Background Cardiac arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation (AF), are a common cause for seeking medical care. AF has many causes; where valvular disease, hypertension, heart failure and diabetes mellitus are among the most common ones. The golden standard for arrhythmia monitoring is a 24or 48-hours Holter monitor. The aim with this paper was to compare the Holter monitor with chest strap EC...

INTRODUCTION The traditionally taught technique for conventional open thyroidectomy is via a midline splitting of the strap muscles following a skin crease neck incision - midline approach (MA). The lateral "backdoor" approach (LA) uses the same central neck incision but approaches the thyroid gland between the anterior border of sternocleidomastoid (SCM) and strap muscles. This technique is us...

In spite of the presumed importance of the strap muscles on laryngeal valving and speech production, there is little research concerning the physiological role and the functional differences among the strap muscles. Generally, the strap muscles have been shown to cause a decrease in the fundamental frequency (F o) of phonation during contraction. In this study, an in vivo canine laryngeal model...

Non-invasive ventilation is commonly used for respiratory support. However, in some cases, mask application can cause pressure ulcers to specific features of the face, resulting in pain and reduced quality of life for the individual. This study investigated the effects of mask strap tension on the biomechanical and biomarker responses at the skin interface. Healthy participants (n = 13) were re...

Children with Down syndrome begin to develop orthopedic problems including inefficient gait pattern for walking early in childhood. To reduce the sequences of these orthopedic problems few treatment modalities such as serial immobilization casting, corrective splints and surgery were used. However, these modalities may delay the progression of neuro-motor development in a child. Alternatively, ...

BACKGROUND The size and weight of hypertrophied breast can cause both physical and psychological problems. Although the majority of these problems can be solved with breast reduction surgery, the particular problem of development of brassiere strap grooves on the shoulders due to the weight of the breasts cannot be corrected with this method. OBJECTIVES Breast reduction surgery focuses only o...

Recently we introduced the concept of Suspension Trapping (STrap) for bottom-up proteomics sample processing that is based upon SDS-mediated protein extraction, swift detergent removal and rapid reactor-type protein digestion in a quartz depth filter trap. As the depth filter surface is made of silica, it is readily modifiable with various functional groups using the silane coupling chemistries...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The CT table strap may impair shoulder lowering during cervical spine CT. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of the CT table strap on radiation exposure and image quality during CT of the cervical spine. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients undergoing cervical spine CT were prospectively randomized to having the CT table strap placed around the torso...

BACKGROUND In emergencies when commercially designed tourniquets are unavailable, hemorrhage may need to be controlled with improvised tourniquets. In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, no improvised strap-and-windlass tourniquets were used to treat casualties; tourniquets without windlasses were used. The purpose of the present study is to determine the effectiveness of improvised t...

OBJECTIVES To test the effectiveness of a typical magnetic wrist strap for reducing pain and stiffness, and for improving physical functioning amongst patients with osteoarthritis. DESIGN A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled crossover trial. Each participant wore four devices over a 16-week period. SETTING Forty five patients with osteoarthritis were recruited from general practices...