Surface Topography and Cobb Angles in Idiopathic Scoliosis

Surface topography is used in spinal deformity to monitor cosmetic change. In order to be useful, it must not only yield values that correlate with radiological data, but must reliably change in tandem with radiological change. Using the average of 4 consecutive repeat scans to reduce error margins in a Quantec Imaging System, changes on radiograph and in several parameters of contemporary scans were analysed to estimate their agreement. Enough correlation was found to encourage further study.