Background and aim: The lateral scapular slide test (LSST) is used to determine scapular position and scapular asymmetry with the arm abducted 0, 45, and 90 degrees in the coronal plane. This test was introduced by Kibler. Assessment of scapular position is based on the derived difference measurement of bilateral scapular distances and the distance of inferior angle of scapula to spinous process of T7 vertebra. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability of measurements (intra rater, inter rater, sensitivity and specificity) of LSST in assessment of scapular asymmetry and scapular dysfunction in patients with shoulder impairments.

Materials and Methods: Subjects:  Fifty-seven subjects participated in this cross sectional study.

Twenty seven subjects in shoulder impairment group (X=47.66, SD=11.64) and thirty subjects in normal group(X=33.53, SD=11.72). Three examiners measured the distance of inferior angle of scapula to spinous process of T7 vertebra at two sides in three different positions by a caliper verneer (accuracy: 0.01 mm). Position 1 involves of the shoulder in glenohumeral joint neutral. In position 2, the humerus is placed in a position of medial rotation with 45 degrees of shoulder abduction. In position 3, the upper extremity is placed in a position of maximal medial rotation with 90 degrees of shoulder abduction. The data were analyzed with SPSS (version: 11.5). ICCs and SEMs were calculated.

Results: The ICCs for intra-rater reliability were 0.87 to 0.97 for subjects without and with shoulder impairments and 0.63 to 0.79 for inter-rater reliability in subjects with shoulder pathology (involved side). The SEMs ranged from 0.57 to 0.86 cm for intra-rater reliability and from 0.79 to 1.20 cm for inter-rater reliability. Sensitivity of the test was high(80% to 100%) but specificity  was low (4% to 26%).

Conclusion : The lateral scapular slide test has high sensitivity and good to high level of intra rater reliability at three different test positions. The test showed low specificity and poor to fair inter rater reliability at three different test positions particularly at position 3.

Background and aim: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common synovial joint diseases (i.e. weight bearing joints) of the human body. This problem probably is more common in Iranian society that is used to sit on the floor and carpet. Following knee OA, patients complain of pain, inflammation, decrease of range of motion and muscle weakness. Therefore, they can not independently do their activity of daily living (ADL). Consequently, the side effects of physical incapability may render to psychological problems and this in respect do affect on their quality of life.Various treatments such as pharmalogical, surgical and physiotherapy have been recommended at different stages of OA by specialist. In the present study, the effect of physical therapy agents (considering the point that physiotherapy has no or negligible side effects) have been studied on OA. 

Materials and methods: 40 patients participated in this study the patients were refereed by orthopedic surgeon to the physiotherapy clinic of the Faculty of Rehabilitation. University ethical committee approved the procedures. Patients were randomly divided in two groups and physiotherapy treatments were applied as following:

Group I.  Low Level Laser Therapy, heat, exercise.

Group II. Placebo (i.e. inactive Laser), heat, exercise.

Results: The result of current study shows that both methods of physical therapy were quiet efficient on 7 variables that measured in this study (p< 0.05).  However, the result of this study showed that in laser group, pain and speed of gait were more effectively influenced (p< 0.000 and p<0.048 respectively) in comparison with routine physiotherapy. Consequently, patients can fairly independently do their activity of daily living and this in respect may reduce the psychological side effects of illness. 

Background and Aim: The normal response of H-reflex depression (HD) was reduced in chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. The reduction of this normal response can lead to increase the muscle tone and spasticity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of tripolar cathodal stimulation on HD in SCI patients.

Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in 10 volunteered SCI patients and 13 healthy male and female aged 28.91 ± 5.78 years. H-reflexes were elicited at 0.2, 5 and 0.2 Hz and intensity of 65-70 percent of the maximum H-reflex amplitude, before and after tripolar cathodal electrical stimulation of the spinal cord at T₁₁ level.

Results : Before trioplar stimulation, H-reflex amplitude decreased with increasing stimulation frequency only in healthy group. H-reflex amplitude decreased from 2.60 ± 1.48 to 1.34 ± 1.30 by 5Hz frequency (P=0.000). After trioplar stimulation in SCI patients group, HD increased with increasing stimulation frequency and H-reflex amplitude decreased significantly from 2.21 ± 1.98 by 0.2 Hz frequency to 1.29 ± 1.50 by 5Hz frequency(P=0.014).

Conclusion: Application of one session of cathodal trioplar stimulation can result the returning of normal HD in SCI patients. Cathodal trioplar stimulation is a non-invasive, without side effects, and an inexpensive method that may be a valuable tool to return the normal inhibition and modulating behavior of the spinal cord circuits.

Keywords: Spinal cord injury , Tripolar stimulation, H-reflex depression, Soleus muscle

Background and Aim: The purpose of the present research is to investigate the relationship between syntactic complexity (in terms of sentence and clause structure) on the stuttering occurrence in pre-school Persian speaking children who stutter (CWS).

Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was carried out on 15 monolingual CWS (12 boys and 3 girls) ranging in age from 4 to 6 years old in Mashhad. The convenience sampling method was used to collect data. The 30 minute spontaneous speech samples were recorded in a quiet room in speech therapy clinic while the child was speaking with the speech therapist or the parent (mother or father). The 60 numbers of the utterances produced by CWS were transcribed and then a paired T-test was used to analyze the data.

Results: The results showed significant differences between fluent and non-fluent utterances in terms of syntactic complexity of sentence and clause structure. The results indicated that at clausal level, by increasing the verb arguments in both the main and subordinate clauses, the stuttering occurrence was significantly increased (P<0.01). Moreover, the stuttering occurrence was higher among the compound sentences compared to the simple ones (P<0.01).

Conclusion: The research findings denoted that there was a meaningful relationship between the syntactic complexity based on sentence and clause structure and the stuttering occurrence in Persian CWS.

Keywords: Syntactic complexity, Sentence, Clause, Verb argument, Stuttering