KSEF RDE: A novel Biomechanical Approach for Preventing Spinal Disorders

Disorders of the spine are one of Americas greatest healthcare issues. Spinal injuries cause considerable pain and disability to the patient resulting in healthcare costs of approximately $24 billion annually. This expensive and debilitating problem will grow with the aging population and increasing prevalence of osteoporosis. Our central hypothesis is that static (posture) and dynamic (gait) related abnormal loading of the spine interact with age-weakened tissue to produce a series of degenerative effects that culminate in disc degeneration and spine fractures (>300,000 annually). This novel but untested hypothesis could have a high payoff because if correct, this basic research effort could lead to simple, inexpensive noninvasive countermeasures (targeted strength training, orthotics) based on examination of gait and postural patterns. These countermeasures could help prevent/retard the development of these debilitating spinal disorders. Society would benefit from improved quality of life (particularly elderly women) and sharply reduced healthcare costs. We seek to understand the association between spinal biomechanics and subsequent spinal pathologies. Most prior studies of human motion involve only the lower extremities: virtually none quantify balance or motion in the spine. The specific aims of the proposed study are: 1. Validate our proposed technique for quantifying spine motion by using skin-based markers.. 2. Obtain upper body kinematic data from normal and pathological (spinal) human subjects. 3. Develop a model to predict spinal disorders from abnormal spinal kinematics in posture and gait. The results of the proposed study will contribute new information that will benefit patients and surgeons, and may also lead to patentable software/algorithms that can identify those at risk of vertebral fracture. The proposed study will: enable this newly formed research team to establish their research credentials, provide preliminary data needed for subsequent proposals seeking federal research funding, and enable research training of a PhD bioengineer. .