Establishment of a normative data for cervical and lumbar spine movements using spinal column analysis system

Abstract

Introduction: The current assessment of spine movements during aeromedical evaluation of aircrew is performed using the CMS 20 spinal column analysis system. However, in the present configuration, the normal ranges of cervical and lumbar spine motions depicted by the equipment are based on normative data of German population measured by goniometric method. The study was conducted to generate normative values of cervical and lumbar spine movements with respect to age-specific Indian male population. Material and Methods: The study included a total of 225 healthy male Indian volunteers, divided into three age groups; <25 years, 25–35 years, and above 35 years, with 75 subjects in each age group. In each participant, ten cervical spine movements and six lumbar spine movements were recorded using CMS 20 S spinal column analysis system. The data were statistically analyzed to establish normative data for each of the cervical and lumbar spine movements for three age groups (<25 years, 25–35 years, and >35 years). Results: The mean age, height & weight of the participants were 21.2, 28.3 and 39.4 years, 173.1, 171.6 and 170.6 cm, 65.9, 68.7 and 70.2 kg respectively for the three different age groups - <25 years, 25-35 years and >35 years. The mean values along with standard deviation of the ten cervical and eight lumbar spine movements were derived and presented for the three different age groups. Conclusion: The normative data generated in the present study as per the three age groups may be used as reference values for male Indian personnel for that specific age groups for the assessment of cervical and lumbar spine movements using spinal column analysis system. The data may also be used as baseline data for aeromedical evaluation and future aviation research involving the same equipment.