How to use SpineUI

The main page: an interactive 3D spine you configure, explore and explain. Everything else in SpineUI builds on it.

How to use it

1. Choose a Curve Pattern (single, double, thoracic, lumbar, thoracolumbar, or Custom).
2. Set the Cobb angle (0–100°), the side it bulges toward, and the vertebral rotation (0–60°) for each curve. If a curve is lopsided, move Share above the apex (see Uneven curves below).
3. Turn the model with the mouse or touch, or use the Front, Side, Rear and Free 3D buttons above it.
4. Read the Live Curve Summary on the right, or step through the Guide tab.
5. Press Save Configuration to keep the spine in this browser. Reset puts everything back to the defaults.

What is in it

Curve patterns

Presets for the common patterns. Double curve adds a secondary curve that is kept anatomically compatible with the primary one.

Custom curves

Build any number of curves over any range of vertebrae (C1 to S1). Edits are held until you press Apply Changes; Reset discards them. Show/hide and focus work immediately. The first curve is always the primary one.

Kyphosis and lordosis

Seen from the side, the spine curves front to back: kyphosis in the upper back and lordosis in the lower back. The Front-to-back curves section has a slider for each (kyphosis 10–90°, lordosis 10–80°). They start at typical values (38° and 54°), so leave them alone if you only care about the sideways curve. Press View from the side to see the change, and Typical values to go back.

Choose the apex

In a Custom curve, the Apex setting lets you pick the vertebra where your curve is most displaced, as on your report. The curve is then built around it. Left on Automatic, the apex is the middle vertebra between the two end vertebrae. The apex has to lie between the end vertebrae, not on one of them.

Uneven curves

Real curves are often lopsided: for example 40° of a 70° curve above the apex and 30° below. The Share above the apex slider decides how the Cobb angle is divided. It starts at an even bend, and you can set 30–70%. The total stays the Cobb angle, and the Summary shows the angle drawn above and below the apex. Press Even split to go back. At the default, the two halves can differ by a few degrees, because the middle vertebra is not always exactly halfway.

Live Curve Summary

For every curve: Cobb angle, side, rotation, end vertebrae, apex, how far the apex sits from the centre line, and a general size label.

Overlays

Cobb annotations (end-plate lines and angle labels), level labels, and reference lines (the centre sacral vertical line and the C7 plumb line). Turn them on or off in the Layers panel.

Anatomy layers

Vertebrae, discs, spinal cord, nerve roots, pelvis, muscles and a translucent head. Show only what you want to look at.

Hover and click

Hover a vertebra to see its name, tilt and rotation. Click anything to select it and read about it in the Anatomy tab.

Save and reset

Save Configuration stores the spine in this browser. The unsaved working spine is kept for the browser session, so other pages see it too.

• TipOn a phone, the viewport is at the top; scroll down for the panels.
• TipEsc clears the current selection.

• Keep in mindThe model is a generic procedural spine, not your own anatomy.
• Keep in mindAngles you enter are drawn as given; the engine does not check whether they are medically plausible together.
• Keep in mindThe kyphosis and lordosis numbers are the model's own and close to, but not the same as, the clinical measurements. Vertebrae are not drawn wedge-shaped, so conditions such as Scheuermann's disease cannot be shown.

The Anatomy tab on the right. Click any structure to learn what it is and how the configured curve affects it.

How to use it

1. Open the Anatomy tab, or just click a vertebra, disc, cord, nerve roots, pelvis, head or muscles in the 3D view.
2. Read its description. Use the up and down arrow keys to step to the vertebra above or below.
3. Press Isolate to fade everything else, or Focus to fly the camera to it.

What is in it

Details per structure

Plain-language notes on what each part does and what changes inside a curve, such as rotation, wedging and nerve-root position.

Isolate

Fades every other structure so you can look at one part by itself.

Focus

Moves the camera to frame the selection; the selection chip in the viewport has the same button.

A guided tour of the spine on screen. Each step explains one thing and moves the camera to it.

How to use it

1. Open the Guide tab on the right.
2. Press Next to move through the overview, each curve, balance, and questions to ask your care team.
3. Press Copy summary to put a one-paragraph description on your clipboard.

