Giovanni Alfonso Borelli: The Precursor of Medial Pivot Concept in Knee Biomechanics

Role of pulmonary rehabilitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - a historical perspective

Introduction

Pulmonary rehabilitation is known as an effective therapy for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This article is a brief introduction into the history of medical and pulmonary rehabilitation, presenting the evolution of applied therapies and methods from ancient to present times. It also highlights the role of physical effort in the prevention and treatment of lung diseases, with special consideration to COPD.

Methods

For this literature review, the international databases Medline and Scopus were used to identify relevant articles, between January 1981 to December 2021; eighty articles were considered: thirty-six reviews, eight original research and six general articles which met the criteria for inclusion. A total of thirty references were excluded because they were not relevant.

Results

Available published data suggest a rich history of rehabilitation reaching for thousands of years even though it was developed as a medical branch only in the 20th century. Pulmonary rehabilitation is currently an important component of the management of COPD patients, with a positive impact on symptoms, frequency of exacerbations, severity and mortality rates.

Conclusions

Even though this type of intervention is known to be beneficial for this type of patients more studies need to be conducted in this field.

Mechanical homeostasis in tissue equivalents: a review

There is substantial evidence that growth and remodeling of load bearing soft biological tissues is to a large extent controlled by mechanical factors. Mechanical homeostasis, which describes the natural tendency of such tissues to establish, maintain, or restore a preferred mechanical state, is thought to be one mechanism by which such control is achieved across multiple scales. Yet, many questions remain regarding what promotes or prevents homeostasis. Tissue equivalents, such as collagen gels seeded with living cells, have become an important tool to address these open questions under well-defined, though limited, conditions. This article briefly reviews the current state of research in this area. It summarizes, categorizes, and compares experimental observations from the literature that focus on the development of tension in tissue equivalents. It focuses primarily on uniaxial and biaxial experimental studies, which are well-suited for quantifying interactions between mechanics and biology. The article concludes with a brief discussion of key questions for future research in this field.