The sagittal sways of back lordosis and sacral orientation during still standing at different arm positions.
Lumbo-pelvic parameters in the sagittal plane are normally measured from lateral radiographs obtained at a single time point during upright standing with arms held forward to expose anatomical bony structures. However, the human trunk naturally sways during still standing, which potentially alters the targeted parameters. We therefore aimed to investigate the effect of postural sway on lumbo-pelvic parameters during still standing at different arm positions. A non-radiological back measurement device was used to determine the absolute changes of back lordosis and sacral orientation during one-minute still standing while participants (10 males and 10 females without low back pain) held their arms at eight different positions. When the arms were freely hanging down at both sides, males displayed median values of 25.2° (range: 15.6-45.0°) and 7.4° (range: 2.0-26.7°) for back lordosis and sacral orientation, which were smaller than those of 33.1° (range: 11.9-41.9°) and 16.1° (range: 0.8-22.8°) for females, respectively (P < 0.05). At the same arm position, the median values were 2.7° (range: 1.3-5.2°) and 2.9° (range: 1.6-4.5°) for change of back lordosis and change of sacral orientation, respectively. Sex displayed no significant influence for both measures. Different arm positions non-significantly affected the change of back lordosis. When hands rested on horizontal bars, the change of sacral orientation was significantly less than during other arm positions (P < 0.05). Hence, back lordosis and sacral orientation inherently change during still standing, independently of sex and arm position, which could compromise the reliability of measurements at a single time point. When categorizing subjects into groups with normal or abnormal lumbo-pelvic balance, this variability should be taken into consideration.