Pascal Madeleine

Aalborg University · Department of Health Science and Technology

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the level of physical activity among older citizens. Objective The aim of this short paper is to set focus on the potential benefits of assistive walking devices for older citizens. Methods In this feasibility study, 24 older citizens aged >65 years participated in the study. The parti...

Pain after cancer remains underestimated and undertreated. Precision medicine is a recent concept that refers to the ability to classify patients into subgroups that differ in their susceptibility to, biology, or prognosis of a particular disease, or in their response to a specific treatment, and thus to tailor treatment to the individual patient c...

The study aims to investigate morphological and mechanical properties and echogenicity of the patellar tendon (PT) after acute fatigue-induced alterations in sprint track cyclists. Fourteen elite track cyclists participated in this study. The exercise protocol consisted of three (on a distance of 62.5 m), one (125 m and 250 m) maximal start acceler...

The objective of this study was to characterize the changes of muscle tone, stiffness, and thickness of upper and lower limb muscles in stroke survivors. Forty patients with subacute or chronic stroke and 31 controls were included and measured using myotonometry (MyotonPRO), with multiple site assessments at muscle belly (MB) and musculotendinous (...

Background: Indoor climbing involves overloading the shoulder girdle, including the rotator cuff and upper trapezius muscles. This field study aimed to investigate the effects of repeated climbing bouts on morphological and mechanical measures of the upper trapezius muscle. Materials and Methods: Fifteen experienced male climbers participated in t...

Fogh Rasmussen, GH, Madeleine, P, Arroyo-Morales, M, Voigt, M, and Kristiansen, M. Resistance training-induced acute hypoalgesia in women with persistent pain after breast cancer treatment. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2022-The aim of this study was to determine whether a single bout of resistance training (RT) produces acute exercise-induce...

Objective: The objective of this blinded parallel arm randomized controlled trial was to investigate the effect of resistance training (RT) on pain, maximal strength, and shoulder function in breast cancer survivors (BCS) with persistent pain after treatment. Methods: Twenty BCS with self-reported pain ≥1.5 years after treatment were randomized...

The goal of our study was to investigate the relative and absolute intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of ultrasound assessment of patellar tendon (PT) thickness assessed over four locations, in track cyclists and soccer players. Fifteen male elite track cyclists and 15 male elite soccer players participated. Tendon thickness was measured over...

The aim of this study was to analyse the kinematics and kinetics of the lower extremities in the sagittal plane, when running under unstable surface conditions. It was hypothesized that 1) a greater effect of the unstable surface would occur in the gastrocnemius, soleus, and tibialis anterior muscles, contributing to plantar- and dorsi-flexion, com...

This project was started to address the perceived gap between enterprises and universities within sports engineering. University members have a lack of entrepreneurial & cross-disciplinary training and a limited understanding of business culture. Enterprises rely on a wide variety of technologies but have few opportunities for dedicated lifelong le...

This study aimed to investigate the acute effect of repeated climbing actions on functional and morphological measures of the shoulder girdle. Fifteen male indoor climbers participated in this study. All the climbers declared route level 6a+, as the best climbing grade (French climbing grade scale). Functional (range of motion - ROM and muscle stre...

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders represent an increasingly important problem globally and pose a huge economic burden. Nowadays, most occupations involve prolonged sitting and use of visual display units, which has been linked with a high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain, especially in the neck-shoulder and the low-back. The first part of t...

The number of steps per day influences blood pressure and health. However, the association between steps at work and leisure and blood pressure is unknown. Thus, we aimed to investigate the association between the domain‐specific number of steps and systolic blood pressure. A thigh‐worn accelerometer was used to measure the steps of 694 workers ove...

This laboratory study aimed to characterize the dynamics of sitting during a 40 min computer task in 20 younger (YG) and 18 older (OG) computer users. The position of the center of pressure (COP) in anterior-posterior (AP) and medial-lateral (ML) direction was computed. The range, velocity, area, standard deviation (SD) and sample entropy (SaEn) va...

Objective Given the complex and unclear etiology of neck pain, it is important to understand the differences in central sensitization as well as psychosocial factors in individuals with chronic neck pain and healthy controls. The purpose of this study was to benchmark differences in central sensitization, psychosocial factors, and range of motion b...

Objective Persistent pain and loss of shoulder function are common adverse effects to breast cancer treatment, but the extent of these issues in comparison with healthy controls is unclear for survivors beyond 1.5 years after treatment. The purpose of this study was to benchmark differences in pressure pain thresholds (PPT), maximal isokinetic musc...

Walking while using a mobile phone has been shown to affect the walking dynamics of young adults. However, this has only been investigated using treadmill walking at a fixed walking speed. In this study, the dynamics of over ground walking were investigated using lower trunk acceleration measured over 12 consecutive trials, following differing walk...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of age on response time and accuracy during a hammering task. Older male workers aged 51-69 years (older group: OG, n = 23) and younger male reference individuals aged 25-36 years (younger group: YG, n = 16) performed the experiment. Response time, accuracy, and 3D shoulder/arm kinematics were ac...

We summarize recent studies to shed some light on the benefit of ergonomic approaches in sports and more specifically in football. In football, the physical demands can lead to muscular pain. Pressure pain mapping can be used as a surrogate for evaluation of the sensory changes in sports. Thus, pressure pain threshold (PPTs) was assessed in a set o...

This randomised controlled field study aimed to design a female-specific cycling pad with reduced padding in the crotch area (half-pad) and test its effects on self-reported sensory manifestations in comparison with full-padded cycling bib shorts. Recreational female road cyclists (n = 183) participated (divided into two groups). Self-reported sens...

Track cyclists are required to perform short- and long-term efforts during sprint and endurance race events, respectively. The 200 m flying sprint races require maximal power output and anaerobic capacity, while the 4000 m pursuit cyclists demand a high level of aerobic capacity. Our goal was to investigate spatial changes in morphological and mech...

Background The frailty phenotype is predictive of mortality and has been identified in the working population. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the prevalence of frailty and individual frailty symptoms among active and retired Danish manual workers and to delineate the relationship between frailty and lifestyle factors. Methods Manu...

Background Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are common among healthcare workers. Because frequent patient transfer has been associated with increased risk of MSDs, we aim to quantify the physical load associated with commonly-used assistive devices and to investigate associations between accumulated physical exposure and risk of MSDs....

This field study compared the real-time spinal movements and postural variations during smartphone-use versus non-use in university students. Ten males and eight females (mean age of 21.5 ± 2.6 years) participated, with similar daily phone use time between the two sexes. Five inertial motion sensors were attached to the cervical, thoracic and lumba...

Background: The aim of this study was to assess clinical pain, pain sensitization, and physical performances to profile patients with chronic painful knee osteoarthritis (OA) or pain after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Examining the interactions between pain mechanisms and physical performances would enable us to investigate the underlying explan...

In this study, we tested the hypotheses that unaccustomed eccentric exercise (ECC) would reduce the elastic modulus and dynamic stiffness of the upper trapezius muscle and that these changes would correlate with increases in muscle thickness, reflecting muscle edema. Shear wave elastography was used to measure elastic modulus, dynamic stiffness was...

Background and aims In recent years, focus on assessing descending pain modulation or conditioning pain modulation (CPM) has emerged in patients with chronic pain. This requires reliable and simple to use bed-side tools to be applied in the clinic. The aim of the present pilot study was to develop and provide proof-of-concept of a simple clinically...

The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of a 6-week high-velocity strength training (HVST) intervention on movement velocity and strength endurance in experienced powerlifters with cerebral palsy (CP). Eleven experienced powerlifters with CP and seven from a control group (CON), were subjected to 6-week HVST. An assessment of movement veloc...

The present study investigated whether the duration of the first tapping bout, which could also be considered ‘the priming’, would play a role for the occurrence of the behavioral phenomenon termed repeated bout rate enhancement. Eighty-eight healthy individuals were recruited. Sixty-three of these demonstrated repeated bout rate enhancement and th...

Objective Breast cancer survivors (BCS) are often characterized by decreased pressure pain thresholds (PPT), range of motion (ROM) and strength in and around the shoulder affected by the treatment. This intra-rater reliability study was to establish the relative and absolute reliability of PPT’s, active ROM and maximal isokinetic muscle strength (M...

This study utilized a cross-sectional design to perform measurements of muscle activity and forward - and lateral trunk inclination angle during a full workday among 52 female healthcare workers from 16 different departments at five Danish hospitals. Using linear mixed models, the 95th percentile ranks of the normalized root mean square (nRMS) valu...

Objective: Recording of knee vibroarthrographic (VAG) activity during activities of daily living (ADL) can contribute to diagnose knee osteoarthritis (KOA). However, classifying KOA patients based on knee VAG during ADL has been an elusive problem not related to knee pain. Therefore, the aims of this study was to classify KOA patients based on (1)...

Background Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are more common among healthcare workers compared with most other professions. Because frequent patient transfer has been associated with increased risk of MSDs, we aim to quantify the physical load associated with commonly used assistive devices and to investigate associations between accumu...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Background: Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is considered an effective treatment for pain relief and improved physical performances in end-stage knee osteoarthritis. However, several studies have reported less favorable outcomes after TKA with chronic pain rates of approximately 20%. Exercise might be an effective treatment strategy for chronic pain...

