Giorgio Ferriero’s research while affiliated with University of Insubria and other places

Background: Ozone therapy is used for its immunomodulatory, antioxidant, and analgesic properties in several fields. It can be useful in the rehabilitation of musculoskeletal disorders. Studies showed that O2-O3 therapy can reduce pain and improve functioning in patients affected by low back pain and knee osteoarthritis. Only a few studies have been published about the efficacy of this treatment in upper limb disease. Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the use of ozone therapy in upper limb pathologies, evaluating its quantity, quality, and reported results in upper limb musculoskeletal disease, supraspinatus tendinopathy, shoulder impingement, adhesive capsulitis, chronic epicondylitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome. O2-O3 reduces inflammation by stimulating anti-inflammatory cytokines and inactivating pro-inflammatory molecules, relieves pain by interacting with pain receptors and improving blood circulation, promotes the regeneration of damaged tissues by stimulating growth factors and improving vascularization, and, finally, activates endogenous antioxidant defense systems by protecting cells from oxidative damage. Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted on PubMed and Scopus using the following MeSH terms: ozone therapy, infiltration joint, musculoskeletal disease, rehabilitation, upper limb, shoulder, wrist, hand, elbow, including English papers published in the last five years. Results: Five papers have been selected: four randomized controlled trials and one retrospective cohort study. The RCTs compared the effectiveness of intra-articular ozone injection with steroid injection alone or with other conservative treatments in shoulder diseases; one paper studied the effectiveness of ozone injection and orthoses in carpal tunnel syndrome compared to orthoses alone; one paper used ozone injections compared with steroid injection in patients with chronic lateral epicondylitis. A total of 218 patients were studied in these trials. Conclusions: Ozone treatment seemed to improve pain and function as well as other therapies in upper limb musculoskeletal disease. However, the trials’ protocols and the upper limb areas treated are different. Further studies are needed to define the effectiveness of ozone therapy in upper limb diseases in rehabilitation fields.

Background Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) commonly develop severe spinal deformity. The etiology of Parkinson's spinal deformity is not completely understood and in most cases is likely due to multiple factors. These include dystonia and focal myopathy. Clinical, neurophysiological, and radiological data must be considered to monitor the pathology and the effects of rehabilitation. The aim of this pilot study is to evaluate spine alignment with a surface topography analysis of Parkinson's patients with Biometrical Holistic of Human Body (BHOHB®) and to compare results with their x-rays spine standard as already done for adolescent scoliosis. Methods 32 adult patients affected by Parkinson disease, have been evaluated with BHOHB ®. The correspondence of the Cobb angles were evaluated using the BHOHB device and with standard spinal x-rays. Results A total of 32 patients were enrolled. The mean age was 67.45 years. In this pilot study the measurement of the correlations between the radiological and BHOHB® Cobb angles of the patients were excellent. Conclusion This preliminary result supports the use of BHOHB® as a device useful to monitor and measure posture in Parkinson's. This needs to be evaluated on a larger sample and over time. Keywords: Parkinson's disease, scoliosis, postural imbalance, neurophysiology.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the gold standard of evidence guiding intervention selection in rehabilitation. However, conduct of sufficiently powered RCTs in rehabilitation can be expensive, pose ethical and attrition concerns when participants are assigned to ineffective treatment as usual conditions, and are infeasible with low-incidence populations. Single-case experimental designs (SCEDs), including N-of-1 RCTs are causal inference studies for small numbers of participants and not necessarily one participant as the name implies. These designs are increasingly used to evaluate the effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions in diverse clinical settings and employ design features including but not limited to randomization and each participant serving as their own control. These and other internal validity enhancements can increase the confidence in study results coming from these designs. This manuscript discusses the expanded application of SCEDs in rehabilitation contexts to answer everyday clinical rehabilitation research questions with emphasis on strategies to use: 1) to maximize internal validity of this family of designs; 2) improve utility, effectiveness, and acceptability of these designs for rehabilitation end-users (clinicians, policymakers, and participants); 3) build evidence bases in areas of rehabilitation where RCTs are uncommonly used. Primary considerations for situating SCEDs within the continuum of experimental designs include increasing internal validity within designs, improving transparency in conduct and reporting of these studies, and increasing access to advanced research methods training for rehabilitation professionals.

