigrees, which could affect statistical assessment of the genetic effects. Approaches have been proposed to integrate kinship correlation into the mixed-effect models to explicitly model the genetic relationship. These have proved to be an efficient way of dealing with sample clustering in pedigree data. Although current algorithms implemented in popular statistical packages are useful for adjusting relatedness in the mixed modeling of genetic effects on the mean level of a phenotype, they are not sufficiently straightforward to handle the kinship correlation on the time-dependent trajectories of a phenotype. We introduce a 2-level hierarchical linear model to separately assess the genetic associations with the mean level and the rate of change of a phenotype, integrating kinship correlation in the analysis. We apply our method to the Genetic Analysis Workshop 18 genome-wide association studies data on chromosome 3 to estimate the genetic effects on systolic blood pressure measured over time in large pedigrees. Our method identifies genetic variants associated with blood pressure with estimated inflation factors of 0.99, suggesting that our modeling of random effects efficiently handles the genetic relatedness in pedigrees. Application to simulated data captures important variants specified in the simulation. Our results show that the method is useful for genetic association studies in related samples using longitudinal design