PURPOSE We studied the efficacy of osteopathic manual treatment (OMT) and ultrasound therapy (UST) for chronic low back pain. METHODS A randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, 2 × 2 factorial design was used to study OMT and UST for short-term relief of nonspecific chronic low back pain. The 455 patients were randomized to OMT (n = 230) or sham OMT (n = 225) main effects groups, and to UST...

Recent years have seen a spectacular rise in the importance of biomarkers in acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The most notable of these biomarkers is, without doubt, troponin. Its usefulness for diagnosis, decision making, and prognostic stratification have been fully validated, and its use in daily clinical practice is now widespread.1 It should be pointed out that the kinetics of troponin relea...

This report gives a brief overview of and a few pointers on belief reasoning for multi-agent systems. The modeling of beliefs is usually done in terms of modal logics which are fairly costly to reason in. We introduce our novel, more practical approach to belief reasoning in a first-order back-chaining system such as Prolog. At the end of the report, we justify the approach by relating some of ...

Generalized hyperalgesia has been demonstrated in cross-sectional studies in a range of chronic pain disorders, including low-back pain. It is not clear, whether the increased sensitivity to experimental pain stimuli in chronic low-back pain sufferers develops early with acute pain, later with chronification, or whether it actually represents pre-existing, high pain sensitivity in a susceptible...

We propose an Eulerian description of the bounce-back boundary condition based on the high-order implicit time marching schemes to improve the accuracy of lattice Boltzmann simulation in the vicinity of curved boundary. The Eulerian description requires only one grid spacing between fluid nodes when the second-order accuracy in time and space is desired, although high-order accurate boundary co...

BACKGROUND Ergonomic factors predispose nurses to low back pain (LBP). Few studies have clarified the role of workplace violence in LBP occurrence. OBJECTIVES The present study was designed to investigate acute and chronic LBP in Iranian nurses and its association with exposure to physical violence as well as its personal and ergonomic risk factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this analytic cr...

Chronic low back pain (CLBP), one of the most common musculoskeletal conditions in older adults, might affect balance and functional independence. The purpose of this study was to investigate the postural responses to a suddenly released pulling force in older adults with and without CLBP. Thirty community-dwelling older adults with CLBP and 26 voluntary controls without CLBP were enrolled. Par...

OBJECTIVE To examine health satisfaction and its predictors in subjects with and without chronic low back pain. SUBJECTS Data for subjects aged 15-64 years were sourced from an Austrian representative population-based nationwide survey including 6,194 men and 6,183 women. METHODS Health satisfaction and its determinants were assessed using the World Health Organization Quality of Life Quest...

QUESTION Is there a difference in the level and pattern of free-living physical activity between individuals with chronic low back pain and matched controls? DESIGN Observational, cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS Fifteen individuals with chronic low back pain and fifteen healthy controls matched for age, gender, and occupation. OUTCOME MEASURES Participants wore an activity monitor for...