A Systematic Review of Dynamometry and its Role in Hand Trauma Assessment

The dynamometer was developed by American neurologists and came into general use in the late 19th century. It is still used in various ways as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in clinical settings. In this systematic review we assessed in detail the different uses of dynamometry, its reliability, different dynamometers used and the influence of rater experience by bringing together and evaluating all published literature in this field. It was found that dynamometry is applied in a wide range of medical conditions. Furthermore, the great majority of studies reported acceptable to high reliability of dynamometry. Jamar mechanical dynamometer was used most often in the studies reviewed. There were mixed results concerning the effect of rater experience. The factors influencing the results of dynamometry were identified as age, gender, body weight, grip strength, BMI, non/dominant hand, assessing upper/lower limbs, rater and patient’s strength and the distance from the joint where the dynamometer is placed. This review provides an understanding of the relevance and significance of dynamometry which should serve as a starting point to guide its use in hand trauma assessment. On the basis of our findings, we suggest that hand dynamometry has a great potential, and could be used more often in clinical practice

Spatially structured genetic diversity of the Amerindian yam (Dioscorea trifida L.) assessed by SSR and ISSR markers in Southern Brazil

Dioscorea trifida L. (Dioscoreaceae) is among the economically most important cultivated Amerindian yam species, whose origin and domestication are still unresolved issues. in order to estimate the genetic diversity maintained by traditional farmers in Brazil, 53 accessions of D. trifida from 11 municipalities in the states of São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Mato Grosso and Amazonas were characterized on the basis of eight Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) and 16 Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) markers. the level of polymorphism among the accessions was high, 95 % for SSR and 75.8 % for ISSR. the SSR marker showed higher discrimination power among accessions compared to ISSR, with D parameter values of 0.79 and 0.44, respectively. Although SSR and ISSR markers led to dendrograms with different topologies, both separated the accessions into three main groups: I-Ubatuba-SP; II-Iguape-SP and Santa Catarina; and III-Mato Grosso. the accessions from Amazonas State were classified in group II with SSR and in a separate group with ISSR. Bayesian and principal coordinate analyzes conducted with both molecular markers corroborated the classification into three main groups. Higher variation was found within groups in the AMOVA analysis for both markers (66.5 and 60.6 % for ISSR and SSR, respectively), and higher Shannon diversity index was found for group II with SSR. Significant but low correlations were found between genetic and geographic distances (r = 0.08; p = 0.0007 for SSR and r = 0.16; p = 0.0002 for ISSR). Therefore, results from both markers showed a slight spatially structured genetic diversity in D. trifida accessions maintained by small traditional farmers in Brazil.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Univ São Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Dept Genet, BR-13400970 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Biol Sci, BR-09972270 São Paulo, BrazilUniv Calif Davis, Dept Plant Sci MS1, Sect Crop & Ecosyst Sci, Davis, CA 95616 USAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Biol Sci, BR-09972270 São Paulo, BrazilFAPESP: 2007/04805-2Web of Scienc