Multislice Computed Tomography in Diagnosing Changes in the Gluteal Muscles of Patients with Scoliosis at Different Ages and with Different Magnitudes of Deformation Before Treatment

Abstract

<jats:p><jats:bold>Objective</jats:bold>. To study the gluteal muscles in patients with scoliosis of various etiologies using multislice computed tomography (MSCT).<jats:bold>Material and methods</jats:bold>. MSCT was first used to study the gluteal muscles of 27 patients with idiopathic scoliosis. The patients were examined to study the vertebral column in order to determine a method and tactics for scoliosis treatment. The muscles were additionally examined using workstations and programs for MSCT data processing. In a control group of 18 patients with no clinical manifestations of spinal and hip joint abnormalities or those detected on CT, their gluteal muscles were examined due to their pelvic organ diseases.<jats:bold>Results</jats:bold>. Patients younger than 18 years of age who had spinal deformations of not more than 60 degrees had muscle changes as moderate hypotrophy, increased density, especially that of the gluteus medius muscle to 62.01 ± 7.20 HU. In patients over 18 years of age, the muscle density decreased at any magnitude of deformation and was the smaller the older patients were. In patients with spinal deformation greater than 90 degrees, the density of the gluteus maximus muscle on the convex side was significantly different from that on the concave side and was less on the concave side (p &lt;0.05) than in those with a deformation of 60–90 degrees.<jats:bold>Conclusion</jats:bold>. The results showed that in patients with scoliosis, the gluteal muscles were affected not only by the magnitude of deformation, but also by age. In patients over 18 years of age, muscle changes with equal magnitudes of deformation were more pronounced and were manifested by hypotrophy, atrophy, and fatty degeneration.</jats:p>