Objective Kinematic Correlates of Palpatory Diagnosis

Cervical Spine

Cervical Spine, Kinematics, Manipulation, Biomechanics

Hypothesis: Kinematic parameters can be used to monitor changes in three-dimensional head movements after Manual Therapy treatments. Subjects who have some level of cervical dysfunction will be examined by an experienced Osteopathic physician. During the clinical assessment of cervical lateral flexion, kinematic data will be recorded. Subjects will be treated using manual therapy techniques and kinematic data will be recorded again at set intervals after the treatment.

The physician providing treatment will use, depending on his professional judgment for each subject, one of four treatment modalities: (1) soft-tissue stretch, (2) myofascial release, (3) muscle energy, or (4) functional (indirect) method. These modalities are standard to the care and practice of osteopathic manual medicine, they are taught in the Osteopathic curriculum, and they are practiced each day at the Michigan State University Clinical Center. After the initial treatment, there will be an immediate follow-up kinematic test to collect the 3-D motion data. Then, subjects will return for subsequent kinematic assessments at: 24 hours post treatment, 48 hours post treatment and seven days post treatment. At the seven day mark, subjects will be evaluated as in the initial assessment and the physician will use his professional judgment to determine if the subject would benefit from a second treatment. If so, then the process of treatment and kinematic assessment would occur a second time, with kinematic assessment 24 hours post treatment, 48 hours post treatment and seven days post treatment. A maximum of two treatment sessions will be performed.

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