Accuracy of linear measurements in cone beam computed tomography with different voxel sizes

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of linear measurements on dry mandible specimens using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images acquired with different voxel sizes.

Methodology: Eight human dry mandibles were submitted to CBCT examination, using the i-CAT (Imaging Sciences, Inc. Hatfield, PA) device and four protocols with different voxel sizes. Tomographic slices with a more central view of the markers, placed on six sites on each mandible, were selected to perform measurements. Values obtained from direct measurements on the dry mandible after sectioning them on the preestablished sites were compared with measurements from the tomographic images and the measurement error.

Results: There was no statistical difference between the measurement error of the protocols (P = 0.606). The mean value of the difference between the values obtained in the images and the dry mandible was smaller than 1 mm for all the protocols.

Conclusion: The accuracy of vertical and horizontal measurements, using CBCT (i-CAT) for the four protocols, was shown to be comparable with the measurements performed on the dry mandible.