systematic review of the characteristics of ultrasound measurements in the evaluation of spinal curvatures in scoliosis patients

Abstract Aims: Scoliosis is one of the secondary complications in amputation veterans, which requires periodic evaluations. The gold standard for evaluating the spine is radiography, which has caused many concerns due to the very high doses of X-ray radiation. For this reason, therapists are finding for an alternative method for this tool, so ultrasound is a non-invasive tool with different methods for this purpose. Therefore, the purpose of the current research is to determine the best method of measuring the curvature of the spine of scoliosis patients by ultrasound. Instruments & Methods: Pub-med, Embase, Web of sciences and Scopus databases were searched for articles that examined the reliability and validity of ultrasound to assess the curvature of the spine in people with scoliosis. COSMIN checklist scale was used to survey the quality of researches. Findings: In the present study, 18 articles were reviewed. In most of the studies, the correct methodological quality for evaluating internal consistency, measurement error, structural validity, hypothesis testing, cross-cultural validity, responsiveness and interpretability has not been reported. Finally, four methods were found of measuring spinous process angle, spinous process-transverse process angle, transverse process-upper articular process angle and lamina center method for ultrasound. Conclusion: According to the results; Ultrasound by measuring the center of the lamina is a simple and very reliable method to evaluate the curvatures of the spine of people with scoliosis and can be a suitable alternative to the gold standard of radiography.