title: Computer-aided interpretation and quantification of angular periodontal bone defects on dental radiographs.
abstract: Capabilities of human observers to detect and describe small bone defects objectively are limited. Digital image processing can provide a useful contribution to the diagnostic process. This paper describes the evaluation of a computer-aided procedure for the interpretation and quantification of angular periodontal bone defects on dental radiographs. The computer-aided procedure was able to rank series of artificial periodontal bone lesions as accurate as experienced clinicians. Comparison of data from clinical inspection of lesions during surgery and quantitative results of the digitized procedure shows that the latter produced reliable information on the lesions size. Reproducibility is satisfactory. It was concluded that computer-aided detection and description of periodontal bone defects decreases the interobserver variability in general and the time-dependent variability in repeated assessments of a single observer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Radiology, Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), Free University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: P F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: van der Stelt
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Geraets
mesh_terms: D016301:Alveolar Bone Loss / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D015588:Observer Variation; D011859:Radiography; D015203:Reproducibility of Results