Comparison of vertebral body displacements obtained by DIC and motion capture in a cervical spine impact experiment

Stuart Boyd, Pavlos Silvestros, Bruno Agostinho Hernandez, Harinderjit Gill, Dario Cazzola, Ezio Preatoni, Sabina Gheduzzi

Research output: Contribution to journalMeeting abstractpeer-review

Abstract

Digital image correlation (DIC) is rapidly increasing in popularity in biomechanical studies of the musculoskeletal system. DIC allows the re-construction of full field displacement and/or strain maps of the surface of an object. DIC systems typically consist of two cameras focussing on the same region of interest. This constrains the angle between the cameras to be relatively narrow when studying specimens characterised by complex geometrical features, giving rise to concerns on the accuracy of the out of plane estimates of movement.
The aim of this research was to compare the movement profiles of bony segments measured by DIC and by an optoelectronic motion capture system.
Five porcine cervical spine segments (C2-C6) were obtained from the local butcher. These were stripped of all anterior soft tissues while the posterior structures were left intact. A speckle pattern was applied to the anterior aspect of the specimens, while custom made infrared clusters were rigidly attached to the 3 middle vertebral bodies (C3-C5). The specimens were mounted in a custom made impact rig which fully constrained C6 but allowed C2 to translate in the axial direction of the segment. Images were acquired at 4kHz, both for the DIC (Photron Europe Ltd, UK) and motion capture cameras (Qualisys Oqus 400, Sweden). The in-plane and out of plane displacements of each of the VBs were plotted as a function of time and the similarity between the curves thus obtained was analysed using the SPM1D technique which allowed a comparison to be made in terms of t-statistics. No statistical differences were found between the two techniques in all axis of movement, however the out of plane movements were characterised by higher variance which is attributed to the uncertainty arising from the near parallel positioning of the cameras in the experimental set-up.
Original languageEnglish
JournalOrthopaedic Proceedings
Volume101B
Issue numberSupplement 2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jan 2019

Bibliographical note

Proceedings of the British Orthopaedic Research Society Conference (BORS 2018), 10-11 Sept 2018, Leeds (UK)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Comparison of vertebral body displacements obtained by DIC and motion capture in a cervical spine impact experiment'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this