BACKGROUND Substantial evidence indicates that children's physical fitness levels are markers of their lifestyles and their cardio-metabolic health profile and are predictors of the future risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiometabolic disease, skeletal health and mental health. However, fitness reference values for ethnic children and adolescents have not been published in a Latin-A...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to establish normative values for active lumbar movement in children five, seven, nine, and 11 years of age. METHODS End range active flexion, extension, and right- and left-side bending and rotation of the lumbar spine were measured for 225 normally developing children (116 girls, 109 boys) using the Back Range of Motion (BROM II) device. Means were dete...

PURPOSE: Non-syndromic sagittal and/or metopic craniosynostosis, occurring once in every 4,000 live births, accounts for half of all craniosynostosis cases. Despite success in identifying the genes underlying rare syndromic craniosynostoses, mutations in these genes are very rarely found in their non-syndromic counterparts. We considered that the often sporadic occurrence of non-syndromic crani...

To determine normative values for nerve conduction studies among workers, we selected a subset of 326 workers from 955 subjects who participated in medical surveys in the workplace. The reference cohort was composed exclusively of active workers, in contrast to the typical convenience samples. Nerve conduction measures included bilateral median and ulnar sensory amplitude and latency (onset and...

CONTEXT Valid and reliable measurements of ankle-complex motion have been reported using the Hollis Ankle Arthrometer. No published normative data of ankle-complex motion obtained from ankle arthrometry are available for use as a reference for clinical decision making. OBJECTIVE To describe the distribution variables of ankle-complex motion in uninjured ankles and to establish normative refer...

The need for left ventricular mass (LVM) normalization to body size is well recognized. Currently used allometric exponents to normalize LVM may not account for the confounding effect of sex. Because sex is a strong determinant of body size and LVM, we hypothesized that these are subject to potential bias. We analyzed data from 7528 subjects enrolled in the Asklepios Study (n 2524) and the Mult...

BACKGROUND Balance assessment plays an important role in occupational medicine. The diagnosis of patients with balance disturbances is based on a number of laboratory tests, including rotational chair tests, one of the most important. The normative value of kinetic tests greatly depends on movement parameters and laboratory equipment, which vary between diagnostic centers. The aim of the presen...

This study investigates the role of demographics, specifically gender, on susceptibility to three social influence types for certain products. Data were collected in two stages from business students at a large university. Analyses were performed at the construct and product levels. At the construct level, marital status and living situation were found to be the significant demographics for bot...

BACKGROUND Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) is more often used because of the increasing recognition of small fiber neuropathy. METHODS We studied QST in a systematic way in an age-stratified cohort of 83 neurological-free Hispanic Latinamerican patients. Predefined standardized stimuli were applied using the method of limits. RESULTS WDT range from 2.2 to 3.3°C in hands, and from 4.0°C u...

To assess the prevalence and characteristics of physiological circadian (24-hour) and ultradian (12-, 8-, and 6-hour) rhythms of mean arterial blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), we analyzed 24-hour ambulatory BP profiles from 938 healthy school children aged 5 to 18 years. Cosine harmonics were fitted by Fourier analysis, and an amplitude and acrophase (time of peak) were calculated for e...