A CASE STUDY - DETERMINING THE MUSCLE IMBALANCE OF THE JUNIORS 3 IN HURDLES EVENTS THROUGH BIODEX SYSTEM 4 PROTM

A case study was undertaken to determine the agonist - antagonist ratio of the lower limb of the junior athletes three according with the technical demands of the leading leg and trail leg from hurdles events. The leading leg during the hurdles events is using the flexion/extension of the knee while the trail leg movements are more complex including: abduction of the hip, shoulder external rotation. Our study consists in a total of five variables tested using Biodex System ProTM such as: knee extension/flexion, ankle plantar/dorsiflexion, hip extension /flexion, hip abduction / adduction and shoulder internal / external rotation at different speeds (60°/s 120°/s, 180°/s. 300°/s, 450 °/s). We have compared speeds for each variable to determine differences between right and left leg. In addition, this study aimed to create a more objective image of the agonist - antagonist ratio for the leading/trail leg during hurdles race for junior athletes 3

Equilibrium solubility versus intrinsic dissolution: characterization of lamivudine, stavudine and zidovudine for BCS classification

Solubility and dissolution rate of drugs are of major importance in pre-formulation studies of pharmaceutical dosage forms. The solubility improvement allows the drugs to be potential biowaiver candidates and may be a good way to develop more dose-efficient formulations. Solubility behaviour of lamivudine, stavudine and zidovudine in individual solvents (under pH range of 1.2 to 7.5) was studied by equilibrium solubility and intrinsic dissolution methods. In solubility study by equilibrium method (shake-flask technique), known amounts of drug were added in each media until to reach saturation and the mixture was subjected to agitation of 150 rpm for 72 hours at 37 ºC. In intrinsic dissolution test, known amount of each drug was compressed in the matrix of Wood's apparatus and subjected to dissolution in each media with agitation of 50 rpm at 37 ºC. In solubility by equilibrium method, lamivudine and zidovudine can be considered as highly soluble drugs. Although stavudine present high solubility in pH 4.5, 6.8, 7.5 and water, the solubility determination in pH 1.2 was not possible due stability problems. Regarding to intrinsic dissolution, lamivudine and stavudine present high speed of dissolution. Considering a boundary value presented by Yu and colleagues (2004), all drugs studied present high solubility characteristics in intrinsic dissolution method. Based on the obtained results, intrinsic dissolution seems to be superior for solubility studies as an alternative method for biopharmaceutical classification purposes

Summary findings of a systematic review of the ultrasound assessment of synovitis

This report presents the results of a recent systematic review performed by the OMERACT Ultrasound Group on the metric properties of ultrasound for the detection of synovitis in inflammatory arthritis. Reviews were conducted for the hand, wrist, elbow, shoulder, knee, ankle, and foot; most reports were related to the hand and knee, and the most common disease process was rheumatoid arthritis. The review highlights the current gaps in the literature, including a lack of reliability data with respect to intra-occasion and intra- and inter-reader reliability. Current work by our group is addressing these issues