Intelligent Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Detection Method Based on Three-Dimensional Measurements

Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) is a prevalent latent disorder among adolescents. Early detection and screening are crucial for preventing the progression of deformities. Current assessment methods for spinal curvature rely on X-ray imaging to measure the Cobb angle and detect scoliosis. However, radiation exposure limits its use for widespread screening. Existing tools are time-consuming and rely on physician expertise. This study introduces a novel method based on depth information and high-order curvature calculations to assess asymmetries in the human back, aiming for a harmless and accurate rapid evaluation of AIS. The method utilizes asymmetries in three-dimensional curvatures derived from back point clouds to assess the degree of deformity caused by scoliosis. It achieves this by quantifying the asymmetry index between left and right curvatures, then using these indices to predict the Cobb angle and reconstruct the spinal midline from the spinous processes. Experimental results on patients with varying degrees of Cobb angles show that the spinal midline on X-ray images is highly aligned with the reconstructed spinal midline, and the asymmetry index is significantly positively correlated with the Cobb angle, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.892. Additionally, a screening system built upon this method achieved an accuracy rate of over 0.95 in school screenings involving more than 2,000 subjects, underscoring its potential for large-scale clinical applications.