Michael Quittan

• MD, MSc, Professor
• Head of Department at Rehab Hietzing, Vienna, Austria

Background: Resistance training and protein supplementation are recommended strategies to combat sarcopenia. Aim: Quantification of muscle thickness (MT) by musculoskeletal ultrasound is a promising method to follow changes in skeletal muscles. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of six months of resistance training with or witho...

Psychosoziale und arbeitsplatzbezogene Risikofaktoren spielen für Prognose und Verlauf von Kreuzschmerzen eine wesentliche Rolle und erfordern ein ganzheitliches therapeutisches Vorgehen, um deren Chronifizierung zu verhindern. Dieser holistische Ansatz kann mit den Maßnahmen der medizinischen Rehabilitation erreicht werden.

Die Gefahr der Chronifizierung mit allen nachteiligen Folgen einer chronischen Schmerzerkrankung ist bei Wirbelsäulenschmerzen besonders groß und muss unter allen Umständen hintangehalten werden.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease, which is associated with low levels of physical activity (PA). However, the factors related to low physical activity levels have rarely been studied. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 70 seropositive RA patients were included. Physical activity was objectively assessed wit...

Objective The prevalence of frailty has been widely researched in the elderly population. However, data about people of working age are scarce. The aim of this paper was to assess the prevalence of prefrailty and frailty in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients of working age, and to assess factors associated with prefrailty/frailty. Methods In this m...

We aimed to assess the subjective sleep quality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and its correlation with disease activity, pain, inflammatory parameters, and functional disability. In a cross-sectional study, patients with confirmed RA diagnosis responded to a questionnaire (consisting of socio-demographic data, the Health Assessment Que...

Objective The aim of the present study was to assess the association between muscle strength, lower extremity function, employment status, and work ability in RA patients. Methods One hundred seropositive RA outpatients of working age were included in this cross-sectional study. Employment status was assessed by interview and work ability by the W...

Background: Age related loss of skeletal muscle mass is accompanied by changes in muscle quality leading to impairment of functional status. Aim: This study investigated the effect of resistance training and nutritional supply on muscle mass and muscle quality in very old institutionalized adults. Design: Prospective, randomized, multi-arm par...

In zahlreichen epidemiologischen Studien wurde nachgewiesen, dass körperliche Aktivität einen präventiven Einfluss auf die Entstehung von Tumoren hat. Im ersten Teil dieses Kapitels wird gezeigt, bei welchen Tumoren ein präventiver Einfluss durch körperliche Aktivität berichtet wurde und welche molekularbiologischen Mechanismen hierbei eine Rolle s...

Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other rheumatic conditions not only fundamentally affect patients? quality of life and physiological needs but are also negatively associated with work ability. The costs of poor work ability, which, in sum, are more than treatment costs, pose an economic burden to society and patients. Work ability in RA ap...

Der Beitrag stellt die Grundlagen des Muskelstoffwechsels unter körperlicher Belastung dar. Die Regulation von Atmung und Kreislauf zum Transport der Substrate und Metaboliten wird kurz beleuchtet. Effekte regelmäßigen Ausdauertrainings werden tabellarisch dargestellt. Darauf aufbauend werden Anleitungen zum Training der motorischen Grundeigenschaf...

Mit der ICF stehen ein Modell, eine Klassifikation und damit eine konzeptuelle Grundlage für das Verständnis von Funktionsfähigkeit und Behinderung zur Verfügung. Sie hat innerhalb einer Dekade zu einer breiten theoretischen Reflektion geführt und an unterschiedlichen Stellen ihren Einsatz gefunden. Aufgrund ihrer in diesem Kapitel dargestellten fa...

Ausdauer, Muskelkraft und Sensomotorik sind die wichtigsten „motorischen Grundeigenschaften“ und bestimmen wesentlich die menschliche Bewegungsfähigkeit. Nur durch eine exakte Diagnostik von Ausdauer und Kraft können einerseits vorhandene Defizite aufgedeckt und andererseits exakte Therapiepläne zur Behebung dieser Defizite erstellt werden. Bei der...

