Can shoulder impairments be classified from 3-dimensional kinematics using inertial sensors?

Mazuquin, Bruno ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1566-9551, Gill, Karl Peter, Monga, Puneet, Selfe, James ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9931-4998 and Richards, Jim (2023) Can shoulder impairments be classified from 3-dimensional kinematics using inertial sensors? Journal of Applied Biomechanics. ISSN 1065-8483

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Abstract

Inertial sensors may help clinicians to assess patients’ movement and potentially support clinical decision-making. Our aim was to determine whether range of shoulder motion during movement tasks measured using inertial sensors are capable of accurately discriminating between patients with different shoulder problems. Inertial sensors were used to measure three-dimensional shoulder motion during six tasks of 37 patients on the waiting list for shoulder surgery. Discriminant function analysis was used to identify whether the range of motion of different tasks could classify patients with different shoulder problems. The discriminant function analysis could correctly classify 91.9% of patients into one of the three diagnostic groups based. The tasks that associated a patient with a particular diagnostic group were: subacromial decompression: abduction; rotator cuff repair with tears ≤5 cm: flexion and rotator cuff repair with tears > 5 cm: combing hair, abduction and horizontal abduction-adduction. The discriminant function analysis showed that range of motion measured by inertial sensors can correctly classify patients and could be used as a screening tool to support surgery planning.