Investigating the Reliability of the Measurement of the Cervical Muscle’s Echo Intensity

Introduction: The skeletal muscle’s echo intensity (EI) is a measurement that can be used to assess the quality of the muscle and any muscle damage caused by training or activity. To determine its reliability, a limited number of studies have investigated the measurement of cervical muscles’ EI. This study determines whether the EI of the cervical muscles can be reliably quantified using the Adobe Photoshop software. Materials and Methods: The mean EI of the cervical muscles was measured using the standard histogram function of Adobe Photoshop CS6 in 20 healthy women. Results: The measurement of EI of cervical muscles using Adobe Photoshop CS6 is reliable in healthy women (intra-class coefficient >0.9). The values of the standard error of measurements of longus coli, sternocleidomastoid, levator scapula, semispinalis capitis, rectus capitis posterior, and oblique capitis superior muscles were 1.81, 2.09, 1.46, 2.02, 1.47 and 1.26, respectively. The values of the smallest detectable difference of longus coli, sternocleidomastoid, levator scapula, semispinalis capitis, rectus capitis posterior, and oblique capitis superior muscles were 7.11, 8.22, 5.74, 7.93, 5.79, and 4.97, respectively.  Conclusion: Assessing the EI of the cervical muscles with Adobe Photoshop software is a viable method to determine the quality of the muscles

The effect of core stability training with and without whole body vibration in chronic low back pain patients

The subjective of this study was to explore and compare the effects of Whole Body Vibration (WBV) and conventional spinal stabilization exercises on persons with non-specific chronic low back pain (CLBP). Thirty patients with non-specific chronic low back pain randomly received 6 sessions of spinal stabilization therapy with and without whole body vibration over 2 weeks. The severity of pain, functional disability,  abdominal and lumbar multifidus muscle endurance were assessed prior to, midway and after two week  WBV or spinal stabilization intervention program sequentially by using VAS score, Oswestry disability index and stabilizer pressure biofeedback unit. Repeated measure ANOVA was used for data analysis. A p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Findings show that multifidus muscle endurance and general functionality  increase significantly over time in both groups (P <0/05). Both groups didn't show any statistically significant change in perception of pain, supine and prone time after the treatment period (P>0/05) .Neither of the two exercise interventions wasn't superior in producing more significant results except for multifidus and transverse abdominus muscles endurance where the vibration group showed significant improvement over the non-vibration group. Findings revealed that a slight difference existed in favor of the vibration training group, but not sufficient enough to conclude that it is more effective than core muscle exercises alone