Spinal column measurement classification for manual therapy diagnoses of herniated disc and spondylolisthesis (Preprint)

Abstract

Manual practitioners would benefit from more accurate diagnostic methods to recognize herniated discs and spondylolisthesis without requesting imaging.

Increase accuracy of detection and treatment for herniated discs and spondylolisthesis in patients seeking noninvasive care.

Using retrospective data from sagittal panoramic radiographs of the lumbar, pelvic, and sacral [LPS] regions, we ran correlations, logistic regressions, and machine-learning feature importance analyses to increase the understanding of the relationships between LPS measurement ranges and conditions.

Pelvic radius [PR], pelvic tilt [PT], lumbar lordosis angle [LL], and sacral slope [SS] were significantly different when patients with spondylolisthesis characteristics were compared to patients with structural normality and those with a herniated disc pathology. PR was found to have a 7.5% increased odds of influencing structural normality. PT had a 6.1% increased odds of influencing a herniated disc pathology. LL and SS had over 8% and 7% increased odds of positively influencing a spondylolisthesis pathology, respectively.

Integrating processes such as measurement of the PR, PT, LL, and SS may increase understanding of the pathologies influencing LBP in patients seeking manual therapy. Further research and validation are needed to confirm and use the tools presented in this research with different patient cohorts based on age and sex.