Background and purpose: Despite the high prevalence of mechanical low back pain, its etiology remains undiscovered in most of the cases. However, there have been many speculations about its origin based on X-ray findings and hyperlordosis of lumbar spine is an important factor. In this study, attempts were made to establish a possible relation between low back pain, lumbar lordosis and lumbosacral angle.
Materials and methods: In this case control study, patients with mechanical low back pain were compared with a matched control group consisting of the subjects who have been under evaluation for some other medical problems. Having essential eligible criteria of the study, 60 individuals were recruited by using non-probability sampling. All individuals were studied and obtained data including age, gender, location, occupation and education levels were collected using a questionnaire. In addition, a standing lateral radiograph was performed on all subjects to evaluate and measure the lumbar lordosis and lumbosacral angle. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16.
Results:The low back pain subjects comprised of 18 men (60%) and 12 women (40%) (age range: 18-74 years). Significant difference was found between the age of low back pain and healthy subjects (p= 0.04). The mean lumbosacral angle in low back pain and healthy subjects was 18.5 (SD=8.86) and 23.77 (SD=12.60) respectively which was not statistically significant (P>0.05). The mean lumbar lordosis angle in low back pain and healthy subjects was 29.47 (SD=11.90) and 29.97 (SD=15.17) respectively which again was not statistically significant (p>0.05).
Conclusion:The results of our study showed that lumbar lordosis and lumbosacral angle were not associated with the incidence of low back pain. However, more studies are needed to confirm this.

Keywords: Low back pain, lumbar lordosis angle, lumbosacral angle

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