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Biomedical subjects

Gladys L Y Cheing

Publications and source records attributed to Gladys L Y Cheing.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Ice and pulsed electromagnetic field to reduce pain and swelling after distal radius fractures.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relative effectiveness of ice therapy and/or pulsed electromagnetic field in reducing pain and swelling after the immobilization period following a distal radius fracture. METHODS: A total of 83 subjects were randomly allocated to receive 30 minutes of either ice plus pulsed electromagnetic field (group A); ice plus sham pulsed electromagnetic field (group B); pulsed electromagnetic field alone (group C), or sham pulsed electromagnetic field treatment for 5 consecutive days (group D). All subjects received a standard home exercise programme. A visual analogue scale was used for recording pain; volumetric displacement for measuring the swelling of the forearm; and a hand-held goniometer for measuring the range of wrist motions before treatment on days 1, 3 and 5. RESULTS: At day 5, a significantly greater cumulative reduction in the visual analogue scores as well as ulnar deviation range of motion was found in group A than the other 3 groups. For volumetric measurement and pronation, participants in group A performed better than subjects in group D but not those in group B. CONCLUSION: The addition of pulsed electromagnetic field to ice therapy produces better overall treatment outcomes than ice alone, or pulsed electromagnetic field alone in pain reduction and range of joint motion in ulnar deviation and flexion for a distal radius fracture after an immobilization period of 6 weeks.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Optimal stimulation frequency of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on people with knee osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE: This is a double blind study that examined the optimal stimulation frequency of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation in reducing pain due to knee osteoarthritis. SUBJECTS: Thirty-four subjects were randomly allocated into 4 groups receiving transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation at either: (i) 2 Hz; (ii) 100 Hz; (iii) an alternating frequency of 2 Hz and 100 Hz (2/100 Hz); or (iv) a placebo transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. METHODS: Treatment was administered 5 days a week for 2 weeks. The outcome measures included: (i) a visual analogue scale; (ii) a timed up-and-go test; and (iii) a range of knee motion. RESULTS: The 3 active transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation groups (2 Hz, 100 Hz, 2/100 Hz), but not the placebo group, significantly reduced osteoarthritic knee pain across treatment sessions. However, no significant between-group difference was found. Similarly, the 3 active transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation groups, but not the placebo group, produced significant reductions in the amount of time required to perform the timed up-and-go test, and an increase in the maximum passive knee range of motion. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggested that 2 weeks of repeated applications of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation at 2 Hz, 100 Hz or 2/100 Hz produced similar treatment effects for people suffering from osteoarthritic knee.

Aged↗
PubMed2004

The effectiveness of electroacupuncture versus electrical heat acupuncture in the management of chronic low-back pain.

DESIGN: Forty-two (42) subjects suffering from chronic low-back pain were matched with the nature of their occupations and then randomly allocated into: (1) an electroacupuncture group (EA); (2) an electrical heat acupuncture (EH) group or; (3) a control group. INTERVENTIONS: Subjects in the EA group and the EH group received treatment for 20 minutes on a total of 6 acupuncture points. Treatment was delivered twice per week for 4 weeks (a total of 8 sessions). Back exercise was taught to all subjects including the control group as a home program. OUTCOMES MEASURES: A numerical rating scale of pain (NPRS), straight leg raise (SLR), and Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) were recorded. RESULTS: There were significant reduction of NPRS within the EA (p = 0.000), EH (p = 0.000), and control (p = 0.013) groups across sessions. Significant between-group differences were shown in session 4 (p = 0.006), session 8 (p = 0.001), and 1-month follow-up sessions (p = 0.001). Posthoc tests showed that the NPRS of the EH group was significantly lower than that of the EA group and the control group by session 4 (p = 0.004). After session 8, the NPRS of both the EA group (p = 0.003) and the EH group (p = 0.001) were significantly lower than that of the control group. Such a difference was maintained at least up to the 1-month follow-up. Only the EA group had significant improvement in the measurement of SLR across sessions (p = 0.000). The between-group difference reached significance level in session 8 (p = 0.001) and at 1-month follow-up (p = 0.002). Posthoc tests showed that EA group had significantly greater gain than the EH group and the control group. For the RMDQ score, the improvement was statistically significant within each of the three groups over time (p = 0.000). However, the between-group difference did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that 4 sessions of EH treatment over 2 weeks produced significantly greater reduction in the NPRS than that of the EA or the control. However, EA produced greater improvement in SLR and reduction in RMDQ score than that of the EH and the control.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Predicting osteoarthritic knee rehabilitation outcome by using a prediction model developed by data mining techniques.

