Abstract
We attempted to define lumbar vertebral instability by investigating its characteristic biomechanical anomalies. The computed tomography “morphological” variations described, obtained with axial loading, are constant, reproducible, can be transformed into animations and are functionally significant.
Ninety patients (47 men, 43 women; age range 21–80 years, mean 51 years) with a clinical diagnosis of vertebral instability underwent conventional non invasive neurophysiologic, radiological and neuroradiological examination. They also underwent axial loaded computed tomography (ALCT), the images of which were processed to obtain animations (cine-ALCT). Elementary and complex dynamic modifications (EDMs and CDMs) characterising “morphological” variations in the components of functional spinal units (FSUs) under load and their interactions are described case by case, and were found to match the respective individual clinical signs and symptoms well.
Investigation by ALCT and cine-ALCT makes it possible to build a reliable and methodologically valid identikit of anomalous paraphysiological and sometimes clearly pathological functioning of this segment of the human spine, i. e. lumbar vertebral instability.
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