Finally, when compared to the criterion standard measured Cobb angle, Cobb angles predicted using each of the non-radiological measures had similar magnitude errors according to the Bland–Altman Selleckchem Talazoparib plots. Therefore, factors such as simplicity of use and

sensitivity to anatomical variability may suggest the most favorable approach. The flexicurve may be easier for research staff without medical training, as it does not require identification of caudal landmarks. The flexicurve traces the contour of the entire spine; the inflection points between the cervical lordosis, thoracic kyphosis, and lumbar lordosis define the spinal curves. In contrast, the Debrunner kyphometer must be placed on palpated landmarks [6]. Despite careful protocols, the inferior landmark can be particularly difficult to discern, especially when lumbar lordosis has reversed [21]. The Cobb and Debrunner angles base their measurements entirely on the two ends of the spinal curve. If there are no problems at these locations (such as endplate tilt of find more limit vertebrae or difficult Debrunner placement), dependence on the terminal portions of the curve will not be strongly influential [29]. However, when anatomical abnormalities are present, then an instrument such as the Flexicurve, which uses the entire spinal contour, will be more robust

because deformities in part of the spine will not introduce large errors. In this regard, the Flexicurve is akin to the centroid

angle, which computes kyphosis using the midpoints of all vertebral bodies from T1–T12 [29]. Indicative of the error introduced by difficult landmark determination was the trend toward higher a correlation between the Debrunner and Cobb angles when eight individuals with difficult Debrunner measures were omitted from the validity computation (Table 4). Use of the T4–T12 constrained Cobb angle had merits and limitations. In favor of the constrained Cobb is that the uppermost thoracic vertebrae are often poorly visualized due to overlying tissue density. Methocarbamol Another attribute of the constrained technique is that the identification of the most inclined vertebral body, which marks the transition from the thoracic to the lumbar curves, can be difficult, leading to low intra-rater reliability for determination of limit vertebrae, a problem circumvented by using the constrained Cobb technique [30, 31]. It must be acknowledged that the constrained method will misestimate the true kyphosis angle when the transition vertebra is not at the same level as the specified level. In aggregate, the potential measurement errors in the Cobb angle degrade the accuracy of the criterion standard, conservatively biasing this study’s validity estimates.