Artificial neural networks (ANN) have been applied to assist in clinical decision-making and prediction. While we consider possible effective treatments for patients with osteoarthritic knee such as Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS), exercise, and TENS with exercise respectively, we have to select a treatment protocol for patients such that they would gain the best improvements according to their clinical conditions. To facilitate this functionality with the existing patient assessment, we hope to apply the ANN programming techniques to develop a computerized prediction system. A preliminary validation was performed to test the validity of the newly developed prediction protocol on knee rehabilitation. We input the key clinical attributes of 62 patients who have undergone the three above-mentioned knee treatments to the protocol. The expected pain improvement of each patient as predicted by the protocol was obtained. Spearman rank-order correlation was used to identify whether there was a significant correlation between the rankings of the observed and expected pain improvement. We found that the Spearman's rho was 0.424, which is statistically significant at p < 0.001. From this preliminary analysis, we are confident that this newly developed prediction protocol will be useful when deciding which treatment regime best suits a patient.

Combined Modality Therapy↗
PubMed2004

Does transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation improve the physical performance of people with knee osteoarthritis?

BACKGROUND: : According to a recent metaanalysis study, there is strong evidence to support the view that transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is an effective treatment for managing osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain. However, there is limited evidence showing its effectiveness in improving physical function. This study examined whether TENS alone can improve physical function in terms of range of knee motion and the Timed-Up-and-Go Test. METHODS: : Subjects were randomly allocated into 2 groups receiving TENS at 100 Hz or a placebo TENS. Outcome measures included: 1) visual analog scale for measuring the intensity of the present pain, 2) Timed-Up-and-Go Test, and 3) range of knee motion (ROM). Repeated-measures analysis of variance and Pearson correlation were used for data analyses. RESULTS: : By day 10, TENS produced a significantly greater increase in maximum knee ROM than the placebo group (P = 0.033). TENS also significantly increased the pain-limited knee ROM across sessions, but the between-group difference was short of significance (P = 0.067). The decrease in time in performing the Timed-Up-and-Go Test was also not significantly different between the 2 groups. A moderate correlation was observed between the reduction in pain scores and the improvement in the Timed-Up-and-Go Test. CONCLUSIONS: : Our findings suggested that TENS did improve some of the physical parameters but over 10 days was unable to produce significant improvement in functional performance among people with knee OA. A larger-scale study with the assessment of other functional outcomes may be required to clarify if TENS could improve function in people with knee OA. Also, exercise can be considered to be an important adjunct treatment to TENS to improve function significantly.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Would the addition of TENS to exercise training produce better physical performance outcomes in people with knee osteoarthritis than either intervention alone?

OBJECTIVE: To examine if the addition of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to exercise training would produce better physical outcomes than TENS or exercise alone in people with knee osteoarthritis. DESIGN: Sixty-two subjects were randomly allocated to four groups. INTERVENTIONS: Patients received either (1) TENS, (2) placebo stimulation, (3) exercise training, or (4) TENS and exercise training five days a week for four weeks. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The isometric peak torque, spatiotemporal gait parameters and range of knee movement were assessed in treatment session1, session10 and session20 and the four-week follow-up. RESULTS: By session20, the TENS and exercise group demonstrated an average of 26.6% cumulative gain in the knee extensor peak torque for the different knee positions (all p < 0.05). Although the between-group difference was short of being statistically significant, the gain found in the TENS and exercise group was greater than that found in the other three groups. The TENS and exercise group also tended to show greater cumulative increase in stride length (12.6%, p = 0.006), walking cadence (9.3%, p = 0.098) and gait velocity (22.4%, p = 0.034) than the other groups. By session20, it was the only group that produced a significant increase in the range of knee motion during walking (12.0%, p = 0.000). The TENS group and the exercise group both demonstrated some improvements in the above physical outcomes, but negligible change was found in the group receiving placebo stimulation (all p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: No significant difference was found among the four treatment protocols, but the addition of TENS to exercise training tended to produce the best overall improvement in physical outcomes in people with knee osteoarthritis.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Analgesic effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and interferential currents on heat pain in healthy subjects.

