Article

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether kinematic algorithms can distinguish subjects
with chronic non-specific low back pain from asymptomatic subjects and subjects
simulating low back pain, during trunk motion tasks. DESIGN: Comparative cohort
study. SUBJECTS: A total of 90 subjects composed 3 groups; 45 chronic
non-specific low back pain patients in the CLBP group; 45 asymptomatic controls
people in the asymptomatic controls group. 20/45 subjects from the asymptomatic
controls group composed the CLBP simulators group as well. METHOD: During
performance of 7 standardized trunk motion tasks 6 spinal segments from the
kinematic spine model were recorded by 8 infrared cameras. Two logit scores, for
range of motion and speed, were used to investigate differences between the
groups. Group allocation based on logit scores was also calculated, allowing the
assessment of sensitivity and specificity of the algorithms. RESULTS: For the 90
subjects (pooled data), the logit scores for range of motion and speed
demonstrated highly significant differences between groups (p < 0.001). The logit
score means and standard deviation (SD) values in the asymptomatic group (n = 45)
and chronic non-specific low back pain group (n = 45), respectively, were -1.6
(SD 2.6) and 2.8 (SD 2.8) for range of motion and -2.6 (SD 2.5) and 1.2 (SD 1.9)
for speed. The sensitivity and specificity (n = 90) for logit score for range of
motion were 0.80/0.82 and for logit score for speed were 0.80/0.87, respectively.
CONCLUSION: These results support the validity of using 2 movement algorithms,
range of motion and speed, to discriminate asymptomatic subjects from those with
low back pain. However, people simulating low back pain cannot be distinguished
from those with real low back pain using this method.

Langue : ANGLAIS