In re McIntire et al.:
1. they have a study group of 15 patients which is very small. So it is impossible to say whether exercise is doing anythng over and above a control group per se. I suspect that group would fall in line with what is already known about propensity for curve increase based on Risser, age, menarchal status, curve magnitude etc.. They had to show that the propensity to increase was changed by the exercising which they did not (because that would have been mentioned in the abstract as it is the entire game here).
2. Note the sentence, "At baseline there was no significant asymmetry." Doesn't that alone and all by itself undermine the hypothesis that muscle asymmetry is involved here? I'm not sure why they proceeded with the study given that baseline.
3. Again, the biggest problem with this study appears to be premature publication... you won't expect to see a measurable change in a certain percentage of that small group in 4 months. You could have given them ice cream and claimed that stabilized the curve based on the data presented. I don't understand why this is publishable but what do I know?
1. they have a study group of 15 patients which is very small. So it is impossible to say whether exercise is doing anythng over and above a control group per se. I suspect that group would fall in line with what is already known about propensity for curve increase based on Risser, age, menarchal status, curve magnitude etc.. They had to show that the propensity to increase was changed by the exercising which they did not (because that would have been mentioned in the abstract as it is the entire game here).
2. Note the sentence, "At baseline there was no significant asymmetry." Doesn't that alone and all by itself undermine the hypothesis that muscle asymmetry is involved here? I'm not sure why they proceeded with the study given that baseline.
3. Again, the biggest problem with this study appears to be premature publication... you won't expect to see a measurable change in a certain percentage of that small group in 4 months. You could have given them ice cream and claimed that stabilized the curve based on the data presented. I don't understand why this is publishable but what do I know?
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