title: Validation of an Objective Assessment Instrument for Non-Surgical Treatments of Chest Wall Deformities.
abstract: Depending on the severity of the condition and associated risk, surgical intervention may not always be the first choice. This is true for treating chest wall deformities such as pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum. For both conditions, novel non-surgical treatments have been developed to gradually alleviate the malformation making use of the elastic nature of the costal cartilages at an early age of the patient. To quantify the performance of such treatments, this paper introduces and discusses the development of a software-based instrument that utilizes 3D chest optical images (surface scans) as input and uses registration techniques to produce an objective gauge of a patient's physical improvement after undergoing treatments. Further discussed is an experiment designed to investigate the construct validity of the developed instrument.
authors.affiliation: Modeling, Simulation, and Visualization Eng. Dept.
authors.forename: Mohammad F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Obeid
authors.affiliation: Modeling, Simulation, and Visualization Eng. Dept.
authors.forename: Nahom
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kidane
authors.affiliation: Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center, Old Dominion University, USA.
authors.forename: Krzysztof J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Rechowicz
authors.affiliation: Electrical and Computer Eng. Dept., Old Dominion University, USA.
authors.forename: Salim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chemlal
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters and Eastern Virginia Medical School, USA.
authors.forename: Robert E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.affiliation: Modeling, Simulation, and Visualization Eng. Dept.
authors.forename: Frederic D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Mckenzie
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods; D009139:Musculoskeletal Abnormalities / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique; D035441:Thoracic Wall / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome