title: Classification of three-dimensional thoracic deformities in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis from a multivariate analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Understanding how to classify and quantify three-dimensional (3D) spinal deformities remains an open question in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. The objective of this study was to perform a 3D manifold characterization of scoliotic spines demonstrating thoracic deformations using a novel geometric and intuitive statistical tool to determine patterns in pathological cases.
  
  
  METHODS
  Personalized 3D reconstructions of thoracic (T)/lumbar (L) spines from a cohort of 170 Lenke Type-1 patients were analyzed with a non-linear manifold embedding algorithm in order to reduce the high-dimensionality of the data, using statistical properties of neighbouring spine models. We extracted sub-groups of the data from the underlying manifold structure using an unsupervised clustering algorithm to understand the inherent distribution and determine classes of pathologies which appear from the low-dimensional space.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For Lenke Type-1 patients, four clusters were detected from the low-dimensional manifold of 3D models: (1) normal kyphosis (T) with hyper-lordosis (L) and high Cobb angles (37 cases), (2) low kyphosis (T) and normal lordosis (L), with high rotation of plane of maximum curvature (55 cases), (3) hypo-kyphotic (T) and hyper-lordosis (L) (21 cases) and (4) hyper-kyphotic (T) with strong vertebral rotation (57 cases). Results show the manifold representation can potentially be useful for classification of 3D spinal pathologies such as idiopathic scoliosis and serve as a tool for understanding the progression of deformities in longitudinal studies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Quantitative evaluation illustrates that the complex space of spine variability can be modeled by a low-dimensional manifold and shows the existence of an additional hyper-kyphotic subgroup from the cohort of 3D spine reconstructions of Lenke Type-1 patients when compared with previous findings on the 3D classification of spinal deformities.
authors: Philips Research North America, 345 Scarborough Rd, Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510, USA. samuel.kadoury@philips.com
authors: Samuel
authors: S
authors: Kadoury
authors: Hubert
authors: H
authors: Labelle
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000465:Algorithms; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011859:Radiography / Q000379:methods; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012600:Scoliosis / Q000145:classification* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology