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Validity of evaluating spinal kinetics without participant-specific kinematics
Chenxi Yan1, Andrew C Lynch2, Mohammad Mehdi Alemi1
1Center for Advanced Orthopaedic Studies, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States; Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Journal of Biomechanics
|October 7, 2023
Summary
Estimating spinal loads without participant-specific measured kinematics (PSMK) is feasible. Ensemble average kinematics (EAK) and separately measured individual kinematics (SMIK) provide comparable results to PSMK for dynamic spine loading analysis.
Area of Science:
- Biomechanics
- Musculoskeletal modeling
- Spinal loading analysis
Background:
- Participant-specific measured kinematics (PSMK) are crucial for accurate in vivo spinal load estimation.
- Acquiring PSMK data is often impractical for large-scale studies and clinical settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of ensemble average kinematics (EAK) and separately measured individual kinematics (SMIK) as alternatives to PSMK for estimating dynamic spinal loads.
- To compare the accuracy and reliability of EAK and SMIK against PSMK in older adults performing lifting tasks.
Main Methods:
- Developed and applied EAK and SMIK methods to estimate spinal loads without PSMK.
- Compared dynamic spine loading patterns and peak loads derived from EAK and SMIK against those from PSMK.
- Analyzed root mean square errors and cross-correlations between methods and repeated PSMK trials.
Main Results:
- EAK and SMIK showed median root mean square errors of 18-72% body weight for compressive loads and 2-25% for shear loads compared to PSMK.
- Median cross-correlations between EAK/SMIK and PSMK ranged from 0.931 to 0.991.
- Compressive peak loads estimated by EAK and SMIK were not significantly different from PSMK in 12 out of 15 cases.
Conclusions:
- EAK and SMIK offer viable alternatives for estimating dynamic spinal loading without the need for PSMK.
- The accuracy and reliability of EAK and SMIK are comparable to repeated PSMK measurements.
- These methods can facilitate more accessible and cost-effective spinal load estimations in research and clinical practice.
