The second graph is a Bland–Altman plot, a scatter plot of the variable’s means plotted on the horizontal axis and the variable’s

differences plotted on the vertical axis; it includes approximate 95% confidence bands (the confidence bands assume normality of differences). The Bland–Altman plot illustrates the amount of disagreement between the measures being compared. Bland–Altman plots were created for the measured Cobb angle and each of the following: measured Debrunner kyphosis angle; Debrunner-predicted Cobb angle; CP-868596 solubility dmso Flexicurve kyphosis GSI-IX index-predicted Cobb angle; and Flexicurve kyphosis angle-predicted Cobb angle. The scientific importance of these differences is judged qualitatively; however, we also computed the standard deviation of the mean difference between the Cobb angle and each comparator to gauge the magnitude of the error [26]. Results The mean age of the study sample was 75.3 years, average body mass

index was 26.5, and 80.5% were women. These and other characteristics of the full sample and the inter-rater reliability sample are summarized in Table 1. Table 1 Baseline demographic, behavioral and medical characteristics of study participants Characteristic Full sample (N = 113) Inter-rater reliability sample a (N = 54) Age (years) 75.3 ± 7.5 75.5 ± 7.7 Height (cm) 160.7 ± 8.9 161.1 ± 9.0 Weight (kg) 68.8 ± 15.1 68.3 ± 14.3 Body mass index (kg/m2) 26.5 ± 4.5 26.1 ± 4.3 Female gender: Geneticin % (N) 80.5 (91) 81.8 (45) Usual physical activity 2.3 ± 0.5 2.3 ± 0.6 Chronic conditions (#) 5.6 ± 3.8 5.4 ± 2.9 Vertebral fractures b,c None % (N) 75.2 (85) 74.6 (41) Thoracic % (N) 19.5 (22) 20.0 (11) Lumbar % (N) 7.1 (8) 9.1 (5) aAll P values for full vs. inter-rater samples >0.05 bPercentage of lumbar and thoracic fractures sum to greater than 100% because some participants had fractures of both spinal regions cVertebral fractures defined as ≥25% decrement in interior, middle, or posterior vertebral body height Shown in Table 2, the mean Cobb angle in the full sample was 53.76°. In the 87 cases with T4–T12 Cobb

angles, the mean Cobb angle value was 55.43. Average Debrunner kyphosis angle was similar to the average Cobb angle. As Thalidomide expected, the inscribed flexicurve kyphosis angle averaged about 20° less than the circumscribed Cobb and Debrunner angles. Table 2 Average values and distributions of standing Cobb angle and non-radiological kyphosis measurements Kyphosis measurement Sample size Mean Standard deviation Median Cobb angle, entire samplea (degrees) 113 53.76 14.76 53.10 Cobb angle, subset in which T4–T12 landmarks were used (degrees) 87 55.43 13.62 53.1 Debrunner kyphosis angle (degrees) 113 57.68 9.60 58.00 Flexicurve kyphosis index 113 0.162 0.033 0.161 Flexicurve kyphosis angle b (degrees) 113 36.50 6.82 36.