Carla Vanti

University of Bologna | UNIBO · Department of Biomedical Science and Neuromotor Sciences DIBINEM

Sexual disability is an emerging topic in the management of low back pain (LBP); nevertheless, sexual counseling skills are not widespread amongst professionals. The clinical behavior of physiotherapists in this field was not studied thoroughly; therefore, it is not clear if and how physiotherapists collect information related to sexual disability...

Background Myogenic temporomandibular disorders (M‐TMD) commonly involve occlusal splint (OS) therapy and musculoskeletal physiotherapy (MPT). Objectives To compare the effects of combining OS with MPT and education (EG) against OS and education (CG), in chronic M‐TMD patients. Methods In this double‐blind randomised controlled trial, 62 particip...

Background: The literature shows a relationship between sexual activity and low back pain (LBP). The aim of this work is to provide a theoretical framework and practical proposal for the management of sexual disability in individuals with LBP. Methods: Based on a literature review, a team of specialized physical therapists developed a pattern fo...

Background The role of rehabilitation after surgery in patients with low back pain is well recognized. The aim of this systematic review is to summarize and update the existing evidence according to the type of clinical condition and rehabilitation approach. Methods This systematic review included RCTs on the effectiveness of rehabilitation after...

Study design: Evaluation of the psychometric properties of a translated, culturally adapted questionnaire. Objective: Translating, culturally adapting, and validating the Italian version of the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool (CAIT-I). Summary of background data: Ankle sprains are one of the most common musculoskeletal injuries and can lead...

Objective: This study aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the comparative effects of different types or parameters of lumbar traction in low back pain (LBP). Methods: CENTRAL, CINAHL, ISI Web of Science, PEDro, PubMed, and Scopus databases were searched from their inception to March 31...

Question: Which is the most effective conservative intervention for patients with non-specific chronic neck pain (CNSNP)? Design: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials. Participants: Adults with CNSNP of at least 3 months duration. Interventions: All available pharmacological and non-pharmacological inte...

Background Only low-quality evidence is currently available to support the effectiveness of different traction modalities in the treatment of lumbar radiculopathy (LR). Yet, traction is still very commonly used in clinical practice. Some authors have suggested that the subgroup of patients presenting signs and symptoms of nerve root compression and...

Introduction There is weak relationship between the presence of lumbar spondylolisthesis [SPL] and low back pain that is not always associated with instability, either at the involved lumbar segment or at different spinal levels. Therefore patients with lumbar symptomatic SPL can be divided into stable and unstable, based on the level of mobility d...

Objective: To translate, culturally adapt, and validate the psychometric characteristics of the Italian version of the Dance Functional Outcome Survey (DFOS-IT) in adult dancers. Design: Clinical measurement study. Methods: The DFOS-IT was forward translated, reconciled, backward translated, and reviewed by an expert committee to establish opt...

Introduction Several general hand functional assessment tools for Dupuytren’s disease have been reported, but none of the patient-reported-outcome measures specific to Dupuytren’s disease-associated disabilities are available in the Italian language. The purpose of this study was to culturally adapt the Unité Rhumatologique des Affections de la Mai...

Background: Osteopathic manual procedures called pump techniques include thoracic, abdominal, and pedal pumps. Similar techniques, called pompages, are also addressed to joints and muscles. Despite their widespread use, no systematic review has been published on their effectiveness. (2) Methods: CINAHL, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, ISI Web...

Objective Lumbar radiculopathy is a pain syndrome caused by compression/irritation of the lumbar nerve root(s). Traction is a well-known and commonly used conservative treatment for lumbar radiculopathy, although its effectiveness is disputed. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was to evaluate th...

Purpose: The aim of this qualitative study is to investigate, from patient's perspective, the aspects of the relationship between low back pain and sexual life on physical, psychological and social aspects of individual's life. In addition, this study aims to explore patients' opinions on the role of health care providers in addressing and treatin...

Introduction Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are considered a collection of musculoskeletal conditions involving the masticatory muscles, the temporomandibular joint and associated structures. The myogenous group appears to represent the most frequently diagnosed category. In the context of a multimodal approach, splint therapy and musculoskelet...

Background: Pain-related self-efficacy is defined as the beliefs held by people with chronic pain that certain activities can be carried out despite the pain. Poor self-efficacy is an obstacle to the recovery and predicts long-term disability. The aims of this study are to investigate the prevalence of poor pain self-efficacy in Italian subjects w...

