A Pilot Study for Understanding the Lying Neck Posture with Flexion and Extension.

Due to the prolonged focus on mobile phones or computers, people are exposed to a higher risk of neck issues. To avoid the radiation exposure of CT (Computed Tomography) scans, the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) facilities with a lying posture were explored in this pilot study with 5 participants and three head postures (flexion, neutral, and extension). The vertebra angles from a sagittal view are measured, and the contribution of each pair of successive vertebras is compared with other literature. The results of this study show that the mean flexion and extension contributions fluctuated much more than others. This may be because the passive lying posture based on physical support is adopted rather than active flexion and extension maximum with a sitting posture. This suggests that active and passive head rotation postures have distinct mechanisms and should be studied separately. The lying posture with an MRI scan could be used for vertebra postures with different supports like pillows.