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Stable Subjects (stable + subject)
Selected AbstractsAnkle eversion torque response to sudden ankle inversion Torque response in unbraced, braced, and pre-activated situationsJOURNAL OF ORTHOPAEDIC RESEARCH, Issue 2 2005Lars Konradsen Abstract In 13 young ankle stable subjects, ankle eversion torque and peroneal EMG were simultaneously recorded in response to sudden ankle inversion. The eversion torque response was bi-phasic. The initial development of torque, which was responsible for 30% of the maximal eversion torque response, was observed 135ms after the start of platform rotation and correlated well with the onset of the automatic postural peroneal EMG response. The remaining eversion torque response commenced after 305 ms, strongly correlating with the onset of the peroneal long latency voluntary EMG activity. With the ankle unbraced, 66% of the maximal torque level was reached in 326ms. While braced, the same torque magnitude was reached using 230ms (p < 0.02), and pre-activation of the peroneal muscles allowed the subjects to reach the same level of torque in 89ms (p < 0.0005). Prior to the study, a common reaction pattern to sudden inversion was expected in an ankle stable population, but review of the eversion torque and EMG data from the 13 subjects revealed three different voluntary reaction patterns: 10 subjects showed an efficient activation of evertor muscles; two subjects stiffened their ankles with activation of both in- and evertor muscles; and one subject showed a marginal voluntary activation of the ankle evertors. The results of the study indicate that the reaction to sudden ankle inversion is not solely automatic. The main part of the torque response is voluntarily mediated and inter-individual differences in strategy seem to exist in healthy subjects. © 2004 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. [source] Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis subgingival presence, species-specific serum immunoglobulin G antibody levels, and periodontitis disease recurrenceJOURNAL OF PERIODONTAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2006T. E. Rams Background and Objective:, The biological and clinical effects of antibody against periodontal pathogenic bacteria are incompletely understood. This study evaluated the inter-relationships among periodontal levels of cultivable Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis, species-specific serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody levels, and periodontitis disease activity. Material and Methods:, Forty-three adults who had previously been treated for periodontitis and who also harbored cultivable A. actinomycetemcomitans or P. gingivalis were evaluated semiannually for clinical disease recurrence over a 36-month period. Each patient provided subgingival microbial samples, for the recovery of A. actinomycetemcomitans and P. gingivalis, from the two deepest pockets in each dentition sextant. A. actinomycetemcomitans and P. gingivalis serum IgG antibody levels were assessed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), together with whole-cell sonicate extracts from A. actinomycetemcomitans serotypes a,c and P. gingivalis ATCC 33277. Data were analyzed using the Mantel,Haenszel chi-square and Fisher exact two-tailed tests. Results:, Eighteen (60.0%) of 30 A. actinomycetemcomitans -positive subjects, and 10 (76.9%) of 13 P. gingivalis -positive subjects, exhibited recurrent periodontal breakdown within 36 months of periodontal therapy. Nineteen (67.9%) of the 28 patients with active periodontitis had A. actinomycetemcomitans or P. gingivalis serum antibody levels below designated threshold values. In comparison, 10 (66.7%) of 15 culture-positive clinically stable subjects showed A. actinomycetemcomitans or P. gingivalis serum antibody levels above threshold values. The difference between specific antibody levels in periodontitis-active and periodontitis-stable patients was statistically significant (p = 0.032). Conclusions:, Serum levels of IgG antibodies against A. actinomycetemcomitans or P. gingivalis in periodontitis-stable patients were higher than those in patients with active periodontitis. The results suggest that elevated levels of IgG antibody against A. actinomycetemcomitans and P. gingivalis have a detectable protective effect against periodontal infections with these microorganisms. [source] Defence mechanisms in schizophreniaPERSONALITY AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 4 2008Richard J. Shaw Aim,In this study, the aim was to conduct an empirical study of the nature of defence mechanisms in a group of subjects with schizophrenia. Methods,Forty-four clinically stable, medicated subjects with schizophrenia completed the Response Evaluation Measure (REM-71), a self-report measure used to assess defence mechanisms, and were rated with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) to assess severity of psychopathology. Responses on the REM-71 were compared with 136 age and gender-matched control subjects. Results,Subjects with schizophrenia were significantly more likely to endorse the use of immature but not mature defence mechanisms when compared with control subjects (p < 0.001). There was no relationship between responses on the REM-71 and the BPRS. Test,retest reliability of the REM-71 was supported by findings that responses by subjects with schizophrenia were unchanged when reassessed after a two-week time interval. Conclusions,Clinically stable subjects with schizophrenia are found to endorse the use of immature defence mechanisms that have been found to have associations with negative outcomes, including in the area of mood, self-efficacy and quality of life. Defence style may be an important mediator of psychosocial outcomes, and knowledge of specific defence patterns may have important clinical implications for both prognosis and treatment. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Assessing the responsiveness of measures of oral health-related quality of lifeCOMMUNITY DENTISTRY AND ORAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 1 2004David Locker Abstract ,,, Objectives: This paper illustrates ways of assessing the responsiveness of measures of oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) by examining the sensitivity of the oral health impact profile (OHIP)-14 to change when used to evaluate a dental care program for the elderly. Methods: One hundred and sixteen elderly patients attending four municipally funded dental clinics completed a copy of the OHIP-14 prior to treatment and 1 month after the completion of treatment. The post-treatment questionnaire also included a global transition judgement that assessed subjects' perceptions of change in their oral health following treatment at the clinics. Change scores were calculated by subtracting post-treatment OHIP-14 scores from pre-treatment scores. The longitudinal construct validity of these change scores were assessed by means of their association with the global transition judgements. Measures of responsiveness included effect sizes for the change scores, the minimal important difference, and Guyatt's responsiveness index. An receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed to determine the accuracy of the change scores in predicting whether patients had improved or not as a result of the treatment. Results: Based on the global transition judgements, 60.2% of subjects reported improved oral health, 33.6% reported no change, and only 6.2% reported that it was a little worse. These changes are reflected in mean pre- and post-treatment OHIP-14 scores that declined from 15.8 to 11.5 (P < 0.001). Mean change scores showed a consistent gradient in the expected direction across categories of the global transition judgement, but differences between the groups were not significant. However, paired t -tests showed no significant differences in the pre- and post-treatment scores of stable subjects, but showed significant declines for subjects who reported improvement. Analysis of data from stable subjects indicated that OHIP-14 had excellent test,retest reliability with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.84. Effect size based on change scores for all subjects and subgroups of subjects were small to moderate. The ROC analysis indicated that OHIP-14 change scores were not good ,diagnostic tests' of improvement. The minimal important difference for the OHIP-14 was of 5-scale points, but detecting this difference would require relatively large sample sizes. Conclusions: OHIP-14 appeared to be responsive to change. However, the magnitude of change that it detected in the context described here was modest, probably because it was designed primarily as a discriminative measure. The psychometric properties of the global transition judgements that often provide the ,gold standard' for responsiveness studies need to be established. [source] | ||||||||||