Due to the three dimensional deformation of the spine, the scoliosis necessarily leads to a reduction of the patient’s body height. For those patients, knowledge about the 3D shape and length of the spine is not only critical for the assessment of the true patient’s body height, but is of high importance for pre-operative planning and for the assessment of the spine’s growth.
Currently, no tool is able to reliably provide these information within a clinical environment. Solutions exists, but are either not accurate or not applicable clinically. For example, the traditional T1-S1 approach cannot deliver any true measurement of the spine’s length. Furthermore, all these methods rely on a single frontal radiographic image, which has major limitations for the true estimation of the length in 3D. Existing 3D imaging systems are not applicable clinically due to the high cost, time or exposure to radiations.
For all these reasons, we proposed a measurement system – the Spinal Measurement Software (SMS) – to enable simple and accurate assessment of the true three dimensional shape and length of the spine. The method should use traditional X-rays and be part of the clinical procedure for patients suffering from scoliosis. The goal of this study was to validate the software by first showing that it measure the real length of the spine and second by showing that it is easy to use.
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Currently, the software is only available on Windows.
The version 1.2 include a semi-automatic detection of the calibration tool. The method was previously published in:
Schumann et al., Calibration of C-arm for orthopeadic interventions via statistical model-based distortion correction and robust phantom detection, Biomedical Imaging, 2012.
University of Bern ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research Freiburgstrasse 3 3010 Bern / Switzerland E-mail: philippe.buechler@artorg.unibe.ch
Head of Orthopaedic Department and Spine Surgery University Children’s Hospital Basel Spitalstrasse 33 4056 Basel / Switzerland E-mail: carolclaudius.hasler@ukbb.ch website
A software program to measure the three-dimensional length of the spine from radiographic images: Validation and reliability assessment for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.
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