NCT03135665

Using Radiation-free Ultrasound for Screening Scoliosis Among School Children in Hong Kong to Reduce Unnecessary X-ray Exposure

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 442 (actual)
• Sponsor: Chinese University of Hong Kong · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 7 Years – 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

In the scoliosis screening program of the Student Health Service (SHS), Department of Health (DH), in Hong Kong, more than 50% of screened school children prescribed with x-ray examination basing on the screening protocol did not have Cobb angle greater than the referral threshold of 20°; ie they did not need specialist referral and thus were subjected to unnecessary x-ray exposure. Our primary objective is to determine whether a new radiation-free ultrasound system could identify subjects with Cobb angle greater than the referral threshold of 20° thus avoiding unnecessary x-rays in the referral workflow. The secondary objective is to evaluate if Angle of Trunk Rotation (ATR) can further increase the accuracy of ultrasound assessment.

Conditions

• Scoliosis

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Ultrasound	Scolioscan, the ultrasound system reported to be reliable and valid for spinal deformity assessment, will be used. The system composes of an ultrasound scanner with a linear probe of 100 mm in width and frequency range of 4-10MHz, a frame structure and a spatial sensor which is attached to the ultrasound probe for spatial data capture. Daily calibration will be performed using a phantom to assure accuracy of spine image formation and subsequent angle measurement. Subjects will stand on the Scolioscan platform with a standardized posture kept stable with pegs throughout the scanning process.. After adjusting the ultrasound scanner setting, the probe will be steered from L5 to T1 spinous process for scanning. SPA will be used to determine the ultrasound-based Referral Status through predicting whether the Cobb angle is beyond the referral threshold of ≥20° or not. There are two values for the Referral Status: either "for specialist referral" or "not for specialist referral".

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-09-18
• Primary completion: 2018-11-30
• Completion: 2019-05-31
• First posted: 2017-05-01
• Last updated: 2019-12-13

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Hong Kong