Magnetic resonance imaging zygapophyseal joint space changes (gapping) in low back pain patients following spinal manipulation and side-posture positioning: a randomized controlled mechanisms trial with blinding.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to quantify lumbar zygapophyseal (Z) joint space separation (gapping) in low back pain (LBP) subjects after spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) or side-posture positioning (SPP).

Methods: This was a controlled mechanisms trial with randomization and blinding. Acute LBP subjects (N = 112; four n = 28 magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] protocol groups) had 2 MRI appointments (initial enrollment and after 2 weeks of chiropractic treatment, receiving 2 MRI scans of the L4/L5 and L5/S1 Z joints at each MRI appointment.

Quantification of cavitation and gapping of lumbar zygapophyseal joints during spinal manipulative therapy.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to use previously validated methods to quantify and relate 2 phenomena associated with chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy (SMT): (1) cavitation and (2) the simultaneous gapping (separation) of the lumbar zygapophyseal (Z) joint spaces.

Methods: This was a randomized, controlled, mechanistic clinical trial with blinding. Forty healthy participants (18-30 years old) without a history of low-back pain participated.

Evaluating the relationship among cavitation, zygapophyseal joint gapping, and spinal manipulation: an exploratory case series.

Objective: This project determined the feasibility of conducting larger studies assessing the relationship between cavitation and zygapophyseal (Z) joint gapping following spinal manipulative therapy (SMT).

Methods: Five healthy volunteers (average age, 25.4 years) were screened and examined against inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Reliability of zygapophysial joint space measurements made from magnetic resonance imaging scans of acute low back pain subjects: comparison of 2 statistical methods.

Objective: This purpose of this study was to assess the reliability of measurements made of the zygapophysial (Z) joint space from the magnetic resonance imaging scans of subjects with acute low back pain using new equipment and 2 different methods of statistical analysis. If found to be reliable, the methods of Z joint measurement can be applied to scans taken before and after spinal manipulation in a larger study of acute low back pain subjects.

Methods: Three observers measured the central anterior-to-posterior distance of the left and right L4/L5 and L5/S1 Z joint space from 5 subject scans (20 digitizer measurements, rounded to 0.

Dimensions of the lumbar intervertebral foramina as determined from the sagittal plane magnetic resonance imaging scans of 95 normal subjects.

Objectives: This was a 2-part study. Part 1 evaluated the reliability of measurements of the intervertebral foramina (IVF) from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, and part 2 developed a morphometric database of IVF dimensions from normal living subjects.

Design: Part 1 was a blinded reliability study using 7 observers, and part 2 developed a morphometric database using 2 teams of 3 observers, all blinded to the results of each other.

The effects of side-posture positioning and spinal adjusting on the lumbar Z joints: a randomized controlled trial with sixty-four subjects.

Study Design: A blinded, randomized controlled trial was conducted.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that chiropractic side-posture manipulation (adjusting) of the lumbar spine separates (gaps) the zygapophysial (Z) joints.

Summary Of Background Data: Spinal adjusting is thought to gap the Z joints, yet no studies have conclusively validated this hypothesis, and some investigators have reported that the lumbar Z joints do not gap during rotation.