The study of respiratory function is of key importance for the clinical evaluation of patients with idiopathic scoliosis. Such study has been traditionally based on classical pulmonary function tests and arterial blood gas analysis. However, neither procedure gives any information on the topographical distribution of abnormalities, and both might be suboptimal as far as sensitivity is concerned. The preliminary results obtained with radioaerosol lung scintigraphy in 11 patients with scoliosis are here presented. They lead to the conclusion that radioaerosol lung scintigraphy, besides being an useful adjunct to more traditional diagnostic procedures, can yield unique information on the localization of convective ventilation derangements induced by the dynamic abnormalities of the rib cage.