Zhengguang Chen1, Lifeng Lao2,
Jianxiong Shen3, Xiaozhen Li4
1Department of Radiology, First
Hospital of Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; 2Department of
Orthopaedic, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong
University, Shanghai, China; 3Department of Orthopedics, Peking
Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China;
4Department of Radiology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital,
Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
Adolescent
Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) is defined as a lateral spinal curvature greater
than 10 accompanied by vertebral rotation and has no clear underlying
causes. Traditionally AIS was evaluated using standing radiographs of the
full spine to assess lateral curvature with the Cobb method, but it is on 2D
coronal plane-only evaluating system, ignoring the 3D nature of AIS. MRI and
computer-generated 3D images is a noninvasive procedure which could be used
to assess the functional morphology in spine. To validate the hypothesis of
disproportional growth between neural and skeletal system a MRI study was
performed in 149 AIS patients and 41 age-matched controls.