Movement behaviour in patients with chronic neck pain

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Neurology
• Orthopedics

Background:

• Chronic neck pain affects a significant portion of the population.
• Understanding cervical spine movement deviations is crucial for effective treatment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate characteristic angular movement deviations in patients with chronic neck pain during repeated cervical spine movements.
• To compare movement patterns between individuals with chronic neck pain and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a 3D ultrasonic movement analysis system (Zebris CMS70) to capture kinematic data.
• Assessed 16 patients with chronic neck pain and 18 age-matched healthy controls performing repetitive cervical movements.
• Calculated intra-subject coefficients of variation (CV %) for movement variability and analyzed maximum differences in oscillation amplitudes.

Main Results:

• Patients with chronic neck pain demonstrated significantly decreased cervical range of motion (ROM) in most directions (p < 0.05).
• Significantly increased movement variability and maximum differences were observed in the chronic neck pain group across all movement directions (p < 0.001).
• Moderate average pain intensity (3.7/10) was reported by patients with chronic neck pain.

Conclusions:

• Chronic neck pain is associated with significantly lower maximal cervical ROM and higher movement variability compared to healthy individuals.
• Increased cervical motion variability suggests greater movement irregularities in patients with chronic neck pain.
• Analyzing movement variability provides supplementary diagnostic information for chronic neck pain assessment.