title: New method for 3D reconstruction of the human cranial vault from CT-scan data.
abstract: This study presents a new method for the 3D reconstruction of the human cranial vault from routine Computed Tomography (CT) data. The reconstruction method was based on the conceptualization of the shape of the cranial vault with a parametric description. An initialization was first realized with the identification of anatomical landmarks and contours on Digitally Reconstructed Radiographs (DRR) in order to obtain a pre-personalized reconstruction. Then an optimization of the reconstruction was performed to segment the internal and external surfaces of the cranial vault for thickness computation. The method was validated by comparing final reconstructions issued from our approach and from a manual slice-by-slice segmentation method on ten CT-scans. Errors were comparable to the CT image resolution, and less than 2 min were dedicated to the operator-dependent marking step. The reconstruction of internal and external surfaces of the cranial vault allows quantifying and visualizing of thickness throughout the cranial vault. This thickness mapping is useful for clinical purposes as additional pre-surgical information. Moreover, this study constitutes a first step in the personalized characterization of skull resistance directly from routine exams.
authors.affiliation: Arts et Métiers Paristech, CNRS, LBM, 151 boulevard de l'hôpital 75013, France. cedric.laurent@ensem.inpl-nancy.fr
authors.forename: Cédric P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Laurent
authors.forename: Erwan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jolivet
authors.forename: Jerome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hodel
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Decq
authors.forename: Wafa
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Skalli
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D012886:Skull / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*