Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric validation of the Persian version of the central sensitization inventory.

BACKGROUND: The Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI) is a patient-reported tool to assess symptoms associated with central sensitization (CS). It consists of two parts: Part A assesses 25 somatic and emotional CS-related health symptoms, and part B asks if one has previously been diagnosed with a list of 10 Central Sensitivity Syndromes and related conditions. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt the CSI into Persian and to evaluate its psychometric properties. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHOD: After completing the Persian translation, the psychometric properties of the Persian CSI (CSI-Per) were evaluated in 256 patients with chronic pain and 46 healthy subjects. RESULTS: A confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a 1-factor model suggested in a large recent comprehensive multicountry study. Test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.934; P < 0.001) and the internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.87) were both good. After dividing the patient subjects into severity level subgroups, based on CSI-Per total scores, significant associations were found with the Persian version of the pain catastrophizing scale, pain duration, current pain intensity, maximum, minimum and average pain intensity in the past week and average pain intensity in the past month. In addition, total CSI-Per scores differentiated between patients and healthy subjects. CONCLUSION: The CSI-Per demonstrated good validity and reliability to assess symptoms associated with CS in Persian-speaking patients with chronic pain.

Is the Acute and Short-Term Effect of Whole-Body Vibration the Same on the H-Reflex Recruitment Curve and Agility?

CONTEXT: Despite the widespread use of whole-body vibration (WBV), especially in recent years, its neurophysiological mechanism is still unclear and it is yet to be determined whether acute and short-term WBV exposure produce neurogenic enhancement for agility. OBJECTIVE: To compare the acute and short-term effects of WBV on the H-reflex-recruitment curve and agility. DESIGN: Cross-over study. SETTING: Clinical electrophysiology laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: 20 nonathlete male volunteers (mean age 24.85 ± 3.03 y). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Subjects were randomly divided into 2 groups, H-reflex and agility. In the sham protocol, subjects stood on the turned-off vibration plate while maintaining the semisquat position, and then, after a 2-wk washout, vibration-training sessions were performed in the same position with a frequency of 30 Hz and an amplitude of 3 mm. H-reflex-recruitment curve was recorded and the agility test of a shuttle run was performed before and after the first session and also 48 h after the 11th session in both sham and vibration-training protocols. RESULTS: Acute effects of WBV training caused a significant decrease of threshold amplitude and H-max/M-max (P = .01 and P = .04, respectively). Short-term WBV training significantly decreased the threshold intensity of the soleus H-reflex-recruitment curve (P = .01) and caused a decrease and increase respectively, in the threshold intensity and the area under the recruitment curve. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest an inhibitory effect of acute WBV training on the H-reflex response.

Trunk coordination in healthy and chronic nonspecific low back pain subjects during repetitive flexion-extension tasks: Effects of movement asymmetry, velocity and load.

Multiple joint interactions are critical to produce stable coordinated movements and can be influenced by low back pain and task conditions. Inter-segmental coordination pattern and variability were assessed in subjects with and without chronic nonspecific low back pain (CNSLBP). Kinematic data were collected from 22 CNSLBP and 22 healthy volunteers during repeated trunk flexion-extension in various conditions of symmetry, velocity, and loading; each at two levels. Sagittal plane angular data were time normalized and used to calculate continuous relative phase for each data point. Mean absolute relative phase (MARP) and deviation phase (DP) were derived to quantify lumbar-pelvis and pelvis-thigh coordination patterns and variability. Statistical analysis revealed more in-phase coordination pattern in CNSLBP (p=0.005). There was less adaptation in the DP for the CNSLBP group, as shown by interactions of Group by Load (p=.008) and Group by Symmetry by Velocity (p=.03) for the DP of pelvis-thigh and lumbar-pelvis couplings, respectively. Asymmetric (p<0.001) and loaded (p=0.04) conditions caused less in-phase coordination. Coordination variability was higher during asymmetric and low velocity conditions (p<0.001). In conclusion, coordination pattern and variability could be influenced by trunk flexion-extension conditions. CNSLBP subjects demonstrated less adaptability of movement pattern to the demands of the flexion-extension task.