Diagnostic moiré image evaluation in spinal deformities

This paper deals with moiré picture evaluation in case of a very frequent spinal deformity, called the Scheuermann’s disease. Spinal deformities often occur in the group of 10–17 year-old children. This Scheuermann-type of spinal deformity is more frequent (11%) than the well-known scoliosis (2–4%), but because of the incorrect diagnosis it often remains without a right treatment. Now the accepted medical diagnostic method is using frontal and lateral X-ray pictures from patients’ back. Our already presented method uses moiré pictures to establish the right diagnosis. This optical method is fast, non-contact and arbitrarily repeatable. In our former paper we presented two computer algorithms to produce the shape of the patients’ spine. These methods showed good agreement with the traditional medical diagnosis, but the extreme search method returned better results. In this paper we are demonstrating our new results using the extreme search method and the improved computer program.