Utility of portable inertial measurment unit (IMU) sensor system for spinal movement assessment in people with and without low back pain.

Sheeran, Liba ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1502-764X, Sparkes, Valerie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4500-9327 and Al-Amri, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2806-0462 2019. Utility of portable inertial measurment unit (IMU) sensor system for spinal movement assessment in people with and without low back pain. Presented at: 10th Interdisciplinary World Congress on Low Back and Pelvic Girdle Pain, Antwerp, Belgium, 28 -31 October 2019.

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Abstract

Introduction: Physical examintion of spinal movement behaviour is a routine part of clinical assessment of LBP. Typically this involves an observation of the patients’ posture and movement behaviour and a visual estimate of range of motion and its quality. Portable sensor technologies offer an exciting alternative with growing evidence of its use to evalaute spinal/pelvic movement behaviour in people with LBP1. Limited evidence exist as to whether sensors can used to obtain clinically useful evaluation of spinal movement behaviour to guide exercise management for LBP. Purpose: Demostrate the application of portable intertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor system for spinal and pelvic regional movement analysis in people with and without LBP. Method: Observational cross-sectional study investigated spinal and pelvic kinematics of 58 participants with LBP and 12 matched pain-free controls. Four portable IMU sensors (Xsens technologies B.V., Netherlands) were affixed to the skin with double sticky tape over the participants’ 1st thoracic spinous process to obtain trunk kinematics (T), 2nd and 4th lumbar spinous process for upper (ULx) and lower lumbar spine (LLx) kinematics and the sacrum for the pelvic kinematics2. Participants were asked to perfom 10 repetitions of forward bend with no instructions provided. Minimum, maximum and mean range of motion (ROM) and respective coefficient of variation (CV) for each variable was calculated and compared between groups using independent t-test. Results: Compared to pain-free controls, people with LBP demonstrated significantly lower mean and maximum ROM in the trunk, ULx and LLx regions (p<0.05). There was no between group difference in the minimum spine ROM nor in any of the measured variables in the pelvis. No significant difference was detected in the movement variability with mean CV ranging between 2.9 and 4% in both groups. Conclusion: This is a first to date study utilising multiple IMU sensors to evaluate spinal-pelvic kinematics during forward bend task in people with and without LBP. This study clearly demonstrates that people with and without LBP consistently adopt different movement strategies when performing typically perceived pain provoking forward bend task.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Healthcare Sciences Arthritis Biomechanics Bioengineering Centre (ARUKBBC)
Date of Acceptance:	31 July 2019
Last Modified:	25 Nov 2022 11:54
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/127246

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