Using motion analysis technology to reduce radiographs in patients with scoliosis

Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis is a three dimensional deformity of the spine that affects children between the ages of 10 and 16. The current method for diagnosing and tracking the progression of scoliosis is the use of serial radiograph, which exposes this population to large repeated doses of ionizing radiation that can cause a variety of serious health risks. This paper proposes a method to reduce the number of radiographs these patients receive by using opto-electronic motion capture technology to provide kinematic and postural profiles of the spine. Dynamic spine motion of subjects with scoliosis was compared to the kinematic profiles of subjects with normal spines. Postural data obtained from the motion analysis was correlated with standard spine radiographs. Results indicate that there is a high correlation between the data obtained from the motion analysis and data from the radiographs. The dynamic motion data shows differences in the kinematic profiles of the spine between the scoliosis and control group. These results show that motion analysis technology can be used as a possible means of reducing the number of radiographs that this patient population receives.