Asian Spine Journal

Ekinci, Akyildiz, Koca, Sari, and Akpancar: Letter to the Editor: Lumbar Morphometry: A Study of Lumbar Vertebrae from a Pakistani Population Using Computed Tomography Scans

Letter to the Editor

Online first: April 15, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4184/asj.2015.9.2.316

Letter to the Editor: Lumbar Morphometry: A Study of Lumbar Vertebrae from a Pakistani Population Using Computed Tomography Scans

Safak Ekinci¹, Faruk Akyildiz², Kenan Koca³, Sebahattin Sari⁴, Serkan Akpancar³

¹Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Agri Military Hospital, Agri, Turkey.

²Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Malatya Military Hospital, Malatya, Turkey.

³Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Gulhane Military Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.

⁴Department of Radiology, Gulhane Military Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.

Corresponding author: Safak Ekinci. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Agri Military Hospital, 04000 Erzurum Caddesi, Agri, Turkey.
Tel: +90-5327339850, Fax: +90-4722152747, safakekinci@yahoo.com

Received December 14, 2014 Accepted December 15, 2014

(open-access, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Dear Editor,

We would like to discuss on the publication entitled "Lumbar morphometry: a study of lumbar vertebrae from a Pakistani population using computed tomography scans [1]". In the study, the authors described the characteristics of lumbar vertebrae of Pakistani patients and compared them with studies from other populations.

Honestly the objective of the study is noteworthy and we have a question for the authors: lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LSTV) are common in the general population, with a reported prevalence of 4%-21% [2,3]. We have studied 500 lumbar plain films and observed 17.6% transitional lumbosacral junctions [4,5].

Have the authors observed and noted transitional vertebrae in their study or have any other studies/reports on this issue shown correlation with their population?

We would appreciate the authors' comments on this concern.

Conflict of Interest

Conflict of Interest: Conflict of Interest: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

REFERENCES

REFERENCES: 1. Alam MM, Waqas M, Shallwani H, Javed G. Lumbar morphometry: a study of lumbar vertebrae from a Pakistani population using computed tomography scans. Asian Spine J 2014;8:421–426. PMID: 25187858.
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2. O'Driscoll CM, Irwin A, Saifuddin A. Variations in morphology of the lumbosacral junction on sagittal MRI: correlation with plain radiography. Skeletal Radiol 1996;25:225–230. PMID: 8741056.
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3. Castellvi AE, Goldstein LA, Chan DP. Lumbosacral transitional vertebrae and their relationship with lumbar extradural defects. Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 1984;9:493–495. PMID: 6495013.
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4. Delport EG, Cucuzzella TR, Kim N, Marley J, Pruitt C, Delport AG. Lumbosacral transitional vertebrae: incidence in a consecutive patient series. Pain Physician 2006;9:53–56. PMID: 16700281.
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5. Ekinci S, Ersen O. Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Arch Clin Exp Surg 2014;3:174–182.
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