Abstract
To decrease the influence of postural sway during spinal measurements, an instrumented fixation posture (called G) was proposed and tested in comparison with the free standing posture (A) using the DTP-3 system in a group of 70 healthy volunteers. The measurement was performed 5 times on each subject and each position was tested by a newly developed device for non-invasive spinal measurements called DTP-3 system. Changes in postural stability of the spinous processes for each subject/the whole group were evaluated by employing standard statistical tools. Posture G, when compared to posture A, reduced postural sway significantly in all spinous processes from C3 to L5 in both the mediolateral and anterioposterior directions. Posture G also significantly reduced postural sway in the vertical direction in 18 out of 22 spinous processes. Importantly, posture G did not significantly influence the spinal curvature.
Highlights
Assessment of spinal deformity, especially adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, is generally performed radiologically along with evaluation of the spinal curvature using the Cobb method
Due to the fact that the size of postural sway is subject dependent, Mean Standard deviations (SD) (MSD) were used for assessing the entire group of 70 subjects
Selecting the most appropriate examination posture does not depend on the examination method, and this is applicable to both non-invasive examinations and radiographic examinations
Summary
Assessment of spinal deformity, especially adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, is generally performed radiologically along with evaluation of the spinal curvature using the Cobb method. Radiography is the golden standard in orthopaedic practice, it carries health risk from exposure to ionizing radiation [1]. To this end, radiography seems to be unsuitable for screening spinal deformity in its early stages and it is risky when used for repeated monitoring after conservative or surgical therapy [2]. Various examination methods enabling non-invasive spinal curvature assessment have been developed [3,4,5,6,7]. These methods have not gained widespread use in clinical practice as yet. The main problem may be in the relatively low correlation between radiographic and non-invasive spinal curvature measurements [8]
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