Review articleThe Course of Functional Status and Muscle Strength in Patients With Late-Onset Sequelae of Poliomyelitis: A Systematic Review
Section snippets
Searching
A literature search up to July 2004 was conducted in the computerized bibliographic databases MEDLINE (1966– 2004), EMBASE (1974–2004), CINAHL (1982–2004), Web of Science (1988–2004), PsychInfo (1887–2004), and the Cochrane controlled trial register (2004, issue 1). The following key words were used: postpolio, postpoliomyelitis, postpoliomyelitis syndrome, post poliomyelitis muscular atrophy, and poliomyelitis. References from retrieved articles were also screened (citation tracking).
Selection
A study
Results
Of the 71 potentially relevant studies identified through the search, 19 met the inclusion criteria: 2 articles reported on the course of functional status,18, 19 15 on the course of muscle strength,2, 3, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 2 on both functional status and muscle strength.33, 34 One article on the course of muscle strength used 2 different study populations that were scored separately with regard to methodologic quality.20
Functional Status
Because of the limited number of studies on the course of functional status that were of sufficient or high quality (2 studies18, 34), and the heterogeneity of these studies with respect to the outcome measures used, it was not possible to analyze quantitatively changes in functional status over time. Even within these 2 studies, further limitations must be considered. Nollet34 selected a study population by including patients with PPS and excluding comorbidity, whereas Windebank18 studied an
Conclusions
Due to the limited number of studies included in this review and their heterogeneity, it was not possible to draw a conclusion about the functional course of people with late-onset sequelae of poliomyelitis or the prognostic factors. Muscle strength deteriorates slowly over the years, and this was only reported in studies with a follow-up of at least 4 years. Because prognostic factors for change were not identified, and aging and comorbidity may be assumed to aggravate the course of functional
Acknowledgments
Participants in the CARPA study group include: Janneke M. Stolwijk-Swüste, Anita Beelen, Frans Nollet, Gustaaf J. Lankhorst, Joost Dekker, Gaby M. van Dijk, Els H. van den Ende, Bart Post, Maruschka Merkus, and Hans Speelman.
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Cited by (47)
Postpoliomyelitis Syndrome
2018, Essentials of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: Musculoskeletal Disorders, Pain, and RehabilitationMen With Late Effects of Polio Decline More Than Women in Lower Limb Muscle Strength: A 4-Year Longitudinal Study
2015, PM and RCitation Excerpt :It is important that the assessments be performed regularly and by the same assessor following a strict protocol. We chose to follow up the participants for 4 years because this period has been recommended as the minimum follow-up time for persons with late effects of polio [15]. Compared with previous studies with annual measurements [18,21], and taking into account the very low dropout rate in this study, we still believe the number of participants to be satisfactory for this type of analysis.
Intra-rater Reliability of Arm and Hand Muscle Strength Measurements in Persons With Late Effects of Polio
2015, PM and RCitation Excerpt :Our study has shown that the variability of strength measurements in the upper limbs is between 7% and 24% for a group of persons. To be certain that there is a true reduction in muscle strength in persons with late effects of polio, it is recommended that follow-up be performed over at least 4 years [21]. In addition, it is now recommended that isokinetic dynamometry be used instead of manual muscle testing and hand-held dynamometry [10,22].
Change in physical mobility over 10 years in post-polio syndrome
2015, Neuromuscular DisordersCitation Excerpt :Therefore, studying this selected group allowed observation of changes in mobility problems in a severely affected group, which has not been reported before. Also, the long follow-up period was valuable as there are only few long-term studies on functional changes [11–14,16], while a minimum of 4 years is recommended due to the large within subject variability for functional measurements [17,18]. This long-term study in a homogenous group demonstrated that on average, physical mobility of patients with PPS and symptomatic quadriceps muscles declines at a modest rate.
Supported by ZonMw, the Netherlands.
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