Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Journal

 The aim of this review paper was to highlight the role played by physiotherapy/ physical therapy (PT) journals through a preliminary search of PubMed to summarize the studies on analysis of reporting among PT journals. There were two studies on trial registration policies of journals, and seven studies performed content analysis of published articles: two for study design (randomized controlled trials, controlled clinical trials), three for types of published articles, one for core literature, one for gerontology and one for bibliometrics. There is a dearth need to produce more such reports of PT journals and their performance trend along disease-specific, treatment-specific, outcome-specific, population-specific and evidence-specific constructs in the future. 

 The purpose of this study is to compare the effect of core stabilization program and conventional therapy in treating recurrent low back pain. Forty individuals were randomly assigned into two treatment groups of conventional therapy and core stabilization exercises. Treatment effects were established by pre-post treatment assessment of ROM,VAS and RMDQ. Both the group’s variables are assessed for homogeneity by using one- way ANOVA prior to assessing for significance. The significance of the study is analyzed by using student t- test. This study demonstrated significantly higher improvements in  VAS, RMDQ following core stabilization exercises  and higher improvements in ROM following conventional exercise therapy at p=0.05. Thus this study concludes that the core stabilization exercises is more effective in improving VAS and RMDQ scores than the conventional exercise therapy recurrent low back pain patients.

 Background:  Body temperature is other biologinal factor , which is known as an important indicator of muscles function. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of temperature on elbow flexor (Biceps) muscles endurance. Methods: 40 male subjects (22.77±2.11, mean height of 174.99±7.57 cm and mean weight of  63.77±6.45 kg) participated in the present study. The biceps muscles endurance was measured before and after applying ice and hot packs over the forearm for 15 minutes. Results: The results showed a significant increase in biceps muscles endurance after heating. ( r=0.57, p=0.001). it was found  that, cooling the muscles leaded to significant decrease of biceps muscle endurance (P=0.214).Conclusion: These results suggest that elbow flexors  is temperature sensitive. Therefore, further studies are needed to evaluate the effects of Heat and cold on muscular function in people working in workplaces with extreme temperature like many other biological factors, body temperature is known as an important indicator of muscles function.

 Background and purpose: The principles of motor learning have been used in neuro-rehabilitation for the learning and re-learning of a skill. Wheelchair skill training is one such aspect in the field of neuro-rehabilitation. As dependence on wheelchair is an important part of daily life in majority of persons with spinal cord injury an effective method of training wheelchair skills is important. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of video and verbal modes of instructions on training of three important wheelchair skills. Methods: 30   participants  with  paraplegia  were recruited into two groups randomly. Group one received video instructions and group two received verbal instructions for three wheelchair skills; ascending 10cm curb, descending 10cm curb and transfers.   participants were given a maximum of five day training sessions. Each task was trained for 20min daily, until passed. Total training time as well as training time for each task was recorded. Success  rate for both the groups was also calculated. Results: The video instruction group required significantly less training time as compared to the verbal instruction group for training of the three wheelchair skills. However, the success rate for both the groups came out to be 100 percent. Conclusion: This study provides the evidence that video mode of instruction is effective in terms of time for training of wheelchair skills in persons with spinal cord injury.

 The Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) is a 10-item gait assessment based on the Dynamic Gait  Index. Gait disorders are very common in children with cerebral palsy (CP). To document the improvement in the gait of children with CP it is necessary to perform a proper functional analysis of the gait before and after the intervention. The present study will be intended at finding the normal value of FGA in children with CP in the age group from 5 to 12 years.

 Spinal manipulation is most rapidly evolving evidence-informed technique and hence it is essential to imply high quality evidence in terms of systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses for this highly popular therapeutic technique. The objective of this short review was to provide an update of systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses on spinal manipulation through a preliminary search of PubMed database. The ten identified systematic reviews were on adverse events, and of them four were on spinal manipulation and six were on cervical spinal manipulation. Majority of systematic reviews on spinal manipulation reported on cervical spine, since the presumed risks due to manipulation of the cervical spine are much more than that of the lumbar spine due to the related neurovascular structures and hence most studies on adverse events concentrated on cervical spinal manipulation.