Validity of an inertial measurement unit for the assessment of range and quality of movement during head and thoracic spine movements

BACKGROUND: Patients with spinal pain often exhibit movement limitations and altered motor control, which can be challenging to measure accurately in clinical practice. Inertial measurement sensors present a promising new opportunity to develop valid, low-cost, and easy-to-use methods for assessing and monitoring spinal motion in a clinical setting.

AIM: This study aimed to investigate the agreement of an inertial sensor and a 3D camera system for assessing the range of motion (ROM) and quality of movement (QOM) in head and trunk single-plane movements.

METHODS: Thirty-three healthy, pain-free volunteers were included. Each participant performed movements of the head (cervical flexion, extension, and lateral flexion) and trunk (trunk flexion, extension, rotation, and lateral flexion), which were simultaneously recorded by a 3D camera system and an inertial measurement unit (MOTI, Aalborg, Denmark). Agreement and consistency were analyzed for ROM and QOM by determining intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), mean bias, and with Bland-Altman plots.

RESULTS: The agreement between systems was excellent for all movements (ICC between 0.91 and 1.00) for ROM and good to excellent for the QOM (ICC between 0.84 and 0.95). The mean bias for all movements (0.1-0.8°) was below the minimum acceptable difference between devices. The Bland-Altman plot indicated that MOTI systematically measured a slightly greater ROM and QOM than the 3D camera system for all neck and trunk movements.

CONCLUSION: This study showed that MOTI is a feasible and potentially applicable option to assess ROM and QOM for head and trunk movements in experimental and clinical settings.