Usefulness of a combined approach of DIERS Formetric 4D® and QUINTIC gait analysis system to evaluate the clinical effects of different spinal diseases on spinal-pelvic-lower limb motor function.

Background: To investigate the alterations in body movement and their compensatory characteristics under different spinal diseases through an objective and quantitative analysis of the spinal-pelvic-lower limb motor function.

Methods: A total of 120 subjects were recruited from October 2016 to April 2017. The patients were classified into 2 groups in which 65 patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) and 25 patients with idiopathic scoliosis (IS). The former group was evaluated with JOA score while those in the IS group underwent Lenke classification. A control group was set up with 30 healthy subjects. All the subjects were instructed to walk at a constant speed for one minute on a treadmill, and their spinal-pelvic-lower limb motions were monitored simultaneously with a DIERS Formetric 4D® grating system and a QUINTIC gait analysis system.

Results: The rotation angle of thoracic and lumbar vertebrae in IS group were larger than those in the control group (P < 0.05), and the knee joint angle A in the CSM group and IS group were larger than the control group (P < 0.05). In the CSM group, the knee joint angular velocity and angular acceleration were both greater than the control group (P < 0.05). And there was a negative linear correlation between the JOA score for the lower extremity of CSM patients and their knee joint angular acceleration.

Conclusion: IS patients tend to demonstrate increased swing amplitude of the trunk. Those with CSM will also have larger knee joint angular velocity and angular acceleration.