title: Spinal curvature measurement by tracked ultrasound snapshots.
abstract: Monitoring spinal curvature in adolescent kyphoscoliosis requires regular radiographic examinations; however, the applied ionizing radiation increases the risk of cancer. Ultrasound imaging is favored over radiography because it does not emit ionizing radiation. Therefore, we tested an ultrasound system for spinal curvature measurement, with the help of spatial tracking of the ultrasound transducer. Tracked ultrasound was used to localize vertebral transverse processes as landmarks along the spine to measure curvature angles. The method was tested in two scoliotic spine models by localizing the same landmarks using both ultrasound and radiographic imaging and comparing the angles obtained. A close correlation was found between tracked ultrasound and radiographic curvature measurements. Differences between results of the two methods were 1.27 ± 0.84° (average ± SD) in an adult model and 0.96 ± 0.87° in a pediatric model. Our results suggest that tracked ultrasound may become a more tolerable and more accessible alternative to radiographic spine monitoring in adolescent kyphoscoliosis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Percutaneous Surgery, School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: ungi@cs.queensu.ca.
authors.forename: Tamas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ungi
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Percutaneous Surgery, School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Franklin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kempston
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Percutaneous Surgery, School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Zsuzsanna
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Keri
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Percutaneous Surgery, School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Andras
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lasso
authors.affiliation: Medical Informatics Laboratory, School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Parvin
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mousavi
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rudan
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Daniel P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Borschneck
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Percutaneous Surgery, School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Gabor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fichtinger
mesh_terms: D059925:Anatomic Landmarks / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D057918:Fiducial Markers; D006801:Humans; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012600:Scoliosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013131:Spine / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013686:Telemetry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014159:Transducers; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods
keywords: Adolescent idiopathic kyphoscoliosis; Kyphosis; Scoliosis; Tracked sonography; Tracked ultrasound snapshot