Role of Rehabilitation Exercise on Myofascial Pain Syndrome Causing Upper Back Pain.

Upper back pain is as painful or troublesome as the pain in the lower back or the neck. Myofascial pain syndrome which is most common cause of upper back pain is characterized by localized musculoskeletal pain and tenderness in association with trigger points. The aim of the study was to correlate the improvement of myofascial pain syndrome patients with proper and timely physical therapy. This quasi experimental study was conducted in the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Bangladesh, from 1st January 2008 to 31st August 2008 to see the role of rehabilitation exercise on myofascial pain syndrome causing upper back pain. Sixty (60) patients of myofascial pain syndrome causing upper back pain were randomly assigned for treatment; out of which 23(38.33%) were male and 37(61.66%) were female. The male and female ratio was 1:1.6. The patients selected for the trial were divided into two groups: Group A and Group B. In group A (n=28) the patients were treated with thermotherapy- Microwave diathermy, non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs and activities of daily living instructions and in Group B (n=32) with same interventions in addition to rehabilitation exercises. Treatment duration was 6 weeks. The difference of treatment improvement was statistically significant (p<0.05) from 1st week up to 6th week. After complete course of treatment 67.86% patients in Group A and 78.13% patients in group B reported improvement. So rehabilitation exercises can be a valuable adjunct to other modalities of treatment of myofascial pain syndrome causing upper back pain.

Study of low-peak-power highly coherent broadband supercontinuum generation through a dispersion-engineered Si-rich silicon nitride waveguide.

Since the first observation by Alfano and Shapiro in the 1970s [Phys. Rev. Lett.24, 584 (1970)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.24.584], supercontinuum generation study has become an attractive research area in the field of broadband light source design, including its use in various applications associated with nonlinear optics in recent years. In this work, the numerical demonstration of ultrabroadband supercontinuum generation in the mid-infrared (MIR) region via the use of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor compatible Si-rich silicon nitride as the core in a planar waveguide design employing one of two materials, either LiNbO3 or MgF2 glass, as the top and bottom claddings is explored. A rigorous numerical investigation of broadband source design in the MIR using 2 mm long Si-rich silicon nitride waveguides is carried out in terms of waveguide structural parameter variations, input peak power variation, varying unexpected deformation of the waveguide along the core region during fabrication, and spectral coherence analysis. Among the several waveguide models studied, two promising designs are identified for wideband supercontinuum generation up to the MIR using a relatively low input peak power of 50 W. Simulation results reveal that spectral coverage spanning from 0.8 µm to 4.6 µm can be obtained by using a LiNbO3-cladded waveguide, and similar spectral coverage is also predicted for the other design, a MgF2-cladded waveguide. To the best of our knowledge, this is the widest spectral span in the MIR region employing a Si-rich silicon nitride waveguide so far. In dispersion tuning as well as in supercontinuum generation, the effect of possible unexpected waveguide deformation along the transverse directions during fabrication is also studied. No significant amount of spectral change is observed in the proposed model for a maximum of 10° inside/outside variation along the width. On the other hand, even 1° upward/downward variation along the thickness could cause substantial spectral change at the waveguide output. Finally, the obtained output spectra from the proposed waveguides are found to be highly coherent and can be applied in various MIR region applications such as optical coherence tomography, spectroscopic measurement, and frequency metrology.

Birthweight of the babies delivered by chronic energy deficient mothers in National Nutrition Program (NNP) intervention area.

An operational research was done to explore the effect of targeted food supplementation by comparing the birthweight of the babies of two areas (intervention & nonintervention). This record-based study was carried out in Kapasia and Savar upazila of Dhaka division, relying on the primary organizational data of 565 mothers. In the National Nutrition Program (NNP) area only fifty percent moderate to severe malnourished [Chronic Energy Deficiency (CED) II & III] mothers were preferably targeted for onsite food support while 34 of them managed to complete the full course. The mean (+/- SD) BMI of the supplemented mothers were lower (16.21 +/- 0.77) kg/m2, than non-supplemented mothers in Kapasia (17.14 +/- .82) kg/m2 and Savar 17.03 +/- 1.19) kg/m2 area. The mean (+/- SD) birth-weight for non NNP (Savar) category Mean (+/- SD) 2470+/- 366.03 grams, for NNP (Kapasia) non-supplemented group 2720.18 (+/- 368.63) grams and in Kapasia good supplemented group it was 2752.94 (+/- 344.86) grams. Supplemented and non-supplemented mothers of NNP mothers were four times more likely to deliver normal birthweight babies [odds ratio with 95%CI 3.84 (2.01, 7.34)] and [odds ratio with 95%CI 3.90 (2.17, 7.01)] than mothers of control area when adjusted for sociodemographic variables. Birth weight status improved with better CED levels. Birth weight adjusted for CED status, had no significant association with food supplementation. In this study, the basic findings were food supplementation could not increase birth-weight significantly as other effects contributed to improve birthweight were removed. As fully supplemented CED III mothers gave birth almost same weighted babies in comparison to the babies of CED I mothers; the recovery from the probability of being less weighted than the current status might be considered as a potential effect of food supplementation.

