Spino-pelvic radiological parameters in normal Indian population

Abstract

Introduction: There is increasing emphasis on the sagittal spino-pelvic alignment and its interpretation is of critical importance in the management of spinal disorders. A cross-sectional study of several spino-pelvic radiographic parameters was conducted to determine the physiological values of these parameters, to calculate the variations of these parameters according to epidemiological data, and to study the relationships among these parameters. Material and method: Fifty normal healthy volunteers (29 males and 21 females) with no history of back pain were selected and were subjected to standing sagittal spino-pelvic radiographs. All the measurements of various radiographic parameters were performed with use of a software program. A statistical analysis was done to study the relationships among them. Results: The mean values of pelvic incidence (PI) and lumbar Lordosis Angle (LLA) were 48.52 ± 8.99 and 58.78 ± 9.51, respectively. There was statistical difference between male and female parameters in LLA, lumbo-sacral angle (LSA), sacral horizontal angle (SHA), sacral inclination angle (SIA), sacropelvic angle (PRS1), pelvisacral angle (PSA), and PI. A majority of parameters had higher values for female subjects when compared to male subjects. PI was positively correlated with LLA, pelvic angle (PA), pelvic overhang (PO), pelvic tilt (PT), sacrofemoral distance (SFD), SHA, and sacropelvic translation (SPT), which were highly significant, whereas LLA was positively correlated with SHA and SIA only. PI and LLA were both negatively correlated with PSA, pelvic thickness (PTH), and PRS1. Conclusions: This study presents the various spino-pelvic radiographic parameter values of a sample of the normal asymptomatic Indian population. There was significant difference in radiographic parameters between males and females in about half of the parameters studied in the sample. The values obtained are comparable with the values presented as normal in the literature. A comparison of the study results with data published about other populations revealed no differences in any of the pelvic parameters between the Indian, Brazilian, and Korean populations.