PNIPU: Scoliosis Diagnostic Program

Main article: Scoliosis

2023: Creation of a program to diagnose scoliosis

The program for the diagnosis of scoliosis was created by scientists from the Perm Polytechnic University, which announced this on June 29, 2023.

Scoliosis is the most common disease of the spinal column in children and adolescents. The progression of the disease leads to persistent deformations of the skeleton of the chest, pelvis and limbs, which leads to serious disorders in the body. Perm Polytechnic scientists have created an algorithm for software that will allow timely recommendation and implementation of the entire package of rehabilitation measures and prevent further progression of the disease by monitoring the severity of spinal deformation in real time.

When forming scoliosis, the need for rehabilitation measures and closer attention to the dynamics of exacerbation of spinal column deformation increases significantly up to stopping the progression of scoliosis or making a decision on surgical treatment or orthesis - the appointment of technical means of rehabilitation such as wearing a corset. The existing tools for clinical diagnosis of spinal deformity are represented by two main groups: radiation and optical. To track the dynamics of disease, polytechnics developed an algorithm for assessing spinal deformation in the horizontal plane based on the spatial characteristics of a three-dimensional model of the surface of the back.

The algorithm for estimating spinal column deformation is a sequence of four steps: calculation for correcting the location of the planes, dividing the spine line into segments - each of the vertebrae is characterized by unique indicators of the height of the vertebral bodies, the angle of inclination of the vertebral bodies and their spinous processes, calculating the rotation of the spinal segments relative to physiological bends and visualizing the deformation of the spine in the horizontal plane, - said Valery Stolbov, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Computational Mathematics, Mechanics and Biomechanics.

A three-dimensional model of the spine was chosen as the subject of the study, which was created using photographs (70-120 pcs.) Of the patient's back surface from different angles.

The algorithm we have written for the program allows us to identify the curvature of individual vertebrae and the spine as a whole, it is implemented in relation to all vertebrae of the thoracic and lumbar departments, thereby ensuring the possibility of differentiated diagnostics of forms of spinal deformation, - said Ivan Shitoev, assistant of the Department of Computational Mathematics, Mechanics and Biomechanics of the Perm Polytechnic, General Director of Yord Tech.

The present algorithm can be used in a comprehensive assessment of posture impairment, monitoring the dynamics of spinal column deformation in the rehabilitation process, scientists shared.