Insgesamt ist die Rehabilitation bei Herzerkrankungen eine effektive Intervention, die nach dem derzeitigen Stand der wissenschaftlichen Datenlage keinem Patienten vorenthalten werden sollte. Durch die rasanten Fortschritte der Kardiologie und der Kardiochirurgie müssen die Programme ständig den wechselnden Anforderungen angepasst werden. Gesundhei...

Hintergrund: Im Rahmen des Benchmarking-Projekts „Qualitat in der Geriatrie und Gerontologie“ wurden im Zeitraum August 2014 bis August 2015 im Kaiser Franz Josef Spital 510 PatientInnen der Abteilung Akutgeriatrie evaluiert. Methoden: Eingeschlossen wurden Personen, die wahrend ihres Aufenthaltes zumindest eine Leistung des Instituts fur Physikali...

Hintergrund: Die Interventionen der PMR im Akut-Krankenhaus stehen im Spannungsfeld eines hohen Altersdurchschnitts der aufgenommenen PatientInnen, einer ausgepragten Multimorbiditat und einer moglichst kurzen Liegedauer. Es ist entscheidend, PatientInnen, fur eine Intervention der PMR, fruhzeitig zu identifizieren. Methoden: Der fruhestmogliche Ze...

Background: Ageing, inactivity and obesity are associated with chronic low-grade inflammation contributing to a variety of lifestyle-related diseases. Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) is a multimodal protein with various cellular functions ranging from tissue remodelling to the regulation of inflammation and immune functions. While it is gener...

Purpose: Low back and/or pelvic girdle pain is common during pregnancy and may persist after delivery. Therapeutic methods to alleviate pain, with no side effects for mother and child, are of high clinical importance. The consensus statement expresses the position of the Working Group on Evidence-Based Medicine in Physical and Rehabilitation Medici...

Purpose Regular resistance exercise training and a balanced diet may counteract the age-related muscular decline on a molecular level. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of elastic band resistance training and nutritional supplementation on circulating muscle growth and degradation factors, physical performance and muscle qualit...

Purpose This longitudinal study investigated the effects of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme on postural stability in patients with low back pain. While the consequences of such rehabilitation programme have been described for pain, mobility, strength, and functional disability, the effects on postural stability have not been examined s...

Skeletal muscles are essential for movement as well as for survival. Knowledge about the organ skeletal muscle is underrepresented. Ageing and multiple chronic diseases are accompanied by loss of muscle mass, termed "muscle wasting". Nevertheless, muscles are one of the target organs within the rehabilitation process. This review highlights the rol...

Hintergrund Das Syndrom der Gebrechlichkeit stellt eine zunehmende Herausforderung für das Gesundheitssystem dar. Wenngleich es zum Lebensende auftritt, sollten rehabilitative Interventionen ergriffen werden, um das Syndrom zu verhindern oder zu verlangsamen. Methode Auf Basis der Definitionen für Gebrechlichkeit sowie für Rehabilitation gibt die v...

To evaluate the effects of elastic band resistance training in combination with nutrient supplementation on muscular strength and the ability to perform mobility-related activities of daily living in older adults living in retirement care facilities. Randomized controlled trial, with a 6-months intervention period SETTING: A retirement care facilit...

The assessment of mobility is important in the acute care setting. Existing tests suffer from limitations. The aim of the study was to examine the inter-rater reliability, the validity, the sensitivity to change, and the internal consistency of an ICF based scale. In a prospective study inpatients in the acute care setting with restricted mobility...

The TGF-β superfamily has been shown to play an important role in a wide range of physiological as well as pathological processes including ageing, immune modulation, atherosclerosis and cancer development. The aim of the current study was to investigate (i) whether TGF-β signalling in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) would differ between...

There is a high need for blood-based biomarkers detecting age-related changes in muscular performance at an early stage. Therefore, we investigated whether serum levels of growth and differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15), activin A, myostatin, follistatin, and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) would reflect age-and physical performance-related diff...

Background: Frailty syndrome exerts an increasing challenge to health care systems. Thus, rehabilitative interventions should be taken to prevent or slow this syndrome. Methods: Based on the definitions of frailty and rehabilitation, the present work gives an overview of current treatment options. The methodology and evidence for device-assisted...

