During gait, the trunk and neck are believed to play an important role in dissipating the transmission of forces from the ground to the head. This attenuation process is important to ensure head control is maintained. The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of externally restricting the motion of the trunk and/or neck segments on acceleration patterns of the upper body and head an...

The prevalence of low back disorders is dramatically high in viticulture. Field measurements that objectively quantify work exposure can provide information on the relationship between the adopted trunk postures and low back pain. The purposes of the present study were three-fold (1) to carry out a kinematics analysis of vineyard-workers’ pruning activity by extracting the duration of bending a...

BACKGROUND The restoration of trunk function following stroke is a key component of rehabilitation, however there is limited evidence of the efficacy of additional trunk training. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficacy of trunk exercises added to conventional rehabilitation on functional outcomes. METHODS Relevant randomised controlled trials (RCTs), published up to July 2012, evaluating the e...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of asymptomatic back muscle weakness and spinal deformity on low back pain (LBP). METHODS Sixty healthy subjects without LBP participated in this study. Radiography and an isokinetic/isometric dynamometer were used to respectively measure spinal scoliosis/lordosis and the strength of the trunk flexors/extensors. After 2 years, 48 subjects visited the hospi...

In this study, we investigated the relationship between the motor evoked potentials obtained from trunk muscles and the clinical function of trunk muscle. Twenty patients with unilateral hemispheric stroke and 11 healthy adults were examined. The responses of the bilateral external oblique muscles and the erector spinae muscles to the magnetic stimulation of multiple sites over both cortical he...

Two-dimensional methods have been used to compute trunk kinematic variables (flexion/extension, lateral bend, axial rotation) and X-factor (difference in axial rotation between trunk and pelvis) during the golf swing. Recent X-factor studies advocated three-dimensional (3D) analysis due to the errors associated with two-dimensional (2D) methods, but this has not been investigated for all trunk ...

[Purpose] This study examined the effects of trunk exercises performed on an unstable surface on trunk muscle activation, postural control, and gait speed in stroke patients. [Subjects] Twenty-four participants with stroke were recruited in this study and randomly distributed into experimental (n = 12) and control groups (n = 12). [Methods] Subjects in the experimental group participated in tru...

the genus malasezia currently includes fourteen species that have been isolated from healthy and diseased human and animal skin. however, there were differences with respect to the species most commonly isolated, not only in patients with various skin diseases but also between healthy individuals. the aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of malassezia species from clinically normal s...