The practice of physical activity and cryotherapy in rheumatoid arthritis: systematic review

International audienceIntroduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune, chronic and inflammatory disease, which the affected patients present a higher cardiovascular mortality rate. Physical activities have been identified as the most important strategy to prevent cardiovascular diseases. However, the articular damage and the chronic pain caused by RA challenges its regular practice. Moreover, persons with RA tend to avoid PA due to the fear of exacerbating the inflammatory potential and pain. One alternative to avoid the collateral effects of the PA could be the cryotherapy. Therefore, this study aimed to review studies focused on the use of both PA and cryotherapy in RA patients and to identify evidences that both therapies could be combined in order to optimize the symptomatic treatment.Evidence acquisition: Four databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, Elsevier and PEDro) were searched to identify publications regarding RA patients, PA and cryotherapy intervention by the terms and operators (rheumatoid arthritis AND exercise OR physical activity OR activity OR training OR reconditioning OR cryotherapy OR cold OR immersion). The selected studies should at least present one measure of the aerobic capacity, disease activity or pain relief. Among 19 studies with RA patients identified, only 4 studies used PA combined with cryotherapy. The other 13 studies used physical activities and 2 studies used cryotherapy intervention.Evidence synthesis: The results of the physical activities combined with cryotherapy studies showed an improvement in the disease activity and pain relief, however without details of the physical activities intervention and an aerobic capacity. Among the physical activities studies, evidence was found suggesting that aerobic exercises and multiactivity exercises with high intensity are the more effective for improve the aerobic capacity.Conclusions: Even if few studies on cryotherapy were found, there are enough evidences in the literature that demonstrate the benefits of this intervention on pain relief and disease activity. In summary, neither study found associated physical activities to improve aerobic capacity with cryotherapy to improve disease activity and pain relief. This may be an innovative therapeutic strategy to improve the aerobic capacity in arthritis patients and consequently reduce their cardiovascular risk while minimizing pain and disease activity

A descriptive analysis of the upper limb patterns during gait in individuals with cerebral palsy

International audiencePatients with cerebral palsy (CP) are characterized by a large diversity of gait deviations; thus, lower limb movements during gait have been well-analyzed in the literature. However, the question of upper limb movements and, more particularly, arm movements during gait has received less attention for CP patients as a function of the disease type (Hemiplegic, HE or Diplegic, DI). Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate upper limb movements for a large group of CP patients; we used a retrospective search, including upper limb kinematic parameters and 92 CP patients (42 females and 50 males, mean ± standard deviation (SD); age: 15.2 ± 6.7 years). The diagnoses consisted of 48 HE and 44 DI. A control group of 15 subjects (7 females and 8 males, age: 18.4 ± 8.4 years) was included in the study to provide normal gait data. For the DI patients and CG, 88 arms and 30 arms were analyzed, respectively. For the HE patients, 48 affected arms and 48 non-affected arms were analyzed. The kinematic parameters selected and analyzed were shoulder elevation angles; elbow flexion angles; thorax tilt and obliquity angles; hand vertical and anterior–posterior movements; and arm angles. Several gait parameters were also analyzed, such as the gait profile score (GPS) and normalized speed. Statistical analyses were performed to compare CG with the affected and non-affected upper limbs of HE patients and with the two upper limbs of DI patients. The results show that HE and DI patients adopt abnormal upper limb movements. However, DI patients have greater shoulder, elbow, thorax and arm angle movements compared with HE patients. However, HE patients adopt different movements between their affected and non-affected arms. Thus, the patients used their upper limbs to optimize their gait more where gait deviations were more important. These observations confirm that the upper limbs must be integrated into rehabilitation programs to improve inter-limb coordination

<b>Comparative study of maximum isometric grip strength in different sports</b>

The objective of this study was to compare maximum isometric grip strength (Fmax)between different sports and between the dominant (FmaxD) and non-dominant (FmaxND) hand. Twenty-nine male aikido (AI), jiujitsu (JJ), judo (JU) and rowing (RO) athletes and 21non-athletes (NA) participated in the study. The hand strength test consisted of maintainingmaximum isometric grip strength for 10 seconds using a hand dynamometer. The position of the subjects was that suggested by the American Society of Hand Therapy. Factorial 2X5 ANOVA with Bonferroni correction, followed by a paired t test and Tukey test, was used for statistical analysis. The highest Fmax values were observed for the JJ group when using the dominant hand,followed by the JU, RO, AI and NA groups. Variation in Fmax could be attributed to handdominance (30.9%), sports modality (39.9%) and the interaction between hand dominance andsport (21.3%). The present results demonstrated significant differences in Fmax between the JJ and AI groups and between the JJ and NA groups for both the dominant and non-dominant hand. Significant differences in Fmax between the dominant and non-dominant hand were only observed in the AI and NA groups. The results indicate that Fmax can be used for comparisonbetween different sports modalities, and to identify differences between the dominant and nondominanthand. Studies involving a larger number of subjects will permit the identification of differences between other modalities

