Experimental quantification of soft tissue deformation in quasi-static single leg flexion using biplanar imaging

Soft tissue deformation(STD) causes the most prominent source of error in skin marker (SM) based motion analysis, commonly referred to as Soft Tissue Artifact (STA). To compensate for its effect and to accurately assess in vivo joint kinematics, quantification of STD in three-dimension (3D) is essential. In the literature, different invasive and radiological approaches have been employed to study how STA propagates in joint kinematics. However, there is limited reference data extensively reporting distribution of the artifact itself in 3D.The current study was thus aimed at quantifying STD in 10 subjects along three anatomical directions. Biplanar X-ray system was used to determine true bone and SM positions while the subjects underwent quasi-static single leg flexion.STD exhibited inter-subject similarity. A non-uniform distribution was observed at the pelvis, thigh and shank displaying maximum at the thigh (up to 18.5 mm) and minimum at the shank (up to 8 mm). STD at the pelvis and thigh displayed inter-marker similarity. STD at the pelvis was found direction independent, showing similar distribution in all the 3 directions. However, the thigh and shank exhibited higher STD in the proximal-distal direction of the bone embedded anatomical reference frame. These findings may provide more insights while interpreting motion analysis data as well to effectively strategize STA compensation methods.