The reliability of different methods of manual volumetric segmentation of pharyngeal and sinonasal sub regions

Publication date: Available online 18 September 2017
Source:Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology
Author(s): Bala Chakravarthy Neelapu, Om Prakash Kharbanda, Harish Kumar Sardana, Abhishek Gupta, Srikanth Vasamsetti, Rajiv Balachandran, Shailendra Singh Rana, Viren Sardana
Objectives: The purpose of the study was to test the intra- and interobserver reliability of manual volumetric segmentation of pharyngeal and sinonasal airway sub-regions. Study Design: CBCT data of 15 patients were collected from an orthodontic clinical database. Two experienced orthodontists independently performed manual segmentation of the airway sub-regions. Four performance measures were considered to test intra- and interobserver reliability of manual segmentation: (i) volume correlation, (ii) mean slice correlation, (iii) percentage of volume difference, and (iv) percentage of non-overlapping voxels. Results: Intra- and interobserver reliability was observed to be greater than 0.96 for the entire pharyngeal and sinonasal airway sinus sub-regions for both observers using the volume correlation method. Mean slice correlation was found to be greater than 0.84, showing the existence of non-overlapping voxels. Therefore, the percentage of non-overlapping voxels was used as a reliability measure and was found to be less than 20% for both intra- and interobserver markings. Conclusion: The mean slice correlation and percentage of non-overlapping voxels were the most reliable performance measures of segmentation correctness. Volume correlation and the percentage of volume difference were observed to be the most reliable performance measures for volume correctness.



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