Utilización de sensores inerciales para la evaluación de la movilidad espinal en pacientes con espondiloartritis axial

Abstract

IntroductionAxial Spondyloarthritis (AxSpa) is a rheumatic disease that affects the entire spine of the patient (lumbar, dorsal and cervical) and produces a reduction of mobility as the disease progresses. Several metrological tools have been proposed to assess this mobility. The objective of our study is to evaluate the use of inertial sensors “Inertial Measuring Unit” (IMU) as a tool for the measurement of spinal mobility in patients with AxSpA. Material and methodDescriptive and transversal study where spinal mobility is defined by cervical and dorsal-lumbar movement in frontal, lateral and transverse planes; by means of non-probabilistic sampling, 7 patients with AxSpA and 7 healthy subjects were recruited as control group. Mobility was measured synchronously with a system based on inertial motion sensors (IMU) and another video-based motion capture system (UCOTrack©). In addition, measurements of conventional metrology. Finally the BASMI (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Metrology Index), UCOASMI (University of Cordoba Ankilosing Spondylitis Metrology Index) and iUCOASMI index were obtained. ResultsBoth the individual measures obtained with the IMU and the composite index obtained from these measures, the iUCOASMI, show good reliability and concordance with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) above .7 (ICC˃.95 in the patient group), and an excellent correlation (P<.01) between iUCOASMI with UCOASMI and BASMI. In an adjustment of linear correlation of iUCOASMI/UCOASMI a R2 of .97 was obtained. DiscussionResults obtained shown that inertial sensors could be useful for analyzing spinal mobility in patients with AxSpA in a more accurate and reliable way than conventional metrology, and more flexible and economical than other advanced systems.