BACKGROUND The progression of disc degeneration is generally believed to be associated with low back pain and/or degenerative lumbar diseases, especially in the elderly. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively evaluate changes in lumbar disc height using radiographic measurements and to investigate risk factors for development of disc height narrowing of the elderly. METHODS From 1997...

The d-ary back-to-back tree of height k, BBT k d , consists of two complete d-ary trees of height k the leaves of which are identiied. For a proper coloring of the edges of BBT k d with c d + 1 colors, we consider periodic gossiping, i.e. full-duplex all-to-all broadcasting in the 1-port model where communication is made on a link of color i at any time (round) i mod c. We present a coloring fo...

[Purpose] This study aims to improve the safety for caregivers and avoid musculoskeletal diseases by examining the shoulder and trunk muscle activity depending on wheelchair handle height as the caregiver provides propulsion to a wheelchair for wheelchair-bound patients. [Subjects] The participants were caregivers who met the criteria for this study (n=30). [Methods] To determine the activity o...

This study investigated the effects of ergonomic interventions involving a reduction of the mass (from 16 to 11 and 6 kg) and an increase in the initial lifting height (from pallet height to 90 cm above the ground) of building blocks in a mock-up of an industrial depalletizing task, investigating lifting behaviour as well as low back moments (calculated using a 3-D linked segment model). Nine e...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Recurrent or residual back pain after vertebroplasty (VP) is common, and many patients with these symptoms are evaluated by MRI. The purpose of this report is to describe post-treatment MRI findings after successful VP. METHODS We identified all patients who underwent VP at our institution and later presented with back pain and had a spine MRI. From these patients, we i...

The effects of seat-back angle and accelerometer height at the seat-back on seat-back x-axis frequency-weighted root-mean-square (r.m.s.) acceleration have been investigated in field experiments. Experiment 1 investigated the range and variability, of frequency-weighted r.m.s. acceleration at the same measurement position, where the seat-back angle was 24 degrees from vertical on the floor and ...

background & aim: low back pain is the most debilitating condition, and can lead to decreased physical function, compromised quality of life, and psychological distress. several studies have been conducted to recognize the risk factors of low back pain, but despite of strong relationship between obesity and low back pain, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. the aim of this study was to evalu...

PURPOSE To compare lumbar disc degeneration at 9-year follow-up in patients with chronic low back pain who had instrumented lumbar fusion or no fusion. MATERIAL AND METHODOLOGY The main outcomes were disc height and sagittal alignment measured by Distortion Compensated Roentgen Analysis (DCRA). Secondary outcome included the Oswestry Disability Index and VAS back pain. RESULTS Forty-eight p...