The Monday, Nov. 27 schedule of the 2017 RSNA Annual Meeting included a variety of scientific sessions discussing technical and clinical developments in Cone Beam CT systems. From improving image quality to correlating with other modalities, researchers are validating the efficacy of CBCT in diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries and pathologies.
In a poster presentation for “High Resolution Extremity Cone-Beam CT with a CMOS X-Ray Detector: System Design and Applications in Quantitative Assessment of Bone Health” Biomedical Engineer Qian Cao evaluated the ideal Cesium Iodide scintillator thickness to visualize trabecular bone detail for applications such as early detection of osteoarthritis. He compared image quality characteristics of an optimized CMOS detector to an amorphous silicon detector and a micro CT scanner. The optimized CMOS detector had superior trabecular detail compared to the Amorphous Silicon detector and comparable detail to the Micro-CT, with the advantage of a much larger field of view than Micro-CT.
In “Effect of Motion Compensation on the Image Quality of Cone Beam CT Scans in Musculoskeletal Setting” Guarav K. Thawait, MD, research associate at Johns Hopkins shared the results of a study where involuntary patient motion in CBCT scans was corrected using an iterative reconstruction algorithm. The algorithm improved motion artefacts significantly in bone structures.
In “Evaluation of Bone Erosions in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients using CBCT and MRI,” Dr. Thawait discussed a study in which a radiologist reviewed CBCT, MRI, and Ultrasound datasets for signs of rheumatoid arthritis. The correlation between CBCT and MRI was moderate while the correlation between CBCT and US was a bit higher. Though the correlations were only moderate to good between modalities, test-retest reproducibility for CBCT scans was excellent and the modality shows promise as a useful tool for RA diagnostic evaluation.