The ethics committee approved the review of adolescent scoliosis surgery cases in Shanghai Tongren Hospital and Shanghai Changhai Hospital before December 2018 for this retrospective study.
- Research Objective
(1) Inclusion criteria: patients with scoliosis aged 10-18 years with complete spinal X-ray and MRI data.
(2) Exclusion criteria: patients with congenital scoliosis (bone dysplasia), neuromuscular scoliosis, neurofibromatosis scoliosis, metabolic scoliosis, Marfan syndrome and other clearly diagnosed scoliosis types.
(3) Groupings: the spinal cord abnormality group (Group A) contained patients who exhibited lesions in the spinal cord, such as Chiari malformations, syringomyelia, and hydromyelia, on MRI examination. The idiopathic group (Group B) contained patients with no abnormalities on MRI examination.
- Data Measurement and Recording
(1) General information: age and sex.
(2) Imaging examination: angle of the main bend, scoliosis direction (thoracic scoliosis on the left, thoracic scoliosis on the right), angle of thoracic vertebrae kyphosis, and scoliosis shape (Figure 1, smooth shape is the concave side line is a smooth curve, angular shape is the concave side line is a angular curve).
(3) Neurologic examination: assessment of motor, sensory, and reflex functions of the upper and lower extremities; pathologic signs; abdominal reflexes; tendon reflexes (radial membrane reflex, knee reflex, Achilles tendon reflex); paraesthesia; and ankle clonus.
- Clinical and Imaging Evaluation
A whole-spine 1.5 T Philips MRI machine (Philips, the Netherlands) was used to detect potential spinal abnormalities, including Chiari malformations, syringomyelia, vertebral compression, longitudinal spinal fractures, and spinal cord tumours. All diagnoses were made by a spine surgeon and reviewed by an experienced radiologist. According to the MRI findings, patients were assigned the spinal cord abnormality group or the idiopathic group to determine the imaging and clinical indicators of spinal cord abnormalities in the two groups.
Positive and lateral X-ray images of the whole spine were taken to measure the Cobb angle, scoliosis direction, scoliosis shape, thoracic kyphosis angle from T5 to T12 in the sagittal plane (defined as kyphosis deformity if the angle was greater than 10 degrees), the coronal plane balance (according to the central sacral vertical line (CSVL)), and the sagittal plane balance (according to the C7-S1 line) in the main bend.CSVL:A line passing through the midpoint of the upper edge of S1 perpendicular to the horizontal plane.C7-S1: The distance between the plumb line of C7 and the upper edge of S1.
- Statistical Analysis
Sex, age, main curvature angle, kyphosis angle, scoliosis direction, scoliosis type, coronal plane balance, sagittal plane balance, abdominal wall reflex, sensory abnormalities, ankle clonus and tendon reflexes were compared between the spinal cord abnormality group and the idiopathic group. Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS 21.0 statistical package (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Continuous variables were compared using t tests, and rates were compared using chi-square tests. Fisher's exact test was used to compare the rates of internal abnormalities between the groups. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the correlation between multiple variables and the incidence of intramedullary abnormalities, with the following values: intramedullary abnormalities =1 and no abnormalities =0. A p value less than 0.05 was defined as statistically significant.