Linear measurement accuracy using cone-beam computed tomography for human skull / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Cone-beam computed tomography has been widely applied in the dentistry due to irreplaceable advantages. Among those advantages, linear measurement is one of the important ones. Further studies are suggest to explore the accuracy and repeatability of linear measurement for the whole skul , as wel as the effect of different resolution and scanning thickness on the linear measurement results. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the accuracy of linear measurement using cone-beam computed tomography (Newtom VG) on the human skul , with two different voxel sizes. METHODS:In this study, 22 anatomic landmarks in four dry human skul s were marked and 11 linear measurements were obtained. These were considered to be the gold standard (real measurement). The skul s were scanned by cone-beam computed tomography (Newtom VG) at two voxel sizes:0.3 mm and 0.15 mm. Linear measurement was performed in axial and coronal planes. SPSS software version 17 was used for data analysis between radiographic measurement and real measurement. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The mean differences of real and radiographic measurements were-0.27 to 0.14 in four different sections, and statistical analysis showed no significant difference between linear measurements and gold standard (P>0.05). There was no significant between two different voxel sizes (P>0.05). Cone-beam computed tomography (Newtom VG) is highly accurate and reproducible in linear measurements in the axial and coronal planes. A cone-beam computed tomography scan with a larger voxel size (0.3 mm) is recommended, resulting in lower radiation dose and faster scan time.