Technology-Enhanced Systems in Idiopathic Scoliosis 3D Diagnosis and Screening

Abstract

This paper presents some of the recently developed solutions for non-invasive scoliosis assessment and diagnosis. Scoliosis is a complex 3D deformity that affects younger population especially in early adolescence, usually without a known reason. The main standard in traditional scoliosis evaluation is single or biplanar radiography in frontal and sagittal plane of the patient and so-called Cobb angle measured on the dominant deformity curve. Nowadays, it is recommended, by many professional societies, to avoid intensive and often X-ray (ionizing) rehearsals and monitoring due to cumulative harmful effect on patients. In that course many research and development institutes and companies offer wide variety solutions for non-invasive diagnosis. Many of these are based on an optical 3D digitizer and software necessary to extract or estimate the degree of deformity and to generate its visualization. We also gave a contribution to this topic with innovative optical method - 3D Scoliosis simulator.