Computed tomographic studies on ossification status of medial epiphysis of clavicle: Effect of slice thickness and dose distribution.

ABSTRACT

The accuracy of technique adopted for Forensic age diagnostics of young adults and adolescents especially in case of livings lies in the standardization of the technical parameters used. The emerging radiological techniques, when used in standardized way may minimize the possibilities of misinterpretation, as it has been practically shown in present study. CT scans of 100 live subjects were performed on 16-slice (Siemen’s Sensation 16) CT scan machine and the volumetric data acquired was reconstructed into five separate sets of slice thickness for each one of the subjects included in the study and the ossification status for each set of slice thickness was determined for all the subjects separately. The results are almost identical while evaluating ossification stages from 1 and 2 mm thick slice data but the differences are found in the ossification stages when evaluated using 3 mm, 5 mm and 7 mm slice thickness as compared those found in 1 and 2 mm slice thickness. It was concluded that by increasing slice thickness the rate of error-nous interpretation are also increasing. Thus, the minimum reliable thickness to produce high resolution scans in order to get maximum accuracy is 2 mm for staging medial clavicular ossification from CT scan and the reconstruction should be done using kernel (filter) B60F at window setting osteo (1500/450HU).