Effects of Foam Rolling Prior to Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation Stretching on Hamstring Flexibility and Thigh Skin Temperature.

CONTEXT: Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching (PNFS) is suggested to improve the range of motion and flexibility as an active warm-up. Recently, the foam rolling (FR) methods have also emerged as a passive warm-up. However, the combined effects of PNFS and FR are still unclear, and no reports have compared their effects using thermal imaging. This study investigated the acute effects of combining nonvibration FR (NVFR) and vibration FR (VFR) prior to PNFS, in comparison with PNFS alone, on hamstring flexibility and thigh skin temperature. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. METHODS: Participants (n = 60) were randomly assigned to PNFS, NVFR + PNFS, VFR + PNFS, and control group (CG). Active knee-extension (AKE), sit and reach (SR) test, and thermal imaging were evaluated before (pre-int), immediately after (post-int), and 30-minutes after (post30-int) intervention. RESULTS: All intervention groups had a significant increase at all time periods (P < .001) except the CG in terms of AKE and sit and reach test (P > .05). Combined (NVFR + PNFS/VFR + PNFS) groups had also a significant increase in the post30-int compared with pre-int and post-int values of thigh skin temperature (P < .001). Combined groups, over time, had the best post30-int effect on increasing skin temperature. The study found a significant interaction effect between interventions and time across several measurements (P < .05). Combined groups showed more significant improvements in AKE compared to CG at post-int (P < .05). There is a similar change in AKE, SR test, and skin temperatures between combined groups and PNFS alone at both post-int and post30-int (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that using FR, with or without vibration, before PNFS does not provide an additional benefit in improving hamstring flexibility and thigh skin temperatures compared with PNFS alone.

Investigation of Biopsychosocial Status, Fatigue, Sleep Quality, Alexithymia, Cognitive Functions, and Quality of Life in Behçet's Disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of Behçet's disease in terms of anxiety, biopsychosocial status, fatigue, sleep quality, alexithymia, cognitive level, and quality of life according to major and minor organ involvement. Methods: The study was planned as a single-centre cohort study. Fifty patients diagnosed with Behçet's (mean age 43±11.96 years) were included in the study. The patients were divided into two groups as major organ involvement (uveitis, neuro-Behçet's, or vascular type Behçet's disease) and minor organ involvement (mucocutaneous type Behçet's disease). Biopsychosocial status was evaluated with Biopsychosocial Questionnaire (BETY-BQ), anxiety with Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), fatigue with Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue (MAF) Scale, sleep quality with Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), alexithymia with Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), cognition level with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and quality of life with Short Form-36 (SF-36). Results: In the comparison according to minor and major organ involvement, there was no significant difference between the groups in BETY-BQ, BAI, MAF, PSQI, TAS-20, MMSE and SF-36 (p>0.05). Conclusion: Behçet's disease negatively effects in parameters such as biopsychosocial status, fatigue, sleep quality, alexithymia and quality of life. The presence of major or minor organ involvement in the patients did not change these negative effects.

Evaluation of balance in patients with systemic sclerosis.

BACKGROUND: The aim was to examine static/dynamic balance and proprioception of Systemic Sclerosis by comparing healthy and relationship with demographic and disease-related data. METHODS: 21 Systemic Sclerosis and 19 healthy were included.Berg Balance Scale (functional balance), Sensamove Sensbalance Maxiboard Software (static, dynamic balance:reaction time and travel time and proprioception), Scleroderma Health Assessment Questionnaire/Health Assessment Questionnaire (health status), Medsger's Disease Severity Scale, Modified Rodnan Skin Score were used in evaluation. FINDINGS: Comparing the groups, there was significant difference in Berg Balance Scale (p:0.036); Health Assessment Questionnaire/Scleroderma Health Assessment Questionnaire (p:0.001); Static balance-center (p:0.001), front (p:0.001), back (p:0.001), left (p:0.001), right (p:0.021); proprioception-front (p:0.025);Reaction Time-front (p:0.031) and left (p:0.010);Travel Time-front (p:0.041) and left (p:0.014) in favor of healthy group.In Systemic Sclerosis, disease severity had moderate correlation with static balance-back (r:-0.504,p:0.020).Skin thickness had low correlation with Reaction Time-front (r:-0.449,p:0.041).Age had low correlation with Travel time-front (r:0.458,p:0.037) and proprioception-left (r:0.450,p:0.041); moderate with Travel time-back (r:0.515;p:0.017) and proprioception-front (r:0.539,p:0.012). INTERPRETATION: Compared to healthy, Systemic Sclerosis had worse health status, functional balance, static/dynamic balance and proprioception.This situation is related to disease severity, skin thickness and age. Evaluations made with objective methods may have the potential to determine the extent of the problem.Clinicians can guide the treatment of patients with SSc by evaluating their static/dynamic balance and proprioception.With early treatment, additional problems that may occur due to worsening of balance and proprioception can be prevented.Proprioception and dynamic balance evaluation can be performed for older patients, static balance when disease activity is high, and dynamic balance when skin thickness score is high.

The validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale - straight forwardly in patients with systemic sclerosis.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the validity and reliability of Turkish version of Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale-Straightforwardly (BFNE-S (TR)) in patients with Systemic Sclerosis (SSc). Materials and Methods: 35 individuals (mean age: 53.3±13.0 years) diagnosed as SSc were included. Data on demographics, were collected via structured interview. All participants were evaluated by same investigator. The disability was evaluated with Scleroderma Health Assessment Questionnaire (SHAQ), disease severity with Medsger's Disease Severity Scale, and skin involvement with Modified Rodnan Skin Score. BFNE-S (TR) was applied to the patients with SSc who did not receive any treatment for test retest at one-week intervals. Results: The one-factor structure was provided for all indices except Chi-Square. Factor loadings were significant. The patient responses to the BFNE-S (TR) demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α: 0.95). The floor effect (20%) percentage of patients who scored at floor level, was observed. Test-retest reliability of the scale was excellent with 0.91 (95%CI: 0.78-0.96). BFNE-S (TR) total score had positive correlation with SHAQ_Digestive (r=0.503) and SHAQ_Raynaud phenomenon (r=0.343)(p<0.05). Conclusions: The BFNE-S (TR) is a reliable and valid scale and can be used for measurement of fear of negative evaluation in SSc.