title: Computer-aided assessment of scoliosis on posteroanterior radiographs.
abstract: In order to reduce the observer variability in radiographic scoliosis assessment, a computer-aided system was developed. The system semi-automatically measured the Cobb angle and vertebral rotation on posteroanterior radiographs based on Hough transform and snake model, respectively. Both algorithms were integrated with the shape priors to improve the performance. The system was tested twice by each of three observers. The intraobserver and interobserver reliability analyses resulted in the intraclass correlation coefficients higher than 0.9 and 0.8 for Cobb measurement on 70 radiographs and rotation measurement on 156 vertebrae, respectively. Both the Cobb and rotation measurements resulted in the average intraobserver and interobserver errors less than 2 degrees and 3 degrees , respectively. There were no significant differences in the measurement variability between groups of curve location, curve magnitude, observer experience, and vertebra location. Compared with the documented results, measurement variability is reduced by using the developed system. This system can help orthopedic surgeons assess scoliosis more reliably.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, Yunnan University, Kunming, China. jhzhang_2006@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Junhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Edmond
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.forename: Douglas L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: James V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Raso
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lawrence H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Le
authors.forename: Xinling
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012600:Scoliosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014102:Torsion Abnormality / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging