The assessment of the spinal curvatures in the sagittal plane of children using an ultrasound-based motion analysing system.

In children's posture examinations the question often arises whether an X-ray examination is necessary or appropriate. On screening and in other cases when X-ray is contraindicated, alternative-non-invasive-examinations are available. To measure the shapes of the children's spines beside the Spinal Mouse also the Zebris ultrasound-based spine measuring instrument is accessible and nowadays commonly used. The main aim of the study is to determine the shape of the school-age children's spines in the sagittal plane with an alternative, non-invasive, radiation-free measuring method. From the results calculated from the values measured with the ultrasound-based motion analysing system-geared to age and height-the normal range of the values of kyphosis (TK), lordosis (LL) and inclination (TTI and LI) is determined. The subjects were children between the ages of 6 and 15 and between the heights of 120 and 180 cm (530 healthy, 394 with bad posture and 332 with flat feet). They were divided into groups according to their height with 5 cm long intervals. The age within the groups was irrelevant. So it is appropriate to give normal values according to height and not according to age. It was revealed that both in healthy children, in children with bad posture and in those with pes planus in the height groups, there was a significant difference between the values of males and females. On the basis of these results, normal values should be divided according to the gender. The measurement results also showed that in some of the height groups the pes planus and bad posture significantly affected the spinal curvatures.