How to evaluate spinal mobility with diseases that reduce itusing motion capture systems

[Juan Luis Garrido Castro]

Hi all,

We are using our own motion capture system to analyze spinal mobility
in subjects affected by certain diseases that reduce range of movement.

For hip mobility we will use:

1) gait analysis.

For neck mobility:

2) cervical frontal flexion/extension
3) cervical lateral flexion (left/right)
4) cervical rotation (left/right)

For back mobility:

- With frontal flexion

5) Distance to the ground of the fingers
6) Angle formed between segments formed by several marks on the spine

- With lateral flexion

7) Distance to the ground of the fingers (left and right)
8) Angle formed between segments formed by several marks on the spine

- With trunk rotation

9) Angle formed between two segments: shoulders (left-right) and hips
(left-right)

My questions are:

- Do you use another movements/measurements to evaluate spinal mobility?
- Do you know normative data on some of the previous measures?
- Do you know any internet site with normative data of gait analysis
with numeric data expressed in percentage of the step to compare them
with our data?

Thanks in advance.

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Juan Luis Garrido Castro
Biomechanical Motion Capture Laboratory
Computer Science And Numerical Analysis Dept
University of Cordoba (Spain)