Classification of the severity of diabetic neuropathy: a new approach taking uncertainties into account using fuzzy logic

OBJECTIVE: This study proposes a new approach that considers uncertainty in predicting and quantifying the presence and severity of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. METHODS: A rule-based fuzzy expert system was designed by four experts in diabetic neuropathy. The model variables were used to classify neuropathy in diabetic patients, defining it as mild, moderate, or severe. System performance was evaluated by means of the Kappa agreement measure, comparing the results of the model with those generated by the experts in an assessment of 50 patients. Accuracy was evaluated by an ROC curve analysis obtained based on 50 other cases; the results of those clinical assessments were considered to be the gold standard. RESULTS: According to the Kappa analysis, the model was in moderate agreement with expert opinions. The ROC analysis (evaluation of accuracy) determined an area under the curve equal to 0.91, demonstrating very good consistency in classifying patients with diabetic neuropathy. CONCLUSION: The model efficiently classified diabetic patients with different degrees of neuropathy severity. In addition, the model provides a way to quantify diabetic neuropathy severity and allows a more accurate patient condition assessment

Effects of a combined strengthening, stretching and functional training program versus usual-care on gait biomechanics and foot function for diabetic neuropathy: a randomized controlled trial

Background: Polyneuropathy is a complication of diabetes mellitus that has been very challenging for clinicians. It results in high public health costs and has a huge impact on patients' quality of life. Preventive interventions are still the most important approach to avoid plantar ulceration and amputation, which is the most devastating endpoint of the disease. Some therapeutic interventions improve gait quality, confidence, and quality of life; however, there is no evidence yet of an effective physical therapy treatment for recovering musculoskeletal function and foot rollover during gait that could potentially redistribute plantar pressure and reduce the risk of ulcer formation. Methods/Design: A randomised, controlled trial, with blind assessment, was designed to study the effect of a physiotherapy intervention on foot rollover during gait, range of motion, muscle strength and function of the foot and ankle, and balance confidence. The main outcome is plantar pressure during foot rollover, and the secondary outcomes are kinetic and kinematic parameters of gait, neuropathy signs and symptoms, foot and ankle range of motion and function, muscle strength, and balance confidence. The intervention is carried out for 12 weeks, twice a week, for 40-60 min each session. The follow-up period is 24 weeks from the baseline condition. Discussion: Herein, we present a more comprehensive and specific physiotherapy approach for foot and ankle function, by choosing simple tasks, focusing on recovering range of motion, strength, and functionality of the joints most impaired by diabetic polyneuropathy. In addition, this intervention aims to transfer these peripheral gains to the functional and more complex task of foot rollover during gait, in order to reduce risk of ulceration. If it shows any benefit, this protocol can be used in clinical practice and can be indicated as complementary treatment for this disease.National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) [MCT/CNPq 10/2010, 503240/2010-9, MCT/CNPq 70/2009, 556374/2010-0]State Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) [2011/19304-4

Envelhecimento, atividade física, massa corporal e arco plantar longitudinal influenciam no equilíbrio funcional de idosos?

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship among anthropometric characteristics (longitudinal arch, body mass index, age, time of physical activity practice) and functional balance scores (Tinetti score and functional reach test) in 45 physically active elderly people. These relationships were investigated in order to know if these anthropometric variables, age and physical activity have influence on the functional balance in elderly. The longitudinal arch was measured by footprints and then classified according to the Arch Index by CAVANAGH AND RODGERS (1987). The Arch Index presented significant changes according to body mass index (BMI), and there was a prevailing incidence of flat feet in the group with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m² (p = 0.0173). Neither the time of exercising nor the age made any difference IN the Tinetti score or BMI. Age was not an important influence in the foot morphology. The functional balance in active elderly was not influenced by the time of physical activity practice, BMI and longitudinal plantar arch.Este estudo visou buscar relações entre características antropométricas e de equilíbrio funcional em uma amostra de 45 idosos fisicamente ativos, relacionando algumas variáveis selecionadas entre si - IMC, faixa etária, tempo de prática de atividade física, índice do arco longitudinal medial, alcance funcional e escore do teste de Tinetti. Estas relações foram investigadas com o intuito de verificar se as variáveis antropométricas, idade e prática de atividade física têm influência no equilíbrio funcional de idosos. O arco longitudinal foi mensurado por meio da impressão plantar e então classificado de acordo com o Índice do Arco de CAVANAGH E RODGERS (1987). O Índice do Arco apresentou significantes mudanças de acordo com o IMC, tendo uma maior incidência de pés planos com o IMC ≥ 25 kg/m² (p = 0,0173). O tempo de prática da atividade física ou a idade dos sujeitos não influenciaram de maneira significativa nas variáveis de equilíbrio. A faixa etária também não influenciou no tipo de pé. O equilíbrio funcional de idosos fisicamente ativos não sofreu influência do tempo de prática de atividade física, IMC e tipo de arco longitudinal plantar

Effects of a multidisciplinar cognitive rehabilitation program for patients with mild Alzheimer's disease

