This study is a first step in understanding that injured ballet dancers do not have the same postural stability as uninjured dancers and that it is even inferior to that of nondancers, which is important to understand for further study on rehabilitation. The future development of effective balance training programs for ballet dancers with ankle injuries should emphasize improvements in medial-lateral directional balance.

The objective of this study was to study the ankle biomechanics in relevé en pointé of ballet dancers and to investigate the symmetry between dominant and nondominant sides. A three-dimensional motion analysis system and two force platforms were used to collect segmental motion and ground reaction force data during relevé en pointé dancing. Thirteen ballet dancers, each of whom had over 5 years' dance experience (11.37 +/- 3.9 years), were recruited for this study. The results showed that ankle movement patterns were highly correlated (ICC = 0.99) in bilateral comparisons, but only moderate correlation was found in ankle joint moment patterns (ICC = 0.66). The nonldominant ankle showed the same excursion patterns, but different joint moments, when compared to the dominant ankle in relevé en pointé. The indication was that the two ankle joints may play different roles in controlling balance and movements throughout the entire period of the dance movements. Ankle bionmechanical patterns of the fiundamental ballet dance movement, relevé en pointé, also were constructed in this study to help interpret and understand the bilateral ankle joint excursion pattern.

This study proposed a dynamic pulse wave velocity (PWV)-based biomedical parameter in assessing the degree of atherosclerosis for the aged and diabetic populations. Totally, 91 subjects were recruited from a single medical institution between July 2009 and October 2010. The subjects were divided into four groups: young healthy adults (Group 1, n = 22), healthy upper middle-aged adults (Group 2, n = 28), type 2 diabetics with satisfactory blood sugar control (Group 3, n = 21), and unsatisfactory blood sugar control (Group 4, n = 20). A self-developed six-channel electrocardiography (ECG)-PWV-based equipment was used to acquire 1000 successive recordings of PWV(foot) values within 30 min. The data, thus, obtained were analyzed with multiscale entropy (MSE). Large-scale MSE index (MEI(LS)) was chosen as the assessment parameter. Not only did MEI(LS) successfully differentiate between subjects in Groups 1 and 2, but it also showed a significant difference between Groups 3 and 4. Compared with the conventional parameter of PWV(foot) and MEI on R-R interval [i.e., MEI(RRI)] in evaluating the degree of atherosclerotic change, the dynamic parameter, MEI(LS) (PWV), could better reflect the impact of age and blood sugar control on the progression of atherosclerosis.

Postoperative cystography is a reliable and cost-effective tool for predicting PPI. A more downward bladder neck and a sharper bladder neck angle have the greatest predictive power for short- and long-term PPI.

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