Correlation between radiographic and clinical measurement of lumbar spine movement

Clinical and radiological techniques were used to examine the lumbar movements of 11 male subjects with no history of low back pain. The clinical techniques were shown liable to large errors, particularly where distances between skin marks were measured. The use of an inclinator was the only clinical technique found to be reproducible by different observers. Comparison with the radiological techniques showed that the clinical measures only gave indices of back movement which did not reflect true intervertebral movement.