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Kinetic analysis of expertise in spinal manipulative therapy using an instrumented manikin
Martin Descarreaux1, Claude Dugas, Jean Raymond
1Département de Chiropratique, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada.
Objective:
The goals of this study were to measure the kinetic profile of thrust in different groups of subjects with various levels of expertise and to quantify general coordination while performing thoracic spine manipulation.
Participants:
A total of 43 students and chiropractors from the Chiropractic Department of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières participated in this study.
Methods:
Participants were asked to complete ten consecutive thoracic spine manipulations on an instrumented manikin. Peak force, preload force, time to peak force, time to peak force variability, peak force variability, rate of force production and unloading time were compared between groups. Hand-body delay obtained by calculating the temporal lag between the onset of unloading and the onset of peak force application was also compared between groups.
Results:
No group difference was observed for the peak force, peak force variability and preload force variables. However, group differences were present for variables like time to peak force, time to peak force variability, rate of force production, unloading time and hand-body delay.
Conclusion:
This study demonstrates clear differences between groups of subjects with different levels of expertise in thoracic spine manipulation. This study also demonstrates the usefulness of a simple, instrumented manikin to analyze spinal manipulation and identify important parameters related to expertise.
