Gender difference in effects of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching on flexibility and stiffness of hamstring muscle.

This study investigated the acute effects of PNF stretching on hamstring flexibility and muscle stiffness of lower limbs between genders. 15 male and 15 female university students without any injury histories on lower limbs in the past 3 months were included in this study were selected. All subjects were measured by MyotonPRO before and after stretching to determine the muscle stiffness of the biceps femoris muscle (BF), semitendinosus muscle (ST) of the hamstring and the medial gastrocnemius muscles (MG), lateral gastrocnemius muscles (LG), and the soleus (SOL) of the triceps surae muscles.

Quantifying the Elasticity Properties of the Median Nerve during the Upper Limb Neurodynamic Test 1.

Background: The upper limb neurodynamic test 1 (ULNT1) consists of a series of movements that are thought to detect an increase in neuromechanical sensitivity. In vivo, no trail was made to quantify the association between the nerve elasticity and different limb postures during ULNT1.

Objectives: (1) To investigate the relationship between nerve elasticity and limb postures during ULNT1 and (2) to investigate the intra- and interoperator reliabilities of shear wave elastography (SWE) in quantifying the elasticity of median nerve.

Quantifying Region-Specific Elastic Properties of Distal Femoral Articular Cartilage: A Shear-Wave Elastography Study.

Knee osteoarthritis is a disease with the degeneration of articular cartilage as its main feature. Cartilage thickness cannot become a single index to evaluate cartilage degeneration, so it is essential to also evaluate the stiffness. The purposes were as follows: (1) to examine test-retest reliabilities of the elastic modulus measurement in distal femoral articular cartilage (FAC) and compare the changes in specific-regional of distal FAC, (2) to explore the difference in distal FAC stiffness and thickness between the dominant and nondominant sides, and (3) to examine the correlation between the elastic properties of cartilage and the thickness of cartilage.

Effects of body postures on the shear modulus of thoracolumbar fascia: a shear wave elastography study.

This study is aimed to use shear wave elastography (SWE) to study the relationship between shear modulus and different body postures of the thoracolumbar fascia (TLF) and acquire physiologically meaningful information from the stiffness-posture graph to better quantify passive flexion responses. Seven passive postures were defined to evaluate the shear modulus of right side TLF at the third and fourth lumbar vertebra levels (L3 and L4) in twenty healthy male subjects. The TLF stiffness was significantly different among different postures (p < 0.

Molecular cloning, expression of orange-spotted grouper goose-type lysozyme cDNA, and lytic activity of its recombinant protein.

Lysozyme acts as a non-specific innate-immunity molecule against the invasion of bacteria pathogens. A leukocyte cDNA library of orange-spotted grouper Epinephelus coioides was constructed and the goose-type (g-type) lysozyme cDNA was isolated. The complete cDNA consists of an open reading frame of 585 bp encoding a protein of 194 amino acids.