Imagery ability assessments: a cross-disciplinary systematic review and quality evaluation of psychometric properties.

BACKGROUND: Over the last two centuries, researchers developed several assessments to evaluate the multidimensional construct of imagery. However, no comprehensive systematic review (SR) exists for imagery ability evaluation methods and an in-depth quality evaluation of their psychometric properties. METHODS: We performed a comprehensive systematic search in six databases in the disciplines of sport, psychology, medicine, education: SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science, and ERIC. Two reviewers independently identified and screened articles for selection. COSMIN checklist was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the studies. All included assessments were evaluated for quality using criteria for good measurement properties. The evidence synthesis was summarised by using the GRADE approach. RESULTS: In total, 121 articles reporting 155 studies and describing 65 assessments were included. We categorised assessments based on their construct on: (1) motor imagery (n = 15), (2) mental imagery (n = 48) and (3) mental chronometry (n = 2). Methodological quality of studies was mainly doubtful or inadequate. The psychometric properties of most assessments were insufficient or indeterminate. The best rated assessments with sufficient psychometric properties were MIQ, MIQ-R, MIQ-3, and VMIQ-2 for evaluation of motor imagery ability. Regarding mental imagery evaluation, only SIAQ and VVIQ showed sufficient psychometric properties. CONCLUSION: Various assessments exist to evaluate an individual's imagery ability within different dimensions or modalities of imagery in different disciplines. However, the psychometric properties of most assessments are insufficient or indeterminate. Several assessments should be revised and further validated. Moreover, most studies were only evaluated with students. Further cross-disciplinary validation studies are needed including older populations with a larger age range. Our findings allow clinicians, coaches, teachers, and researchers to select a suitable imagery ability assessment for their setting and goals based on information about the focus and quality of the assessments. SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS REGISTER: PROSPERO CRD42017077004 .

Effect of Motor Imagery Training on Motor Learning in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: There is an urgent need to systematically analyze the growing body of literature on the effect of motor imagery (MI) training in children and adolescents. Methods: Seven databases and clinicaltrials.gov were searched. Two reviewers independently screened references and full texts, and extracted data (studies' methodology, MI elements, temporal parameters). Two studies were meta-analyzed providing the standard mean difference (SDM). Selected studies were evaluated with the risk of bias (RoB) and GRADE tools. Results: A total of 7238 references were retrieved. The sample size of the 22 included studies, published between 1995 and 2021, ranged from 18 to 136 participants, totaling 934 (nine to 18 years). Studies included healthy pupils, mentally retarded adolescents, children with motor coordination difficulties or with mild mental disabilities. The motor learning tasks focused on upper, lower and whole body movements. SMDs for the primary outcome of pooled studies varied between 0.83 to 1.87 (95% CI, I2, T2 varied 0.33-3.10; p = 0.001; 0-74%; 0-0.59). RoB varied between some concerns and high risk. GRADE rating was low. Conclusions: MI combined with physical practice (PP) might have a high potential for healthy and impaired children and adolescents. However, important reporting recommendations (PETTLEP, TIDieR, CONSORT) should be followed. The systematic review was registered with PROSPERO: CRD42021237361.

Multispectral optoacoustic tomography of systemic sclerosis.

The study aimed to evaluate the clinical feasibility of hybrid ultrasound/multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) for assessing microvascular dysfunction in systemic sclerosis (SSc). A handheld US/MSOT imaging system was applied for imaging patients diagnosed with SSc (n = 7) and healthy volunteers (n = 8). Semiquantitative MSOT values for deoxygenated (HbR), oxygenated (HbO2 ) and total haemoglobin (HbT) were analysed for subcutaneous finger tissue of both hands (8 fingers per subject, 120 fingers in total) and used to assess disease activity (progressive vs stable). Grouped data were compared by one-way nested analysis of variance, Tukey post-hoc test as well as student's t test were used for statistical analysis.Subcutaneous finger tissue of patients with SSc provided significantly lower MSOT values for HbO2 (26.16 ± 0.71 vs 38.2 ± 1.54, P = .023) and HbT (55.92 ± 1.62 vs 72.46 ± 1.90, P = .018) compared to healthy volunteers. Patients with progressive SSc had significantly lower MSOT values compared to patients with stable disease and healthy volunteers.This pilot study shows the feasibility of MSOT imaging to resolve microvascular dysfunction in SSc as a marker of disease activity. By providing biological tissue properties not revealed by other imaging modalities, MSOT might help to grade SSc non-invasively and monitor early therapy response.

Recharging red blood cell surface by hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND: Similar as in vascular endothelium the negatively charged glycocalyx of erythrocytes selectively buffers sodium. Loss of glycocalyx (i.e. loss of negative charges) leads to increased erythrocyte sodium sensitivity (ESS) quantified by a recently developed salt-blood-test (SBT). The hypothesis was tested whether a regular 4-hour hemodialysis (4h-HD) alters ESS. METHODS: In 38 patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) ESS was measured before and after 4h-HD, together with standard laboratory and clinical parameters (electrolytes, acid-base status, urea, creatinine, hemoglobin, c-reactive protein and blood pressure). RESULTS: Before 4h-HD, 20 patients (out of 38) were classified as "salt sensitive" by SBT. After 4h-HD, this number decreased to 11. Erythrocyte sodium buffering power remained virtually constant in patients with already low ESS before dialysis, whereas in patients with high ESS, 4h-HD improved the initially poor sodium buffering power by about 20%. No significant correlations could be detected between standard blood parameters and the respective ESS values except for plasma sodium concentration which was found increased by 3.1 mM in patients with high salt sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: 4h-HD apparently recharges "run-down" erythrocytes and thus restores erythrocyte sodium buffering capacity. Besides the advantage of efficient sodium buffering in blood, erythrocytes with sufficient amounts of free negative charges at the erythrocyte surface will cause less (mechanical) injury to the negatively charged endothelial surface due to efficient repulsive forces between blood and vessel wall. Hemodialysis improves erythrocyte surface properties and thus may prevent early vascular damage in patients suffering from ESRD.