Low back pain impacts hugely on the quality of life, and the related socio-economic and medical costs are known to be very high. To better understand possible causes of low back pain, many researchers mechanically test lumbar spine segments consisting of only one intervertebral disc and its two adjacent vertebrae. So far, our mechanical spine testing has also been confined to single sheep intervertebral disc segments but we are now bringing the physiological relevancy of the work to the next level by testing segments containing two intervertebral discs. The inclusion of a second disc joint will allow freedom of movement of the middle vertebra during mechanical testing; therefore we are incorporating a kinematic measurement system into the experimental protocol to measure its movement in 3D. The focus of this project will be to investigate whether a kinematic measurement system is a valuable addition to the research and whether the middle vertebra significantly moves in 3 dimensions during mechanical manipulation of the spine segment. The project will involve tissue preparation, mechanical testing, kinematic measurements and data analysis.
Undergraduate
None
No lab has been assigned to this project