There is an interesting new non invasive technique discussed in the news recently that can predict how badly the spine will worsen in a person diagnosed with scoliosis. Previous methods are simply to have a doctor regularly monitor the spine about two or three times a year to see if the spine curvature is gradually increasing. This new test would give much more insight as to just how severe a patient’s scoliosis might be.
The new non invasive method is known as ScoliScore. This test uses a patient’s saliva to screen over 50 genetic markers that are known to be associated with the progression of scoliosis. It uses the results of the screenings to assign a calculated score. A very low score would imply that the curvature of the spine is not expected to rapidly grow worse, and that it does not need to be monitored so closely. On the other hand, a really high score would require more attention and treatment options should be discussed much sooner. ScoliScore has been shown to work for genetic markers in Caucasian children. Currently, research is being done to verify that it also works in African and Asian children as well.
Brenda Hom is a young girl diagnosed with scoliosis participating in this new study. When the doctor told the mother, Joyce Hom that her daughter had about a 30 degree curvature of the spine she could only hope for the best that future checkups will show that it is not getting worse. Hopefully, ScoliScore will be able to give an accurate prediction of the progression of scoliosis, rather than playing the waiting game.
This can prove to be an extremely useful test, as tens of thousands of children are diagnosed with scoliosis every year. Unfortunately, this is still very new to the medical field and is not widely accepted. This also means that most insurance companies will not cover the expensive cost of about $3,000 dollars to perform the test. Hopefully, this kind of test will be accepted in the future and allow for people to better assess spine curvature progression and to discuss possible scoliosis treatment options earlier.
