Simple Method of Evaluating the Range of Shoulder Motion Using Body Parts

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to assess the range of shoulder motion using an indirect evaluation method without physical examinations of patients based on questionnaires regarding several specific arm postures referenced by patient's own body parts. METHODS: Nine criteria of specific shoulder motion including 4 forward flexion, 2 external rotation, and 3 internal rotation were decided as reference position which can represent a certain shoulder motion. Flexion contains postures such as lifting arm to waist-height, shoulder-height, eye-height, and raising arm above head with arm touching ears. External rotation comprises grasping ears and placing hands on back of the head. Vertebral height in internal rotation is determined by calculating the samples' motions, which are holding on to trouser belts, opposite-elbow, and scapula. These postures are included in questionnaires for patients to evaluate the validity and effectiveness of this indirect method. RESULTS: The range of flexion was 77degrees (60degrees to 100degrees), 96degrees (87degrees to 115degrees), 135degrees (115degrees to 150degrees), and 167degrees (150degrees to 175degrees) when arms go up to waist, shoulder, eye, and high vertically. Range of external rotation was 39.6degrees (30degrees to 50degrees) when grasping ears and 69.2degrees (60degrees to 80degrees) with the hands on the back of the head. Range of internal rotation was L4 when placing trouser belts, T12 for holding opposite elbow, and T9 for reaching scapula. The mismatch rates of flexion, external rotation, and internal rotation were 11.6%, 9.6%, and 7.8%. CONCLUSIONS: The range of shoulder motion using this method is expected to be applied to an established shoulder scoring system which included shoulder motion evaluation item.

Simple Method of Evaluating the Range of Shoulder Motion Using Body Parts

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to assess the range of shoulder motion using an indirect evaluation method without physical examinations of patients based on questionnaires regarding several specific arm postures referenced by patient's own body parts. METHODS: Nine criteria of specific shoulder motion including 4 forward flexion, 2 external rotation, and 3 internal rotation were decided as reference position which can represent a certain shoulder motion. Flexion contains postures such as lifting arm to waist-height, shoulder-height, eye-height, and raising arm above head with arm touching ears. External rotation comprises grasping ears and placing hands on back of the head. Vertebral height in internal rotation is determined by calculating the samples' motions, which are holding on to trouser belts, opposite-elbow, and scapula. These postures are included in questionnaires for patients to evaluate the validity and effectiveness of this indirect method. RESULTS: The range of flexion was 77degrees (60degrees to 100degrees), 96degrees (87degrees to 115degrees), 135degrees (115degrees to 150degrees), and 167degrees (150degrees to 175degrees) when arms go up to waist, shoulder, eye, and high vertically. Range of external rotation was 39.6degrees (30degrees to 50degrees) when grasping ears and 69.2degrees (60degrees to 80degrees) with the hands on the back of the head. Range of internal rotation was L4 when placing trouser belts, T12 for holding opposite elbow, and T9 for reaching scapula. The mismatch rates of flexion, external rotation, and internal rotation were 11.6%, 9.6%, and 7.8%. CONCLUSIONS: The range of shoulder motion using this method is expected to be applied to an established shoulder scoring system which included shoulder motion evaluation item.

Comparative study of synonymous codon usage variations between the nucleocapsid and spike genes of coronavirus, and C-type lectin domain genes of human and mouse

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are single-stranded RNA viruses which contain the largest RNA genomes, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), a newly found group 2 CoV, emerged as infectious disease with high mortality rate. In this study, we compared the synonymous codon usage patterns between the nucleocapsid and spike genes of CoVs, and C-type lectin domain (CTLD) genes of human and mouse on the codon basis. Findings indicate that the nucleocapsid genes of CoVs were affected from the synonymous codon usage bias than spike genes, and the CTLDs of human and mouse partially overlapped with the nucleocapsid genes of CoVs. In addition, we observed that CTLDs which showed the similar relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) patterns with CoVs were commonly derived from the human chromosome 12, and mouse chromosome 6 and 12, suggesting that there might be a specific genomic region or chromosomes which show a more similar synonymous codon usage pattern with viral genes. Our findings contribute to developing the codon-optimization method in DNA vaccines, and further study is needed to determine a specific correlation between the codon usage patterns and the chromosomal locations in higher organisms.