Quantitative Evaluation On Lumbar Performance Of Patients With Protrusion Of Intervertebral Disc

ObjectiveTo create a practical method to quantify lumbar Physical Performance of Patients with Protrusion of intervertebral disc (PID) in their daily work and life.MethodsForty-five Patients (n=45, male 18, female 27) with PID who had been diagnosed by CT/MRI, and 18 healthy controls (n=17, male7, female10) who have no suffered lumbago participated the study. IDEEA (MiniSun, California, U.S.A., www.MiniSun.com) were used to record and analyze two groups'lumbar locomotion, while both patients and controls performed a series of daily activities in their nature environment.ResultsThe target which reflected lumbar physical performance of patients with PID patients include time flexion forward(TFF), max forward angle (MFA), velocity flexion angular(MFA/TFF), time extension (TE), max angle extension(MAE), velocity extension angular(MAE/TE), TO, and so on. TFF,TFB,TO had significant difference between the PID group and the controls group. There was also a difference between the PID group and the controls group in MFA/TFF,MAE/TE.ConclusionTFF,MFA/TFF were significantly different between the study and control groups(P<0.05). Flexion time was longer and the velocity was slower than the control group. Lumbar flexion is a common ADL, and velocity of lumbar flexion demonstrated the capacity of that motion. MFA/TFF appears to be more effective than ROM to reflect disability of PID. MFA/TFF is an important index for both subjective and objective evaluation the lumbar physical performance. The data show that the duration of lie-to-sit and turning over in bed transfers for PID subjects was slow. The duration of lie-to-sit and turn-over in bed transfers were significantly different between the two groups (p<0.01). Consequently these transfers appear to be valid evaluation targets PIDsubjects.Lumbar Physical Performance of the PID patients was significantly reduced, as partly indicated by deteriorations in MFA/TFF,MAE/TE,TFF,TFB,TO. IDEEA recorded lumbar locomotion in real life under free-living conditions, and offered objective and accurate date for evaluating the lumbar function of the patients with PID. It was found to be a good tool that can apply to dynamic evaluation the PID patients in their daily work and leisure time. the significance of using IDEEA lies in monitoring subjects'life and measuring actual functional capacity 24 hours without the laboratory environment and without significantly disturbing their life that can bring positive outcome in terms of clinical assessment and treatment evaluation for subjects in their natural setting.