Maastricht University

About: Maastricht University is a education organization based out in Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 19263 authors who have published 53291 publications receiving 2266866 citations. The organization is also known as: Universiteit Maastricht & UM.

The Short FES-I: a shortened version of the falls efficacy scale-international to assess fear of falling

Abstract: BACKGROUND: the 16-item Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I) has been shown to have excellent reliability and construct validity. However, for practical and clinical purposes, a shortened version of the FES-I would be useful. OBJECTIVE: to develop and validate a shortened version of FES-I while preserving good psychometric properties. DESIGN: initial development of a shortened version using data from a UK survey (Short FES-I; n = 704), test of reliability and validity of the Short FES-I using data from a Dutch survey (n = 300). SETTING: community samples. METHODS: comparison of reliability and validity of the Short FES-I and the FES-I in a random sample of 193 people aged between 70 and 92. RESULTS: the internal and 4-week test-retest reliability of the Short FES-I is excellent (Cronbach's alpha 0.92, intra-class coefficient 0.83) and comparable to the FES-I. The correlation between the Short FES-I and the FES-I is 0.97. Patterns in differences with respect to mean scores according to age, sex, falls history, and overall fear of falling are similar for the Short FES-I and the FES-I. The FES-I had slightly better power to discriminate between groups differentiated by age, sex, falls history, and fear falling, but differences are small. CONCLUSIONS: the Short FES-I is a good and feasible measure to assess fear of falling in older persons. However, if researchers or clinicians are particularly interested in the distributions of specific fear of falling-related activities not included in the Short FES-I, the use of the full FES-I is recommended. Language: en

Exercise and insulin sensitivity: a review.

Abstract: Physical activity has a beneficial effect on insulin sensitivity in normal as well as insulin resistant populations. A distinction should be made between the acute effects of exercise and genuine training effects. Up to two hours after exercise, glucose uptake is in part elevated due to insulin independent mechanisms, probably involving a contraction-induced increase in the amount of GLUT4 associated with the plasma membrane and T-tubules. However, a single bout of exercise can increase insulin sensitivity for at least 16 h post exercise in healthy as well as NIDDM subjects. Recent studies have accordingly shown that acute exercise also enhances insulin stimulated GLUT4 translocation. Increases in muscle GLUT4 protein content contribute to this effect, and in addition it has been hypothesized that the depletion of muscle glycogen stores with exercise plays a role herein. Physical training potentiates the effect of exercise on insulin sensitivity through multiple adaptations in glucose transport and metabolism. In addition, training may elicit favourable changes in lipid metabolism and can bring about improvements in the regulation of hepatic glucose output, which is especially relevant to NIDDM. It is concluded that physical training can be considered to play an important, if not essential role in the treatment and prevention of insulin insensitivity.

Lupus anticoagulant IgG's (LA) are not directed to phospholipids only, but to a complex of lipid-bound human prothrombin

Abstract: Plasmas from 16 patients that were found to be positive both for anticardiolipin antibodies (ACA) and lupus anticoagulants (LA) were incubated with liposomes that contained anionic phospholipids. In 11 of these plasmas, ACA could be cosedimented with the liposomes in a dose-dependent manner, whereas LA activity of the remaining supernatant was unaffected. LA activity of purified total IgG from 6 patients was measured in three different coagulation tests, using normal plasmas from different species. Prolongation of the aPTT, KCT and dRVV clotting times was observed only with normal plasma from human origin, not with bovine, rat or sheep plasma. Highly purified coagulation factors Xa, Va and prothrombin, both of human and bovine origin, were used to establish for two patient IgG's the effect of LA on the rate of thrombin formation in the presence and absence of lipid vesicles composed of 20 mole% phosphatidylserine and 80 mole% phosphatidylcholine. A strong and dose dependent inhibition by LA was observed only when human prothrombin was used as substrate in the prothrombinase complex in the presence of lipids. No inhibition was found when bovine prothrombin was used as substrate. The inhibitory effect observed in the presence of human prothrombin was independent of the source of factors Xa and Va, and was not found in the absence of lipid. Preliminary binding studies suggest that LA only associate with a lipid surface, provided that human prothrombin and calcium ions are present. These data indicate that LA are not directed to phospholipids alone, but presumably recognize an epitope which becomes exposed upon Ca(2+)-mediated binding of human prothrombin to phospholipids.

Responsiveness of functional status in low back pain: A comparison of different instruments.

Abstract: This study compares the responsiveness of three instruments of functional status: two disease-specific questionnaires (Oswestry and Roland Disability Questionnaires), and a patient-specific method (severity of the main complaint). We compared changes over time of functional status instruments with pain rated on a visual analog scale. Two strategies for evaluating the responsiveness in terms of sensitivity to change and specificity to change were used: effect size statistics and receiver-operating characteristic method. We chose global perceived effect as external criterion. A cohort of 81 patients with non-specific low back pain for at least 6 weeks assessed these measures before and after 5 weeks of treatment. According to the external criterion 38 patients improved. The results of both strategies were the same. All instruments were able to discriminate between improvement and non-improvement. The effect size statistics of the instruments were higher in the improved group than in the non-improved group. For each instrument the receiver-operating characteristic curves showed some discriminative ability. The curves for the Roland Questionnaire and pain were closer to the upper left than the curves for the other instruments. The sensitivity to change of the rating of Oswestry Questionnaire was lower than that of the other instruments. The main complaint was not very specific to change. The two strategies for evaluating the responsiveness were very useful and appeared to complement each other.