Duration of current episode, baseline disability and educational level accounted for 15 % of the variation in disability at 12 months.
During a period of 12 months, patients with chronic LBP presenting to a private, community-based, group exercise program improved markedly, with greater improvements in disability than pain. The predictors investigated accounted for only 10 and 15 % of pain and disability outcomes, respectively.”
“Postmenopausal osteoporosis is the commonest cause of osteoporosis. It is associated with increased free radical activity induced by the oestrogen-deficient state. Therefore, supplementation with palm-oil-derived tocotrienols, a potent antioxidant, should be able to prevent this bone loss.
Our earlier studies have shown that tocotrienol was able to prevent and even reverse osteoporosis due PF-562271 to various factors, including oestrogen deficiency. In this study we compared the effects of supplementation with palm tocotrienol mixture or calcium on bone biomarkers and bone formation rate in ovariectomised (oestrogen-deficient) female rats. Our results showed that palm tocotrienols significantly
increased bone formation in oestrogen-deficient rats, seen by increased double-labeled surface (dLS/Bs), reduced single-labeled surface (sLS/BS), increased mineralizing surface (MS/BS), increased mineral apposition rate (MAR), and an overall increase in bone formation rate (BFR/BS). These effects were not seen in the group supplemented with calcium. However, no significant changes were seen in the selleck serum levels of the bone biomarkers, osteocalcin, and cross-linked C-telopeptide of type I collagen, CTX. In conclusion, palm tocotrienol is more effective than calcium in preventing oestrogen-deficient bone loss. Further studies are needed to determine the potential of tocotrienol as an antiosteoporotic agent.”
“The predictive ability of the STarT Back Tool (SBT) in secondary care settings
has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to determine the SBT’s predictive ability in a Danish secondary care setting Dibutyryl-cAMP and compare this to a Danish primary care setting.
Poor clinical outcome at 6 months (> 30 points on a 0-100 Roland Morris Disability Scale) was calculated in secondary care (n = 960) and primary care (n = 172) cohorts. The cohorts were stratified into SBT subgroups and estimates of additional risk for poor outcome were calculated [relative risk (RR), unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios]. The discriminative ability was determined using the area under the curve statistic.
In secondary care 69.0 % and in primary care 40.2 % had poor outcome on activity limitation. Although significant, the predictive ability of the SBT in secondary care (medium-risk RR 1.5, high-risk RR 1.7) was not as strong as in primary care (medium-risk RR 2.3, high-risk RR 3.5). Adjusting for episode duration and pain intensity only changed the predictive ability marginally in secondary care.