ABSTRACT
Backgrounds and Objectives: Acute poliomyelitis is now an uncommon disease but its long term morbidities are still a challenge. Post polio syndrome includes new neuromuscular symptoms that polio survivors are often confronted with several years after acute polio. The purpose of this study was to assess quality of life, and physical and psychological function in persons with postpolio syndrome [PPS]
Materials and Methods: 204 subjects with history of poliomyelitis were recruited in this cross sectional study. Finally, 52 people affected by post polio syndrome were compared with 50 healthy people [as control group] regarding the quality of life, and physical and psychological function. Utilized assessment instruments were: 36-Item Short Form Health survey [SF-36] and its two physical functioning and mental health subscales, visual analogue scale, fatigue severity scale and muscle manual muscle testing. The data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, Independent t test, Kruskal-Wallis test and multivariate regression test. The level of significance was set at 0.05
Results: The mean age of patients in this study was 41.65 +/- 8.74. Comparing the patients with control group revealed that the patients reported a poorer quality of life, and physical and psychological function. Multivariate analyses identified that physical function was affected by muscle weakness, while psychological function was affected by pain and fatigue
Conclusion: Quality of life, and physical and psychological function of people with PPS were reduced. These patients need support from multidisciplinary teams to cope with new neuromuscular problems
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) on plasma nitric oxide (NO), Endothelin 1 (ET1), high sensitive C-reactive protein (HSCRP) and quality of life (QoL) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: We conducted a pilot randomized clinical trial in order to evaluate plasma NO, ET1, HSCRP and QoL before and after twenty sessions of EECP (group A) and cardiac rehabilitation (CR, group B) in 42 patients with CAD (21 in each group). RESULTS: Forty-two patients (33 male and 9 female) were included in the study. The mean age was 58.2+/-10 years. The mean HSCRP was 1.52+/-0.7 in the EECP group and it was reduced to 1.27+/-0.4 after intervention. The reduction in HSCRP was not statistically significant in EECP and CR groups with p=0.33 and p=0.27, respectively. There was not significant improvement of NO, ET1, and QoL in the EECP and CR groups shortly after therapy (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Although the short-term EECP treatment in CAD patients improved HSCRP, NO, ET1, and QoL compared with the baseline those improvements are not statistically significant. Further studies are necessary with large study groups and more sessions.