Volunteers are 'healing presences'.
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Empathy↗
Biomedical subjects
L A Gundersen
Publications and source records attributed to L A Gundersen.
The influence of functional electrical stimulation on the properties of vastus lateralis fibres following total knee arthroplasty.
The influence of functional electrical muscle stimulation (FES) on selected properties of vastus lateralis muscle fibres was studied in patients recovering from total knee arthroplasty for osteoarthritis. Prior to surgery, on the average, muscle biopsies from the vastus lateralis could be characterized as having a predominance of Type I fibres which were significantly larger in cross-sectional area than the Type II fibres in the same sample. Following surgery, muscle biopsies from a group of patients (n = 7) which received continuous passive motion and no FES, exhibited a marked increase in the proportion of Type II fibres along with a general atrophy of both the Type I and Type II fibres. Patients receiving passive motion and FES (n = 9) also showed an increase in the relative percentage of Type II fibres. Post-operatively, however, there was no significant reduction in fibre area in the stimulated muscles. These data suggest that FES was effective in attenuating the muscle atrophy associated with total knee arthroplasty but had no influence on those metabolic properties which were related to muscle fibre type classification criteria.
Aged↗
Incomplete normalization of dog gracilis muscle grafts with neurovascular repair despite long-term recovery.
Skeletal muscle grafts performed with neurovascular repair are used extensively in clinical situations. However, most controlled experimental studies on the efficacy of such grafts have been conducted on muscles with a relatively small mass and over a limited recovery period. Therefore, selected cellular and matrix component properties of the comparatively large dog gracilis muscle (75 g) were studied 9-12 mo after orthotopic neurovascular grafting. The grafted muscle wet weights were 71% of the contralateral control (sham-operated) muscles. In addition, the concentrations of noncollagenous protein (13%), DNA (28%), and RNA (34%) were significantly reduced in the grafts. However, the concentration of collagen was significantly higher (41%) in the grafts. In this regard, the type III collagen phenotype showed the greatest relative increase. There was no difference between the grafted and control proteoglycan concentration. The metabolic profiles of the grafted muscles were significantly different from control. The activities of myofibrillar adenosinetriphosphatase (34%) and alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase (25%) were reduced, whereas citrate synthase remained unchanged. These data suggest that recovery of up to 1 yr was insufficient for the normalization of several connective tissue matrix components and biochemical properties of the grafts.
Adenosine Triphosphatases↗
Bilateral analysis of the knee and ankle during gait: an examination of the relationship between lateral dominance and symmetry.
This study examined the relationship between lower extremity dominance and kinematic symmetry during gait. Fourteen healthy volunteers without any observable gait deviations participated in the study. The subjects (8 male, 6 female) ranged in age from 19 to 56 years. Lower extremity lateral dominance was determined using an assessment method developed by Carol Coogler. Retroreflective spherical markers were placed bilaterally at points over the greater trochanter, the lateral joint line of the knee, the lateral malleolus, and the metatarsal break. A video-based data-acquisition instrument interfaced with a PDP 11/73 computer measured 12 kinematic variables while the subjects walked at self-selected speeds along a 10-m walkway. A multivariate analysis of variance with one repeated measure revealed significant differences between limbs, across subjects, for stance time and maximum knee extension. A within-subject analysis demonstrated significant differences for 10 variables; however, lateral dominance could not be related predictably to these variations. Our results indicate that symmetry cannot be generalized in view of intrasubject variability for these variables. [Valle DR, Gundersen LA, Barr AE, et al: Bilateral analysis of the knee and ankle during gait: An examination of the relationship between lateral dominance and symmetry.
Adult↗