Automated cobb’s angle measurement for scoliosis diagnosis using deep learning techniques

Purpose Scoliosis is a widespread musculoskeletal disorder of bending and twisting of spine. In this, spine curves to the side and in severe cases it can twist and take several bends. For the diagnosis and treatment of scoliotic patients, the Cobb’s angle is a critical marker of the body’s curvature. Early detection and proper treatment of scoliosis help individuals maintain a higher quality of life. There are many researches that have been conducted to automate the manual measurement of the angle and every investigation has their own limitations. Approach This paper presents a method for precisely measuring the Cobb’s angle using deep learning based techniques. Mainly it comprises of feature enhancement of augmented dataset, a bespoke code for landmark estimation on the spine, segmentation model based on the U-Net architecture and a custom code for Cobb’s angle measurement. These measured angles are compared to the given angles for the segmentation on X-ray images. Results The proposed technique offers an automated way for precisely measuring this angle with an overall accuracy of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>97</mml:mn> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">%</mml:mi> </mml:math> and Root Mean Square Error of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>4.99</mml:mn> </mml:math> , which can lower the variability, facilitate early detection, accurate diagnosis, and monitoring of scoliosis progression. Additionally, it aids in the treatment planning and evaluating treatment outcomes. Conclusion The combination of deep learning techniques, accurate landmark estimation, and segmentation has enabled to develop an automated system that can consistently and objectively measure the Cobb’s angle with high accuracy. Healthcare professionals can enhance the quality of care and can improve long-term outcomes for individuals with scoliosis using this method.