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program on cognition, quality of life, and neuropsychiatry symptoms in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease. METHOD: The present study was a single-blind, controlled study that was conducted at a university-based day-hospital memory facility. The study included 25 Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers and involved a 12-week stimulation and psychoeducational program. The comparison group consisted of 16 Alzheimer's patients in waiting lists for future intervention. INTERVENTION: Group sessions were provided by a multiprofessional team and included memory training, computer-assisted cognitive stimulation, expressive activities (painting, verbal expression, writing), physiotherapy, and physical training. Treatment was administered twice a week during 6.5-h gatherings. MEASUREMENTS: The assessment battery comprised the following tests: Mini-Mental State Examination, Short Cognitive Test, Quality of Life in Alzheimer's disease, Neuropsychiatric Inventory, and Geriatric Depression Scale. Test scores were evaluated at baseline and the end of the study by raters who were blinded to the group assignments. RESULTS: Measurements of global cognitive function and performance on attention tasks indicated that patients in the experimental group remained stable, whereas controls displayed mild but significant worsening. The intervention was associated with reduced depression symptoms for patients and caregivers and decreased neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's subjects. The treatment was also beneficial for the patients' quality of life. CONCLUSION: This multimodal rehabilitation program was associated with cognitive stability and significant improvements in the quality of life for Alzheimer's patients. We also observed a significant decrease in depressive symptoms and caregiver burden. These results support the notion that structured nonpharmacological interventions can yield adjunct and clinically relevant benefits in dementia treatment

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Evidence-informed methods for predicting rehabilitation outcomes for individuals with patellofemoral pain

Patellofemoral pain is a very common musculoskeletal complaint and exercise interventions are the treatment of choice for this condition. However, 15% to 40% of patients present a poor response to rehabilitation and identifying objective measures that can help screen patients who are more likely to present successful results after rehabilitation is important for the optimization of treatment strategies. Therefore, the overarching purpose of this thesis is to develop evidence-based methods for predicting the outcome of exercise treatment in young recreational runners with patellofemoral pain. We found that a classification model using data from conventional motion capture system was able to distinguish between treatment responders and non-responders with 78% of accuracy. To make this classification model more accessible in a clinical setting, we tested whether pelvic acceleration patterns during running could be clustered into homogeneous sub-groups of individuals with patellofemoral pain. We identified two clusters for females and one cluster for males, indicating the clinical utility of this approach for the identification of patient sub-groups. The next study developed a classification model based on pelvic acceleration data to classify patients according to treatment response, achieving an 85% classification accuracy and showing a more clinically accessible approach. Finally, we tested the equivalency of marker-based and inertial measurement unit-based segment acceleration data when applied to a random classification problem in order to understand if the latter classification model could be applied using wearable devices. Overall, the findings indicated a 35% likelihood of decrease in performance of classifiers when the input data were crossed over from different sources. Therefore, a new classification model would have to be developed using data from wearable sensors to facilitate the implementation of this method in a clinical setting. We conclude that the outcome of exercise intervention protocols for the treatment of patellofemoral pain can be predicted using baseline gait analysis data with systems that can be applied in a laboratory setting and has the potential of being translated to a clinical setting as well

Analysis of the progression of alterations in gait electromyography in subjects with diabetic neuropathy classified by a fuzzy linguistic model

O uso de um sistema fuzzy baseado em regras pode permitir uma melhor distinção entre diferentes graus da polineuropatia sensoriomotora distal diabética, possibilitando um esclarecimento de quais são as alterações de atividade muscular e em que estágio da doença elas ocorrem nos diabéticos. As alterações eletromiográficas durante a marcha de diabéticos descritas até hoje não são muito consistentes entre os autores e são sutis, e uma das possíveis causas é a dificuldade em definir grupos experimentais homogêneos com definições claras da gravidade da doença de cada sujeito. Ao classificar pacientes diabéticos em graus de neuropatia de ausente a grave com a lógica fuzzy, ficou elucidado que mudanças na atividade muscular se iniciam mesmo antes da instalação da neuropatia, com atrasos no vasto lateral em 31% na recepção de carga e antecipação do tibial anterior no apoio terminal da marcha em 16%. A neuropatia diabética piora o quadro, exacerbando a antecipação do tibial anterior nas fases mais graves, chegando a uma diferença de 33%, e tornando o pico de ativação do mesmo músculo precoce no início da fase de apoio. As alterações musculares parecem ser causadas por mudanças estruturais e fisiológicas do tecido muscular em si por causa dos sub-produtos gerados pela hiperglicemia em função do mal controle do diabetes mellitus e este quadro é agravado pela instalação dos acometimentos neurológicos com o desenvolvimento da polineuropatia diabéticaThe use of Fuzzy expert model could be an interesting approach to enable a better distinction among different stages of diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy, and differences in muscle activity and in the time when these changes start occurring could be elucidated with this classification. EMG alterations during gait, supposedly caused by this disease, are subtle and still not consistent among authors, possibly due to difficulties in defining homogeneous experimental groups with clear definition of the disease stage of each subject. By classifying diabetic patients from absent to severe neuropathy with fuzzy logic, it clarified that muscle activity changes begin even before diabetic neuropathy is established , with delays of up to 31% in vastus lateralis peak activity at early stance and anticipation of 16% in tibialis anterior onset during terminal stance. The presence of diabetic neuropathy aggravates the changes in tibialis anterior, with 33% earlier onset time, and delayed peak activity at heel strike. Muscular alterations seem to be caused by structural and physiological changes in muscle tissue itself, caused by accumulation of advanced glycation end-products due to poor diabetes control, and these alterations become worse with the onset of neurological impairments when diabetic neuropathy is establishe