This study examined whether transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation or interferential current was more effective in reducing experimentally induced heat pain. Forty-eight young healthy subjects were randomly divided into the following groups: (i) transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation; (ii) interferential current; and (iii) no stimulation. A multi-function electrical stimulator was used to generate the transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation or interferential current. A thermal sensory analyser was used to record the heat pain threshold. The stimulation lasted for 30 minutes and the heat pain thresholds were measured before, during and after the stimulation. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (p = 0.003) and interferential current (p = 0.004) significantly elevated the heat pain threshold, but "no stimulation" did not. The thresholds of the transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and interferential current groups were significantly higher than that of the control group 30 minutes into the stimulation (p = 0.017). Both transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and interferential current increased the heat pain threshold to a similar extent during stimulation. However, the post-stimulation effect of interferential current lasted longer than that of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Optimal stimulation duration of tens in the management of osteoarthritic knee pain.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the optimal stimulation duration of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) for relieving osteoarthritic knee pain and the duration (as measured by half-life) of post-stimulation analgesia. SUBJECTS: Thirty-eight patients received either: (i) 20 minutes (TENS20); (ii) 40 minutes (TENS40); (iii) 60 minutes (TENS60) of TENS; or (iv) 60 minutes of placebo TENS (TENS(PL)) 5 days a week for 2 weeks. METHODS: A visual analogue scale recorded the magnitude and pain relief period for up to 10 hours after stimulation. RESULTS: By Day10, a significantly greater cumulative reduction in the visual analogue scale scores was found in the TENS40 (83.40%) and TENS60 (68.37%) groups than in the TENS20 (54.59%) and TENS(PL) (6.14%) groups (p < 0.000), such a group difference was maintained in the 2-week follow-up session (p < 0.000). In terms of the duration of post-stimulation analgesia period, the duration for the TENS40 (256 minutes) and TENS60 (258 minutes) groups was more prolonged than in the other 2 groups (TENS20 = 168 minutes, TENS(PL) = 35 minutes) by Day10 (p < 0.000). However, the TENS40 group produced the longest pain relief period by the follow-up session. CONCLUSION: 40 minutes is the optimal treatment duration of TENS, in terms of both the magnitude (VAS scores) of pain reduction and the duration of post-stimulation analgesia for knee osetoarthritis.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Does four weeks of TENS and/or isometric exercise produce cumulative reduction of osteoarthritic knee pain?

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the cumulative effect of repeated transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on chronic osteoarthritic (OA) knee pain over a four-week treatment period, comparing it to that of placebo stimulation and exercise training given alone or in combination with TENS. DESIGN: Sixty-two patients, aged 50-75, were stratified according to age, gender and body mass ratio before being randomly assigned to four groups. INTERVENTIONS: Patients received either (1) 60 minutes of TENS, (2) 60 minutes of placebo stimulation, (3) isometric exercise training, or (4) TENS and exercise (TENS & Ex) five days a week for four weeks. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to measure knee pain intensity before and after each treatment session over a four-week period, and at the four-week follow-up session. RESULTS: Repeated measures ANOVA showed a significant cumulative reduction in the VAS scores across the four treatment sessions (session 1, 10, 20 and the follow-up) in the TENS group (45.9% by session 20, p < 0.001) and the placebo group (43.3% by session 20, p = 0.034). However, linear regression of the daily recordings of the VAS indicated that the slope in the TENS group (slope = -2.415, r = 0.943) was similar to the exercise group (slope = -2.625, r = 0.935), which were steeper than the other two groups. Note that the reduction of OA knee pain was maintained in the TENS group and the TENS & Ex group at the four-week follow-up session, but not in the other two groups. CONCLUSIONS: The four treatment protocols did not show significant between-group difference over the study period. It was interesting to note that isometric exercise training of the quadriceps alone also reduced knee pain towards the end of the treatment period.

Aged↗