[Purpose] This study investigated the effectiveness of a short-term exercise program combining range-of-motion exercise for the temporomandibular joint and self-traction therapy in patients with temporomandibular joint disc displacement without reduction. [Subjects and Methods] The study participants comprised 36 females with jaw trismus and moderate to severe functional pain. The range-of-moti...

Background. A priority in hand therapy following Dupuytren’s fasciectomy is to regain and maintain extension of the proximal interphalangeal joint (PIPJ). Historically this has been achieved through the application of mechanical stress to the affected digit with splinting and exercise. However, loss of a normal pattern of digital flexion in both the operated and non-operated digits is a common ...

BACKGROUND Many patients with appropriate indications fail to respond to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). OBJECTIVE The purpose of our study was to determine the relationship between CRT response and preimplantation apical wall motion abnormality. METHODS We analyzed data from 83 patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy who underwent CRT. All patients had New York Heart Association cla...

Scanned ion beam therapy has special demands for treatment of intra-fractionally moving tumors such as lesions in lung or liver. Interplay effects between beam and organ motion can in those settings lead to under-dosage of the target volume. Dedicated treatment techniques such as gating or abdominal compression are required. In addition 4D treatment planning should be used to determine strategi...

Movement of tumours, mostly by respiration, has been a major problem for treating lung cancer, liver tumours and other locations in the abdomen and thorax. Organ motion is indeed one component of geometrical uncertainties that includes delineation and target definition uncertainties, microscopic disease and setup errors. At present, minimising motion seems to be the easiest to implement in clin...

Frequent and repetitive functional training of the upper limb is a key aspect of regaining independence after stroke. Traditionally, this is achieved through manual one-on-one therapy, but patients are often unable to get sufficient treatment due to budget and scheduling constraints. An ideal solution may be robotic therapy, which is becoming an increasingly viable tool. Unfortunately, current ...

Respiratory motion is traditionally assessed using tumor motion magnitude. In proton therapy, respiratory motion causes density variations along the beam path that result in uncertainties of proton range. This work has investigated the use of water-equivalent thickness (WET) to quantitatively assess the effects of respiratory motion on calculated dose in passively scattered proton therapy (PSPT...

PURPOSE Four-dimensional positron emission tomography (4D PET) imaging of the thorax produces sharper images with reduced motion artifacts. Current radiation therapy planning systems, however, do not facilitate 4D plan optimization. When images are acquired in a 2-minute time slot, the signal-to-noise ratio of each 4D frame is low, compromising image quality. The purpose of this study was to im...

BACKGROUND The formation of heterotopic ossification (HO) about the elbow after traumatic injury has been well documented in the literature. The optimal treatment, however, for ectopic bone associated with restricted range of motion and ulnar nerve entrapment syndrome has not been established. METHODS Seven elbows with HO in 7 patients admitted to Chang Gung Memorial Hospital from April 1998 ...

In the heavy ion therapy project at GSI a C ion beam is used to apply extremely volume conformal dose distributions to cancer patients. Volume conformity means that the dose distribution is shaped precisely to the contours of the tumour taking into account all medical needs. This is achieved by dividing the target volume into small subvolumes (voxels) and optimizing the number of particles per ...