Modified Functional Reach Test: Upper-Body Kinematics and Muscular Activity in Chronic Stroke Survivors

Effective control of trunk muscles is fundamental to perform most daily activities. Stroke affects this ability also when sitting, and the Modified Functional Reach Test is a simple clinical method to evaluate sitting balance. We characterize the upper body kinematics and muscular activity during this test. Fifteen chronic stroke survivors performed twice, in separate sessions, three repetitions of the test in forward and lateral directions with their ipsilesional arm. We focused our analysis on muscles of the trunk and of the contralesional, not moving, arm. The bilateral activations of latissimi dorsi, trapezii transversalis and oblique externus abdominis were left/right asymmetric, for both test directions, except for the obliquus externus abdominis in the frontal reaching. Stroke survivors had difficulty deactivating the contralesional muscles at the end of each trial, especially the trapezii trasversalis in the lateral direction. The contralesional, non-moving arm had muscular activations modulated according to the movement phases of the moving arm. Repeating the task led to better performance in terms of reaching distance, supported by an increased activation of the trunk muscles. The reaching distance correlated negatively with the time-up-and-go test score.

Functional Foods and Human Health: An Overview

Functional food is a whole ingredient or a part of food that used as food for specific therapeutic purposes. It is divided into two wide categories: Conventional and modified functional foods. Conventional functional Foods are composed of natural or whole-food ingredients that provide functional substances while modified functional is food or food products in which add additional ingredients for specific health purposes. Plant-based food such as fruits, vegetables, herbs, cereals, nuts and beans contain vitamins, minerals, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and phenolic compounds that play a functional role in the human body against chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular and GIT-related disease. Some other foods or food products like juices, dairy products, fortified eggs and seafood are composed of functional components. Fish contain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) that are played a functional role in heart health and brain development.

Functional Properties of Extruded Corn Flour

Effect of extrusion cooking on hydration properties (water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI)), and viscosity (peak viscosity (PV), final viscosity (FV)) of corn flour was studied. The preconditioned corn flour was processed using different extrusion cooking conditions at the variable moisture content (MC), temperature (T), and screw speed (SS). Statistical analysis showed that irrespective of variable processing parameters the hydration properties were improved after extrusion cooking. WAI and WSI were increased by 70% to 268% and 5 to 198%, respectively over unextruded flour. The viscosity of extruded corn flour showed a significant (p < 0.05) decrease, indicating high paste stability of corn flour after extrusion cooking. Overall, there was 72 to 86% decrease in PV and 89 to 95% decrease in FV. The mild processing conditions (high MC, low SS, and low T) imparted better hydration properties, whereas severe processing conditions (low MC, high SS, and high T) imparted better paste stability to corn flour. Extruded corn flour with modified functional properties has the potential to be exploited in the development of various gluten-free ready-to-eat products, composite flours, bakery products, etc.

Improvement of transosseous osteosynthesis with ring fixators in the treatment of tibial nonunions

Background. Treatment of tibial nonunions is not a fully resolved problem. The use of ring fixators (RF) for this pathology is competitive in modern conditions. However, there are also disadvantages. Improvement of RF treatment technology is a promising direction for improving the results of treatment of this severe pathology. Purpose of work was to improve the results of the treatment of nonunions of the shin bones based on improving the technique of using RF taking into account the problematic issues of their use; to determine their effectiveness. Materials and methods. According to the proposed method, 42 patients with tibial nonunions were treated. Spoke-rod devices were used with the improvements we proposed — sharpening, modes of conducting and arrangement of spokes in a ring at angles in different planes. In the ring, which was used to bring the osteotomized segment down du-ring distraction osteosynthesis, the outward pins were inserted to prevent it from tipping over. Semi-closed osteotomy (minimally traumatic and safe) was performed with fan-shaped with a chisel from a cross section up to 2 cm, with the formation of a comminuted fracture. External fusion Softcast/Scotchcast allowed avoi-ding deformation of the regenerate and creating optimal conditions for the fusion of fragments. Results. The following results were obtained for the treatment of patients with nonunions of the lower leg bones using RF with our proposed modes of use according to the Modified Functional Evaluation System by Karlstrom-Olerud. Good results were obtained in 20 patients — 55.6 %. In 4 patients (11.1 %), the results were assessed as good with elements of mode-rate dysfunction. They were 22.000 ± 1.323 points. Satisfactory results were obtained in 7 patients (19.4 %), estimated at 28.0 ± 0.125 points. Bad, unsatisfactory results were observed in 1 case (2.8 %); excellent functional status — in 4 (11.1 %). Conclusions. Bearing in mind the severity of the lesion, we find this result encouraging. Given the insufficient number of observations, it is necessary to recommend the use of the proposed improvements in the use of RF for the treatment of tibial nonunions after fractures and further study of their effectiveness.

Reliability of modified functional reach test in the assessment of balance function in people with spinal cord injury: a systematic review

Objective: To systematically review the research studies that reported reliability of modified functional reach test for the assessment of sitting balance function in people with spinal cord injury. Methods: A systematic review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. Research studies published in English language from the earliest record to October 2019 that reported any type of reliability of modified functional reach test in assessing balance function in adult SCI population were included. Those studies were excluded which reported correlation of modified functional reach test with other outcome measures and not explicitly reported reliability of the modified functional reach test. Reviews, commentaries, letter to editors, conference papers and short communications were also excluded. Results: Initially, 108 research articles were retrieved from different databases, however after duplicate removal and applying inclusion/exclusion criteria, only 6 research studies were included in current systematic review. All 6 studies reported only test-retest reliability of modified functional reach test. Four studies measured only forward reach while remaining 2 studies measured reach in different directions. All 6 studies reported good to excellent reliability of modified functional reach test with interclass coefficient values ranging from 0.78 to 0.99. Conclusion: Modified functional reach test is a reliable tool for assessing sitting balance function in individuals with SCI. Continuous...