| Objectives: The purpose of this study was to quantify the relationship between patient measurements and film quality for upright full-spine radiographs, as well as to determine how patient age and gender influence the quality of this projection. Methods: Using the Kappa coefficient, the reliability of using a 5-point Likert scale to evaluate film quality of 58 full-spine views was carried out first. Data were then collected from 2 different chiropractic colleges comparing AP measurements with film quality evaluations, patient ages and genders. One hundred twenty-two cases were evaluated. Spearman’s correlation coefficient and Mann Whitney-U were the main statistics used to evaluate the data. Results: Spearman’s correlation coefficient comparing patient size to film quality was -0.467 (p < 0.05). Comparing patients whose AP measurement was > 28
cm with those smaller than this number was also statistically significant (Z = -3.79; p < 0.01). No gender difference was found for film quality (p = 0.22), but significant correlations were noted comparing patient ages with their sizes (r = .302; p < 0.01), and their film quality scores (r = -0.41; p < 0.05). Conclusions: The full-spine radiograph is strongly dependent upon the AP measurement of the patient as well as the patient’s age. Full-spine radiographs are not recommended for patients measuring > 28 cm or for older patients. First author: Cynthia K. Peterson This abstract is reproduced with permission of the publisher. Full text is available by subscription. |
