RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS—Present-Day Physical Therapy

Physical therapy is an important therapeutic agent for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Well directed exercise balanced with rest is fundamental. Careful muscular reeducation is as important in the treatment of patients with arthritis as it is in caring for a patient with paralysis. Pain with slight malalignment and limitation in the joint will cause muscles to lose their sequence of action and so upset the rhythm of motion.Active exercise with a balanced use of assistance and resistance to movement, combined, as indicated, with traction upon the joint or stretching of constricted tissues may result in (1) stabilization of the joint, (2) increase in range of movement, (3) relaxation of antagonists, and (4) reduction of atrophy. The objectives of muscular exercise then are (1) reduction of pain, spasm and deformity, (2) development of muscular power, and (3) restoration of the normal rhythm of movement.     

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Part I—Physical Principles

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is the most complex imaging technology available to clinicians. Whereas most imaging technologies depict differences in one, or occasionally two, tissue characteristics, MR imaging has five tissue variables—spin density, T₁ and T₂ relaxation times and flow and spectral shifts—from which to construct its images. These variables can be combined in various ways by selecting pulse sequences and pulse times to emphasize any desired combination of tissue characteristics in the image. This selection is determined by the user of the MR system before imaging data are collected. If the selection is not optimal, the imaging process must be repeated at a cost of time and resources.The optimal selection of MR imaging procedures and the proper interpretation of the resultant images require a thorough understanding of the basic principles of MR imaging. Included in this understanding should be at least the rudiments of how an MR imaging signal is produced and why it decays with time; the significance of relaxation constants; the principles of scanning methods such as saturation recovery, inversion recovery and spin echo; how data obtained by these methods are used to form an image, and how the imaging data are complied by multi-slice and volumetric processes. In selecting an MR imaging unit, information about different magnet designs (resistive, superconductive and permanent) is useful. Although no bioeffects are thought to be associated with an MR imaging examination, some knowledge of the attempts to identify bioeffects is helpful in alleviating concern in patients.     

Integrated Mapping Package—A Physical Mapping Software Tool Kit

We have developed an integrated physical mapping computer software package (IMP), originally designed to support the physical mapping of human chromosome 13 and expanded to support several gene-identification projects based on the positional candidate approach. IMP displays map data in a form that provides useful guidelines to the end users. An integrated map with high resolution and confidence is constructed from different types of mapping data, including hybridization experiments, STS-based PCR assays, genetic linkage mapping, cDNA localization, and FISH data. The map is also designed to provide suggestions for specific experiments that are required to obtain maps with even higher resolution and confidence. To this end, the optimization employs multiple constraints that take into account already established STS “scaffold” maps. This software thus serves as an important general tool kit for physical mapping, sequencing, and gene-hunting projects.     

Promising Polyphenols in Parkinson’s Disease Therapeutics

Neurochemical Research - Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a slow progressive, second most common neurodegenerative disease characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons from the nigrostriatal...     

NIH出资1000万美元资助Genome Therapeutics

在今后的3年里,Genome Therapeutics Corp.(GTC)(Waltham,MA)将接受国立卫生研究所(NIH)的人类基因组研究中心(Bethesda,MD)的1000万美元的资助。这笔资金将资助以电子计算机为基础的多种定序系统的开发,由Haryard医学院(Boston,MA)的研究人员们主持进行。GTC拥有Harvard的用于商业的技术许可证。     

Editorial. Peptides – From Discovery to Therapeutics

International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics -     

Let’s Get Physical!—On the Zoosemiotics of Corporeality

The article addresses the topics of body and corporeality within zoosemiotics, particularly in the light of the discussion on the mind-body dualism. The thesis defended is that of the continuity between the two dimensions, and therefore of the lack of a proper “dualism”. The arguments provided in support of this statement include methodological questions such as the etic-emic debate, and theoretical issues of interdisciplinary type, such as contributions from phenomenology and ethology. Specific examples and case-studies are borrowed from the field of zoomusicology.     

ARTHRITIS—The Use of Physical Therapy as an Aspect of Management

In some cases arthritis can be controlled even in the acute stage by physical therapy alone. In many cases, recovery depends on how thoroughly and intelligently such methods are applied.Heat, ultrasound and therapeutic baths relieve pain and spasm, permitting greater freedom in passive and active exercise. Exercise is necessary in maintaining and restoring function to arthritic limbs. Because the atrophy produced by rheumatoid arthritis is greater than that due to mere disuse for the same length of time, resistive exercise is especially valuable in building muscle, and this can be carried out even during active inflammation. Without exercise the muscles weaken and throw a greater burden on the already disabled joints.At the same time the patient must be relieved of undue stress and trauma by planned rest, splinting, bed posture and, later, crutches and other aids to ambulation. Efforts should be made to prevent contractures and deformities.Occupational therapy increases muscle strength, range of motion, work tolerance and mental status. A dynamic and carefully planned rehabilitation program hastens restoration of the patient''s independence and usefulness.