Development of an Objective Spinal Motion Imaging Assessment (an image processing solution to the measurement of spinal motion)
This process can be used to investigate the integrity of the spinal linkages. So far, it has been used in studies of failed spinal fusion and in a clinical trial of the effects of manipulation on spinal motion.
Click the following for larger versions of this animation (click your browsers `back´ button to return here):
The animation (above) shows part of a series of 120 digitised fluoroscopic pictures of the lumbar spine of a patient in sidebending. The images are marked for automatic tracking of the motion of each vertebra in order to measure the small movements between them.
Example of side bending motion in an asymptomatic volunteer
(note: The red line represents the averaged intervertebral angles from 5 trackings throughout a recumbent lumbar spine passive motion sequence. The yellow plot is all the data points from all 5 trackings)
Example of side bending motion in a patient thought to have painful loss of restraint at a level adjacent to a surgically stabilised motion segment
L3-4 Side-bending (patient)
Click below for database of motion ‘signatures' of normal subjects.
The graphs represent sidebending motion ‘signatures from male subjects aged 18-40 with no history of spinal pain, that met our measurement reliability criteria.