Background: High pain self-efficacy and low kinesiophobia seem related to a better prognosis in patients complaining of low back pain (LBP). The literature stresses the potential negative effects of anatomical defect diagnosis (e.g. lumbar spondylolisthesis) on the psychological profile. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships be...

See full paper: doi 10.1080/09638288.2020.1817161

Background: Different types of pillows have been proposed for neck pain, but no previous randomized controlled trial has investigated the effectiveness of a "spring pillow" for adults with chronic nonspecific neck pain. Objective: We evaluated the effectiveness of using a pillow made from viscoelastic polyurethane and 60 independent springs comp...

Aim: Chronic low back pain represents a major problem throughout the world which is increasing largely because of the aging world population. Clinical practice Guidelines can be powerful tools for promoting evidence-based practice, as they integrate research findings in order to support decision making. This study aimed to review recommendations fo...

Background: Neck Pain (NP) has been ranked as one of the top chronic pain conditions in terms of prevalence and years lived with disability in the latest Global Burden of Disease. NP has remarkable socio-economic consequences however, research efforts are limited. Discrepancies among guidelines recommendations on management of chronic neck pain ex...

[Purpose] Oswestry Disability Index includes an item (Oswestry Disability Index-8) aiming to assess sexual disability associated to low back pain. The aim of this study is to investigate the percentage of participants who answered the Oswestry Disability Index-8, and the relevance and characteristics of sexual disability due to low back pain in Ita...

Objective: To compare the effects of Global Postural Reeducation (GPR) with Manual Therapy (MT) in participants with chronic nonspecific neck pain (NP). Methods: Pre- and post-treatment analysis of cross-over data from an RCT was done. Seventy-eight subjects with chronic nonspecific NP aged 18 to 80 years completed the trial. The group who had r...

Background Cervical radiculopathy (CR) is a common cervical spine disorder. Cervical traction (CT) is a frequently recommended treatment for patients with CR. Purpose The purpose of this study was to conduct a review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effect of CT combined with other physical therapy procedures versus...

Objective: Walking is commonly recommended to relieve pain and improve function in chronic low back pain. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials concerning the effectiveness of walking interventions compared to other physical exercise on pain, disability, quality of life and f...

Instruments to measure movement abilities from a patient's perspective are generally unavailable across diverse cultures and languages. The aim of this study was to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Italian version of the Outpatient Physical Therapy Improvement in Movement Assessment Log (OPTIMAL) confidence scale. This study was an obs...

Objective: To quantify body weight distribution (BWD) in seated posture with an office chair instrumented with load cells and to evaluate the effects of ergonomic advice and Global Postural Reeducation (GPR) on seated BWD and on musculoskeletal pain. Methods: Nineteen healthy females were randomly assigned: nine to the experimental group and 10...

Background This study aims to investigate the responsiveness and the minimum important change of the Italian version of the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI-I) in subjects with symptomatic specific low back pain associated with lumbar spondylolisthesis (SPL). Materials and methodsOne hundred and fifty-one patients with symptomatic SPL completed the O...

Background and purpose: To date no study was made on the responsiveness of Bridge tests (BTs) in subjects with low back pain and spondylolisthesis (SPL) submitted to a physical therapy program. The objective of this study is to examine the responsiveness of the BTs in subjects with symptomatic lumbar SPL. Methods: One hundred twenty patients wit...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of action observation therapy (AOT) compared with written information in patients submitted to a physical therapy program after primary total hip arthroplasty (THA). Methods: We conducted a prospective clinical trial. Twenty-four patients with THA, 62.5% female (aged 69.0...

Table of contents S1 Criteria for exercises selection in subjects with low back pain Alessandro Aina S2 Recent advances in pathophysiology and treatment of myofascial trigger points Marco Barbero S3 Rehabilitation of scapular dyskinesia Barbara Cagnie S4 Musculoskeletal rehabilitation in subjects affected by neurological disorders Elena Castelli S5...

Background: There is a lack of conclusive information about the optimal dosage of physical therapy treatments in Spondylolisthesis (SPL) patients. Purpose: The present study attempted to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of two different doses in reaching similar clinical outcomes. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 64 consecutive p...

Background Deglutition dysfunction like dysphagia may be associated with cervical symptoms. Findings A young female complained of pain on the neck and swallowing dysfunction that was reduced by means of isometric contraction of cervical muscles. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed an anterior C5–C6 disc protrusion associated with a lesion of the a...

