Can parameters of the helical axis be measured reliably during active cervical movements?

Abstract

Convex hull area (CHA) and mean angle (MA) have been proposed to describe the behaviour of the helical axis during joint kinematics. This study investigates the intra-and inter-session reliability of CHA and MA during active movements of the cervical spine. Twenty-seven healthy volunteers (19 women) aged 23±2.8 years participated. Each volunteer was tested on two sessions. All participants were instructed to perform the following active movements of the cervical spine: rotation, flexion/extension and lateral bending, each performed to full range and repeated ten consecutive times. Cervical movements were registered with an electromagnetic tracking system. For each participant, each movement and each session, range of motion (ROM), CHA and MA were extracted. ROM showed high intra-and inter-session reliability during all cervical spine movements using this method. Overall, the intra-and inter-session reliability of the helical axis parameters varied depending on the movement direction and ranged from fair to almost perfect. The intra-and inter-session reliability of CHA and MA were almost perfect during rotation whereas the intra-and inter-session reliability of CHA was substantial during lateral bending and intra-and inter-session reliability of MA ranged from fair to substantial during flexion/extension and lateral bending. This is the first study to evaluate the reliability of helical axis measures during active movements of the cervical spine. The results show that CHA and MA are promising descriptors of cervical kinematics which could be applied in future studies to evaluate neck function in patients with cervical spine disorders.

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“…El origen de coordenadas corresponde al hombro, como puede observarse se trata de curvas suaves que representan un movimiento continuo del EIR asociado a un movimiento también continuo de la cabeza. Estos resultados son aproximados con los apuntados en Page (2011) y señalan un movimiento coordinado de las vértebras cervicales, a diferencia del movimiento aparentemente errático del EIR que se muestra en otros trabajos (Cescon, 2014;Barbero 2017). Dichos movimientos erráticos no tienen justificación desde el punto de vista cinemático o fisiológico y probablemente se deben a una técnica experimental poco precisa.…”

“…Por ello, más recientemente, se han desarrollado nuevos enfoques basados en la descripción completa de la cinemática cervical a partir de la descripción de la posición y movimiento del Eje Instantáneo de Rotación (EIR) (Grip 2008Cescon 2014;Barbero 2017). El EIR ofrece una información completa del movimiento articular y es muy sensible a pequeños cambios de los patrones del movimiento o a alteraciones en la coordinación motora (Woltring 1994;).…”

Variability of the helical axis during active cervical movements in people with chronic neck pain

“…Measures of the helical axis (HA) can be used to describe three-dimensional motion in the cervical region. Recently, novel parameters were proposed to describe the behavior of the helical axis during active neck movements in healthy volunteers and the reliability of these parameters was established (intra and inter-session reliability (ICC) ≥ 0.80) (Barbero et al, 2017). The distribution in space of the HA and the mean angle of the HA measurements (Barbero et al, 2017;Cescon et al, 2014) demonstrated potential for investigating the variability of neck movement.…”

“…Recently, novel parameters were proposed to describe the behavior of the helical axis during active neck movements in healthy volunteers and the reliability of these parameters was established (intra and inter-session reliability (ICC) ≥ 0.80) (Barbero et al, 2017). The distribution in space of the HA and the mean angle of the HA measurements (Barbero et al, 2017;Cescon et al, 2014) demonstrated potential for investigating the variability of neck movement. HA parameters could therefore provide novel information regarding movement behaviour in people with CNP (Barbero et al, 2017;Lomond and Cote, 2010).…”

“…The distribution in space of the HA and the mean angle of the HA measurements (Barbero et al, 2017;Cescon et al, 2014) demonstrated potential for investigating the variability of neck movement. HA parameters could therefore provide novel information regarding movement behaviour in people with CNP (Barbero et al, 2017;Lomond and Cote, 2010).…”