It has recently been argued that neural spine bifurcation increases through ontogeny in several Morrison Formation sauropods, that recognition of ontogenetic transformation in this ‘key character’ will have sweeping implications for sauropod phylogeny, and that Suuwassea and Haplocanthosaurus in particular are likely to be juveniles of known diplodocids. However, we find that serial variation i...

Purpose: The best approach to the body of the lumbar vertebrae is from the anterior aspect. The lower lumbar vertebrae are more prone to mechanical and degenerative changes. The disadvantage is that the front of the lower lumbar vertebrae are related intimately to important neurovascular structures like the abdominal aorta, inferior venacava, sympathetic chain etc. There is a need for the preop...

PURPOSE The patients with cleft lip and palate have a higher risk of cervical vertebrae anomalies than do patients in general population. The aim of present study was to determine the prevalence of various upper cervical spine anomalies in different type of clefts. PROCEDURES Lateral cephalograms of 128 patients (66 males, 62 females) with cleft lip and palate, and 125 (60 males, 65 females) ...

Localization of target vertebrae is an essential step in minimally invasive spine surgery, with conventional methods relying on “level counting” – i.e., manual counting of vertebrae under fluoroscopy starting from readily identifiable anatomy (e.g., the sacrum). The approach requires an undesirable level of radiation, time, and is prone to counting errors due to the similar appearance of verteb...

Segmentation of vertebral structures in magnetic resonance (MR) images is challenging because of poor contrast between bone surfaces and surrounding soft tissue. This paper describes a semi-automatic method for segmenting vertebral bodies in multi-slice MR images. In order to achieve a fast and reliable segmentation, the method takes advantage of the correlation between shape and pose of differ...

Introduction According to the ‘vicious cycle’ hypothesis proposed by Dr Stokes, sensitivity to load has been implicated in the progression of spinal deformity during growth due to the reaction of vertebrae to mechanical loads on their growth plate. Mechanical loads on the vertebrae are altered by the mechanical stiffness of the spinal implant. Unfortunately, the relationship between the implant...

We report the case of a 50-year-old Japanese woman with SAPHO (synovitis-acne-pustulosis-hyperostosisosteomyelitis) syndrome. Radiographs showed osteosclerosis of the cervical and lumbar vertebrae, as well as osteosclerosis and osteolysis of the right femoral neck, resembling multiple metastatic bony lesions. Arriving at a diagnosis required hematological and imaging tests. Whole-body bone scin...

INTRODUCTION: Accurate 3D reconstruction of bony structures is essential for many clinical applications, such as evaluation of bone deformation, surgical planning and clinical follow-up of patients. Computed tomography (CT) is a widely used medical imaging technique in clinical routine, especially for bones which provide high contrast. However accurate bone segmentation still remains challengin...

It is the purpose of this work to investigate whether it is feasible to develop Finite Element (FE) models that take into account the geometric differences between the lumbar vertebrae of patients. It is also the purpose of this work to determine whether or not such patient specific differences affect the results of the FE analysis in such a significant way that they should be considered in fut...