A controlled, single blinded experimental study was conducted to determine the effects of passive joint mobilization on pain and stairs ascending-descending time in subjects with knee osteoarthritis (OA knee). A total of 22 subjects aged 40 and above with mild and moderate OA knee were assigned to either passive knee mobilization plus conventional physiotherapy (experimental group) or conventional physiotherapy alone (control group). Both groups received 2 therapy sessions per week, for 4 weeks. A blinded assessor measured pain with Visual analogue scale and stairs ascending-descending time with Aggregated Locomotor Function test, at baseline and at week 4. There was a significant reduction in pain among subjects in the experimental group (18.07 mm, t = 3.48, p = 0.01) compared to the control group (6.66 mm, t = 0.44, p = 0.67). Non-significant clinical difference was found in stairs ascending-descending time between the two groups (i.e. 6.25s in the experimental group versus 6.78 s in the control group, F(1,10) = 0.70, p = 0.42). No significant correlation was found between pain score and stairs ascending-descending time, r = 0.34, p = 0.16. The addition of passive joint mobilization to conventional physiotherapy reduced pain but not stairs ascending-descending time among subjects with knee osteoarthritis.
The elderly consume many medications including traditional medicines. In 1986, it was found that 29% of elderly took traditional medicines although in 1996, the National Health Morbidity survey reported a 2.3% prevalence. However, studies from other countries showed much higher percentages. The Ministry of Health in Malaysia is concerned that some of these preparations maybe contaminated with steroids, antihistamines, hormones and other poisons. The aims of the study were to determine a). the health seeking behaviour of elderly Malays living in rural areas, b). the utilization of both modern and traditional medicines and c). the steroid content of the traditional medicines used. Methodology included interviews using structured questionnaires of elderly Malays living in rural areas of Kelantan, aged above 60 years. Samples of traditional medications collected were sent to the Pharmacology Department, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, for steroid content analysis using Thin Layer Chromatography. A total of 599 elderly respondents were interviewed comprising 62.4% females and 37.6% males. The 60-69 years cohort group made up 48.7%, followed by 70-79 years at 36.1% and the remainder 15.2% were more than 80 years. There were 82% of elderly taking medicines. The trends of utilization of modern and traditional medicine in the last two weeks among elderly were 59.3% and 40.9% respectively. The utilization of traditional medicine by rural elderly Malays was therefore much higher than that reported in the previous study and nearly similar to that of France and Australian studies. There were 102 samples of traditional medications collected and analysed for steroid content. Results showed that 27.5% were positive for prednisolone, 34.3% positive for unknown steroids (a total of 61.8%) and 38.2% were negative for both steroids. The present study therefore once again confirmed the high usage of traditional medicines where some of which are contaminated with steroids.
The lung fluke, Paragonimus westermani (Kerbert, 1878), is widely distributed in Asia, and exhibits much variation in its biological properties. Previous phylogenetic studies using DNA sequences have demonstrated that samples from north-east Asia form a tight group distinct from samples from south Asia (Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia). Among countries from the latter region, considerable molecular diversity was observed. This was investigated further using additional DNA sequences (partial mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) and the second internal transcribed spacer of the nuclear ribosomal gene repeat (ITS2)) from additional samples of P. westermani. Phylogenies inferred from these again found three or four groups within P. westermani, depending on the method of analysis. Populations of P. westermani from north-east Asia use snail hosts of the family Pleuroceridae and differ in other biological properties from populations in south Asia (that use snail hosts of the family Thiaridae). It is considered that the populations we sampled can be divided into two species, one in north-east Asia and the other in south Asia.
In this paper, the effects of different modification orders of microbial transglutaminase (MTGase) and contents of pectin (0.1-0.5%, w/v) on the gelling and structural properties of fish gelatin (FG) and the modification mechanism were studied. The results showed that the addition of pectin could overcome the phenomenon of high-MTGase-induced lower gelling strength of gelatin gels. At a low pectin content, the modification sequences had non-significant influence on the gelling properties of modified FG, but at a higher pectin content (0.5%, w/v), P0.5%-FG-TG had higher gel strength (751.99 ± 10.9 g) and hardness (14.91 ± 0.33 N) values than those of TG-FG-P0.5% (687.67 ± 20.98 g, 12.18 ± 0.45 N). Rheology analysis showed that the addition of pectin normally improved the gelation points and melting points of FG. The structural results showed that the fluorescence intensity of FG was decreased with the increase in pectin concentration. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis indicated that the MTGase and pectin complex modifications could influence the secondary structure of FG, but the influenced mechanisms were different. FG was firstly modified by MTGase, and then pectin (P-FG-TG) had the higher gelling and stability properties.