Ageing is associated with a decrease in physical performance implying that aged manual workers may be unable to match the physical requirements of their jobs. In this cross-sectional study, 96 male manual workers aged 51–72 years were recruited. Outcomes included handgrip strength (HGS), fat-free mass (FFM), fat percentage, cardiorespiratory fitnes...

Objective: Between 50% and 67% of adults suffer from neck-shoulder pain, which may be associated with increased stiffness of neck muscles. We assessed pressure pain sensitivity and muscle stiffness maps of the upper trapezius in female computer users with and without chronic neck-shoulder pain and investigated the effects of eccentric training on...

Background: Unaccustomed eccentric exercise during sport or training may lead to delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), which has been demonstrated to influence postural control, potentially resulting in further injury. Afferent sensory input is critica l to effective postural control, but little is known about somatosensory changes at the knee fo...

Summary: The overall purpose is to develop a new simple bed-side method for examining conditioned pain modulation (CPM). Simple pain bed-side-tests are needed for routine assessment of pain sensitivity in the clinic. This would allow testing large cohorts of patients prior to e.g. surgery or interventional procedure in to evaluate possible predicto...

Abstract Background Recent evidence has shown that many patients suffer from persistent pain and impaired function after primary or revision total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Post-surgical complications may in addition decrease physical performances and lead to more pain and impacted quality of life. The purpose of the study was to assess the changes...

The aim was to investigate if the method of normalizing surface electromyography (sEMG) can change results on sex differences in the muscular activation of the shoulder girdle muscles during a simulated work task. sEMG was recorded in 36 asymptomatic participants (17 females, 19 males) from four parts of trapezius and from serratus anterior muscles...

ABSTRACT: Return to sport following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction (ACLR) exposes individuals to risk of a second ACL injury. A possible explanation for this risk is the limited consensus regarding standardized criteria used to evaluate readiness for a safe return to sport. The aim of this systematic review was to synthesize existi...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of walking at different speeds while using a mobile phone on spatiotemporal stride parameters among young adults. Ten participants (7 male, 3 female; age = 24.7 ± 4.4 years, mean ± 1SD) completed 12 walking trials. Trials consisted of tasks performed at both normal and fast walking speed...

(1) Background: Spatial changes in pressure sensitivity have been described in migraine and tension-type headaches. Our aim was to determine differences in the spatial distribution of pressure pain sensitivity of the temporalis muscle between cluster headache (CH) patients and headache-free controls; (2) Methods: Pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) wer...

The purpose of this study was to explore the interacting effects of age and musculoskeletal pain on balance in manual workers. Ninety male manual workers aged 51-72 yr were recruited and stratified according to lower extremity musculoskeletal pain intensity (pain/no pain) and work status (working/retired). The five-repetition sit-to-stand (STS) tes...

Background: Variations in the internal pressure distribution applied to cartilage and synovial fluid explain the spatial dependencies of the knee vibroarthrographic signals. These spatial dependencies were assessed by multi-channel recordings during activities of daily living in patients with painful knee osteoarthrosis. Methods: Knee vibroarthr...

In this study we investigated motor variability in individuals who showed (responders) and who did not show (non-responders) a behavioural phenomenon termed repeated bout rate enhancement. The phenomenon is characterized by an increase of the freely chosen index finger tapping rate during the second of two consecutive tapping bouts. It was hypothes...

Dynamic stability of locomotion plays an important role in running injuries, particularly during trail running where ankle injuries occur frequently. Several studies have investigated dynamic stability of locomotion using wearable accelerometer measurements. However, no study has reviewed how dynamic stability of locomotion is quantified using acce...

Current evidence for widespread hyperalgesia in non-specific neck pain (NSNP) is unclear. It is currently recommended to group NSNP patients according to pain-provoking movements. The aim of this study was to investigate local and widespread pain sensitivity in females with unilateral NSNP that is reproducible during passive neck rotation compared...

Background and aims Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) is of considerable interest within pain research. Often CPM testing is conducted in experimental settings using complicated instrumentation, thus challenging the implementation in clinical settings. Being able to assess CPM in a fast and reliable way in clinical settings could lead to a new diag...

A biofeedback system may objectively identify fatigue and provide an individualized timing plan for micro-breaks. We developed and implemented a biofeedback system based on oculometrics using continuous recordings of eye movements and pupil dilations to moderate fatigue development in its early stages. Twenty healthy young participants (10 males an...

The detection of variations in mental demands is a key factor for optimizing the balance between occupational health and work performance. With the advances in heart rate acquisition technologies, heart rate monitoring is now easy and affordable. In this study, we recorded the heart rate of 18 healthy young participants while they performed three c...