Runners with patellofemoral pain demonstrate sub-groups of pelvic acceleration profiles using hierarchical cluster analysis: an exploratory cross-sectional study

Abstract Background Previous studies have suggested that distinct and homogenous sub-groups of gait patterns exist among runners with patellofemoral pain (PFP), based on gait analysis. However, acquisition of 3D kinematic data using optical systems is time consuming and prone to marker placement errors. In contrast, axial segment acceleration data can represent an overall running pattern, being easy to acquire and not influenced by marker placement error. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if pelvic acceleration patterns during running could be used to classify PFP patients into homogeneous sub-groups. A secondary purpose was to analyze lower limb kinematic data to investigate the practical implications of clustering these subjects based on 3D pelvic acceleration data. Methods A hierarchical cluster analysis was used to determine sub-groups of similar running profiles among 110 PFP subjects, separately for males (n = 44) and females (n = 66), using pelvic acceleration data (reduced with principal component analysis) during treadmill running acquired with optical motion capture system. In a secondary analysis, peak joint angles were compared between clusters (α = 0.05) to provide clinical context and deeper understanding of variables that separated clusters. Results The results reveal two distinct running gait sub-groups (C1 and C2) for female subjects and no sub-groups were identified for males. Two pelvic acceleration components were different between clusters (PC1 and PC5; p < 0.001). While females in C1 presented similar acceleration patterns to males, C2 presented greater vertical and anterior peak accelerations. All females presented higher and delayed mediolateral acceleration peaks than males. Males presented greater ankle eversion (p < 0.001), lower knee abduction (p = 0.007) and hip adduction (p = 0.002) than all females, and lower hip internal rotation than C1 (p = 0.007). Conclusions Two distinct and homogeneous kinematic PFP sub-groups were identified for female subjects, but not for males. The results suggest that differences in running gait patterns between clusters occur mainly due to sex-related factors, but there are subtle differences among female subjects. This study shows the potential use of pelvic acceleration patterns, which can be acquired with accessible wearable technology (i.e. accelerometers)

Automated Accelerometer-Based Gait Event Detection During Multiple Running Conditions

The identification of the initial contact (IC) and toe off (TO) events are crucial components of running gait analyses. To evaluate running gait in real-world settings, robust gait event detection algorithms that are based on signals from wearable sensors are needed. In this study, algorithms for identifying gait events were developed for accelerometers that were placed on the foot and low back and validated against a gold standard force plate gait event detection method. These algorithms were automated to enable the processing of large quantities of data by accommodating variability in running patterns. An evaluation of the accuracy of the algorithms was done by comparing the magnitude and variability of the difference between the back and foot methods in different running conditions, including different speeds, foot strike patterns, and outdoor running surfaces. The results show the magnitude and variability of the back-foot difference was consistent across running conditions, suggesting that the gait event detection algorithms can be used in a variety of settings. As wearable technology allows for running gait analyses to move outside of the laboratory, the use of automated accelerometer-based gait event detection methods may be helpful in the real-time evaluation of running patterns in real world conditions

Effects of a combined strengthening, stretching and functional training program versus usual-care on gait biomechanics and foot function for diabetic neuropathy: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background Polyneuropathy is a complication of diabetes mellitus that has been very challenging for clinicians. It results in high public health costs and has a huge impact on patients' quality of life. Preventive interventions are still the most important approach to avoid plantar ulceration and amputation, which is the most devastating endpoint of the disease. Some therapeutic interventions improve gait quality, confidence, and quality of life; however, there is no evidence yet of an effective physical therapy treatment for recovering musculoskeletal function and foot rollover during gait that could potentially redistribute plantar pressure and reduce the risk of ulcer formation. Methods/Design A randomised, controlled trial, with blind assessment, was designed to study the effect of a physiotherapy intervention on foot rollover during gait, range of motion, muscle strength and function of the foot and ankle, and balance confidence. The main outcome is plantar pressure during foot rollover, and the secondary outcomes are kinetic and kinematic parameters of gait, neuropathy signs and symptoms, foot and ankle range of motion and function, muscle strength, and balance confidence. The intervention is carried out for 12 weeks, twice a week, for 40-60 min each session. The follow-up period is 24 weeks from the baseline condition. Discussion Herein, we present a more comprehensive and specific physiotherapy approach for foot and ankle function, by choosing simple tasks, focusing on recovering range of motion, strength, and functionality of the joints most impaired by diabetic polyneuropathy. In addition, this intervention aims to transfer these peripheral gains to the functional and more complex task of foot rollover during gait, in order to reduce risk of ulceration. If it shows any benefit, this protocol can be used in clinical practice and can be indicated as complementary treatment for this disease. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01207284</p