ABSTRACT
Although Taekwondo is becoming an increasingly popular sport, there is a lack of reliable epidemiologic data on Taekwondo injuries. To perform an epidemiologic study on the variety of types of injury in professional and amateur Taekwondo athletes and to find a relation between Taekwondo style, skill level, weight-class and warm-up routine and the occurrence of injuries, we analysed the injury data using a 7-page questionnaire from a total of 356 Taekwondo athletes who were randomly selected. Overall, we registered a total of 2,164 injuries in 356 athletes. Most traumas were contusions and sprains in the lower extremities. Professional Taekwondo athletes have an increased risk of injury in comparison to recreational athletes. Taekwondo style, weight class and tournament frequency have an influence on the athlete's injury profile. Warm-up routines were found to have a positive effect on injury rates. Overall, Taekwondo may be considered a rather benign activity, if injuries during Taekwondo tournaments can be avoided. If not, Taekwondo can result in serious musculoskeletal problems.
Subject(s)
Athletic Injuries/epidemiology , Martial Arts/injuries , Muscle Stretching Exercises/methods , Athletes , Athletic Injuries/etiology , Athletic Performance/physiology , Body Weight , Female , Humans , Lower Extremity/injuries , Male , Retrospective Studies , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Non-syndromic neurosensory recessive deafness (NSRD) is one of the most common human sensory disorders. Mutations in the connexin 26 gene have been established as a major cause of inherited and sporadic non-syndromic deafness in different populations. The CX26 gene encodes the gap junction protein connexin 26 (beta-2, GJB2), whose expression was shown in several tissues and in the cochlea. The 30delG mutation is the most frequent mutation in the CX26 gene. It represents a deletion of guanosine (G) in a sequence of six Gs extending from position 30 to 35 of the CX26 cDNA. The deletion creates a frameshift resulting in a premature stop codon and a non-functional intracellular domain in the protein. The 30delG mutation can be detected at the molecular level using PCR followed by BsiYI digestion. We screened 164 mainly German patients with non-syndromic sporadic deafness for this mutation to determine its distribution in the German population. The frequency of the mutation in our analyzed patients was lower than in other studies and therefore indicates its dependency on geographically distinct populations.
