ASPEBI: A MATLAB Tool for Motion Analysis of Non-Specific Low Back Pain Patients

Abstract

Low back pain is one of the most common health issues worldwide, and non-specific low back pain (NLBP), whose causes are unknown, represents 85% of these cases. Hamstring Extension in Bipedal Position (PEBI) is a clinical sign designed to discriminate the cause of the pain of NLBP as of muscular origin due to the stiffness of the hamstring. Currently, PEBI lacks quantitative assessment, which is required to be utilized in primary care. To support the process of getting such information, in this work, we present ASPEBI, a customized MATLAB® app developed to provide researchers and clinicians with a tool for the visualization of the kinematic and spatiotemporal gait parameters of patients examined with PEBI. This objective information is processed from data collected with the Xsens MTw Awinda system, which can be analyzed by the final users. Lastly, this tool is user-friendly with a modular design that allows integration of other physiological technologies to conduct multimodal analysis, and it could be utilized to explore issues related to older populations or populations with neurodegenerative diseases, among others.