Development of a Novel Technique to Record 3D Intersegmental Angular Kinematics During Dynamic Spine Movements

A novel method of recording intersegmental spine kinematics was developed. The method was required to: (1) have similar accuracy and precision as current methods that record gross spine kinematics; (2) be reasonably insensitive to errors associated with marker detection or misplacement; and (3) be reasonably insensitive to skin movement artefacts. Four healthy participants performed trunk flexion, lateral bending, and axial twist movements; data were collected using the intersegmental method as well as electromagnetic sensors. Comparing methods, gross angular kinematic differences were within 1 SD during flexion and lateral bend, while axial twist resulted in the largest differences. To test sensitivity to marker error, random error was added to marker positions. The most proximal and distal intersegmental units were the most sensitive to marker error. Adding additional markers at the ends or interpolating padded markers reduced this sensitivity. The influence of skin movement artefact was investigated by digitizing locations of the skin with respect to the spinous processes in both neutral and fully flexed postures. In the lumbar region, large skin artefacts had minimal effect on intersegmental angles. The greatest strength of this method is the ability to dynamically record intersegmental spine kinematics.