The advent of high-throughput SNP genotyping methods has advanced research into the genetics of common complex genetic diseases such as ankylosing spondylitis (AS) rapidly in recent times. The identification of associations with the genes IL23R and ERAP1 have been robustly replicated, and advances have been made in studies of the major histocompatibility complex genetics of AS, and of KIR gene ...

Although most current stroke intervention trials use disability scales to determine outcome, little is known about the sensitivity to change of these scales. The use of a more sensitive measure would increase the statistical power of rehabilitation treatment trials. We applied four well-known disability scales to a group of stroke rehabilitation inpatients to compare sensitivity to change. Nine...

OBJECTIVE the Barthel Index (BI) has been recommended for the functional assessment of older people but the reliability of the measure for this patient group is uncertain. To investigate this issue we undertook a systematic review to identify relevant studies from which an overview is presented. METHOD studies investigating the reliability of the BI were obtained by searching Medline, Cinahl ...

STUDY DESIGN Multicenter, prospective, longitudinal cohort study. OBJECTIVES To investigate the minimum important difference (MID) of the Patient-Specific Functional Scale (PSFS), 4 region-specific outcome measures, and the numeric pain rating scale (NPRS) across 3 levels of patient-perceived global rating of change in a clinical setting. BACKGROUND The MID varies depending on the external ...

purpose the purpose of this study was to describe the body structure and morphological characteristics of tunisian elite handball players, and to determine the effect of these variables on functional and physical performance levels. methods a sample of 42 male handball players (mean age 21.98±3.24 years; training duration 12 years) at international level was submitted to a test battery comprisi...