For improved prevention of health issues among blue-collar workers, there is a need for an overview of the physical activity at work and leisure using technical long-term measurements in blue-collar sectors investigation of differences between the sectors. Thus, the objective of this paper was to provide an overview and investigate differences in p...

Aims: To investigate the associations between both high- and low-intensity leisure-time physical activity on physical-work ability and chronic musculoskeletal complaints among manual workers aged 50–70 years. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1763 manual workers (mean age 57.1, SD ± 4.7 years) replied to questions about leisure-time physical...

Purpose: The higher prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders among women compared with men could be explained by sex-gender differences related to biological and physiological processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate sex differences in motor coordination during a sustained and repetitive motor task. Methods: Seventeen healthy fe...

Background: Plantar heel pain is one of the most common foot pain conditions treated by health care providers. Objectives: To investigate differences in topographical pressure pain sensitivity maps of the feet between patients with unilateral plantar heel pain and healthy individuals, and to determine the relationship between topographical press...

A biofeedback system may objectively identify fatigue and provide an individualized timing plan for micro-breaks. We developed and implemented a biofeedback system based on oculometrics using continuous recordings of eye movements and pupil dilations to moderate fatigue development in its early stages. Twenty healthy young participants (10 males an...

The present study investigated the influence of age and musculoskeletal pain on force variability during a continuous isometric handgrip force task performed at 30% of maximal voluntary contraction carried out until failure. We recruited 96 male manual workers aged 51-72 years. The participants were stratified according to their age (50-59 and 60+...

Office workers and university students are known to suffer from neck pain as they are frequent users of electronic devices. The present study utilized inertial motion sensors to examine real-time spinal kinematics in office workers and university students for 3 h in their natural working/studying environment. Office workers (10 males, 10 females) a...

Given the growing number of working elderly, monitoring fatigue developing at work is of utmost importance. In this study, 38 participants (18 elderly and 20 young adults) were recruited to perform a prolonged computer task including 240 cycles while their heart rate was measured. In each cycle, the participants memorized a random pattern of connec...

This study aimed to investigate the spinal muscle activity and postural variations across time in healthy young adults during a prolonged reading comprehension task using a tablet computer. Twenty healthy college students (10 males and 10 females; mean age = 21.5 ± 1.7 years) participated in this study. Subjects were seated on a standard office cha...

This laboratory study studied the dynamics of sitting during a sustained and mentally demanding computer task. Mental fatigue ratings, overall performance and kinetic were recorded in 20 asymptomatic computer users performing computer work for 40 min divided in 12 time epochs. The displacement of the center of pressure (COP) in anterior-posterior (...

Background Construction work frequently involves heavy physical work, and a reduction of the physical workload should have high priority. Technological development has made it possible to obtain field measurements with surface electromyography (sEMG), kinematics measured with inertial measurement units (IMUs), and video recordings. However, no stud...

The transition from walking to running has previously been predicted to occur at a point where the stride frequency starts getting closer to the running attractor than to the walking attractor. The two behavioural attractors were considered to be represented by the freely chosen stride frequencies during unrestricted treadmill walking and running....

Objectives This randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluated the effect of a participatory organizational intervention for improved use of assistive devices (AD) in patient transfer. Methods We randomly allocated 27 departments from five hospitals in Denmark to a participatory intervention (14 clusters, 316 healthcare workers) or a control group (13...

The study aimed to assess the effects of compression trigger point therapy on the stiffness of the trapezius muscle in professional basketball players (Part A), and the reliability of the MyotonPRO device in clinical evaluation of athletes (Part B). Twelve professional basketball players participated in Part A of the study (mean age: 19.8 ± 2.4 yea...

Background: Pain in the lower extremities is common among blue-collar workers, with prolonged static standing as a potential risk factor. However, little is known about the association between diurnal accelerometer measures of static standing and pain in the lower extremities, and the potential importance of temporal patterns of static standing for...

Objectives: The effects of eccentric exercises on clinical outcomes and central pain mechanisms are unclear in neck/shoulder pain (NSP). The aims were to (1) evaluate the clinical impact of unilateral eccentric training in female computer users with chronic NSP, (2) compare pressure pain sensitivity, temporal summation of pain (TSP), and condition...

Fatigue can develop during prolonged computer work, particularly in elderly individuals. This study investigated eye movement characteristics in relation to fatigue development. Twenty young and 18 elderly healthy adults were recruited to perform a prolonged functional computer task while their eye movements were recorded. The task lasted 40 minute...

Blue-collar workers with physically demanding occupations have a high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders accompanied by pain. Previous research has suggested that reduced motor variability may increase the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders. Here we present preliminary data from an ongoing cross-sectional examination of physical perf...