Análise da propulsão em cadeira de rodas manual: revisão de literatura

Objetivos: Analisar aspectos relacionados à propulsão em cadeira de rodas. Materiais e métodos: Para o delineamento desta revisão, foi realizada uma busca em bases de dados eletrônicas a partir das seguintes palavras-chave: wheelchair propulsion, wheelchair biomechanics e wheelchair uses. Foram selecionados artigos completos nas línguas francesa e inglesa. Resultados: A propulsão em cadeira de rodas é um movimento complexo que requer a execução de repetidas aplicações de força durante curto período de tempo. Nesse movimento são exigidos altos níveis de força em razão do baixo rendimento mecânico da cadeira. Pôde ser caracterizado que os cadeirantes não estão satisfeitos com suas cadeiras, os locais não estão adaptados à sua presença e faltam critérios específicos para o ajuste desse importante equipamento. Os principais pontos a serem observados, quanto aos ajustes, são a altura do banco em relação à posição de flexão do cotovelo (100 a 120 graus) com a mão no aro de propulsão e o cuidado com a pressão nos pneus. Quanto à técnica de propulsão, o modo semicircular parece ser o mais indicado, pois nesse padrão o cadeirante realiza a propulsão e retorna a mão por baixo do aro. Os esforços na cadeira de rodas são altos e a incidência de lesões em cadeirantes é elevada. Conclusão: Pode-se concluir que, apesar dos esforços das pesquisas, ainda existem muitas divergências entre os temas e os métodos de avaliações adotados, o que impede que boa parte dos resultados encontrados seja aplicável à vida diária dos usuários de cadeira de rodas

Wheelchairs propulsion analysis: review

OBJECTIVES: To analyze aspects related with wheelchair propulsion. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In order to delineate this review the search for information was carried out within electronics databases, using the following descriptors: "wheelchair propulsion", "wheelchair biomechanics" e "wheelchair users". Full papers published in English and French were included in the study. RESULTS: The wheelchair propulsion is a complex movement that requires the execution of repeated bi manual forces applications during a short time period. In this movement high levels of force must be produced due to the bad mechanical performance of the wheelchair. Could be characterized that wheelchair users are not satisfied with their wheelchair, the places are not adapted to their presence and lack of specific criteria for the adjustment of this equipment. The main points to look at are the seat height in relation to elbow flexion (100-120 degrees) with his hand in the propulsion rim and tire pressure. The semicircular mode of technique propulsion seems to be more appropriate; in this pattern the wheelchair user returns his hand under the rim after propulsion. Efforts in wheelchairs are high and the incidence of injuries in wheelchair users is high. CONCLUSION: One can conclude that in spite of researchers’ efforts there are still many divergences between topics and methods of evaluation, what makes difficult to apply the experimental results to the wheelchairs users’ daily life

Walking Speed and Maximal Knee Flexion During Gait After Total Knee Arthroplasty: Minimal Clinically Important Improvement Is Not Determinable; Patient Acceptable Symptom State Is Potentially Useful

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the operation of choice in patients with end-stage knee osteoarthritis (OA). Up to 1 in 5 patients still encounter functional limitations after TKA, partly explaining patient dissatisfaction. Which gait ability to target after TKA remains unclear. To determine whether Minimal Clinical Important Improvement (MCII) or Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS) values could be derived from gait parameters recorded in patients with TKA. And, if so, to define those values

Caracterização de dois protocolos de avaliação de preensão manual para prescrição de treinamento no remo

Objetivou-se verificar as características de dois protocolos de avaliação de força de preensão manual como subsídio para prescrição de treinamento no remo. Participaram seis atletas profissionais da modalidade de remo (25 ± 5 anos) e 11 não atletas, todos homens. Dois protocolos de avaliação (contínuo e intervalar) foram efetuados. Os valores dos parâmetros de força e decréscimo percentual da força calculados foram empregados para verificar diferenças entre os membros (teste t pareado) e entre os grupos (teste t independente). O protocolo contínuo mostrou-se mais sensível para detectar diferenças nos valores de força e decréscimo percentual de força entre diferentes membros e entre os grupos, enquanto o protocolo intervalar foi eficaz para identificar os valores de força máxima

Associations between gait analysis parameters and patient satisfaction one year following primary total knee arthroplasty

The purpose of this prospective study was to understand the relation between gait outcomes and patient satisfaction one year after total knee arthroplasty (TKA)