Current Issue : January - March Volume : 2013 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 5 Articles
Background and purpose: Ramsay Hunt Syndrome is an uncommon diagnosis that has as part of its presentation unilateral facial paralysis. Functional limitations can include: asymmetric facial expression and difficulty speaking, drinking and eating. The most effective treatment is not clear based on published research. The following case study describes the use of various interventions to assist in facial muscle activation in a patient diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome.\r\n \r\nCase description: A 55 year old female patient presented with right sided facial paralysis two months after diagnosis of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. The patient received progression of range of motion exercises, neuromuscular re-education, soft tissue mobilization, and trials of electrical stimulation as outlined in the current research. In conjunction, she received instruction and application of kinesthetic taping to facilitate and/or inhibit facial muscle activation. The patient was seen for 21 visits over a 14 month time period.\r\n \r\nOutcomes: House Brackmann grades improved from a grade V to a grade II. Strength increased from 1- to 4+. Functional improvements included improvements in communication, eating/drinking, and facial symmetry at rest. The patient also reported significant improvement in experienced pain. Presence of watery eye, and synkinesis were still mildly observed.\r\n \r\nDiscussion: Limited research is available regarding the treatment of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. The combination of interventions described in this report was observed to improve muscle activation, facilitate a decrease in pain, and coincide with an improved House Brackmann grade. Further research should include randomized controlled trials to explore the cause and effect of each treatment...
Background: Chest excursion measurements are used to evaluate a patient�s baseline status, treatment effectiveness, and progression of disease with regards to chest wall mobility and respiratory muscle function, although current research regarding normal chest expansion measurements, consistent patient position and site of measurement is limited. This study was designed to access chest expansion of healthy adults resident in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Methods: Four hundred and twenty-eight (200 males, 228 females) volunteers were recruited for the study. Their age ranged between 20 and 70 years. Participants were apparently healthy and non smoking individuals who are recruited by purposive sampling technique. Data was obtained by measuring chest expansion of both upper and lower thoracic excursion using an inelastic tape with measurement taken twice and the average being recorded. Measurements were taken at the height of maximal inspiration and expiration. For the upper thoracic excursion, the tape measure was placed at the level of the fifth thoracic spinous process and the third intercostals space at the midclavicular line and for the lower thoracic excursion, the tape measure was placed at the level of the 10th thoracic spinous process and the tip of the xiphoid process. The difference of the two measurements was recorded as chest excursion. Data was analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. Level of significance was set at 0.05 a-level. Results: Results showed that male participants have significant higher chest expansion than female participants in upper thoracic (2.6+1.4cm, 2.2+1.2cm) for male and female respectively and at lower thoracic (2.3+1.2cm, 1.7+1.1cm) (p< 0.05) for male and female respectively. Chest expansion of male and female participants at both upper and lower thoracic peak at age 20-29 and decreases thereafter with increasing age. The result showed that chest expansion was negatively correlated with age in male (r= -0.370; p<0.05); r= -0.153; p<0.05); and in female (r= -0.319; p<0.05); r= -0.458; p<0.05) for both upper and lower thoracic respectively. In female participants, chest expansion was significantly correlated with BMI (r= -0.141, 0.197; p<0.05). For the entire participants, values less than 25th, between 25-75th and greater than 75th are considered to be poor, moderate, and good excursion respectively. For the upper expansion and lower expansion, the values are 1.4 cm, 3.1 cm, 5.1 cm and 1.0 cm, 2.7 cm and 4.3 cm respectively. Conclusion: It was concluded that chest expansion of both upper and lower thoracic increase with age increases until the 3rd decade of life, and then steadily declines after this. Male chest expansion was significantly higher than female participants...
The natural history of the metabolic syndrome is marked by progression from endocrine and metabolic perturbations \r\nto overt diabetes, hypertension, secondary complications of nephropathy, neuropathy and retinopathy; along with \r\nserious comorbidities such as vascular disorders and cancers of the colon, breast, ovary and prostate gland. Here, \r\nwe report four case studies involving patients with suboptimal control of metabolic factors treated with an integrated \r\nregimen of lipid-modifying agents, pleiotropic botanical medicine and lifestyle intervention. Over the course of 7 to 13 \r\nmonths, striking improvements to the triad of fasting plasma glucose, blood pressure, lipid profile were observed; with \r\nconcomitant stabilisation of the body mass index and body fat percentage.\r\nOur results proffer early clinical evidence that hormonal and metabolic competency can be restored, and \r\nprogression of the metabolic syndrome arrested, through use of polyvalent pharmacotherapy to enable less intrusive \r\nlifestyle changes ââ?¬â?? without requiring significant weight loss which notably, conferred more effective and sustained \r\ncontrol over the constellation of lipemia, glycemia, arterial tension, atherogenicity and adipo-obesity....
The purpose of this study was to compare the results of Wiiââ??¢ yoga versus a traditional structured exercise intervention regarding posture and self-esteem. The data were analyzed using a bivariate correlation and repeated measures 2-way ANOVA with the level of alpha set at p < .05. Four participants (4 females) from Wheeling Jesuit University took part in the study. Two females completed a traditional exercise intervention, consisting of strengthening and stretching exercises from a certified personal trainer for 6 weeks, 3 times a week. The other 2 female participants completed the Wiiââ??¢ yoga for the same number of sessions. Self-esteem was measured by implementing the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale to the participants before the exercise intervention and after the exercise intervention. No significant difference was found using SPSSââ??¢ Version 19.0 in the study. However, the data indicate that if there had been a larger sample size, it would have increased the statistical power of the study showing that there could have been a statistically significant difference...
Objective: Hyperkyphosis (excess thoracic spine curvature) is associated with upper-extremity functional\r\nlimitations and altered scapular posturing. The purpose of this study was to quantify the changes in upper-extremity\r\nfunction and scapular posturing following a 6-month yogaintervention in persons with hyperkyphosis.\r\n\r\nMethods: Twenty-one older adults with hyperkyphosis (75.5+7.4 yrs) enrolled in the UCLA Yoga for Kyphosis\r\nrandomized controlled trial, elected to participate in this uncontrolled, prepost substudy of upper-extremity function.\r\nThey were measured at baseline and after a 24-week yoga intervention. Maximum vertical reach and timed book\r\ntests were used to evaluate upper-extremity function. Scapular posturing was quantified using a motion analysis\r\nsystem and data was obtained under 4 conditions: 1) quiet-standing, 2) normal walking, 3) fast walking, and 4)\r\nseated. Paired t-tests were used to test for changes between baseline and 6-month follow-up measures and Cohen�s\r\nd was calculated to examine effect sizes.\r\n\r\nResults: Following the 6-month yoga intervention, participants improved their book test performance by 26.4%\r\n(p < 0.001; d = 1.5). Scapular protraction decreased by 2.9% during the static-sitting condition (p < 0.001; d = 0.5)\r\nand the overall excursion of the scapulae decreased for both fast (25.0%, p < 0.05; d = 0.6) and self-selected walking\r\n(29.4%, p < 0.01; d = 0.9). There were no changes in maximum vertical reach.\r\n\r\nConclusion: Subjects demonstrated significant improvements with small to large effect sizes in the timed\r\nbook test and scapular posturing to a less protracted position during both static and dynamic conditions after the\r\nintervention. These adaptations are likely to reduce the risk of scapular impingement and help preserve functional\r\nindependence in older adults....
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