The mammalian vertebral column is highly variable, reflecting adaptations to a wide range of lifestyles, from burrowing in moles to flying in bats. However, in many taxa, the number of trunk vertebrae is surprisingly constant. We argue that this constancy results from strong selection against initial changes of these numbers in fast running and agile mammals, whereas such selection is weak in s...

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) ...

The aim of this study was to investigate features of abdominal earthquake-related crush traumas in comparison with non-earthquake injury. A cross sectional survey was conducted with 51 survivors with abdominal crush injury in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and 41 with abdominal non-earthquake injury, undergoing non-enhanced computed tomography (CT) scans, serving as earthquake trauma and control ...

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...

Understanding the origin and maintenance of functionally important subordinate traits is a major goal of evolutionary physiologists and ecomorphologists. Within the confines of a limbless body plan, snakes are diverse in terms of body size and ecology, but we know little about the functional traits that underlie this diversity. We used a phylogenetically diverse group of 131 snake species to ex...

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...

Objective The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of screw fixation in previously augmented vertebrae with bone cement. We also investigated the influence of cement distribution pattern on the surgical technique. Methods Fourteen patients who required screw fixation at the level of the previous percutaneous vertebroplasty or balloon kyphoplasty were enrolled in this study. ...

Introduction Knowledge of variations in foramen tranversarium of first cervical vertebrae is surgically relevant, as its anatomical relation with third part of vertebral artery is one of the proposed causative factor for cervicogenic headache. This study was aimed to determine the incidence, morphological and morphometrical variations of foramen transversarium (FT) of atlas vertebrae in North I...

We describe a method for automatic detection and localisation of vertebrae in clinical images that was designed to avoid making a-priori assumptions of how many vertebrae are visible. Multiple Random Forest regressors were trained to identify vertebral end-plates, providing estimates of both the location and pose of the vertebrae. The highest-weighted responses from each model were combined usi...

Vertebral number is the most variable trait among vertebrates. In addition to the vertebral number, the ratio of abdominal to caudal vertebrae is a variable trait. The vertebral number and the ratio of abdominal to caudal vertebrae contribute to vertebrate diversity. It is very interesting to know how to determine the vertebral number and the ratio of abdominal to caudal vertebrae. In this stud...