title: Head repositioning accuracy in patients with neck pain and asymptomatic subjects: concurrent validity, influence of motion speed, motion direction and target distance.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cervicocephalic kinesthetic deficiencies have been demonstrated in patients with chronic neck pain (NP). On the other hand, authors emphasized the use of different motion speeds for assessing functional impairment of the cervical spine.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objectives of this study were (1) to investigate the head repositioning accuracy in NP patients and control subjects and (2) to assess the influence of target distance, motion speed, motion direction and pain.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-one subjects (36 healthy subjects and 35 NP patients; age 30-55 years) performed the head repositioning test (HRT) at two different speeds for horizontal and vertical movements and at two different distances. For each condition, six consecutive trials were sampled.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study showed the validity and reproducibility of the HRT, confirming a dysfunctional threshold of 4.5°. Normative values of head repositioning error up to 3.6° and 7.1° were identified for healthy and NP subjects, respectively. A distance of 180 cm from the target and a natural motion speed increased HRT accuracy. Repositioning after extension movement showed a significantly larger error in both groups. Intensity, duration of pain as well as pain level did not significantly alter head repositioning error.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The assessment of proprioceptive performance in healthy and NP subjects allowed the validation of the HRT. The HRT is a simple, not expensive and fast test, easily implementable in daily practice to assess and monitor treatment and evolution of proprioceptive cervical deficits.
authors.affiliation: Research Unit in Osteopathy, Faculty of Motor Sciences (FSM), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium. pdugaill@ulb.ac.be.|Laboratory of Functional Anatomy, FSM, ULB, Brussels, Belgium. pdugaill@ulb.ac.be.
authors.forename: Pierre-Michel
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Dugailly
authors.affiliation: Research Unit in Osteopathy, Faculty of Motor Sciences (FSM), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Santis
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Erasmus Academic Hospital, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tits
authors.affiliation: Research Unit in Osteopathy, Faculty of Motor Sciences (FSM), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.|Laboratory of Functional Anatomy, FSM, ULB, Brussels, Belgium.|Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, UQTR, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sobczak
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Functional Anatomy, FSM, ULB, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vigne
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Functional Anatomy, FSM, ULB, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Feipel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000503:physiopathology; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D019416:Head Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007699:Kinesthesis / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D009333:Neck / Q000503:physiopathology; D019547:Neck Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Cervical motion; Concurrent validity; Head repositioning; Neck pain; Proprioception