Translation and rotational Profiles of Lumbar Vertebrae in Flexion-Extension Radiography

Introduction: Enough information about lumbar vertebrae translation and rotation in Iranian population is not available. So, A preliminary study aimed to study of quantitative motion profiles of lumbar spine in Iranian population was done. Materials and Methods: A total of 22 healthy volunteer males aged between 21-43 years participated in this deh1ive study. Radiographic variables contain vertebral translation and rotation in sagital plane which were calculated with Panjabi s method. The method proposed from putto was used for lumbar flexion – extension radiography. Three radiographies were taken in neutral, full flexion and full extension positions. The variables were calculated using CARA software after scanning. The deh1ive statistics were utilized to deh1ion of variables. Results: The results demonstrated 1.15 mm translation in L1-2 level, 1.58 mm in L2-3 level, 2.4 mm in L3-4 level, 2.80 mm in L4-5 level and 1.18 mm in L5-S1 level. For rotational motion, results showed 10.25 o rotations in L1-2 level, 11.83o in L2-3 level, 13.61o in L3-4 level, 17.11o in L4-5 level and 16.26o in L5-S1 level. Conclusion: The results of present study demonstrated average translation less than 3 mm and average rotation less than 20o in lumbar motion segments. These results support idea of some researchers and are disagree with some others.