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Background and aim: The most prominent problems that is produced after stroke are spasticity or increase in muscle tone, decrease in range of motion and function of upper extremity. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of Volar-Dorsal Wrist/Hand Immobilization Splint on function of upper extremity, range of motion of  the elbow, wrist and metacarpophalengeal joints and spasticity of the elbow and wrist joints.

Material and methods: Fourteen patients were participated in these experiments. The patients were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and they had been given the splint after primary evaluation and were reevaluated after one month. Spasticity were evaluated with Modified Ashworth Scale.Range of motion were measured by goniometer. Fugl-meyer test were used to assess function of upper extremity. The splints were used 2 hours daily and whole night (6-8 hours) in one month.

Results: Comparison of data before and aft er the experiment showed significant mprovement in upper extremity function (P=0.04). Range of motion and spasticity were not significant (P>0.05).

Conclusion: Volar-Dorsal Wrist/Hand Immobilization Splint can improve the function of upper extremity. Although spasticity and range of motion showed a little changes in short-term use (1month) but the differences were not significant that will need more studies.

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Background and aim:   nowadays, comprehensive  developmental assessment of infants is highly considered. But, some assessments, especially those which use more manipulations on high risk infants, can cause more stress  on them. So sometimes it is necessary  to use one group of developmental assessments to predict another developmental aspect.  The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between scores of behavioral scale and  motor performance.
Materials and methods:   In this  cross-sectional study that was conducted in neonatal intensive care unit and pediatric clinic of Shahid  Akbarabadi hospital, Tehran, 50 under 2 months low birth weight infants after met inclusion criteria were selected via convinence sampling method.  The Test of Infant Motor Performance (TIMP) and the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) was used  for assessing motor performance and behavioral performance respectively. The TIMP consist of elicited and observational parts. NBAS was consisted  of habituation, social interaction, motor system, state organization, state regulation, autonomic system,  smile, supplementary items, and reflex items.
Results:  There was not any significant relationship between habituation part  of NBAS  and TIMP and also between autonomus system part  of  NBAS  and observational part of  TIMP (P<0.05).  Association between other variables was statistically significant (P>0.05).
Conclusion: Some items of behavioral assessment  can be used to predict  the motor performance in low birth weight infants. 

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Background and aim: One of the common problems in elderly people is falling. The effort to identify environmental risk factors at home and their modifications may control falls and injury in the elderly. Home FAST as a valid and reliable screening tool is used to identify elderly at risk of falling at home and in society.
Materials and methods : International quality of life assessment (IQOLA) was used for validity and reliability of Home fast. After forward and backward translation , the questionnaire was evaluated for content validity by 5 occupational therapists. Sixty participants aged over 65 were randomly selected through five geographical regions of Tehran. Inter-rater and test-retest with one week interval were conducted by two occupational therapists.
Results: Agreement among experts about the validity of screening tool of Home FAST (χ²= 25.008) were more than 96%.The correlations of test-retest with relative and absolute coefficients were high (ICC = 0.72 and SEM = 0.89). Also, the correlation coefficients between the raters with absolute and relative (ICC = 0.88 and SEM = 0.54) were significant, indicating the high reliability of this test.
Conclusion: This study shows the reliability and validity of the test are high. Since, test items are conformable to fall prevention goals, these results can be expected. The tool can be used by professionals.

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Background and Aim: Work related injury (WRI) can cause problems such as change or loss in job, fatigue and burnout. Injury prevalence has increased from 10.2% to 13.5% in the U.S. therapists since 2004 to 2006. At least 3,700 physiotherapists and 900 occupational therapists membership in Iranian Medical Council and developments of occupational therapy and physical therapy domains are involved in our country and the growing trend of student admissions in these fields and also limited researches in work-related problems of therapists, there would be a challenge in research studies. The overall goal of this systematic review was to survey the prevalence of work-related problems, predisposing factors and causes of these problems among therapists and finally predict problems of Iranian occupational therapy and physiotherapy population. 
Materials and Methods: By performing the five stages of an evidence based systematic review with regard to the selection criteria obtained from related articles, looking for articles were done through using internet databases, reference books and Citation review. At first, 50 articles were obtained. Finally, this study reviewed 25 articles in the last two decades in different parts of Iran and the world (1990-2010)
Conclusion: It was clarified that muscular injuries were of the most common types of damages caused by these works. Injuries were seen in most particularly in public, orthopedic and acute settings. Low back pain was remarkably reported. Age under30 years, inexperience and heavy work were some of the risk factors. Improper handling was determined as the main cause of injuries in therapists. Besides musculoskeletal injuries, common psychosocial problems were depression, anger and job frustration. Finally, considering culture and job characteristics of the Iranian therapists, the data and results were compared and discussed to predict different aspects of WRI in Iranian therapists.

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Background and Aim: Constraint-induce movement therapy is one of the treatment methods to treat those who have  stroke disorders. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of constraint-induced movement therapy(CIMT) on quality of life , function and range of motion of upper extremity of patients with stroke.

Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in 15 patients in accordance to random clinical trial during the treatment operation, the patients were asked to restrict their upper extremity movement with orthopedics sling for 3 days per week and each day for 8 hours. They were asked to practice on affected upper extremity for 2 hours
while their hands were restricted.  Additionally, the present study was conducted for 6 weeks.

Results: The statistical analysis illustrated that quality of life was significantly changed which measured by SF36 test (p=0.008). Furthermore,  the upper extremity function which was assessed by Box & Black test  was statistically analyzed by t-coupled in this regard, it showed a significant change when the treatment ended up (p=0.009). However, active range of motions in wrist extension and elbow extension did not significantly changed (p=0.227).

Conclusion: Based on the results, it can be implied that Constraint-induce movement therapy is an effective method for improvement of life quality and the upper extremity function .Three mechanisms are discussed: involvement of non used affected limbs, neural plasticity in CNS, and amelioration of mental and physical health of patients can be resulted in life quality and patients' hand improvement.

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Background and Aim: Proprioception is one of the most precise and delicate senses of the human body. It plays an important role in coordination and postural control by protecting the body against trauma and accidents. Although many studies have assessed the effect of fatigue on proprioception in the limbs and the low back region, but a few studies have investigated its possible effect on the cervical region.

  

Material and Methods: Seventeen (8 women, 9 men) young and healthy volunteers were asked to perform the Cervicocephalic Relocation Test (CRT) to the neutral head position by relocating the head on trunk after actively rotating the head to right and left sides, in two conditions before and after muscular fatigue. Absolute, constant and variable errors were used to evaluate cervical joint repositioning accuracy.

  

Results: Fatigue had no effect on cervical joint position sense, Furthermore no considerable difference was seen between male and female subjects (p>0.05).

  

Conclusion: The results suggest that following isometric fatigue of upper trapezuis muscles, no change is produced in the repositioning accuracy of both sexes. Furthermore, sex had no effect on cervical joint proprioception.

  

Key Words: Cervical joint position sense, Fatigue, Proprioception, Cervicocephalic Relocation Test (CRT).

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Background and Aim: Presently, lecturing is widely used as a teaching method at all Universities particularly, if the aim is to convey the materials to a large class of students. However, nowadays recording the voice of the lecturer has become a common practice and has introduced as a new learning technique. There are studies in which researchers acknowledged this method and have mentioned many advantages for it. On the other hand, many others have declared that this method which might be used for students with certain disabilities may cause distraction and reduces the learning that can occur. The purpose of this study was to compare the method of recorded lectures with note-making in class on undergraduate physiotherapy students’ learning.

  

Materials and Methods : In a descriptive- cross sectional study 29 undergraduate physiotherapy students classified in two groups according to studying methods one group used the method of note-making in class and the other one utilized the method of the voice recording . Four dependent variables including written exam grades, teacher’s evaluation scores, course satisfaction scores, and students’ grades on difficult questions were measured.

  

Results: There were no significant differences between two groups in written exam grades (P=0.92), teacher’s evaluation scores (P=0.55), course satisfaction scores (P=0.57), and on difficult questions grades (P=0.53).

  

Conclusion: Using voice recorders had no significant effect on students’ learning. The results are related to one specific course and can not be extended to other courses.

  

Key words: Lecturing, Voice recording, written exam grades, Teacher’s evaluation scores

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Background and Aim: This study was conducted dueto the limited results of past studies in relation to postural control in children with developmental coordination disorders and the importance of postural control with the ability to integrate the vestibular, visual and somatosensory inputs. In this study the postural control of the children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and their normal peers was compared under the reduced or the conflicted sensory input conditions.

Materials and Methods: Twenty two children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (16 males, 6 females with mean age of 7 years old and 9 months, SD 1 year and 5 months) and 19 children with normal motor development (13 males, 6 females, with mean age of 6 years and 11 months, SD 1 year and 1 month) were evaluated. Standing balance, sensory organization and motor control strategy were evaluated using the sensory organization test (SOT).

Result: The results showed that the children with DCD had poorer function than the normal children in the composite equilibrium (p&le; 0.001), visual ratios (p=0.005) and vestibular ration (p=0.002). There were no meaningful differences between groups in their average somatosensory ratio. Additionally, children with Developmental Coordination Disorder had lower motor strategy scores than the normal children when they were forced to depend on vestibular cues alone (p < 0.05). The children with Developmental Coordination Disorder had deficits in standing balance control in conditions that included reduced or conflicting sensory signals. The visual and vestibular systems tended to be more involved in contributing to the balance deficits than the somatosensory system. Moreover, children with Developmental Coordination Disorder were tended to use hip strategy excessively when forced to rely primarily on vestibular signals to maintain postural stability.

Conclusion: In order to improve the postural control in the patients, the rehabilitation protocols should focus on the sensory-motor deficits.

Keywords: Postural control, Postural stability, Developmental Coordination Disorder