A new clinical test for cervicocephalic kinesthetic sensibility: "the fly"

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldOBJECTIVE: To investigate the reliability and discriminative ability of a new test designed to detect accuracy of neck movements. DESIGN: Repeated-measures. Case-control. SETTING: University musculoskeletal research clinic in Iceland. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty women (mean age +/- standard deviation [SD], 30.8+/-9.1 y; range, 18-49 y) with chronic whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) grades I and II (duration, 6 mo-6 y), with current pain score on a visual analog scale of 46.8+/-21.8, and a disability score on the Northwick Park Neck Pain Disability Index of 45%+/-14%. Twenty asymptomatic women (mean age +/- SD, 29.3+/-8.6 y; range, 18-48 y) with no history of whiplash or insidious onset neck pain served as controls. INTERVENTION: A slowly moving object appeared on a computer screen and traced an unpredictable movement path that the subjects were required to follow by moving their heads. Three randomly ordered movement patterns were tested. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: A new software program connected to a 3Space Fastrak system was used to measure the mean absolute error (in millimeters) of 3 trials in each movement pattern. RESULTS: The mean differences (+/-2 SD) between days 1 and 2 were.01+/-.64 mm for the asymptomatic group and.33+/-1.80 mm for the WAD group. The between-day intraclass correlation coefficients were between.60 and.77 for the asymptomatic group and.79 and.86 for the WAD group. Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed a significant difference between groups (P=.02). The Tukey post hoc test showed significant between-group differences for each movement pattern (

The New Old CD8+ T Cells in the Immune Paradox of Pregnancy

CD8+ T cells are the most frequent T cell population in the immune cell compartment at the feto-maternal interface. Due to their cytotoxic potential, the presence of CD8+ T cells in the immune privileged pregnant uterus has raised considerable interest. Here, we review our current understanding of CD8+ T cell biology in the uterus of pregnant women and discuss this knowledge in relation to a recently published immune cell Atlas of human decidua. We describe how the expansion of CD8+ T cells with an effector memory phenotype often presenting markers of exhaustion is critical for a successful pregnancy, and host defense towards pathogens. Moreover, we review new evidence on the presence of long-lasting immunological memory to former pregnancies and discuss its impact on prospective pregnancy outcomes. The formation of fetal-specific memory CD8+ T cell subests in the uterus, in particular of tissue resident, and stem cell memory cells requires further investigation, but promises interesting results to come. Advancing the knowledge of CD8+ T cell biology in the pregnant uterus will be pivotal for understanding not only tissue-specific immune tolerance but also the etiology of complications during pregnancy, thus enabling preventive or therapeutic interventions in the future