3D analysis of congenital scoliosis due to hemivertebra using biplanar radiography.

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the use of biplanar radiography for assessing congenital scoliosis due to hemivertebra in 3D. A reconstruction method was developed to model 3D spines with congenital scoliosis from biplanar radiography. 3D measurements quantifying the global posture, scoliotic deformities and imbalance and describing the shape and pose of the hemivertebra were automatically computed. Five cases of congenital scoliosis were analyzed and the accuracy of the method was evaluated by comparing 3D reconstructions from biplanar radiography with 3D segmentations generated from CT. The mean shape accuracy was 1.8 mm (1.5 mm for the vertebral bodies and pedicles and 2.2 mm for the posterior arches). Biplanar radiography can be considered an interesting tool for clinical follow-up of congenital scoliosis as it overcomes some limitations of the analyses based on CT or anteroposterior X-ray: head to feet acquisition, low radiation dose and provides a set of automatically computed postural and morphological parameters in 3D.