THE MEASUREMENTS OF SACROILIAC JOINT STIFFNESS WITH COLOR DOPPLER IMAGING - A STUDY ON HEALTHY-SUBJECTS

Rationale and objectives. Primary peripartum pelvic and low back pain is a common complaint of females. The etiologic relation between pain and pelvic stability has been shown in previous studies, but at presen t there is no objective clinical testing method to evaluate pelvic sta bility. Methods: In this study, a dynamic measurement method using son oelasticity to assess the sacroiliac joint (SI) stiffness was tested i n vivo in 14 healthy female volunteers, With the subjects in supine po sition vibrations were unilaterally applied to the anterior iliac spin e, The vibrations were registered by a Colour Doppler Imaging (CDI) tr ansducer over the ipsilateral SI joint, Since the threshold level of t he apparatus has a direct relation with the power of the vibrations, t he intensity of the vibrations (sonoelasticity) on the sacrum and iliu m was measured indirectly in threshold units. The differences between the threshold values were accepted as the power loss of vibrations thr ough the SI joint. One-way analysis of variance-test and T-test for pa ired samples were applied on the measurement results (P < 0.05). Resul ts: Statistically, the results showed a satisfactory intra-individual reproducibility and inter-individual variability. There was no signifi cant difference between the data derived from the left SI joint and ri ght SI joint. Conclusions: Based on the promising results on healthy f emale volunteers, this method will be specifically used in future stud ies on patients with peripartum pelvic pain.