Back Muscle Strength in Patients with Low Back Pain
Because there can be a discrepancy between disability and impairment, it can be difficult to evaluate patients with LBP and predict their back muscle strength. This study addressed that problem by assessing the isokinetic strength of muscle.
Subjects (50 males, 70 females, all between the ages of 21-70) were selected from patients with a mean duration of symptoms of 2.2 years.
Subjects received an isokinetic trunk muscle strength test using a Cybex TEF unit, and the following variables were recorded: gender, age, body mass index, emotional distress, pain on exertion, self-efficacy for pain, degenerative changes in the lumbar spine, cross-sectional area, and density of erector spinae muscles.
The results identified “gender, cross-sectional muscle area, and pain on exertion as the most powerful predictors of isokinetic back muscle strength.” The conclusion followed that these factors should be taken into account when assessing isokinetic back muscle strength in patients with chronic LBP.
Keller A, Johansen JG, Hellesnes J, Brox J. Predictors of isokinetic back muscle strength in patients with low back pain. Spine, Feb. 1, 1999;24(3), pp275-80.
