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LianaTennant, MSc Doctoral Student & Canadian Hockey Player! Department of Kinesiology Faculty of Applied Health Sciences University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Regis University School of Physical Therapy welcomes Liana Tennant, PhD Candidate at the University of Waterloo, as a visiting scholar for the spring 2019 semester. Liana is part of an ongoing collaboration between Dr. Erika Nelson-Wong and Dr. Jack Callaghan, University of Waterloo, Ontario Canada, that provides a research experience for PhD students in biomechanics in a clinical lab setting. Liana is the 2nd student to visit Regis in this capacity. She is leading a research project and mentoring DPT students in an investigation of passive spinal stiffness measured clinically and through quantitative biomechanical measures. Spine Stiffness Project Description: When assessing individuals with low back pain, spinal stiffness is a common target for evaluation by physical therapists. Clinicians subjectively assess spine stiffness at each vertebral level using the posterior-anterior (PA) spring and passive intervertebral motion tests (PIVM); however, reliability is poor, and it is unclear whether spinal stiffness is what is being assessed. In comparison, lumped lumbar spine stiffness has been measured biomechanically while individuals lay passively on a nearly frictionless jig. Using this method, Young’s modulus can be calculated to characterize stiffness. While more subjective, this technique can be cumbersome and results may be confounded by other, non-spinal contributions to stiffness, such as soft tissue of the trunk. Finally, the MyotonPRO® is a research device that can also provide Young’s modulus of stiffness; however, the device is limited to providing the stiffness of specific tissues only (e.g. muscle or ligament). Given that it is unclear whether either the clinical or biomechanical assessments are quantifying stiffness of the spine, the goal of this collaborative project between Regis University and the University of Waterloo is to determine if the different assessments are correlated. Should the measures correlate, this would indicate that the assessments are evaluating spine stiffness in a similar way. The study is under the supervision of Drs. Erika Nelson-Wong and Jack Callaghan, collaborators Kristen Jagger and Stephanie Albin, and student investigators Joshua Kuest, Gabriel Lawrence, Kristen Levesque, David Owens, Jeremy Prisby, Sarah Spivey, and Liana Tennant.