Biomechanics Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Biomechanics, including details on mechanics of living organisms, movement, locomotion, prosthetic limbs.

Vertebral axial rotation measurement method.

Chi WM, Cheng CW, Yeh WC, Chuang SC, Chang TS, Chen JH

Department of Bio-industrial Mechatroics Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan, ROC.

This study presents a new method for measuring axial rotation of vertebra. Anatomical landmarks of the vertebral body were first recognized in X-ray film. By employing appropriate geometrical relationships, vertebral body shape parameters and a computer iteration method, the rotation angle of vertebra on the transverse plane can rapidly be obtained. A cadaver lumbar spine axial rotation-fixation device was designed to confirm the accuracy of the proposed methodology. Rotation angles on CT images were adopted as the golden standard and compared with analytical results based on X-ray films. Analytical results demonstrated that the proposed method obtained more accurate and reliable results than previous methods.

Published 3 January 2006 in Comput Methods Programs Biomed, 81(1): 8-17.
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