A pre-analysis measures the relative stiffness along the spine before treatment. It is not a diagnosis: use it together with the patient's history, complaint, palpation, X-rays and your other findings to decide where, and whether, to treat.
Technique
Place the patient prone, sitting or standing.
Use the dual prong attachment (30 mm between the prongs). Palpate to find the spinous process, then place the prongs on either side of it.
Hold the impulse head perpendicular to the floor, along the patient's posterior-to-anterior axis.
Press the impulse head smoothly against the patient, keeping the same line of drive, until it fires a single measurement impulse.
Release the pressure, then move to the next vertebra.
Take the readings
Start a session. It opens in Analysis, with the first cervical position (the occiput) highlighted in orange. PulStar announces each region as it begins.
Choose the analysis force: 5, 10 or 15. Use 5 or 10 for children and sensitive adults. You can change it only until the first reading is taken.
Measure each vertebra in turn. As each reading arrives, its bar appears on the chart and the next vertebra is highlighted. Each vertebra receives the number of impulses set by Analysis Impulses in Preferences.
When a region is complete, PulStar moves on to the next region.
The regions are measured in this order:
Region
Vertebrae
Cervical
Occiput (the joint between the occiput and atlas), then C1–C7
Thoracic
T1–T12
Lumbar
L1–L5, or L5 to L1 when Start at L5 is on
Sacral
S1–S5. The sacrum is divided into five positions to analyze along the sacroiliac joints, not because the sacral segments are thought to move.
After the sacral region, click the button on the impulse head to move to Adjust, or click Adjust in the sidebar.
Start in a different region: click the button on the impulse head to skip to the next region, or click the region on the chart.
Measure again: click a vertebra on the chart; measuring restarts from there.
Clear a region: click Clear below the zoomed view, or press ⌥C, to clear the region's readings and start it again.
Read the analysis chart
The bars are normalized to the average of all the readings, so their lengths can change as more vertebrae are measured. This evens out differences between patients, such as body type and age, so that you can focus on vertebrae that stand out from their neighbors.
Bar
Meaning
Bars beside each vertebra
The relative stiffness measured at that vertebra.
Red
A joint between two vertebrae whose reading is beyond the red-bar threshold. These are the main findings.
Orange (optional)
A joint whose reading is just below the red-bar threshold.
Green (optional)
A joint whose reading is in the normal range. Watching these over time can show areas that are getting worse.
Yellow
A region whose readings are higher or lower than expected, when Show Regional Stiffness is on.
With Show Raw Readings on, each bar shows the measured resistance in pounds × 10. For example, 105 means 10.5 pounds of force.
The grid lines are spaced at 20% of the chart's width, to help you spot vertebrae that differ from their neighbors by 20% or more.
With Show Previous Visit on, the patient's last pre-analysis appears beside today's, so you can see how earlier adjustments are holding.
Choose which bars appear, and the colors of each region, on the General and Display tabs of Preferences.
Change the patient's position
Click Change Position in the sidebar to switch between prone, sitting and standing, or use Session > Position.
Note: If Start In Adjustment is on in Session preferences, sessions skip analysis and open directly in Adjust.