Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Simple CT three-dimensional reconstruction data cannot keep safety of the surgery completely, and celloidin embedding cross-sectional slice has been widely used in the research on skull, fossa orbitalis and knee joint. There are few reports on the spinal cross-section slice treated with celloidin embedding.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the diagnostic value of sectional slices and CT scanning three-dimensional reconstruction in observing and measuring structural parameters of thoracolumbar intervertebrae.
METHODS: Forty adult thoracolumbar vertebrae specimens were enrolled for CT scanning and reconstruction, and the anatomic parameters were measured with imageology software called ‘e-flim’. Meanwhile, above-mentioned samples were made into serially coronal, sagittal and horizontal sections with upgraded celloidin embedding technique. Corresponding anatomic features were surveyed and re-established via Amira4.1 software.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Sectional slices were more convenient for direct-viewing the adjacent relationship of individual structures which exist in vertebral canal or intervertebral canal than CT two-dimensional images; there were significant differences in measuring height, width of intervertebral canals, oblique diameter of vertebral canal and diameter of spinal cord between two methods; there was no significant difference in measuring the length of intervertebral canal, vertical and transverse diameter of vertebral pedicle. Due to the influence of soft tissue or bone window width, window level and resolving power, the CT two-dimensional images could not precisely identify the structure of soft tissues, however, sectional slices cold distinctly discriminate the distribution of lumbosacral spinal cord, nerve root, accompanying vessel, intervertebral canal ligament, etc. Reconstruction for sectional slices could clearly identify the osseous structure and non-osseous structure, and helpful to observe the different structure parameters of vertebral canal or intervertebral canal adhered with soft tissues, while the CT scanning reconstruction can only observe the parameters of bone architecture. But the bone architecture data observed by these two methods were similar. CT scanning and sectional slice reconstruction showed the same results in observing simultaneous variation of target structures.

Key words: bone and joint implants, photographs and images of bone and joint, thoracolumber vertebrae, sectional slices, spiral CT, celloidin embedding, three-dimensional reconstruction, two-dimensional images, bone structure, height of intervertebral canal, oblique diameter of vertebral canal, ligament tissue, other grants-supported paper, photographs-containing paper of bone and joint implants