Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of ultrasound therapy (UST) for pes anserine symptoms in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA).Methods: Thirty-four knee OA patients with pes anserine symptoms were enrolled in this study. The subjects were randomly assigned to the UST and placebo groups. They underwent three performance tests (the 10 m walking test, the sit to stand test, and the stair climbing test) just before and after an intervention, and the time required for each performance test and the degree of pes anserinus pain assessed using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) during each performance test were measured.Results: Two-way analysis of variance showed a significant interaction only in the VAS during the stair climbing test. Moreover, post hoc test with Bonferroni correction showed significant improvements in the time required for all the performance tests in the UST group and the stair climbing test in the placebo group, and the VAS during the sit to stand and stair climbing tests in the UST group.Conclusion: The significant interaction observed only in the VAS during the stair climbing test strongly suggests the effectiveness of UST for the relief of pes anserinus pain during stair climbing in patients with knee OA. UST is likely to be effective in the relief of pes anserinus symptoms, especially pes anserinus pain during stair climbing, in patients with knee OA.

Transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation (tsDCS) and neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) are beneficial rehabilitative techniques to increase neuronal excitability and improve motor function. However, the combined effects of tsDCS and NMES remain uncertain. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of tsDCS and NMES on corticospinal excitability and gait performance in two experiments. In experiment 1, 12 healthy participants received tsDCS + NMES, tsDCS + sham NMES, or NMES + sham tsDCS for 20 minutes on different days. We evaluated motor evoked potentials (MEPs) of the tibialis anterior muscle with transcranial magnetic stimulation before and after the intervention. In experiment 2, two hemiparetic stroke patients participated in a single-case design (ABABAB). They received NMES alone (A) or tsDCS + NMES condition (B) for 3 days each over 18 days. In experiment 1, tsDCS + NMES significantly increased MEPs at 15 minutes and 60 minutes after stimulation compared to the before stimulation levels (p＜0.05), whereas no changes were observed in the other conditions. In experiment 2, no changes in the maximum gait velocity and number of steps were observed after tsDCS + NMES condition compared to NMES alone. These findings suggest that tsDCS combined with NMES can increase corticospinal excitability in healthy individuals; however, the effects on gait performance were unclear. Further studies with a large sample size are needed to investigate the combined effects of these techniques on gait performance in stroke patients.

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a non-pharmacological intervention used in clinical settings. High intensity high frequency (HI-HF) TENS has been recently used to increase the intensity of pain tolerance in patients. A few minutes of HI-HF TENS is an effective stimulus to trigger a diffuse analgesic response; stimulating a site distant from the pain site may also produce analgesic effects. Therefore, it is considered that the analgesic effect on the operative limb can be obtained by performing HI-HF TENS on the nonoperative limb, which is generally not affected by surgery. This study aimed to examine the immediate effect of HI-HF TENS to the nonoperative limb on movement-evoked pain in patients who have undergone a surgery for femoral neck fracture. HI-HF TENS was applied to the nonoperative limb that was unaffected by surgery. Six patients who underwent femoral neck fracture surgery were assigned to receive standard programs plus HI-HF TENS applied to their nonoperative limb for 7 days after surgery. Movement-evoked pain was significantly attenuated after TENS, compared to that before TENS. Thus, the application of HI-HF TENS to the patients’ nonoperative limb may reduce postoperative movement-evoked pain.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of culturing human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) at different temperatures on cell proliferation. In this study, 5×104 cells/dish of HDFs were plated in a 35-mm dish and incubated at 31, 33, 35, 37, and 39°C. After 24, 48, and 72 hours of incubation, the cells were detached and the number of live and dead cells were counted using a hemocytometer. For analysis, the ratio of cell number in each temperature condition divided by the cell number in 37°C incubation at 24 hours was used. The cell viability was also calculated for each condition. For statistical analysis, two-way analysis of variance was used for temperature and time, and one-way analysis of variance was used for cell viability. Bonferroni’s multiple comparison test was performed as post hoc analysis. The results showed significant differences (p＜0.01) for both the main effect and the interaction effect in the two-way ANOVA. The ratio of cells at different incubator temperature settings was higher at both 48 and 72 hours, depending on the higher incubation temperature. No significant difference was observed in cell viability. In conclusion, cell proliferation was lower at 31, 33, and 35°C than at 37°C under the five conditions examined in this study, while cell proliferation was enhanced at 39°C compared to 37°C.