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Background: Earlier studies have shown that physical exercise and a higher workload increase muscle strength and improve gait and balance at all ages for both sexes. Published studies have, so far, failed to investigate the functional performance of elderly individuals concerning their long-term physical activity and variables of daily living.Objective: To compare elderly women who participate in long-term, moderate exercise programmes with two age-matched groups of women from an urban and a rural community.Methods: All participants answered a questionnaire about health, social circumstances and fractures. We measured the vibration threshold of the lower extremities, bone mineral density of the distal radius and functional performance such as muscle strength, balance and gait.Results: The elderly, active groups performed significantly better in all functional tests and had sustained fewer fractures than the urban control group. When the comparison was made with the rural control group the differences were less obvious. The active group rated their health as better than both the control groups.Conclusion: Elderly women, who continue with moderate exercise programmes over many years, sustain fewer fractures and have better muscle strength, balance, gait and health ratings than women in general. Whether this is the result of the exercise or inherited characters, remains to be proved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

: The reduced bone mineral density (BMD) found in patients with fractures may, in part, follow rather than precede the fracture. We studied the magnitude and reversibility of bone loss in the 15 months following osteotomy in 21 men and 5 women with localized medial arthritis of the knee. BMD (mean ± SD), measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, decreased by a maximum of 35 ± 21% in the mid-diaphysis of the affected tibia at 9 months after surgery (p<0.001). At 15 months, reversal of bone loss in nonfractured bones was incomplete; the remaining deficit was 20 ± 27% relative to baseline (p<0.001). Maximum bone loss occurred at 9 months at the total body (5 ± 2%), spine (15 ± 17%) and at Ward’s triangle of the proximal femur of the unoperated limb (10 ± 17%) (all p<0.01). In summary, post-traumatic bone loss is region-specific with incomplete reversibility, at least after about 15 months. Deficits in BMD in cross-sectional studies of patients with fractures, held to be responsible for the bone fragility, may, in part, follow rather than precede the fracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avulsion of the superior or inferior ring apophyses of the cervical spine was found in 12 of 1922 patients aged 10-20 years. Clinical and radiological follow-up of 9 of these patients was undertaken 3-25 years after trauma. Avulsion of the superior apophysis occurs after flexion, while extension trauma causes avulsion of the inferior ring apophysis. The follow-up appearance is characteristic in both instances. In superior ring apophysis avulsion, there is a bow shape of the superior aspect of the involved vertebral body. In inferior avulsion, the avulsed apophysis fuses with the vertebral body and forms an "osteophyte", whose shape and size depend on the degree of displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]