Effect of citric acid, avilamycin, and their combination on the performance, tibia ash, and immune status of broilers.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the supplementation of an organic acid (citric acid), antibiotic growth promoter (avilamycin), and their combination for a period of 35 d on the growth, feed efficiency, carcass yield, tibia ash, and immune status of broilers. One hundred sixty 1-d-old broiler chicks (Hubbard Classic) were randomly distributed into 4 groups with 4 replicate cages having 10 birds in each. A corn-soybean-based diet was used as the basal diet (control). The basal diet was supplemented with an organic acid (citric acid, 0.5%), an antibiotic growth promoter (avilamycin, 0.001%), and their combination in other groups. The highest BW was attained in citric acid-fed chicks (1,318 g), which was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than control chicks (1,094 g) or avilamycin-fed chicks (1,217 g). The combination-fed chicks showed similar weight (1,246 g) as citric acid- or avilamycin-fed chicks (P > 0.05). Total feed intake was higher in citric acid-fed chicks compared with antibiotic-supplemented chicks. The addition of citric acid improved feed conversion efficiency (g of weight gain/ kg of feed intake) significantly (P < 0.05) compared with control chicks or its combination with avilamycin. Higher carcass weights were found in chicks fed the combination diet. Supplementation of citric acid increased tibia ash percentage significantly (P < 0.05) compared with controls. Addition of citric acid reduced the pH of the formulated diets. An improvement of immune status was detected by densely populated immunocompetent cells in the lamina propria and submucosa of cecal tonsils and ileum and also in the cortex and medulla of bursa follicles in citric acid-supplemented chicks. Supplementation of citric acid at 0.5% in the diet had positive effects on growth, feed intake, feed efficiency, carcass yield, bone ash, and immune status of broilers. Therefore, citric acid might be a useful additive instead of antibiotic growth promoters such as avilamycin, considering performance and health status of broilers.

The effect of selenium and vitamin E on the lymphocytes and immunoglobulin-containing plasma cells in the lymphoid organ and mucosa-associated lymphatic tissues of broiler chickens.

The present research has been designed to understand the effect of selenium and vitamin E on the lymphocyte and changes in the frequency of Ig-containing plasma cells in the lymphatic organ and ileum (representative organ for mucosa-associated lymphatic tissues) of different postnatal stages of Kasilla broiler chickens. A routine haematoxylin and eosin (H and E) stain were used to study the histology of the lymphocytic changes, and indirect immunoperoxidase staining method was performed for the study of the distributional and dynamical changes of the Ig-containing plasma cells within the lymphatic tissues and in the ileum of control broilers and in the broilers supplemented with different concentration of selenium and vitamin E in the diet. Histologically, the population of lymphocytes decreased in the lobules of the thymus, medulla of bursal follicles, splenic masses, lymphatic nodules of the cecal tonsil, and villi of the ilium in 0.1 mg and 0.5 mg selenium supplemented broilers in comparison with the control. The population of these cells was found to increase in 150 mg and 300 mg vitamin E supplemented chickens in the present study. In the spleen IgG- and the IgM-containing plasma cells were more than IgA-containing plasma cells. In contrast, in the cecal tonsil and ileum IgA-containing plasma cells were more than IgG- and IgM-containing plasma cells. The frequency of these immunopositive cells were decreased in 0.1 mg and 0.5 mg selenium supplementated chickens, and increased their frequency in the chickens supplemented with 150 mg and 300 mg vitamin E. In the spleen the frequency of IgM-containing plasma cells and both in the cecal tonsil and ileum, the IgG-containing plasma cells were more decreased by selenium supplementation which restored in their population by vitamin E supplementation.