ارزیابی ‌اثر تمرین‌های تعادلی بر شاخص‌های تعادل بیماران دیابتی مبتلا به نوروپاتی

  Evaluation of the Effects of Balance Exercises on Balance Indices in Patients with Diabetic Neuropathy   M. Akbari [1] , H. Jafari [2] , A. Moshashaee [3] , B. Froogh [4]     Received: 19/10/09 Sent for Revision: 13/01/10 Received Revised Manuscript: 07/09/10 Accepted: 13/09/10     Background and Objectives: Peripheral neuropathy is among the most common complications of diabetes. Balance deficit in diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy is due to peripheral nerves injury. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of balance exercises on stability indices in diabetic patients with neuropathy.   Material and Methods: This clinical trial study was conducted on 10 diabetic patients with neuropathy as experimental group, and 10 healthy subjects with the same age as the control group. The subjects were recruited through simple nonprobablity sampling. Stability indecis of all subjects in the two groups were measured on bilateral and unilateral standing with open and closed eyes. Experimental groups were trained for ten sessions by progressive balance exercises and were examined again after the ten sessions. Then balance indices of the experimental group before and after training were compared with the healthy subjects.   Results: Overall and anterior- posterior stability indecis were significantly different before and after treatment in the experimental group during different conditions. These significant differences were between 0.01 to 0.0001 for overall stability index with open eyes and antero-posterior index with closed eyes respectivly. Balance indices caused significant differences between the experimental and healthy subjects before the treatment (p<0.006). After ten sessions of balance exercise therapy in the experimental group there was no significant differences in the indices between the two groups.   Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that balance training could improve stability indices in diabetic patients with neuropathy. The improvement is more significant in eyes open condition. Therefore balance exercise therapy is recommended for rehabilitation of diabetic patients with neuropathy.   Key words: Balance exercises, Diabetes, Stability index , Neuropathy     Funding: This research was funded by Tehran University of Medical Sciences.   Conflict of intersrst: None declared.   Ethical approval: The Ethics Committee of Rehabilitation Science Faculty approved the study .     How to cite this article : Akbari M, Jafari H, Moshashaee A, Froogh B. Evaluation of the Effects of Balance Exercises on Balance Indices in Patients with Diabetic Neuropathy . J Rafsanjan Univ Med Sci 2011 10(1): 14-24. [Farsi]       [1] - Associate Prof., Dept. of Physiotherapy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran   Corresponding Author, Tel: (021) 22229086, Fax: (021) 22220946, E-mail: [email protected]   [2] - Assistant Prof., Dept. of Basic Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran   [3] - MSc, Dept. of Physiotherapy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran   [4] - Associate Prof., Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran