Quantification of Lumbar Stability During Wall Plank‐and‐Roll Activity Using Inertial Sensors

Abstract

Certain amounts and patterns of lumbar postural changes were observed in healthy young subjects, with no significant variations based on gender, rolling side, or truncal muscle power. Application of the evaluation on LBP patients revealed prominent deviations from the healthy postural changes, suggesting potential clinical applicability. Therefore, with appropriate development and case stratification, we believe that the quantification of lumbar postural changes during WPR activity can be used to assess dynamic lumbar stability in clinical practice.

Lumbar Stability in Healthy Individuals and Low Back Pain Patients Quantified by Wall Plank‐and‐Roll Test

“…Specifically, LBP patients had higher lateral bending maximum angle and higher lateral bending excursion, but similar lateral bending static angle (a demonstration of this motor pattern is available on Supplementary Video 1). This finding is in agreement with the observations reported by Yoon et al, who found that all 3 patients with LBP had greater lateral bending excursion than the average noted in healthy participants .…”

“…One of the main goals of the present study was to determine whether the patterns observed in Yoon et al's study could be replicated in a larger sample. In agreement with those results, we have found that gender does not affect the lumbar motion patterns in healthy individuals during the WPR test.…”

“…Then, the cycles were ensemble averaged on each axis to determine the average pattern of axial twist, kyphosis‐lordosis, and lateral bending motion for each individual (Figure E). To determine the amount of change in the lumbar posture during a WPR cycle, the relative angle values at the initial plank position were defined as static angles, the relative angle values at the maximum rolling position were defined as maximum angles, and the difference between the angle values at the initial plank position and maximum rolling position were defined as angular excursions . The angles were considered to be increasing when their absolute values were increasing.…”

“…Additionally, the authors did not analyze the effect of aging, which likely represents a critical factor affecting the range and pattern of motion during the WPR test. Although the motor patterns seen in the WPR test have not yet been validated in terms of clinical utility, the present research attempts to extend the proof of concept seen in Yoon et al's study to a larger, heterogeneous population in order to explore the clinical potential of the WPR test, as a part of a larger long‐term study to find easily measurable yet clinically relevant surrogate markers for spinal stability in large and diverse populations.…”

“…Patients are instructed to roll side to side from the wall plank position, rotating the body as a single unit by activating the core muscles . A recent study has shown that it is possible to quantitatively analyze the motions involved in the WPR test by using inertial sensors . In that previous study, the relative orientation between the thoracic spine and sacrum during the WPR test were measured to characterize lumbar spine motion in 16 healthy young individuals and 3 patients with LBP.…”