Answer to the Letter to the Editor of J. Padulo concerning: 'vertebral rotation in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis calculated by radiograph and back surface analysis-based methods: Correlation between the Raimondi method and rasterstereography

摘要

We should like to respond to a recent letter to the editor that aims to demonstrate grave statistical errors in our paper published in this journal in February 2013 1, which, if true, would invalidate some of our conclusions. It was not the aim of our article to propose rasterste-reographic technique as an alternative method that can be substituted for the calculation of vertebral rotation in sco-liosis diagnosis. As indicated both by the title (Vertebral rotation in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis calculated by radiograph and back surface analysis-based methods: correlation between the Raimondi method and rasterste-reography) and in the introduction, our aim was "to evaluate the relationship, if any, between an X-ray-based method (i.e. the Raimondi method) and rasterstereogra-phy" in the assessment of vertebral rotation in a sample of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.