Abstract
BackgroundSkin marker-based analysis of functional spinal movement is a promising method for quantifying longitudinal effects of treatment interventions in patients with spinal pathologies. However, observed day-to-day changes might not necessarily be due to a treatment intervention, but can result from errors related to soft tissue artifacts, marker placement inaccuracies or biological day-to-day variability. Research questionHow reliable are skin marker-derived three-dimensional spinal kinematics during functional activities between two separate measurement sessions? MethodsTwenty healthy adults (11 females/9 males) were invited to a movement analysis laboratory for two visits separated by 7–10 days. At each visit, they performed various functional activities (i.e. sitting, standing, walking, running, chair rising, box lifting and vertical jumping), while marker trajectories were recorded using a skin marker-based 10-camera optical motion capture system and used to calculate sagittal and frontal plane spinal curvature angles as well as transverse plane segmental rotational angles in the lumbar and thoracic regions. Between-session reliability for continuous data and discrete parameters was determined by analyzing systematic errors using one sample T-tests as well as by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and minimal detectable changes (MDCs). Results and SignificanceThe analysis indicated high relative consistency for sagittal plane curvature angles during all activities, but not for frontal and transverse plane angles during walking and running. MDCs were mostly below 15°, with relative values ranging between 10 % and 750 %. This study provides important information that can serve as a basis for researchers and clinicians aiming at investigating longitudinal effects of treatment interventions on spinal motion behavior in patients with spinal pathologies.
Highlights
Optical motion capturing is an appropriate method to quantify the biomechanics of the spine during functional movement [1]
The analysis indicated high relative consistency for sagittal plane curvature angles during all activities, but not for frontal and transverse plane angles during walking and running
This study provides important information that can serve as a basis for researchers and clinicians aiming at investigating longitudinal effects of treatment interventions on spinal motion behavior in patients with spinal pathologies
Summary
Optical motion capturing is an appropriate method to quantify the biomechanics of the spine during functional movement [1]. While inaccuracies of current optical motion capture systems are relatively small (below 2 mm for dynamic experiments [5, 6]), errors emerging from soft tissue artifacts and marker placement inaccuracies are considerably higher (up to 10.7 mm and 21.0 mm, respectively [7,8]). Most of these factors can only be partially controlled and it is important to know the extent of variability resulting from these factors. Dimensional spinal kinematics (continuous data as well as discrete pa rameters) during various functional activities derived from markerbased optical motion capturing
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