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ABSTRACT: Introduction & Objective: One of the most common disorders of the knee joint in adult is patellofemoral pain syndrome. Sometimes it becomes chronic and causes activity limitation. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of exercise therapy with Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation on improvement of pain intensity, knee function, muscle atrophy and range of knee flexion. Materials & Methods: This double-blind, randomized clinical trial was carried out in Zahedan Razmejo-Moghadam Physiotherapy Clinic, in 2007. Thirty-two patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome were recruited through simple non-probability sampling. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the equal groups, exercise therapy (including hip, knee, and leg muscles strengthening and stretching exercises) or electrical stimulation group. Before and after intervention, we assessed pain through Visual Analog Scale (VAS) (ordinal), function (ordinal) with Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), thigh circumference with tape measure (centimeter) and range of knee flexion with goniometer (degree). A 10 session treatment program, three sessions per week and one hour per session was performed for both groups. Independent t-test or Mann-Whitney U and paired t-test or Wilcoxon were used for comparison between the pretreatment and post treatment results between groups and within groups, in SPSS software, respectively. Results: The mean total score of knee function increased from 100.53±19.25 to 130.87±18.25 in the electrical stimulation group and from 107.67±22.69 to 131.47±15.11 in the exercise therapy group (p=0.001). The mean score of knee function subscales including symptoms, pain, functional limitation, recreational activity, and life style improved in both groups (p<0.05). The pain score and range of knee flexion improved in both groups (p<0.05). After treatment, range of knee flexion significantly increased in the exercise group compared with the electrical stimulation one (p=0.008). Conclusion: Both of the exercise therapy and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation are effective in treatment of patellofemoral pain syndrome. However, exercise therapy is more effective increasing in the range of knee flexion.

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Introduction & Objective: Diabetes, i.e. lack of proper control of blood sugar, may cause serious complications in patients. The objective of this study was to assess the influence of electrical muscle stimulation on glucose control in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Materials & Methods: This clinical-trial study was conducted in 2009, in Shiraz, Iran. Forty nine diabetes mellitus patients, Type 2, participated in this study. In 28 cases, dietary and exercise modifications were recommended and electrical muscle stimulation was carried out. For the other 21 cases, only dietary and exercise modifications were recommended. Laboratory tests, including fasting blood sugar (FBS) and glucose tolerance test (GTT), was performed before the study and 6 weeks afterward. The results were analyzed by SPSS version 15.5 software and using t-test. Results: The mean of FBS in the case group before EMS was 156 mg/dl and 6 weeks later changed to 123 mg/dl (p < 0.05), while in the control group these indices were 158 mg/dl and 154 mg/dl respectively. The mean of GTT in patients before EMS was 193 mg/dl and 6 weeks later became 150 mg/dl (p < 0.05), whereas in the control group these figures were 204 mg/dl and 201 mg/dl respectively. Conclusion: The results of this study confirmed that the use of electrical muscle stimulation can be effective on glucose control in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

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Background & aim: Reallocating boosted memory can lead to blocking or updating and re-boosting memory. Various factors affect the performance of memory reinforcement. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of aerobic exercise and electrical stimulation of the brain on memory reinforcement in sleepless and sleepless conditions.
 
Methods: 45 young participants aged 20 to 25 years participated in the present quasi-experimental study conducted in 2019. Data were collected using demographic questionnaires, Petersburg sleep quality, Edinburgh excellence, Wechsler memory, chain reaction color matching time test, direct cranial electrical stimulation device and heart rate monitor. Subjects were selected based on inclusion criteria and then randomly assigned to three experimental and control groups. The subjects performed the chain color matching task in the acquisition stage (six blocks of 100 attempts), then the first group performed aerobic physical activity for 30 minutes, the second group did 15 minutes of electrical stimulation of the skull and 15 minutes of aerobic physical activity. All groups called the chain color matching task in a 100-item block 30 minutes after the training intervention and participated in the retest tests one and 48 hours later. The collected data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance, repeated measures analysis of variance and Bonferroni post hoc test.
 
Results: The results indicated that the subjects performed better in the third training block than the first and second training blocks (p ≥ 0.05). In the retention test after 1 hour, the aerobic exercise group had the best performance and the combined exercise group had the weakest performance (p ≥ 0.05). In performing the retention test after 48 hours, the combined exercise group had the best and the control group had the weakest performance.
 
Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study, aerobic physical activity and electrical stimulation of the brain to increase memory-enhancing performance are recommended.