Abstract

This project was undertaken to conduct a scientific and clinical assessment of the validity of diagnoses obtained using three lower back pain evaluation techniques: spinoscopy, dynamometry and thermography. Spinoscopy uses electrodes to measure vertebral movement, one vertabrae at a time. Triaxial dynamometry measures the effect of loading on spinal displacement and strain in all three dimensions. Thermography uses a sensitive infrared camera to detect skin temperature changes, which in turn may indicate pain or neurological injury. The study shows that clinical evaluation by a physician is sufficient to diagnose the presence or absence of lower back pain among honest subjects. In fact, this diagnosis is even more effective than that obtained with the evaluated instruments. However, among subjects whose condition was simulated or masked, certain instruments performed better than the clinical evaluation. Yet, because of their margin of error, they cannot be used as an exclusive diagnostic tool.