Objective: The aims of this study were (1) to investigate the relationship between clinical tests detecting spinal instability and the perceived pain and disability in nonspecific low back pain and (2) to investigate the relationship between endurance and instability tests. Methods: Four instability tests (aberrant movements, active straight leg...

Purpose: Pain-related self-efficacy is defined as "the beliefs held by people with chronic pain that were able to carry out certain activities, even when experiencing pain", and it is considered a relevant mediator in the relationship between pain and disability in chronic low back pain. This case series describes a treatment aiming to improve pai...

Background context: Global Postural Reeducation (GPR) has shown positive results for patients with musculoskeletal disorders, but no previous randomized controlled trial (RCT) has investigated its effectiveness as the sole procedure for adult patients with chronic nonspecific Neck Pain (NP). Purpose: We evaluated the effectiveness of applying GP...

Unlabelled: The Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ) is a valid and reliable patient-reported instrument used to assess pain self-efficacy in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Recently, the 2-item (PSEQ-2) and the 4-item (PSEQ-4) short versions were developed showing satisfactory measurement properties in mixed populations with chroni...

The purpose of this study was to investigate cross-sectional associations of pain self-efficacy and fear of movement with pain intensity and disability in Italian patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). One hundred and three adult outpatients with nonspecific CLBP were included in the study. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics were a...

[Purpose] The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to estimate the accuracy of qualitative pain drawings (PDs) in identifying psychological distress in subacute and chronic low back pain (LBP) patients. [Subjects and Methods] Data were obtained from searches of PubMed, EBSCO, Scopus, PsycINFO and ISI Web of Science from their incepti...

The ability to express one's sexuality and engage in sexual activity requires multisystemic coordination involving many psychological functions as well as the integrity of the nervous, hormonal, vascular, immune, and neuromuscular body structures and functions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations among pelvic floor functio...

Background: Several clinical tests have been proposed on low back pain (LBP), but their usefulness in detecting lumbar instability is not yet clear. The objective of this literature review was to investigate the clinical validity of the main clinical tests used for the diagnosis of lumbar instability in individuals with LBP and to verify their app...

[Purpose] The purpose of this review was to investigate the types of exercises that can improve the tropism of the multifidus muscles, based on clinical evidence. [Methods] Following to the PICO (Problem, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) model, we considered studies of subjects with specific or non-specific LBP that used exercises aimed at activa...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a current review of randomized controlled trials regarding the effect of conservative interventions on pain and function in people with thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) osteoarthritis (OA), perform a meta-analysis of the findings and summarize current knowledge. Method: Data were obtained from MEDLINE...

The aim of this study was to construct PubMed search strings that could efficiently retrieve studies on manual therapy (MT), especially for time-constrained clinicians. Our experts chose 11 Medical Subject Heading terms describing MT along with 84 additional potential terms. For each term that was able to retrieve more than 100 abstracts, we system...

Taping is a widely-used therapeutic tool for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders, nevertheless its effectiveness is still uncertain. The purpose of this study was to conduct a current review of RCTs concerning the effects of elastic and non-elastic taping on spinal pain and disability. MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, PEDro, Cochrane Central Registe...

Objective: The aims of this study were (1) to investigate the relationship between the main clinical tests to detect spinal instability, the perceived pain and disability, and symptomatic spondylolisthesis (SPL) characteristics, (2) to investigate the relationship between Endurance and instability tests, and (3) to measure the diagnostic accuracy o...

The grip strength test is widely used; however, little has been investigated about its reliability when used in elderly with subjects thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) osteoarthritis (OA). The purpose of this study was to examine the test-retest reliability of the grip strength test in elderly subjects with thumb CMC OA. A total of 78 patients with unila...

The Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ) is a patient self-reported measurement instrument that evaluates pain self-efficacy beliefs in patients with chronic pain. The measurement properties of the PSEQ have been tested in its original and translated versions, showing satisfactory results for validity and reliability. The aims of this study were...

In a previous study we described the translation, cultural adaptation, and validation of the Italian version of the PTPSQ [PTPSQ-I(15)] in outpatients. To the authors' knowledge, the PTPSQ was never studied in a hospital setting.The aims of this study were: (1) to establish the psychometric properties of the Physical Therapy Patient Satisfaction Qu...

Several tests have been suggested to assess the isometric endurance of the cervical flexor (NFME) and extensors (NEE) muscles. This study proposes to determine whether neck flexors endurance is related to extensor endurance, and whether cervical muscle endurance is related to disability, pain amount and pain stage in subjects with neck pain. Thirty...

