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Effect of Head Position on Facial Soft Tissue Depth Measurements Obtained Using Computed Tomography
Author(s) -
Caple Jodi M.,
Stephan Carl N.,
Gregory Laura S.,
MacGregor Donna M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.12896
Subject(s) - computed tomography , head (geology) , position (finance) , soft tissue , tomography , nuclear medicine , biomedical engineering , medicine , anatomy , radiology , geology , finance , geomorphology , economics
Abstract Facial soft tissue depth ( FSTD ) studies employing clinical computed tomography ( CT ) data frequently rely on depth measurements from raw 2D orthoslices. However, the position of each patient's head was not standardized in this method, potentially decreasing measurement reliability and accuracy. This study measured FSTD s along the original orthoslice plane and compared these measurements to those standardized by the Frankfurt horizontal ( FH ). Subadult cranial CT scans ( n = 115) were used to measure FSTD s at 18 landmarks. Significant differences were observed between the methods at eight of these landmarks ( p < 0.05), demonstrating that high‐quality data are not generated simply by employing modern imaging modalities such as CT . Proper technique is crucial to useful results, and maintaining control over head position during FSTD data collection is important. This is easily and most readily achieved in CT techniques by rotating the head to the FH plane after constructing a 3D rendering of the data.