Topographic manifestations and criteria of mobile spine deformities

Purpose To determine topographic manifestations and mobility criteria in spine deformities Materials and methods Twelve patients aged from 10 to 27 years with clinical and radiographic signs of scoliosis of grades 2 to 3 (according to V.D. Chaklin) were examined using computer optical topography. Inclusion group was patients with high positive results of conservative treatment and with a diagnostic mismatch between the methods of radiography and topography. Results It was established that on the scale of a live examination a topographic monitoring of the postural activity of the patient’s trunk in a standing position up to 3 minutes enables to reveal mobile manifestations of spine deformities in the form of arbitrary and involuntary variation of their angular characteristics in compensated and decompensated types with strengthening or weakening of the pathology signs. By instrumental control, high mobility was manifested by the following types of combinations of X-rays and topograms: 1) radiographic and topographic signs of spinal deformities coincided in location but significantly (more than 4°) differed in severity grade; 2) in the presence of radiographic signs of scoliotic deformity, their topographic analogs in orthostatics were either not detected or were recorded only at the end of a prolonged examination. Conclusion The degree of mobility of spinal deformities in orthostatics and its dynamics can be judged from the range of numerical values of the lateral asymmetry angle (S1_LA), the topographic analogue of the Cobb angle. The smaller is the range of its arbitrary and involuntary postural variations the lower is the mobility of spinal deformities. In a high mobility of spinal deformities, the lateral asymmetry angle varies over a range of values greater than 7°.