Influence of Sex on the Acute Effect of Stretching on V Sit-and-Reach Scores in University Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of sex on the acute effect of static-passive one-session stretching on V sit-and-reach scores in university students. A sample of 76 college students aged 19-30 years were divided into a women group (n = 36) and men group (n = 40). During one session the students performed stretching exercises for the major body muscles using the static-passive technique. Hamstring and lower back muscles extensibility was estimated by the V-sit-and-reach test at the beginning and at the end of the stretching session. The results of the two-way ANOVA with the Bonferroni adjustment showed that females and males did not show a different response to the one-session stretching intervention (p > 0.05). However, both the women and men increased statistically their scores after performing the stretching session (p < 0.001). In conclusion, no differences have been found in the trainability of flexibility by sex. However, there are differences of flexibility by the sex of students, being the females, who obtained the highest marks in the V-sit-and-reach. All this knowledge could help coaches to design more effectives stretching programs

SARS-CoV-2 serology after COVID-19 in multiple sclerosis: An international cohort study

Background: The MuSC-19 project is an Italian cohort study open to international partners that collects data on multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with COVID-19. During the second wave of the pandemic, serological tests became routinely available. Objective: To evaluate the seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies according to the use of disease-modifying therapy (DMT) in a subset of patients included in the MuSC-19 data set who had undergone a serological test. Methods: We evaluated the association between positive serological test results and time elapsed since infection onset, age, sex, Expanded Disability Status Scale score, comorbidities and DMT exposure using a multivariable logistic model. Results: Data were collected from 423 patients (345 from Italy, 61 from Turkey and 17 from Brazil) with a serological test performed during follow-up. Overall, 325 out of 423 tested patients (76.8%) had a positive serological test. At multivariate analysis, therapy with anti-CD20 was significantly associated with a reduced probability of developing antibodies after COVID-19 (odds ratio (OR) = 0.20, p = 0.002). Conclusion: Patients with MS maintain the capacity to develop humoral immune response against SARS-COV-2, although to a lesser extent when treated with anti-CD20 drugs. Overall, our results are reassuring with respect to the possibility to achieve sufficient immunization with vaccination