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Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a three-dimensional (3D) deformity of the spinal column in pediatric population. The primary cause of scoliosis remains unknown. The lack of such understanding has hampered development of effective preventive methods for management of this disease. A long-held assumption in pathogenesis of AIS is that the upright spine in human plays an important role in induction of scoliosis. Here, the variations in the sagittal curve of the scoliotic and non-scoliotic pediatric spines were used to study whether specific sagittal curves, under physiological loadings, are prone to 3D deformation leading to scoliosis. To this end, finite element models of the S shaped elastic rods, which their curves were derived from the radiographs of 129 sagittal spinal curves of adolescents with and without scoliosis, were generated. Using the mechanics of deformation in elastic rods, this study showed that …