IMMEDIATE AND PROLONGED EFFECTS OF THERAPEUTIC ELASTIC TAPE ON VASTI MUSCLE ACTIVATION

IMMEDIATE AND PROLONGED EFFECTS OF THERAPEUTIC ELASTIC TAPE ON VASTI MUSCLE ACTIVATION S.E. Risso, K.M. Bishop, M.S. Fogarty, A.L. Johanson, A.D. LaGoy, M.M. O’Hollaren, A.E. Zander, R.S. McCulloch Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is a common ailment that can cause severe anterior knee pain. Up to 40% of patients seen in orthopedic clinics for knee pain are diagnosed with PFPS. One proposed mechanism of PFPS is lateral tracking of the patella due to imbalance between the vastus medialis (VM) and vastus lateralis (VL) muscles. A low VM: VL activation ratio has been correlated with increased patellar tilt in subjects with PFPS. Despite increased usage of therapeutic elastic tape for injury prevention and rehabilitation for conditions such as knee pain, its effectiveness has not been extensively studied. PURPOSE: To determine if therapeutic elastic tape has a positive effect on the VM: VL activation ratio in healthy subjects, and thus whether further testing should be done to examine its effects in PFPS patients with patellar maltracking. METHODS: Thirteen healthy, active, female undergraduate students participated in four testing sessions. In sessions one and three, therapeutic elastic tape or placebo tape was applied to the subjects’ VM in a randomized and counterbalanced manner. Muscle activation was then tested during a step activity ten minutes post taping to determine the short term effects of therapeutic elastic tape. To determine long term effects, subjects kept the tape on for 3 days, after which time they returned to the lab for session two or four. During each session, subjects performed a warm up followed by a maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) and step up for which electromyography (EMG) data was recorded for VM and VL. The MVC consisted of three knee extensions against resistance. After a two minute rest, subjects performed three step ups onto a 19.6 cm box. Step rate was standardized using a metronome set at 40 bpm. Average EMG values were converted to a percentage of MVC from which the VM: VL activation ratio was calculated. RESULTS: No significance was found for effect of time (F (1, 9) = 0.15, p = 0.704), taping condition (F (2, 18) = 0.32, p = 0.730), or interaction of time and tape (F (2, 18) = 0.67, p = 0.523). CONCLUSIONS: The current study does not support the clinical use of therapeutic elastic tape for improved VM: VL ratio. Further research is suggested to determine the effects of therapeutic elastic tape in other applications

Bias and measurement errors in radioactivity data from four European radiation research laboratories

Four radiation research laboratories participated in an interlaboratory comparison exercise to assess precision in the measurement of radionuclide concentrations. Each laboratory was required to report results for 137Cs, 134Cs and 40K in accordance with their usual procedures. A normal probability plot of the pooled data showed ten of the 161 readings to be obvious outliers and seven of these were attributed to one of the laboratories. One laboratory consistently overestimated relative to the global mean, another laboratory consistently underestimated while the other two showed positive and negative bias dependent on isotope. Both bias and measurement errors were found to increase in the order 137Cs, 134Cs, 40K. A need for greater standardization of analytical techniques was identified

Bias and measurement errors in radioactivity data from 4 European radiation research laboratories

Four radiation research laboratories participated in an interlaboratory comparison exercise to assess precision in the measurement of radionuclide concentrations. Each laboratory was required to report results for 137Cs, 134Cs and 40K in accordance with their usual procedures. A normal probability plot of the pooled data showed ten of the 161 readings to be obvious outliers and seven of these were attributed to one of the laboratories. One laboratory consistently overestimated relative to the global mean, another laboratory consistently underestimated while the other two showed positive and negative bias dependent on isotope. Both bias and measurement errors were found to increase in the order 137Cs, 134Cs, 40K. A need for greater standardization of analytical techniques was identified

Chernobyl fallout in a Swedish spruce forest ecosystem

An assessment of the distribution of Chernobyl fallout in a Swedish forest was carried out and showed more than 95% of the in the system to be of Chernobyl origin. The data show that approximately 87% of total fallout is found in soils, 6% in the bryophyte layer and 7% in standing biomass of trees. The mean deposition of in the system (including soils, bryophytes, understorey vegetation, fungi, trees, moose and roe deer) was 54 kBq m−2. Fungi, understorey vegetation and ruminant populations collectively contained approximately 1% of total radiocaesium in the system. However, actual concentrations in these sample types were higher than in any other category, mostly exceeding the limit of 1500 Bq kg−1 for consumption of wild produce in Sweden. These categories represent the principal foodstuffs responsible for radiation transfer to man from the system and though negligible in total biomass there is potential for significant dose transfer to individuals who are regular consumers of wild forest produce