Quantitative evaluation of spinal coronal curvature for scoliosis using a fast 3-D ultrasound projection imaging method

Abstract

In this study, a novel fast 3-D ultrasound projection imaging (FUPI) method to provide quantitative evaluation of spinal coronal curvature for scoliosis patients was proposed. Unlike conventional 3-D volume rendering approaches, this method directly projected the raw images to form the coronal images. The non-planar rendering method, following the natural curve of the spine, was utilized to contain the complete spine information into the projection images. Based on 30 patients with scoliosis (ages of 16.3±2.9 years), the comparison study between the new method and the conventional 3-D rendering method was performed. The processing time and the projection images were both compared. The average processing times for the two imaging methods were 15.07±0.03s and 149.50±33.44s, respectively. There were high correlations between the measurement results using the images obtained by the two 3-D imaging methods (y = 0.9733x, r=0.970 for thoracic region, y = 1.0224x, r=0.968 for lumbar region). The above results demonstrated the new method could greatly reduce the processing time while preserving the comparative image quality. It can be expected that the developed FUPI method may help to provide fast 3-D ultrasound diagnosis of scoliosis in clinics.