Spinal growth velocity versus height velocity in predicting curve progression in peri-pubertal girls with idiopathic scoliosis

BACKGROUND: Height velocity (HV) is traditionally used to monitor the residual growth potential in idiopathic scoliosis (IS). The temporal timing of rapid increase in standing height often does not match exactly that of the increase in spine height. The purposes of this study were to analyze the correlation between change of angle velocity (AV) vs the changes of spinal growth velocity (SGV) and HV, and the associated predictive value on curve progression in IS. METHODS: Pre-pubertal IS girls with single curve receiving standardized bracing treatment followed longitudinally with documented curve progression >5° were retrospectively reviewed. The age, standing height, Cobb angle (main curve), spinal length, Risser sign, HV, SGV and AV at each visit were measured and calculated. The visit with the highest AV value of each patient was selected for the final analysis and correlated with the corresponding peak height velocity (PHV) and peak spinal growth velocity (PSGV). RESULTS: Sixty-two IS girls were reviewed. Chi-square test revealed PSGV contributed more to the highest AV than PHV (P = 0.001). Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated that AV was correlated with SGV (r = 0.454, P < 0.001) and HV (r = 0.280, P = 0.027). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that high AV was better predicted by higher SGV (B = 0.321, P = 0.007) rather than higher HV (B = 0.259, P = 0.362) (R = 0.467). CONCLUSIONS: Variations of spinal growth velocity exerted more direct influence over changes in angle velocity as compared with height velocity. High spinal growth velocity predisposed to more rapid curve progression in patients with idiopathic scoliosis.