Two hundred seventy-one school children aged 10–16 years and 72 normal adults aged 21–59 years were scanned by ISIS. Subjects with any evidence of scoliosis were excluded from the study. Characteristic ISIS parameters of back shape showed no statistically significant differences related to age or sex for the children. Back shape in both men and women was not significantly different from that of the children, except for kyphosis angles which were greater.