Immediate changes in radiographically determined lateral flexion range of motion following a single cervical HVLA manipulation in patients presenting with mechanical neck pain: A case series

Abstract Background: It is generally assumed that inter-vertebral joint dysfunction results in a temporary reduction of mobility of a spinal segment and it has been purported that spinal manipulation can directly affect the biomechanical behaviour of the spine. Functional X-rays are used to assess dynamic alterations of spinal function. Objective: The aim of this case series was to describe the immediate changes of inter-vertebral motion at an identified dysfunctional cervical segment, as measured by functional X-rays in lateral flexion, following a supine cervical rotation manipulation in patients presenting with mechanical neck pain. Methods: Fifteen patients who presented with mechanical neck pain and who exhibited inter-vertebral joint dysfunction at C3eC4 or C4eC5 levels were recruited to participate in this case series. The radiological distance between the transverse process of the identified hypomobile vertebra and the transverse process of the subjacent vertebra, was measured pre-and 5 min post-manipulation during contralateral side flexion. Results: Analysis of the pre-post-intervention radiographs showed a significant increase (P ¼ 0.01) of the distance between the transverse process on the dysfunctional side following cervical manipulation. The mean pre-manipulative inter-vertebral radiological measurement was 18.9 mm (SD 2.1), and 20.6 mm (SD 2.1) at the post-manipulative assessment. Conclusions: These preliminary results demonstrated a trend toward an increase in inter-vertebral motion at the hypomobile segment, measured by functional radiography

Low Latency Estimation of Motor Intentions to Assist Reaching Movements along Multiple Sessions in Chronic Stroke Patients: A Feasibility Study

A corrigendum on Low Latency Estimation of Motor Intentions to Assist Reaching Movements along Multiple Sessions in Chronic Stroke Patients: A Feasibility Study by Ibáñez, J., Monge-Pereira, E., Molina-Rueda, F., Serrano, J. I., del Castillo, M. D., Cuesta-Gómez, A., et al. (2017). Front. Neurosci. 11:126. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00126. In the recently published article, there were incorrect and missing contents in the Acknowledgments section

Thorax, pelvis and hip pattern in the frontal plane during walking in unilateral transtibial amputees: biomechanical analysis

Background: Lower limb amputees exhibit postural control deficits during standing which can affect their walking ability. Objectives: The primary purpose of the present study was to analyze the thorax, pelvis, and hip kinematics and the hip internal moment in the frontal plane during gait in subjects with Unilateral Transtibial Amputation (UTA). Method: The participants included 25 people with UTA and 25 non-amputees as control subjects. Gait analysis was performed using the Vicon(r) Motion System. We analyzed the motion of the thorax, pelvis, and hip (kinematics) as well as the hip internal moment in the frontal plane. Results: The second peak of the hip abductor moment was significantly lower on the prosthetic side than on the sound side (p=.01) and the control side (right: p=.01; left: p=.01). During middle stance, the opposite side of the pelvis was higher on the prosthetic side compared to the control side (right: p=.01: left: p=.01). Conclusions: The joint internal moment at the hip in the frontal plane was lower on the prosthetic side than on the sound side or the control side. Thorax and pelvis kinematics were altered during the stance phase on the prosthetic side, presumably because there are mechanisms which affect postural control during walking

Combining muscle synergies and biomechanical analysis to assess gait in stroke patients

The understanding of biomechanical deficits and impaired neural control of gait after stroke is crucial to prescribe effective customized treatments aimed at improving walking function. Instrumented gait analysis has been increasingly integrated into the clinical practice to enhance precision and inter-rater reliability for the assessment of pathological gait. On the other hand, the analysis of muscle synergies has gained relevance as a novel tool to describe the neural control of walking. Since muscle synergies and gait analysis capture different but equally important aspects of walking, we hypothesized that their combination can improve the current clinical tools for the assessment of walking performance.To test this hypothesis, we performed a complete bilateral, lower limb biomechanical and muscle synergies analysis on nine poststroke hemiparetic patients during overground walking. Using stepwise multiple regression, we identified a number of kinematic, kinetic, spatiotemporal and synergy-related features from the paretic and non-paretic side that, combined together, allow to predict impaired walking function better than the Fugl-Meyer Assessment score. These variables were time of peak knee flexion, VAF(total) values, duration of stance phase, peak of paretic propulsion and range of hip flexion. Since these five variables describe important biomechanical and neural control features underlying walking deficits poststroke, they may be feasible to drive customized rehabilitation therapies aimed to improve walking function.This paper demonstrates the feasibility of combining biomechanical and neural-related measures to assess locomotion performance in neurologically injured individuals. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation, in the framework of the project HYPER (CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010) "Hybrid Neuroprosthetic and Neurorobotic Devices for Functional Compensation and Rehabilitation of Motor Disorders" (Ref. CSD2009-00067) and the Spanish project ASSOCIATE (Ref. DPI2014-58431-C4-1-R).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio