ISB recommendation on definitions of joint coordinate systems of various joints for the reporting of human joint motion—Part II: shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand

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Abstract

In this communication, the Standardization and Terminology Committee (STC) of the International Society of Biomechanics proposes a definition of a joint coordinate system (JCS) for the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand. For each joint, a standard for the local axis system in each articulating segment or bone is generated. These axes then standardize the JCS. The STC is publishing these recommendations so as to encourage their use, to stimulate feedback and discussion, and to facilitate further revisions. Adopting these standards will lead to better communication among researchers and clinicians.

Introduction

In the past several years, the Standardization and Terminology Committee (STC) of the International Society of Biomechanics has been working to propose a set of standards for defining joint coordinate systems (JCS) of various joints based on Grood and Suntay's JCS of the knee joint (Grood and Suntay, 1983). The primary purpose of this work is to facilitate and encourage communication among researchers, clinicians, and all other interested parties.

The STC has established a total of nine sub-committees, involving nearly 30 people who have extensive experience (either research or clinical) in joint biomechanics, and had developed proposals for nine major joints in the body. These joints include: foot, ankle, hip, spine, shoulder, elbow, hand and wrist, TMJ, and whole body. The proposals are based on the ISB standard for reporting kinematic data published by Wu and Cavanagh (1995). The first set of these standards for the ankle joint, hip joint, and spine was published in Journal of Biomechanics in April 2002 (Wu et al., 2002). A response to comments to this set of standards was later published in 2003 (Allard et al., 2003).

In this publication, the proposed standards for the shoulder joint, elbow joint, and wrist and hand are included. For each joint, the standard is divided into the following sections: (1) Introduction, (2) Terminology, (3) Body segment coordinate systems, and (4) JCS and motion for the constituent joints. It is then up to the individual researcher to relate the marker or other (e.g. electromagnetic) coordinate systems to the defined anatomic system through digitization, calibration movements, or population-based anatomical relationships.

The two major values in using Grood and Suntay's JCS are: (1) conceptual, since it appears easier to communicate the rotations to clinicians when using individual axes embedded in the proximal and distal segments and (2) the inclusion of calculations for clinically relevant joint translations. Some confusion, however, has arisen over their statement that the JCS is sequence independent, whereas Euler or Cardan angle representations are not. It should be noted that the Grood and Suntay's convention, without the translations, is simply a linkage representation of a particular Cardan angle sequence; the floating axis is the second, i.e. rotated, axis in the Cardan sequence (Small et al., 1992, Li et al., 1993, Baker, 2003). The angles are independent because the sequence is defined by the mechanism; a Cardan or Euler sequence is equally “independent” once the sequence is defined.

Section snippets

Acknowledgements

We thank Ed Chadwick, Brendan McCormack, A.C. Nicol, Bo Peterson, and Victor Waide for their past involvement in the development of the elbow joint standard.

Cited by (2847)

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1

Chairperson of the Standardization and Terminology Committee. The International Society of Biomechanics.

2

Authored shoulder and elbow.

3

Authored wrist and hand.

4

Subcommittee Chair.

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