| Objective: The aim of this study was to determine if smoking has an effect on intersegmental motion in the upper thoracic spine. Methods: Fifty participants (25 smokers and 25 nonsmokers) who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled into the study. Both groups were scanned by the ProAdjuster (Pittsburg, PA) system 3 times for 3 days in the upper thoracic spine to determine the fixation, mobility, frequency, and motoricity of each segment. Results: The results revealed an overall higher rate of fixation in both the smoker and nonsmoker groups at all 3 vertebral levels. However, there was a higher rate of fixation within the smoker group than the nonsmoker group (P < .05). The results showed that participants who smoked had a higher fixation rate, which is energy needed to overcome inertia in the T1 spinal region. The mobility was higher in the nonsmoking group (P < .05). Frequency and motoricity showed no significant differences between the 2 groups (P > .05). Conclusion: According to the data that have been compiled, there is significantly greater fixation in the smoking participants at T1/T2 and T2/T3 spinal regions when compared with the nonsmoking participants, although both groups had a higher-than-normal fixation rate. The nonsmoking participants demonstrated higher mobility compared with the smoking group. This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher; click on the above link for free full text.
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