Reproducibility of geometrical acquisition of intra-thoracic organs of children on CT scans

Abstract

This paper analyses geometry of intra-thoracic organs from computed tomography (CT) scans performed on 20 children aged from 4 months to 16 years. A set of two measurements on lungs and heart were performed by the same observer. A third set was performed by a second observer. Thus, the intra- and inter-observer relative deviation of measurements was analysed. Multiple regressions were used in order to study the relationship between the CT properties (scanner, voltage, dose, pixel size, slice increment) and the relative deviation of measurements. There is a very low systematic intra- and inter-observer bias in measurements except for the volume of the heart. None of the CT data properties has a significant influence on the relative deviation of measurement. In the present paper, the measurements and 3D reconstruction protocol described can be applied to characterise the growth of the intra-thoracic organs.

Keywords:

• 3D reconstruction
• intra-thoracic organs
• child
• reproducibility

Acknowledgements

This study was partly funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) in the framework of the ‘SECUR_ENFANT’ project. This project was also supported and partly funded by the French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research (INRETS) and by the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur French region. The authors would like to thank Dr. Chaumoitre and Pr. Panuel of the Department of Radiology at the North Hospital of Marseille (France) as well Dr. Breaud of the University Hospital Centre of Nice (France) for their assistance.

Ethical standards: The experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.

Conflict of interest: The authors certify that they have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence this work.