Possibilities and Limitations of a New Method for the Measurement of Spine Dynamics During Gait

The Measurement of Spine Dynamics During Gait for the Quantification of Intervention Outcomes in Patients With Different Pathologies

The full body marker sets that are typically used in opto-electronic 3D gait analyses either disregard the spine entirely or regard it as a rigid structure. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the possibilities and limitations of an enhanced trunk marker set for the measurement of spine dynamics during gait in adolescents with and without structural spine deformities.

It has been hypothesized that the enhance trunk marker set:

1. is a valid method for the measurement of spine deformations in the sagittal, frontal and indirectly transverse planes.
2. is an applicable and reliable method for the measurement of spine dynamics during gait in healthy adolescents and in patients with structural deformities such as seen in scoliosis.
3. is sensitive enough to distinguish the spinal movement pattern during gait measured in scoliosis patients from the one measured in healthy adolescents.

To verify the hypotheses, the following measurements will be carried out:

• Biplanar radiographs (a-p and lateral) with radio-opaque markers in scoliosis patients.
• Instrumented gait analysis with a standard full body marker set and the enhanced trunk marker set in scoliosis patients and healthy controls.

Scoliosis patients:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis
• Able to walk a distance of minimum 50 meters barefoot and without any assistive device

Exclusion Criteria:

• Other types of scoliosis (e.g. of neurological origin)
• Previous treatment of scoliosis (conservative or surgery)
• Injuries of the locomotor system which led to persistent deformities

Healthy controls:

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any pathologies or diseases affecting the locomotor system
• Injuries to the locomotor system which led to persistent deformities
• Obesity (> 95th BMI-per-age percentile)
• Leg length discrepancy (more than 1% of body height)