ORAL PRESENTATION Open Access

Clinical measurement of sagittal trunk curvatures:
photographic angles versus rippstein plurimeter
angles in healthy school children
Łukasz Stoliński1*, Dariusz Czaprowski2, Mateusz Kozinoga1, Tomasz Kotwicki3

From 11th International Conference on Conservative Management of Spinal Deformities - SOSORT 2014
Annual Meeting
Wiesbaden, Germany. 8-10 May 2014

Background
Digital photography is a simply method to calculate
quantitative photographic parameters of the body posture
in the frontal and sagittal plane.

Aim
The aim of the study was to determine the correlation
between the measurements of the sagittal trunk curva-
tures carried out with two diagnostic tools: photography
and Rippstein plurimeter.

Design
This is a reliability study.

Methods
Sixty-one asymptomatic children (31 girls, 30 boys) aged
7-9 years (mean 7.9 ±0.8) were assessed once by one
observer for the sagittal curvatures of the trunk: thoracic
kyphosis (TK), lumbar lordosis (LL) and sacral slope (SS)
first with digital photography and with Rippstein pluri-
meter. Statistical analysis was performed using paired
Student t-test, Wilcoxon matched-pairs and Pearson cor-
relation coefficient.

Results
There was no significant difference regarding the measure-
ment of TK performed with photography versus pluri-
meter (43.3° ±8.8 vs. 43.0° ±8.4, p=0.47). Differences were
found for LL (39.8° ±8.2 vs.38.3° ±8.5, p<0.0001) and SS
(23.3° ±6.0 vs. 22.7° ±6.4, p=0.024). Significant correlation
between measurements performed with photography

versus Rippstein plurimeter were observed: TK (r=0.949,
p<0.0001), LL (r=0.951, p<0.0001) and SS (r=0.944,
p<0.0001).

Conclusions
Although significant difference for LL and SS were found,
the difference between measurements is small, so it seems
that photography and Rippstein plurimeter can be used
for assessment of sagittal trunk curvatures in the clinical
assessment.

Competing interests
There was no conflict of interest in relation to this study.

Authors’ details
1Rehasport Clinic, Spine Disorders Unit, Department of Pediatric Orthopedics
and Traumatology, University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland.
2Department of Physiotherapy, Józef Rusiecki University College, Olsztyn,
Poland. 3Spine Disorders Unit, Department of Pediatric Orthopedics and
Traumatology, University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland.

Published: 4 December 2014

References
1. Ferreira EAG, Duarte M, Maldonado EP, Burke TN, Marques AP: Postural

assessment software (PAS/SAPO): validation and reliability. Clinics 2010,
65(7):675-81.

2. Stoliński Ł, Kotwicki T, Czaprowski D: Active self correction of child’s
posture assessed with plurimeter and documented with digital
photography. Progress in Medicine 2012, 25(6):484-490.

doi:10.1186/1748-7161-9-S1-O15
Cite this article as: Stoliński et al.: Clinical measurement of sagittal trunk
curvatures: photographic angles versus rippstein plurimeter angles in
healthy school children. Scoliosis 2014 9(Suppl 1):O15.

1Rehasport Clinic, Spine Disorders Unit, Department of Pediatric Orthopedics
and Traumatology, University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

Stoliński et al. Scoliosis 2014, 9(Suppl 1):O15
http://www.scoliosisjournal.com/supplements/9/S1/O15

© 2014 Stoliński et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://
creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20668624?dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20668624?dopt=Abstract
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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	Background
	Aim
	Design
	Methods
	Results
	Conclusions
	Competing interests
	Authors’ details
	References