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Comparison of neck movement smoothness between patients with mechanical neck disorder and healthy volunteers using the spectral entropy method

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Abstract

Purpose

Mechanical neck disorder is one of the most common health issues. No related observations have applied spectral entropy to explore the smoothness of cervical movement. Therefore, the objectives were to ascertain whether the spectral entropy of time-series linear acceleration could extend to estimate the smoothness of cervical movement and compare the characteristics of the smoothness of cervical movement in patients with mechanical neck pain (MND) with healthy volunteers.

Methods

The smoothness of cervical movement during cervical circumduction from 36 subjects (MND: n = 18, asymptomatic: n = 18) was quantified by the spectral entropy of time-series linear acceleration and other speed-dependent parameters, respectively.

Results

Patients with MND showed significantly longer movement time, higher value in the spectral entropy and wider band response in frequency spectrum than healthy volunteers (P = 0.01).

Conclusions

The spectral entropy would be suitable to discriminate the smoothness of cervical movement between patients with MND with healthy volunteers and demonstrated patients with MND had significantly less smooth cervical movement.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by National Health Research Institutes NHRI-EX103-10204EI, Taiwan. The authors also would like to thank International Society of Biomechanics (ISB) for providing an ISB Student Congress Travel Grant to present this work in the XXIV ISB Congress in Natal, Brazil.

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial relationships, which may lead to a conflict of interests.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Chia-Chi Yang & Fong-Chin Su

  2. Medical Device Innovation Center, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Fong-Chin Su

  3. Department of Sports Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Lan-Yuen Guo

Authors
  1. Chia-Chi Yang
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  2. Fong-Chin Su
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  3. Lan-Yuen Guo
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Correspondence to Lan-Yuen Guo.

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Yang, CC., Su, FC. & Guo, LY. Comparison of neck movement smoothness between patients with mechanical neck disorder and healthy volunteers using the spectral entropy method. Eur Spine J 23, 1743–1748 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-014-3413-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-014-3413-9

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