Effect of Minor Amendments of Patient's Position on the Accuracy of Linear Measurements Yielded from Cone Beam Computed Tomography.
BACKGROUND
Image distortion in intra and extra-oral radiographs are an unavoidable phenomenon. Patient's positional changes from the routine alignments is an important issue for this unwanted alteration, Therefore the accuracy of the dimensional measurements will be affected.


OBJECTIVE
Our purpose is to find out the effect of minor changes (possibly happening in the clinic) in the position of a human dry skull on the accuracy of the measurements acquired by Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT).


METHODS
In this study, 3 locations on the skull were pointed with radio- opaque markers. Imaging process with Kodak 9000 CBCT was performed in standard and 10 analytically miss- oriented positions. Then 2 distances were measured between the centers of markers. Later, these measurements were compared with the standard position values.


RESULTS
There was not any imperative difference in the measurements of the 10 altered positions yielded in this study with standard position values.


CONCLUSIONS
According to our results, apparently, the accuracy of linear measurements in CBCT images is endorsed by unintentional small changes in the patient's position during the projections.
Dept. Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Biomaterial Research Center, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Sh
Sh
Shahidi
Dept. Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, School of Dentistry, Ahwaz University of Medical Sciences, Ahwaz, Iran.
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Feiz
Cone Beam Computed Tomography; Linear Measurement; Position