We investigated the effectiveness of pelvic floor muscle (PFM) exercises or biofeedback for the treatment of urinary stress incontinence (USI). Fifty patients with USI were included in this randomized, controlled, prospective study. Twenty patients were taught PFM exercises via digital palpation and instructed to perform regularly as home program. The second group of 20 patients had PFM exercises via biofeedback three times a week for 2 months. The third group of 10 patients did not have any exercises. The patients were evaluated via pad test, perineometry, digital palpation based PFM strength, incontinence frequency, and visual analog scale based social activity index prior to and 8 weeks after the treatment. The first two groups had significant improvement in USI with respect to the control group (p < 0.001). The rise in PFM strength with perineometry of the biofeedback group was higher than in the digital palpation group after treatment (p < 0.001). PFM exercises are effective for the treatment of USI; the biofeedback method revealed better PFM strength results with respect to digital palpation.

Premature born AGA and SGA children do not have insulin resistance when compared to term children if they have made a catch-up growth appropriate for their target height and have normal BMI. The similar insulin levels in preterm SGA and preterm AGA children together with increased insulin levels in term SGA children points to the fact that it is the intrauterine restriction in the third trimester that has an adverse effect on future adverse metabolic outcome.

SGA children with CUG and with no obesity have higher insulin levels compared to AGA children. Both SGA birth and recent size seem to have an effect on serum adiponectin levels in childhood.

LGA children have higher insulin and lower adiponectin levels than AGA children in spite of similar BMI. Adiponectin is a better indicator of insulin resistance in LGA children at prepubertal ages and is affected by birth weight.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the sensory, motor and functional improvement in patients with a Spinal Cord Lesion (SCL) by recording at admission, discharge and at 12 months after discharge. Fifty-®ve patients (29 with paraplegia and 26 with tetraplegia) admitted to our departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation between December 1992 ± 1995. Three patients were excluded as they did not give their consent. Each patient was evaluated at admission, before discharge and at 12 months after discharge. Motor status was evaluated by the motor score (MS), sensory status by the light touch score (LTS), and functional status by the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) score. Each patient was asked to complete a patient questionnaire which was developed according to the standards of the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) scale. Twelve patients (10 with paraplegia and two with tetraplegia) were evaluated at 12 months after discharge. Paired samples t-test was used for statistical analysis. The mean age of the patients group was 36.42+17.70 years, the mean duration of inpatient rehabilitation was 93.87+44.95 days. The SCL was due to trauma in 45 patients, 86.50% of the cases and was complete in nine patients (17.30%) and incomplete in 19 (36.53%) with paraplegia. Six tetraplegic patients (11.53%) had complete and 18 had (34.61%) incomplete lesions. The evaluation of MS, LTS and FIM scores at admission and discharge showed signi®cant improvement in the MS and LTS in all of the patients with incomplete lesions (P50.001). FIM scores showed signi®cant improvement only in those with complete or incomplete paraplegia (P50.05). At 12 months follow-up there was no signi®cant change in the MS and the LTS whereas a signi®cant change was noted in the FIM scores (P50.05) in 10 paraplegic patients. In summary, the results of this study indicate that rehabilitation was e ective in our SCL series although the signi®cant gain may also be attributed to the fact that 71.1% of the study group had incomplete neurological lesions.