Spine kinematics during prone extension in people with and without low back pain and among classification-specific low back pain subgroups

Abstract

Fisheye STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational design. Fisheye BACKGROUND: Spine extension is used in physical therapy during examination and treatment for low back pain (LBP). However, kinematics during prone extension have not been examined using 3-D motion capture. Fisheye OBJECTIVES: The primary purpose was to determine differences in spine kinematics during prone extension between subjects with and without LBP. An exploratory analysis was conducted to examine kinematic differences among LBP subgroups. Fisheye METHODS: Kinematics of the thoracic and lumbar spine were examined during prone extension, using optical motion capture, in 18 subjects with LBP and 17 subjects without LBP (control group). Excursion of each spinal region was calculated for the entire movement and during 25% increments of extension movement duration. Subjects with LBP were examined and assigned to subgroups using 3 different classification systems for LBP. Repeated-measures analysis-of-variance tests were used to examine effects of group (LBP, control), spine region, and increment of movement duration, and to explore effects of LBP subgroup. Fisheye RESULTS: For spine kinematics, there was a significant group-by-region interaction effect (P