Dohn Patrick, Vialle Raphaël, Thévenin-Lemoine Camille, Balu Marie, Lenoir Thibault, Abelin Karimane
Department of Paediatric Orthopaedics, Armand Trousseau Hospital, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, 26, avenue du Docteur Arnold Netter, 75571, Paris Cedex 12, France.
Childs Nerv Syst. 2009 Apr;25(4):479-83. doi: 10.1007/s00381-008-0759-5. Epub 2008 Dec 5.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) quantification of the rotation of the spinal cord in patients with thoracic idiopathic scoliosis could also be used to detect different spinal cord rotational patterns.
Ten patients with a thoracic or thoracolumbar scoliosis had axial T2-weighted MRI. The rotation of the spinal cord and vertebra were measured. The rotational data of the spinal cord and vertebra was compared to other collated data using non-parametric tests.
The vertebral tile was measured from 3 degrees to 32 degrees and the spinal cord tilt was measured from 3 degrees to 39 degrees. The spinal cord tilt was statistically correlated with the Cobb angle and the antero-posterior or and transverse diameter of the spinal cord.
We showed that, even in case of moderate curve with very limited angular values and vertebral rotation, a significant spinal cord rotation occurred. However, our findings are very limited to discuss some hypothesis about scoliosis pathogeny or progression mechanism.
