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Characteristics of the population.
Source publication
Background:
Clinically feasible and reliable methods to measure motor control in people with low back pain (LBP) are lacking. This reliability and measurement error study design (i.e. repeated measurements in stable patients) aimed to determine the intra- and interrater reliability, and measurement errors of several parameters for two clinical lum...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... the repositioning test, 34 participants (12 men and 22 women; mean (SD) age: 42 (13) years) were included, see Table 1 for the characteristics of the population. In the spiral tracking test, 34 other participants were included of whom one was excluded from the dataanalysis, because one of the ECG electrodes used to attach the sensor had come off during testing, which was only noticed at the completion of the session. ...Context 2
... the spiral tracking test, 34 other participants were included of whom one was excluded from the dataanalysis, because one of the ECG electrodes used to attach the sensor had come off during testing, which was only noticed at the completion of the session. The remaining 33 participants consisted of 18 men and 15 women with a mean (SD) age of 43 (14) years, see Table 1 for the characteristics of the population. ...Similar publications
Purpose:
This study aimed to quantify the extent to which age was associated with joint position sense (JPS) of the asymptomatic shoulder as measured by joint position reproduction (JPR) tasks and assess the reproducibility of these tasks.
Methods:
120 Asymptomatic participants aged 18-70 years each performed 10 JPR-tasks. Both contralateral and...
Citations
... Movement precision was assessed with a spiral tracking test (Klerx et al. 2023). In this task, the participant was asked to individual stimulation locations were warped to a MNI template (Kraus and Gharabaghi 2015). ...
... the path, the sum of all differences between the target position and the actual position(Klerx et al. 2023), seeFig. 2. Data from the sensors were analyzed using customwritten Matlab scripts (R2014B, The MathWorks, Natick, MA). ...
... 2. Data from the sensors were analyzed using customwritten Matlab scripts (R2014B, The MathWorks, Natick, MA). A detailed description of the outcome measures has been published elsewhere(Klerx et al. 2023). ...
Differences in organization of the primary motor cortex and altered trunk motor control (sensing, processing and motor output) have been reported in people with low back pain (LBP). Little is known to what extent these differences are related. We investigated differences in 1) organization of the primary motor cortex and 2) motor and sensory tests between people with and without LBP, and 3) investigated associations between the organization of the primary motor cortex and motor and sensory tests. We conducted a case-control study in people with (N=25) and without (N=25) LBP. The organization of the primary motor cortex (Center of Gravity (CoG) and Area of the cortical representation of trunk muscles) was assessed using neuronavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation, based on individual MRIs. Sensory tests (quantitative sensory testing, graphaesthesia, two-point discrimination threshold) and a motor test (spiral-tracking test) were assessed. Participants with LBP had a more lateral and lower location of the CoG and a higher temporal summation of pain. For all participants combined, better vibration test scores were associated with a more anterior, lateral, and lower CoG and a better two-point discrimination threshold was associated with a lower CoG. A small subset of variables showed significance. Although this aligns with the concept of altered organization of the primary motor cortex in LBP, there is no strong evidence of the association between altered organization of the primary motor cortex and motor and sensory test performance in LBP. Focusing on subgroup analyses regarding pain duration can be a topic for future research.
... of the multi dus muscle or of motor control, which are recommended for diagnosis, demonstrating their suitability as a direct examination technique for the clinical appraisal of TLFD 30,39,40 . While most US studies that quanti ed the gliding or deformation of the TLF did not test the method for reliability 8,22,26,41,42 , Langevin et al. 12 controlled the intra-rater reliability of their calculation method and found an ICC of .98, ...
Reduced shear strain and deformability of the thoracolumbar fascia has been linked to low back pain. A number of ultrasound examination methods have been developed for laboratory rather than clinical practice. The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and discriminative validity (patients vs. healthy individuals) of an ultrasound (US) measurement method for the quantification of thoracolumbar fascia deformation (TLFD). A Cross-sectional study with US assessment and rater blinding was conducted in a manual therapy clinic and a university laboratory. 16 acute low back pain (aLBP) patients and 15 healthy individuals performed a standardized trunk extension task. US measurements of TLFD were carried out independently by two raters by imaging the TLF in the starting and ending positions of the movement. Intrarater and interrater reliability were calculated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and minimal detectable changes (MDC) were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to determine the cut-off for TLFD to discriminate the study groups. Kappa statistics were performed to assess rater agreement in discrimination. The intrarater ICC was .92 with an MDC of 5.54 mm and the interrater ICC was .78 with an MDC of 8.70 mm (all p < .001). The cut-off for TLFD was 6 mm with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 93.75%. The raters agreed with a κ of 0.74 (p < .001). The results showed that the reliability of the US method for assessing TLFD is moderate to excellent, and the ability to discriminate aLBP patients from healthy individuals is moderate. The method could be used to capture an additional parameter in morphological aLBP screenings.
... with unbiased repeated measures. These results are comparable to other US assessments in LBP patients, e.g. of the multifidus muscle or of motor control, which are recommended for diagnosis, demonstrating their suitability as a direct examination technique for the clinical appraisal of TLFD 30,39,40 . While most US studies that quantified the gliding or deformation of the TLF did not test the method for reliability 8,22,26,41,42 , Langevin et al. 12 controlled the intra-rater reliability of their calculation method and found an ICC of .98, ...
Objective: To examine the reliability and discriminative validity (patients vs. healthy individuals) of an ultrasound (US) measurement method for the quantification of thoracolumbar fascia deformation (TLFD).
Design: Cross-sectional study with US assesment and rater blinding. Setting: Manual therapy clinic, university laboratory.
Participants: aLBP patients (n = 16) and healthy individuals (n = 15).
Interventions: Participants performed a standardized trunk extension task. US measurements of TLFD were carried out independendly by two raters by imaging the TLF in the starting and ending positions of the movement.
Main Outcome Measures: Intrarater and interrater reliability were calculated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and minimal dedectable changes (MDC) were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to determine the cutoff for TLFD to discriminate the study groups. Kappa statistics were performed to assess rater agreement in discrimination.
Results: Intrarater ICC was .92 with an MDC of 5.54 mm and the interrater ICC was .78 with an MDC of 8.70 mm (all p < .001). The cutoff for TLFD was 6 mm with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 93.75%. The raters agreed with a κ of 0.74 (p < .001).
Conclusion: Reliability of the US method for assessing TLFD is moderate to excellent, and the ability to discriminate aLBP patients from healthy individuals is moderate. The method could be used to capture an additional parameter in morphological aLBP screenings.
... Trunk movement precision was measured by a visual tracking task, using the protocol proposed by Klerx et al. (2023). The participant sat barefoot on a treatment table with both feet on the ground, the upper body undressed, hips and knees in 90 degrees flexion and with both arms crossed in front of the chest. ...
... The pelvis was fixed with two pillows placed behind the pelvis and a belt fitted over the anterior superior iliac spines. Following the protocol of Klerx et al. (2023), the movement sensor was attached to the skin of the participant at the level of the spinous process of T12. The orientation of the sensor was represented by a green point on a computer monitor placed in front of the participant (Fig. 6A). ...
... To quantify the movement precision, the tracking error was calculated from the Euclidian sum of the differences in frontal and sagittal plane angles between target and actual trunk angle. The tracking error was summarized as the mean of the error time-series, excluding the 10% of largest errors, which were deemed outliers (ICC 0.0898, SDC 0.151, SEM 0.05, CV 15%) A more detailed description can be found in Klerx et al. (2023) (Klerx et al., 2023). ...
