Feasibility of automated matching of supine and prone CT-colonography examinations.

ABSTRACT

Matching of prone and supine positions in CT colonography may improve accuracy of polyp detection. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of automatic prone-supine matching in CT-colonography using proven polyps as fixed points of reference. The method is based on similarities in the direction of centre-lines and allows for compression and extraction of the centre-lines in both positions. To illustrate the impact of the match error of the new method in practice, the visibility of the matched polyps in a primary three-dimensional unfolded cube setting was determined as well. The method was compared with a method that relies on the normalized distance along the centre-line (NDAC method). The median absolute match error was 14 mm (range 0-59 mm, average 20 mm) either proximal or distal from the actual polyp in prone position. In the observer study, 70% (26/37) of the polyps were directly visible in prone view. The overall difference in median absolute match error between both methods was small (2 mm), although half way along the centre-line there were polyps with substantial differences in match error (larger with NDAC). We concluded that automated prone-supine matching of CT-colonography studies is feasible and has a low match error. The difference with the NDAC method was small and not significant, although half way along the centre-line some differences were seen.