Journal of pediatric orthopedics
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Three boys had percutaneous biopsies of pyogenic infections of the spine guided by computed tomography (CT). All had typical features of chronic vertebral osteomyelitis, i.e., narrowing of disc space, destruction of the contiguous vertebral endplates, sclerosis of vertebral bodies, and soft tissue swelling as noted on radiographs, CT, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). ⋯ If blood cultures are negative, a biopsy of the vertebral body is recommended in order to determine the activity of the process and the type of organism, and its susceptibility to antibiotics. CT-guided percutaneous biopsy is an alternative to open surgical biopsy.
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This study determined whether a significant difference in response to vibratory stimuli was consistently present in a large group of children with idiopathic scoliosis as compared with age-matched controls. Fifty-eight unselected adolescent females with documented progressive idiopathic scoliosis were studied along with age-matched controls. ⋯ Results indicated that highly significant differences existed between scoliotic children and controls at all sites tested (p less than 0.01), with scoliotic children being more sensitive than controls. The results support the presence of a central aberration in posterior column function that may be a primary etiology of idiopathic scoliosis.