A Lumbar Motion Study of Spondylitis Patients

Abstract

Knowledge of lumbar motion in spondylitis patients was important to the physical therapist in assessing levels of spine pathology. Fourty-six spondylitis patients and age-, gender-, body weight-, and body height- matched alike 46 healthy subjects were studied. The lumbar motion monitor (LMM) was used to analyze 3-D spine motion, including range of motion, velocity, and acceleration of sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes which were compared using student t-tests statistically between spondylitis patients and healthy subjects. All the spondylitis patients LMM 3-D spine mobility data were also analyzed by 4 factors including age, gender, body weight, and body height. The step-wise linear regression and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Scheffe post-hoc analysis were calculated. The results showed that the spondylitis patients had more spine sagittal plane mobility than the healthy subjects. The spondylitis patients had less velocity in spine mobility than the healthy subjects. The order of influencing spine mobility factors were age, gender, and body weight. The body height did not show significant factor. The reasons of the above results were discussed. The spine mobility in spondylitis patients were also presented. Futher studies should emphasize on how different spine pathological condition affected spine mobility and factors that affected the spine mobility.