Biomechanics Research

The CBR is the birthplace of quantitative fluoroscopy (QF), a measurement tool for spinal segmental kinematics that can be safely performed in living people. Starting in the 1980s by exploring methods for image registration, we added standardisation of image recording so that data could be compared between individuals and groups of participants. With a grant from the NHS New and Emerging Applications of Technology Programme in 2001 (Project B030), the patient perspective was added, along with automated image tracking.

There followed two decades of technology transfer support activity and validation studies to enable the use of QF as a clinical tool. In the clinical studies that followed, a database of normative kinematic information was built, along with more advanced data analysis methods that took greater advantage of the dynamic information that the technology provides. These improvements enabled the discovery of a probable biomechanical marker in chronic, nonspecific low back pain.

The latest addition to our research has come from a collaboration with the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences at the University of Exeter, with which we have begun to combine QF and 3D MRI to model the stresses between vertebrae dynamically using finite element analysis.

The Centre has specialist expertise in medical physics and clinical biomechanics. We have access to a dedicated QF lab for both projects and development, an on-site upright, open MRI scanner and other biomechanical measurement devices.