What is in it

One step per curve

Where the curve runs, which way it bulges, what the Cobb angle means, how rotation shows up (for example a rib prominence) and a general size description.

Balance step

Whether the head sits over the pelvis from the front, and how the spine compensates above and below a curve.

Questions to ask

A short list to take to an appointment.

• Keep in mindIt describes the model on screen. It never diagnoses, predicts progression or advises treatment.

An illustration of what a spine with a given amount of correction looks like in a brace or after fusion surgery.

How to use it

1. Open the Treatment tab and choose Brace or Surgery.
2. Brace: set the in-brace correction. A translucent shell and pressure pads appear on the convex side.
3. Surgery: choose the upper and lower instrumented levels (or Fit to primary curve), set the correction, and pedicle screws and rods appear.
4. Read the Before → after list. Press Off (or the × on the amber chip) to go back to the configured spine.

What is in it

How it works

The curves are shrunk by the percentage you choose and the normal spine engine redraws everything. Nothing else is guessed.

What a brace reaches

A standard thoracolumbar brace is treated as reaching curves whose apex is at T7 or lower; higher curves are left as they are, and the panel says so.

What surgery reaches

Curves are corrected in proportion to how much of them lies inside the instrumented levels.

• Keep in mindNot a prediction. Real results vary widely between people and treatments.
• Keep in mindThe brace correction is a percentage you choose, and the brace shell is a generic drawing: a real brace's outline and trimlines differ with the curve and between orthotists.
• Keep in mindThe simulation is never saved, shared or included in a link.

The download button above the 3D view.

How to use it

1. Set up the view you want (angle, layers, overlays).
2. Press the download button and choose Save image (PNG) or One-page report (PDF).

What is in it

PNG

A high-resolution picture of the current view with a short caption of the curve numbers.

PDF report

One page: the 3D view, a curve table, balance numbers and, if you keep records on the dashboard, a Cobb history chart. Fictional demo records are never included.

• TipBoth are made on your device; nothing is uploaded.
• TipThe same save-image button is on the Compare page.

Send someone a link that opens your spine in a viewer where they can turn it around and read the curves.

How to use it

1. In the workspace, press the share button above the 3D view.
2. Optionally add a title (do not put a name in it).
3. Press Copy link, or Share… on a phone, and send it.
4. They open it, look at it, and can open their own editable copy. Your original is never changed.

What is in it

Serverless

The spine is encoded in the link after the # sign, which browsers never send to any server. Nothing is stored and there is nothing to delete.

What is in a link

Only the curves: end vertebrae, Cobb angle, side, rotation and the above/below-apex split, the chosen apex, and the kyphosis and lordosis if you changed them, plus the optional title. No records, notes or names.

The viewer

Front, Side, Rear and Free 3D views, auto-rotate, a list of curves, and a button to open a copy in the workspace.

• Keep in mindAnyone with the link, and anyone they forward it to, can read the numbers.
• Keep in mindA link cannot be taken back. To stop sharing, stop passing it on.

Put two spines side by side to see what differs, for example an earlier and a later visit.

How to use it

1. Open Compare. It starts with your earliest and latest dashboard entries.
2. Pick spine A and spine B from the menus (dashboard dates, the current workspace spine, or the saved one). Swap them with one click.
3. Choose Side by side, Overlay (B as a violet ghost over A) or Morph (slide or play from A to B).
4. Read What differs for the Cobb angle change per curve and the shift of the C7 centre line.
5. Press the download button for a picture.

• TipAdd your own entries on the Patient Dashboard to compare real dates. Until then it shows the fictional sample entries.

• Keep in mindTwo measurements of the same X-ray commonly differ by about 3–5°, so small differences may not be real change.
• Keep in mindDashboard entries carry no rotation data, so none is drawn for them.
• Keep in mindMorph is a picture of the difference, not what happened in between. Nothing here predicts progression.

Measure a Cobb angle yourself on an X-ray image. You place the lines; the tool does the arithmetic.

How to use it

1. Open the Cobb Tool and choose an image (JPG, PNG or WebP). It is shown on your device only.
2. Click two points along the top end plate of the upper end vertebra, then two points along the bottom end plate of the lower end vertebra.
3. Drag any circle to fine-tune. Scroll to zoom in, drag the background to pan, and use brightness, contrast and invert to see the end plates better.
4. Choose the end vertebrae, and check which side the curve bulges toward (it is suggested from the tilt of the lines; you can override it).
5. Press Measure another curve for more, then View on the 3D spine or Add to my records.