Purpose: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale using the 5-option response categories for individuals with lower limb amputation (ABC-5/Ar). Materials and methods: This was a methodological study on a convenience sample of individuals with unilateral lower-limb amputation attending outpatient rehabilitation centres in Saudi Arabia and Turkey (N = 155). Rasch analysis (WINSTEPS version 4.6.5) was used to examine the 5-categories rating scale structure, item fit, item difficulty hierarchy, person separation index, unidimensionality, local item dependency, and differential item functioning. Results: The ABC-5/Ar 5-response option demonstrated an appropriate model fit. Most items fit the Rasch model, except for item #12 "walk in a crowded mall," which showed an overfitting value of 0.63. The person separation indices 2.95 (Cronbach's α = 0.96). Principal component analysis of residuals confirmed the unidimensionality of the scale; however, local dependency was detected between item #14 "Ride in escalator holding rail," and item #15 "Ride in escalator not holding rail." Conclusions: The findings suggest that the ABC-5/Ar shows promise in assessing balance confidence in Arabic-speaking lower-limb prosthesis users. However, further studies with larger sample sizes and in diverse clinical contexts are needed to confirm its effectiveness in various clinical settings.

Background: Knee osteoarthritis is a degenerative and inflammatory disease causing pain and worsening patients’ quality of life. Various conservative treatment options exist, but a gap between scientific evidence and clinical practice is still present. The aim of this prospective multicenter observational study is to describe the real outpatient territorial management of patients with knee osteoarthritis and to analyze the correlation between the anthropometric and clinical characteristics of the population of patients suffering from symptomatic knee osteoarthritis who were screened in the national survey. Methods: The educational national project was divided into three modules: the first and the last through webinars; and the second held in daily practice. The participants had to register structured observations, which were then stored in a national database and analyzed in order to identify correlations. The subgroups were stratified by body composition, radiological severity of knee osteoarthritis, pain, and functional ability. Results: The project has been joined by 155 physicians, and 2.656 observations about real-world outpatients being treated for knee osteoarthritis in Italy were collected. Data relating to real-world pharmacological and rehabilitation therapies in correlation with body composition, the radiological severity of knee osteoarthritis, pain, and functional ability were reported. Conclusions: Currently, there are no standardized protocols using effective combinations of therapeutic exercises, physical agents, and medications to control the progression of knee osteoarthritis. This real-word national survey proved to be useful for describing the current state of the art of therapeutic management of knee osteoarthritis and for emphasizing the need to fill the gap between scientific evidence and clinical practice.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is defined by progressive worsening of gait, posture, and balance, as well as disability in daily life activities, and improvement in chronic musculoskeletal pain, particularly neck pain associated with worsening of balance. The study's goal is to look into the relationship between scoliosis, balance, and cervical pain in Parkinson's disease patients. Cross-sectional, pilot study. The study included 16 Parkinson's patients. Neck cervical pain was measured using the pain visual analogue scale and the short form McGill pain questionnaire, while dynamic balance was assessed using static balance, Tinetti, Berg Balance, and the Short Physical Performance Battery scales (SPPB). Cobb angles are measured on a whole-spine standard X-ray to assess spinal scoliosis.An observational statistical analysis was performed with patients subdivided into two groups: non-scoliosis (NS) and true scoliosis (TS) based on whether they presented a Cobb's angle below or ≥10°. Neck pain was reported by 37% (n=3) of participants in the NS group versus 50% (n=4) in the TS group. Neck pain was more prevalent in patients with a disease duration of less than 48 months (n=6; 75.0% vs n=1; 12.5%; p-value < 0.05). Scoliosis, cervical pain, and postural imbalance are all significant but often overlooked Parkinson's disease complaints.