Thorax and abdomen body segment inertial parameters adjusted from McConville et al. and Young et al.

Abstract

Body segment inertial parameters (BSIPs) are essential in biomechanics and regressions, in particular scaling equations based on segment lengths, are one of the most practical methods to obtain them. Adjustment of the BSIPs from McConville et al. and Young et al. has been previously proposed to define BSIPs and segment lengths based on joint centres. However, due to the unavailable estimation of the thoracic joint centre, the trunk was previously segmented into two segments: pelvis and torso, restricting the possible applications to movements with limited flexion or bending of the trunk. This short communication presents an update of the adjustment procedure to obtain the BSIPs of the thorax and abdomen segments. The thoracic joint centre is obtained by interpolation based on literature data and allows the computation of the relevant abdomen and thorax segment coordinate systems and segment lengths. The updated scaling equations may be useful for researchers who would like to use the adjusted BSIPs with a more detailed trunk definition.