Cobb Angle has been predominantly used for the past 60 years as a measurement for scoliosis despite its shortcoming in terms of accuracy. It was therefore of interest that I read about a new way of measuring the spinal curvature in patients with scoliosis. A group of doctors in a Chinese medical college proposed a new way of measuring known as axis-line distance technique and then went on to evaluate its accuracy.

The axis-line distance technique ALDT works as follows:
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Tags: cobb, scoliosis

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Spinal Corrective Care

Your child has been diagnosed with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis, first with Adams test and confirmed later with spinal x-rays. Doctor says it is a small curve and recommends a new appointment in six months time. Your doctor takes the wait and see approach when the scoliosis curve is below 20° Cobb angle. To many of you, this is no sense of comfort as your biggest worry now would be whether your adolescent child’s condition would get worse and require surgery later.

Unfortunately, ...

Updated 11-17-2009 at 04:14 PM by Dr Kalla

Tags: cobb, etiology, idiopathic scoliosis, spine

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Science Talking , Spinal Corrective Care

We all know that a positive Adams Test is used to diagnose scoliosis and should be followed up by and x-ray to confirm the magnitude of the curve with a Cobb angle. But again, do we know the history behind its origin? (I always get thrilled when I find these rare historical pieces of information)

William Adams was the first to describe “the stooping position as diagnostic of lateral curvature in the early stage” ...

Tags: cobb, history, idiopathic scoliosis, scoliosis

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Spinal Corrective Care

Let us explore what additional studies there may be to support the idea that it is in fact the organs in the chest that likely cause the spine to nudge to the right.

Well, in support of this idea is a study that shows that the same preexisting vertebral rotation of the thoracic spine can be seen in four legged animals [8]. This finding led the scientists to believe that a small rotational deviation is considered part of normal physiological development process of the spine rather ...

Tags: ais, cobb, idiopathic scoliosis, scoliosis, spine

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Science Talking , Spinal Corrective Care

Study of normal spines have shown that there exists a small vertebral rotation to the right in the thoracic spine. (see previous post here) This pre-existing rotation of few degrees is thought to be caused by the organs in our chest.

MRI image illustrating a normal spine from an individual with "situs inversus totalis" showing pre-excisting vertebral rotation to the left.

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Updated 11-17-2009 at 03:26 PM by Dr Kalla

Tags: ais, cobb, idiopathic scoliosis, scoliosis, spine

Categories

Science Talking , Spinal Corrective Care