Shape analysis of vestibular systems in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis using geodesic spectra

Abstract

Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) characterized by the 3D spine deformity affects about 4% schoolchildren worldwide. One of the prominent theories of the etiopathogenesis of AIS was proposed to be the poor postural balance control due to the impaired vestibular function. Thus, the morphometry of the vestibular system (VS) is of great importance for studying AIS. The VS is a genus-3 structure situated in the inner ear and consists of three semicircular canals lying perpendicular to each other. The high-genus topology of the surface poses great challenge for shape analysis. In this work, we propose an effective method to analyze shapes of high-genus surfaces by considering their geodesic spectra. The key is to compute the canonical hyperbolic geodesic loops of the surface, using the Ricci flow method. The Fuchsian group generators are then computed which can be used to determine the geodesic spectra. The geodesic spectra effectively measure shape differences between high-genus surfaces up to the hyperbolic isometry. We applied the proposed algorithm to the VS of 12 normal and 15 AIS subjects. Experimental results show the effectiveness of our algorithm and reveal statistical shape difference in the VS between right-thoracic AIS and normal subjects. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.