What is in it

Side suggestion

The end-plate lines converge toward the inside of the curve, which tells the tool which way it bulges. A switch handles flipped images.

Use the result

Send the measurements to the 3D workspace as curves, or add them to your dashboard as a user-entered self-check.

• Keep in mindThis tool is temporarily under maintenance and will be back soon.
• Keep in mindIt does not find vertebrae or analyse the image. The result is exactly as good as where you place the lines.
• Keep in mindMeasuring from a photo or screen is less accurate than a clinical reading. Your clinician's number is the one that counts.

Seventeen general movements for mobility, posture, strength and balance, performed on a 3D figure.

How to use it

1. Pick a movement from the list on the left (grouped by Mobility, Posture, Strength and Balance).
2. Press play or Space. Drag the timeline to scrub, and change the speed.
3. For one-sided movements, choose Left or Right in the details panel.
4. Change the camera (Front, Side, Rear, Free 3D), the figure, and Skin or X-ray.
5. Read the steps, the typical amount and the cautions on the right.

What is in it

Your posture

Apply my configured posture shapes the figure's trunk from the spine in the workspace. Show my spine inside draws it in the X-ray body.

Planted feet

Squats sink, heel raises rise and a lifted knee leaves the other leg in place, so the figure stays grounded.

• Keep in mindGeneral demonstrations, not a treatment plan. Scoliosis-specific exercise is individual: a trained physiotherapist chooses the movements, side and cues for a particular curve.
• Keep in mindStop and seek advice if a movement causes pain, numbness, tingling, dizziness or breathlessness.

A rigged human walking, with the trunk shaped by your configured spine.

How to use it

1. Open the Walking Lab and press play, or press Space.
2. Pick a clip (walk, upright walk, jog), a figure and a speed.
3. Turn on overlays for pelvis tilt, trunk lean, shoulder rotation or foot contacts, and read the live charts.
4. Turn Posture on or off to compare the figure with and without the configured spine's shape.

• Keep in mindLeg movement is a generic animation. It illustrates general walking mechanics and is not a gait assessment or a prediction.

Read the measurements written in a report or image, check them, and see them on the 3D spine.

How to use it

1. Upload a PDF or image of a report (it is read on your device; nothing is uploaded).
2. Review Measurements: the extracted values are shown beside the document. Correct anything wrong and confirm each value.
3. Explore in 3D: apply the confirmed values as a new configuration, to the current one, or cancel.

• TipNo document? Choose manual entry and type the numbers from your report.

• Keep in mindOnly values you confirm are used. It reads text that a clinician wrote; it does not analyse X-ray pictures. To measure an image yourself, use the Cobb Tool.

A private log of measurements and symptoms over time, with charts and a summary for appointments.

How to use it

1. Press New entry. Add a date, the Cobb angles you were told, symptoms (0–10) and notes.
2. Filter by date, region or source. Open an entry to edit it, mark it clinician-verified, or View in 3D.
3. Press Appointment summary to print or download a one-page summary.
4. Start empty record when you want to replace the fictional sample data with your own.

What is in it

User-entered vs verified

Everything you type is user-entered. An entry can be marked clinician-verified with the clinician's name and reference. Verified values are drawn filled and connected; user-entered ones hollow and unconnected.

Charts

Cobb angle by region over time and symptom history. Editing the clinical values of a verified entry removes its verification.

• Keep in mindIt records what you type. It does not interpret trends or give medical advice.

Where your information lives and how to move it.

How to use it

1. Press the backup button in the header (the drive icon).
2. Download backup (.json) saves your saved spine and your records in one file.
3. To restore, choose a backup file, tick what to restore, and confirm. The page reloads with the restored data.

What is in it

Local only

Everything is stored in your own browser. There are no accounts and no uploads. Documents and images are read on your device.

Backup file

Imports are checked field by field before anything is written, so a damaged or foreign file is rejected.

• TipClearing site data or using a different browser or device starts you from empty. Back up first.

• Keep in mindThe backup file is not encrypted. Keep it somewhere private.