Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, 3-48 Corbett Hall, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2G4, Canada.
Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, 3-44 Corbett Hall, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2G4, Canada.
BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2021 May 13;22(1):436. doi: 10.1186/s12891-021-04313-6.
Spinal stiffness assessment has the potential to become an important clinical measure. Various spinal stiffness-testing devices are available to help researchers objectively evaluate the spine and patient complaints. One of these is VerteTrack, a device capable of measuring posteroanterior displacement values over an entire spinal region. This study aimed to develop a best-practice protocol for evaluating spinal stiffness in human participants using VerteTrack.
Twenty-five individuals with research experience in measuring spinal stiffness, or who were trained in spinal stiffness measurement using the VerteTrack device, were invited to participate in this 3-Round Delphi study. Answers to open-ended questions in Round 1 were thematically analyzed and translated into statements about VerteTrack operation for spinal stiffness measurements. Participants then rated their level of agreement with these statements using a 5-point Likert scale in Rounds 2 and 3. A descriptive statistical analysis was performed. Consensus was achieved when at least 70% of the participants either strongly agreed, agreed, (or strongly disagreed, disagreed) to include a statement in the final protocol.
Twenty participants completed Round 1 (80%). All these participants completed Rounds 2 and 3. In total, the pre-defined consensus threshold was reached for 67.2% (123/183) of statements after three rounds of surveys. From this, a best-practice protocol was created.
Using a Delphi approach, a consensus-based protocol for measuring spinal stiffness using the VerteTrack was developed. This standard protocol will help to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and safety of spinal stiffness measurements, facilitate the training of new operators, increase consistency of these measurements in multicenter studies, and provide the synergy and potential for data comparison between spine studies internationally. Although specific to VerteTrack, the resulting standard protocol could be modified for use with other devices designed to collect spinal stiffness measures.
脊柱刚度评估有可能成为一种重要的临床测量手段。各种脊柱刚度测试设备可帮助研究人员客观地评估脊柱和患者的症状。其中一种设备是 VerteTrack，它能够测量整个脊柱区域的前后位移值。本研究旨在制定使用 VerteTrack 评估人体脊柱刚度的最佳实践方案。
邀请了 25 名具有测量脊柱刚度研究经验的人员或接受过使用 VerteTrack 设备测量脊柱刚度培训的人员参加这项 3 轮 Delphi 研究。在第 1 轮的开放性问题回答中，采用主题分析法将答案转化为关于使用 VerteTrack 测量脊柱刚度的操作说明。然后，参与者在第 2 轮和第 3 轮中使用 5 分制李克特量表对这些说明进行了评估。进行了描述性统计分析。当至少 70%的参与者强烈同意、同意（或强烈不同意、不同意）将某项陈述纳入最终方案时，即可达成共识。
20 名参与者完成了第 1 轮（80%）。所有这些参与者都完成了第 2 轮和第 3 轮。经过三轮调查，总共达到了 183 项陈述中的 67.2%（123/183）的预定义共识阈值。在此基础上，制定了最佳实践方案。
使用 Delphi 方法，制定了使用 VerteTrack 测量脊柱刚度的基于共识的方案。该标准方案将有助于提高脊柱刚度测量的准确性、效率和安全性，方便新操作人员的培训，增加多中心研究中这些测量的一致性，并为国际脊柱研究之间的数据比较提供协同作用和潜力。虽然具体针对 VerteTrack，但可以修改此标准方案以用于其他旨在收集脊柱刚度测量值的设备。
