Comparison of Thoracic and Lumbar Spine Angles and Transient Between Standing and Supine Neutral Axial Twisted Positions

Suspected mechanisms by which axial twist contributes to low back pain have recently been investigated using MRI. However, the impact of the supine orientation required in horizontal MRI, and prevalence of prohibitive transient pain development from the non-neutral positions during scanning have not been quantified. Therefore, the goal of this study was to quantify spine kinematics in neutral and axial twist postures between standing and supine positions, and to quantify and characterize transient pain development during a prolonged supine axial twist protocol.
Kinematics, muscle activation, self-reported pain data were collected from 20 university aged male during trials of standing and supine in neutral and axially twisted postures and prolonged supine axial twist trial. Heeding a recommended 15min limit to minimize transient pain development, attention should be paid to lumbar lordosis and axial twist in supine neutral and lumbar lateral bend in supine axial twist.