Saba Pasha, PhD, recently published a study exploring how variation in spinal patterns may lead to spinal deformities seen in scoliosis, reports Medical Xpress.
Four things to know:
1. The ability to accurately predict scoliosis could lead to early interventions to prevent the condition in adolescents.
2. Dr. Pasha, director of orthopedic engineering and 3D musculoskeletal imaging at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, used computer simulations to study how elastic rods mimicking spines change shape in response to mechanical loading.
3. She noted S-shaped 2D patterns in the model deformed into 3D patterns seen in scoliosis patients with the same sagittal curve, but the rods representing sagittal curves in the model in patients without scoliosis did not turn into a 3D scoliosis-like deformation.
4. The evidence suggests that the shape of the sagittal profile can be a strong cause of scoliosis, according to Dr. Pasha.
Read the full study published in Scientific Reports here.