In the last twenty years the term “Evidence Based Medicine (EBM)” has spread into all areas of medicine and is often used for decision-making in the medical and public health sector. It is also used to verify the significance and/or the effectiveness of different therapies. The definition of EBM is to use the physician’s individual expertise, the p...

Medical rehabilitation, in general, aims at improving function, activity, and participation of the patients rather than curing the disease. A widely accepted model of rehabilitation is provided by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) by the World Health Organization. Accordingly, the principle of rehabilitati...

This longitudinal study investigated long-term effects of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program consisting of resistance and sensorimotor training, patient education, and stress management over 6 months in patients with chronic low back pain. Ninety-six patients with chronic recurrent low back pain performed a multidisciplinary rehabilitation...

In the last twenty years the term “Evidence Based Medicine (EBM)” has been increasingly applied in all areas of medicine and is often used for decision-making in the medical and public health sector. It is also used to verify the significance and/or the effectiveness of different therapies. The original definition of EBM rests on the following thre...

In den letzten 20 Jahren hat sich der Begriff „Evidenzbasierte Medizin“ (EBM) in allen Bereichen der Medizin verbreitet und wird vermehrt für medizinische und gesundheitspolitische Entscheidungen herangezogen. Auch wird damit versucht die Wertigkeit bzw. Wirksamkeit von Therapien zu belegen. Die EBM beruht in ihrer ursprünglichen Definition auf dre...

The increase of elderly in our society requires simple tools for quantification of sarcopenia in inpatient and outpatient settings. The aim of this study was to compare parameters determined with musculoskeletal ultrasound (M-US) with muscle strength in young and elderly patients. In this prospective, randomised and observer blind study, 26 young (...

Eine Gesundheitsstörung kann mit vielen verschiedenen Lebensbereichen einer Person bedeutsam zusammenhängen. So ist es für eine Person mit einer Gesundheitsstörung neben der Schwere der krankheitsspezifischen Symptome wichtig, welche Handlungen bzw. Tätigkeiten sie noch ausführen und in welcher Weise sie am gesellschaftlichen Leben teilnehmen kann,...

To examine the relevance and completeness of the comprehensive International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Sets for patients in post-acute rehabilitation facilities. Multi-centre cohort study. A total of 165 patients (46% female; mean age 67.5 years) from post-acute rehabilitation facilities in 2 Austrian and 7 Ger...

To identify candidate categories for brief International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Sets for the reporting and measurement of functioning in patients in the acute hospital. Prospective multi-centre cohort study. Patients receiving rehabilitation interventions for musculoskeletal, neurological or cardiopulmonary...

To identify candidate categories for International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Sets for the reporting and measurement of functioning in patients in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities. Prospective multi-centre cohort study. Patients receiving rehabilitation interventions for musculoskeletal, neurological o...

To examine the relevance and completeness of the comprehensive International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Set for patients in geriatric post-acute rehabilitation facilities. Multi-centre cohort study. A total of 209 patients (67% female, mean age 80.4 years) in geriatric wards of 2 Austrian and 3 German hospitals....

To identify candidate categories for International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Sets for the reporting and clinical measurement of functioning in older patients in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities. Prospective multi-centre cohort study. Older patients receiving rehabilitation interventions in early post-...

It is known that patients in the intensive care unit show an enormous loss of muscle mass. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation is effective in enhancing strength and endurance in immobilized patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of neuromuscular electrical stimulation on muscle layer thickness of knee extensor muscles in inte...

Rotary blood pumps have become an important tool for the therapy of end stage cardiac failure. However, at the moment most of these pumps are still operated at constant speed and adjusted by the physician. Adaptation to physiological demand is therefore provided only by the remaining functionality of the left ventricle. A physiologically responsive...

To investigate the effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) on skeletal muscle metabolism after major abdominal surgery. Protein catabolism associated with surgical interventions leads to reduced muscle strength, increased clinical complications and prolonged convalescence. Immobilization is suggested as a major stimulus for muscle was...

