[Comparison of hip abductor, extensor and external rotator strength in women with and without patellofemoral pain syndrome]

Patellofemoral pain syndrome [PFPS] is a common musculoskeletal condition. Women with patellofemoral pain syndrome would present significant weakness in many of hip muscle groups when compared with the healthy group. The objective of the present study was to compare the strength of hip abductor, extensor and external rotator muscle groups in sedentary women with bilateral patellofemoral pain syndrome to a matched control group of sedentary women without patellofemoral pain syndrome. Twelve women with bilateral patellofemoral pain syndrome as experimental, group and other twelve matched women as control group participated in this study. Maximum isometric strength for three hip muscles including abductor, extensor and external rotator muscle groups was measured bilaterally in all subjects using a dynamometer fixed on a platform and finally averaged between two limbs and compared with the control group. The hip abductor, extensor and external rotator muscle groups of experimental group were statistically weaker than that of the control group [p< 0.001]. It seems that lower limb muscles including hip muscles of women with patellofemoral pain syndrome become weaker due to disuse conditions

Effect of cardiac rehabilitation program on functional capacity following valvular heart surgery

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a 4 to 6 week cardiac rehabilitation program [CRP] on the functional capacity improvement of patients six weeks following aortic and/or mitral valve replacement/reconstruction surgery. Fifteen volunteer subjects were enrolled in the CRP. Functional capacity was estimated by oxygen uptake [VO2] during exercise tolerance testing [GXT] before and after CRP. To determine the CRP mechanism and its effects on cardiac output, left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF] was measured by manual and automatic echocardiography. Heart rate [HR] and blood pressure [BP], as the criteria to evaluate patient's ischemic risk, were measured. All measurements were performed before and after CRP sessions. Functional capacity and VO2 at the maximum stage of the GXT increased significantly for the participants [from 6.67 to 9.92 Metabolic Equivalents, p<0.001]. Patient's LVEF increased significantly, and at rest HR and systolic BP decreased significantly [from 92.86 to 84.40 bpm, p<0.003, and from 113.33 to 104.00 mmHg, p<0.01, respectively] following CRP. No significant difference was noted between before and after CRP at rest diastolic BP [69.33 and 68.66 mmHg, p=0.6]. It is concluded that CRP strategies have positive effects on cardiac output, functional capacity and functional class improvement in patients who undergo aortic and/or mitral valve surgery

[Assessment of right ventricular function among hypertensive patients using pulse tissue doppler]

Classically, one's heart function is mostly based upon its systolic function, whereas the diastolic function steps on second order. In recent years it has been revealed that diastolic function plays an important role in both cardiac mortality and cardiac morbidity. On the other hand is hypertension which due to increasing the afterload, interferes with these functions of heart. In this study we assessed the diastolic function of hypertensive patients using pulse tissue Doppler. 30 patients with high blood pressure that had not consumed anti-hypertensive agents and along with 30 healthy control ones enrolled in our survey, all of whom had normal sinus rhythm without detectable symptoms corresponding to congestive heart failure, ischemia, valvular diseases and pulmonary problems. 2D echocardiography was performed in both groups as well as M Mode and Doppler ech. The PTD echo was performed by the lateral annulus of both tricuspid and mitral valves. Systolic and diastolic findings were measured by PTD. Hypertensive patients had negative diastolic findings but no negative systolic ones. PTS illustrated that E/A ratio [early peak velocity / late peak velocity] in right ventricle had significantly decreases [P<0.01] among these patients. In right ventricle, both RT [relaxation time] [P<0.01], DT [decelation time] [P<0.04] and Am [Late Peak Velocity] [P<0.03] were converesly increased. Right ventricular E/A ratio had a significant correlation with that of left ventricle [P<0.005, r =0.5]. It seems that hypertension is longitudinally related with diastolic disfunction of right ventricle. This disturbance would be represented by the lengthened RT and decreasing of E/A ratio which are both resulted from interfering of two ventricle's function and increased pressure of left ventricle. Therefore, PTD can be applied to evaluate the right ventricular diastolic function among patients with high blood pressure

[Genotype variation in H. pylori isolates from Iranian patients by RAPD-PCR]

Do H. pylori isolates from normal and dyspeptic patients have similar genetic profiles? Since genotype variation occurs within H. pylori population with high frequency, it is tempting to exploit techniques such as RAPD-PCR to examine the possible correlation between specific H. pylori genotypes and different peptic diseases. In this study, H. pylori isolates from different dyspeptic patients were genotyped by RAPD-PCR. H. pylori isolates from 66 patients, 41 normal, 21 with ulcer, and 4 with cancer were cultured, DNAs were extracted by phenol-chloroform. RAPD-PCR was optimized, using 10-nt primers of arbitrary sequences [1281, 1254, 1247] and isolate-specific fingerprints were generated. Analysis of PCR products on agarose gel was performed using NTSYSpc program. Dendrograms were calculated according to Jaccard and Nei. According to differences in genetic profiles, H. pylori isolates were clustered into 4 distinct groups: 2 groups consisted of isolates from normal patients, 2 groups of isolates from patients with ulcer, and isolates from patients with cancer were clustered along with isolates from normal and ulcer patients. Furthermore, isolates from ulcer patients appeared in the cluster related to isolates from normal patients. Genetic variation is quite frequent within H. pylori populations; thus RAPD-PCR is an effective technique to reveal genetic diversity of isolates from different dyspeptic patients. In this study, H. pylori strains were clustered into 4 groups: 2 groups from normal patients, and 2 from patients with ulcer. Further studies in larger populations will help to correlate a certain peptic disease to specific strain of H. pylori