Translating, culturally adapting and validating the Italian version of the Pain Stages of Change Questionnaire (PSOCQ-I) to allow its use with Italian-speaking patients with low back pain. The PSOCQ-I was developed by forward-backward translation, a final review by an expert committee and a test of the prefinal version to establish its corresponden...

To create an Italian version of the Pain Beliefs and Perceptions Inventory (PBAPI-I) and evaluate its psychometric properties. The PBAPI was culturally adapted in accordance with international standards. The psychometric testing included factor analysis, investigating reliability by internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and test/retest stability...

Background: Rehabilitation in musculoskeletal disorders through group treatment is commonly cited in literature, especially so in the last ten years, despite the fact that the contents and the characteristics of these programs are poorly documented.

Study design. Narrative review Of diagnostic studies. Introduction. Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is one of the most common pathologies of the peripheral nervous system. Several clinical tests have been proposed to diagnose CTS, despite the fact that their psychometric properties continue to be disputed. The aim of this contribution is to collect, t...

Background: The purpose of this review is to provide an updated overview of structural and functional changes of cervical neuromuscular system associated with Insidious Onset Mechanical Neck Pain [IOMPT]. Methods: MEDLINE and SCOPUS databases were searched. Observational studies published after 01-01-2003 in English or Italian languages were includ...

Low Back Pain (LBP) is a very common disorder in hospital workers. Several studies examined the efficacy of multimodal interventions for health care providers suffering from LBP; nevertheless their results did not appear to be consistent. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of a multimodal group programme (MGP) on pain and disability i...

This systematic review aimed at investigating the role of therapeutic exercise and/or manual therapy in the treatment of hip osteoarthritis (OA). Two independent reviewers (AR, CV) searched PubMed, Cinahl, Cochrane Library, PEDro and Scopus databases and a third one (SP) was consulted in case of disagreement. The research criteria were publication...

Background and Aim – Spondylolisthesis is defined as a displacement of a vertebra over the one below, following structural and/or degenerative spinal changes. This displacement can provoke segmental dysfunction and modify the biomechanics of the spine. The Supine Bridge Test (SBT) and the Prone Bridge Test (PBT) are clinical tests commonly used to...

Introduction Neck pain is a disorder able to produce significant pain and disability. It is characterized by remission and exacerbation periods and tendence to chronicity. This trend may be partially related to an insufficient neuromuscular function recovery, given the relevant role of the neuromuscular system on the biomechanical spine stabilizati...

Background: Although patient satisfaction is a relevant outcome measure for health care providers, few satisfaction questionnaires have been generally available to physical therapists or have been validated in an Italian population for use in the outpatient setting. The aim of this study was to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Italian...

Background The Prolo Scale (PS) is a widely accepted assessment tool for lumbar spinal surgery results. Nevertheless, in the literature there is a dearth of consensus about its application, interpretation and accuracy. The purpose of this review is to investigate the evolution of the PS from its introduction in 1986 to the present, including an ana...

Background Although patient satisfaction is a relevant outcome measure for health care providers, few satisfaction questionnaires have been generally available to physical therapists or have been validated in an Italian population for use in the outpatient setting. The aim of this study was to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Italian v...

Background: Patient satisfaction is an important measure for evaluating interventions in health care. No patient satisfaction questionnaire for physical therapy treatment has been validated to date for use in an Italian outpatient population. Objective: The aim of this study was to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Italian version of...

Introduction: Cervicogenic vertigo is a non-specific sensation of altered spatial orientation, due to abnormal afferences to the vestibular nuclei, originating from damaged articular or muscular receptors in the upper cervical spine. This symptom can be related to problems in the central nervous, cardiovascular, vestibular, or musculoskeletal syste...

INTRODUCTION Headache is one of the most common disorders and affects quality of life and work productivity. The cervicogenic headache (CH) is particularly difficult to diagnose because its symptoms overlap with other types of headache. The current clinical diagnostic criteria for CH lack of reliability and validity. The aim of this work is to revi...

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to create an Italian version of the Pain Catastrophising Scale (PCS-I) and evaluate its psychometric properties in a sample with chronic low back pain. METHODS: The PCS was culturally adapted in accordance with international standards. The psychometric testing included factor analysis, reliability by internal cons...

INTRODUCTION: An ability to assess longitudinal changes in health status is crucial for the outcome measures used in treatment efficacy trials. The aim of this study was to verify the responsiveness of the Italian versions of the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) in subjects with subacute or chron...