Optimizing region of interest size and placement for clinical opportunistic computed tomography (CT) trabecular bone Hounsfield unit measurements
Authors' conclusion
Non-radiologists can reliably identify the vertebral body centroid and measure HU. For clinical use, we recommend a 200-mm2 circular ROI placed at the vertebral body centroid on L1 axial imaging.
Study context
- Population
- Clinical CT scans; L1 and L4 vertebral bodies; precision cohort of 30 patients with two scans within 16 days
- Participants
- 30 clinical CT scans
- Comparison
- Varying region of interest (ROI) sizes and placements; axial vs sagittal
- Outcome
- Reliability of vertebral body centroid and HU measurement
Methodological detailsintra- and inter-observer reliability, 3 non-radiologist readers
- Intra- and inter-observer reliability
- 3 non-radiologist readers
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Vertebral body centroid placement between readers, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC)
> 0.99
Intra- and inter-observer reliability, all ROI sizes, both projections, ICC
> 0.95
Statistically but not clinically significant differences between ROI sizes at L1; no difference at L4
less than 8 HU
Axial Hounsfield unit (HU) generally higher than sagittal, all ROI sizes, L1 and L4
≈5-12 HU
Further findings
Precision of 200-mm² axial and sagittal ROIs (precision cohort) · two scans within 16 days
- L1 and L4 HU %CV
- 4.8-7.9%
- Least significant change
- 10-16 HU
Original publication
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