Development of an apparatus to evaluate Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis by dynamic surface topography.

For cases of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS), commonly the first indicator is a change in the surface shape of the back over time. A proportion of patients so diagnosed require surgical intervention to prevent further progression and to improve cosmesis. The results of a preliminary literature survey have revealed that significant work has already been published on the static acquisition and analysis of back surface shape. There is new interest in establishing correlations between breathing, posture, the underlying spinal deformity and changes in the surface topography of the back during clinical sessions together with an increased focus on the impact of the cosmetic defect on the patient and in the measurement of pre and post-operative dynamic capability.The continuing development of an apparatus based on established optical motion capture technologies, that generates a sequence of tri-dimensional images and provides measurements derived from changes in the position of anatomical reference landmarks and of the surface topography of the back will be presented. If, using the same landmarks, the trunk range of motion could be captured concurrently, it is hoped that the resulting data would form the basis of a useful clinical study.