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Introduction: Low back pain (LBP) is a major musculoskeletal complaint and a multidimensional problem. This study aimed to answer whether patients with LBP have an altered pattern or a reduced rate of respiration compared to healthy people.
Materials and Methods: Two reviewers searched the PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar databases from 2000 to 2020 using the search terms “low back pain” OR “low backache” OR “lumbago” AND “breath” OR “respiration”. The methodological quality of articles generated by the search was appraised using the modified version of the Newcastle-Ottawa scale.
Results: A total of 7 studies were selected for the final review, with two examining respiratory parameters, one investigating the effects of cognitive tasks on respiratory function, two determining the impact of performing a task on respiratory function, and two observing breathing patterns during different tasks.
Conclusion: Respiratory function is sub-optimal in chronic patients with LBP. Thus, respiratory rehabilitation is crucial to managing LBP problems.

Background: The aim of the study was to investigate the reliability and agreement of the Beta-band intermuscular coherence (Bb-IMC) as a clinical assessment tool for Non-Specific Chronic Low back pain (NS-CLBP) patients and healthy subjects by studying four phases of flexion-extension task; standing, flexion, relaxation and extension phases (F-ET).
Methods: Twenty-four men with NS-CLBP and 20 healthy subjects voluntarily participated in this study. All those subjects performed three trials of F-ET while the sEMG was recorded from the lumbar erector spinal, gluteus maximus and hamstring muscles of both sides. Beta-band intermuscular coherence analysis was used to calculate the pool coherence and the pairwise coherence for all mentioned muscles. Afterward, the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM), and minimal detectable change (MDC) for four phases of F-ET were also used to analyze the intrarater reliability and agreement of the measurements.
Results: The investigation of ICC, SEM and MDC showed that the reliability was moderate to a high level of reliability for pool and pairwise coherence of Bb-IMC in all mentioned muscles for four phases of flexion-extension task in NS-CLBP patients and healthy subjects. Yet, the agreement was low because the measurement error was relatively large.
Conclusion: Up until now, no studies have used the Bb-IMC method to study Low back pain which are carried out in our study to check the reliability of this new method. Our findings revealed that pool and pairwise coherence obtained during F-ET are moderate to a high level of reliability for using Bb-IMC and could be considered as a tool for the NS-CLBP patients’ assessment. Although the small sample size investigated, in clinical practice the using this measure to conclude the interaction of corticospinal in NS-CLBP and healthy subjects should help to improve the analysis. This requires including larger sample sizes in addition to studying other circumstances and functional movements such as lifting weight. Furthermore, more research appears to be warranted by the observed effectiveness of a particular intervention in modulation mechanisms of corticospinal tract function by Bb-IMC in NS-CLBP.

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the effect of Mathieson laryngeal manual therapy (MLMT) following a therapeutic course in patients with primary muscle tension dysphonia (MTD).
Materials and Methods: Twelve patients with primary MTD participated in this study. At first, videostroboscopy and perceptual voice assessment was performed, and the Persian version of vocal tract discomfort (VTDp) scale was completed. After two and a half weeks that patients received no treatment, the assessments were repeated to evaluate the effect of spontaneous recovery. For studying the effect of MLMT, it was presented in five sessions. Then, all assessments were repeated. The frequency of supraglottic activity was elicited. For the perceptual evaluation and VTDp, the Wilcoxon nonparametric test was used to study and compare the effect of spontaneous recovery and MLMT.
Results: After spontaneous recovery, a significant difference was observed only in strain (P<0.05). After MLMT, the frequency of supraglottic activity decreased, and perceptual voice parameters significantly changed (P<0.05), but the VTDp showed no significant difference (P>0.05). There was no significant difference between spontanous recovery and MLMT based on the paerceptual voice evaluation and VTDp scale (p>0.05).
Conclusion: The MLMT can remarkably improve the supraglottic activity and perceptual characteristics of voice in primary MTD after a therapeutic course. Further studies are recommended to confirm the effectiveness of MLMT on decreasing VTD sensations.

Introduction: A lot of research in diverse languages has tried to scrutinize the impact of canonicity upon the performance of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Regarding the gap in the Persian setting, this study tried to delve into the nature of this deficit in patients with Alzheimer.
Materials and Methods: This is a case series study, and our subjects included 2 Persian-speaking monolingual patients with Alzheimer and 5 healthy elderly individuals matched with each other according to parameters like educational degree, vernacular tongue, and homeland. The categories to be tested included subject agentive, subject experiencer, object experiencer, and object cleft constructions.
Results: The results of the sentence completion task demonstrated that problems would emerge when patients with Alzheimer try to comprehend the syntactic structures belonged to 2, 3, and 4 categories.
Conclusion: Our findings would demonstrate that patients with Alzheimer have many challenges when trying to map syntactic representation onto semantic realization. This type of deficit escalates when patients attempt to assign thematic roles to psychological predicates. As for the clinical implication of the research, it was recommended that the type of structures utilized by neuropsychiatrists for the communicative purpose be chosen from utterances that are in line with the mapping strategy.

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Persian version of the 20-item version of the MedRisk.
Materials and Methods: In our study, we used a cross-sectional and prospective validation study design. This research was a test development study involving 297 outpatients with musculoskeletal disorders from the physiotherapy centers in Kerman City, Iran, in 2017. All patients completed the MedRisk instrument for measuring patient satisfaction with physical therapy care. Participants also answered a demographic questionnaire, visual analog score, and global rating of change. Internal consistency and reproducibility were investigated, too. To determine test-retest reliability, 40 randomly selected patients completed the MedRisk instrument again 5-7 days after their treatment. Factor analysis, divergent validity, convergent validity, and the floor and ceiling effects were tested, too. The Ethics Committee of the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran, reviewed and approved this research project. The SPSS software-24 was used for statistical analysis.
Results: Dimension of MedRisk demonstrated a high internal consistency (the Cronbach alpha=0.82). Reproducibility was also satisfactory (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.76). The standard error of measurement, minimal detectable changes, and coefficients of variation indices were respectively 0.63, 1.76, and 0.13 for the total score. In factor analysis, the 4-factor solution has emerged. The external validity testing revealed that the MedRisk instrument score correlated negatively with the visual analog scale (r=-0.18, P=0.002) and global rating of change (r=-0.19, P=0.001). Eighteen individual items of MedRisk were positively correlated with global satisfaction. The results showed that items 5 and 7 had a floor effect, and all other items except items 4, 5, and 7 had a ceiling effect.
Conclusion: The Persian version of the MedRisk instrument is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring patient satisfaction with physical therapy and can be used in a clinical setting.

Introduction: Studies have shown that syllable speech technique (SST) can be a useful and practical way to achieve stutter-free speech for children with stuttering (CWS). In this preliminary study, the use of SST in Persian-speaking school-age CWS was investigated.
Materials and Methods: Ten 8- to 11-year-old students with stuttering were entered in the single-group pretest-posttest study as participants. Their speech fluency has been enhanced using SST accompanied by verbal encouragement for stutter-free speech. The percentage of stuttered syllables, stuttering severity, and communication attitude as outcome measures were evaluated in three time points: before the intervention (T0), after the intervention (T1), and one month after the intervention (T2).
Results: The children showed significantly better scores on all outcome measures at T1 (P≤0.004) and T2 (P≤0.005) compared with T0. There was no significant difference between T1 and T2 (P≥0.026).
Conclusion: The reported benefits of SST in stuttering reduction and speech-related anxiety-relieving of Persian-speaking school-age CWS confirms the feasibility and usefulness of this technique.