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important aspect in the management of patients with osteoporosis. The objective of this study was to estimate differences in HRQOL in women and men with osteopenia and osteoporosis with and without a fracture history and to assess HRQOL with a generic and disease-specific instrument. Women and men were r...

Fragestellung: In akuten Stresssituationen, wie bei chirurgischen Interventionen, besteht ein erhohter Bedarf an freien Aminosauren, der von der Muskulatur durch einen vermehrten Abbau an Proteinen gedeckt wird. Klinisch fuhrt die dadurch entstehende Muskelatrophie zu einer Verringerung der Muskelkraft, erhohten Komplikationsraten und verlangerten...

Medizinische Trainingstherapie nimmt einen festen Platz innerhalb des Faches Physikalische Medizin und Rehabilitation ein. Das Risiko eines tödlichen kardiovaskulären Zwischenfalls während körperlicher Belastung wird mit 1 bis zu 880000 Trainingsstunden innerhalb der allgemeinen Bevölkerung angegeben. Das Risiko steigt mit zunehmendem Alter, mit zu...

Patients in intensive care exhibit a high degree of loss of muscle mass. Appropriate instruments are needed to document muscle wasting in these patients. The aim of this pilot study was to describe muscle wasting in patients in the intensive care unit. Two-fold study setting: prospective longitudinal and cross-sectional single-blind. A total of 118...

Fragestellung: Die vorliegende Studie hatte den Vergleich der Messergebnisse zweier verschiedener Dynamometermodellen („Cybex 6000”, „Biodex 3”) im Rahmen isokinetischer Kraftmessungen an den Extensoren und Flexoren des Kniegelenkes (intermaschinelle Reliabilität) zum Ziel. Material und Methode: 63 (n=63, insgesamt 126 untersuchte Oberschenkel) ges...

Fragestellung: Die vorliegende Studie sollte zum Ziel die Messergebnisse zweier verschiedener Dynamometermodellen („Cybex6000“, „Biodex3“) im Rahmen isokinetischer Kraftmessungen an den Extensoren und Flexoren des Kniegelenkes vergleichen. Methodik: 63 (n=63=126 Oberschenkel) gesunde Probanden (m:f=32:31) (42,58±13.80, range 21–67 a) wurden eingesc...

Fragestellung: Die Rolle der korperlichen Bewegung und des Trainings in der Schmerztherapie Methodik: Eine Literaturubersicht uber den Stellenwert, die Mechanismen und klinisch relevante Ergebnisse korperlicher Bewegung und der medizinischen Trainingstherapie allgemein. Zusatzlich werden krankheitsbezogenen bewegungs- und trainingsbasierte Interven...

Patients before orthotopic liver transplantation usually show a reduced physical performance status, which impacts on their daily life and social participation. This pilot study aimed to evaluate endurance capacity, muscle strength, and quality of life before and after orthotopic liver transplantation in patients in an Austrian transplantation cent...

At present, most clinically implanted rotary blood pumps are operated at constant speed and adjusted by the physician. It is generally assumed that an adaptation of pump speed to the patient's physiologic requirements would be beneficial. The data provided in this paper, based on hemodynamic and spirometric data during exercise in which a pre-load-...

The aim of this consensus process was to decide on a first version of the ICF Core Set for patients with cardiopulmonary conditions in the acute hospital. The ICF Core Set development involved a formal decision-making and consensus process, integrating evidence gathered from preliminary studies including focus groups of health professionals, a syst...

The aim of this consensus process was to decide on a first version of the ICF Core Set for patients with cardiopulmonary conditions in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities. The ICF Core Set development involved a formal decision-making and consensus process integrating evidence gathered from preliminary studies including focus groups of healt...

To identify the most relevant problems of patients in the acute hospital in the view of health professionals using focus groups followed by a Delphi process. Focus group and Delphi methodology were applied. The focus groups were conducted at three university hospitals. Three groups focusing on the problems in patients with neurological/neurosurgica...

To describe functioning and health of patients in the acute hospital and to identify the most common problems using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Cross-sectional survey in a convenience sample of neurological, musculoskeletal and cardiopulmonary patients requiring rehabilitation in the acute hospital....