In case of surgical procedures in the head and neck region, MRI in combination with CT of the bone is often the standard modality to visualise bony landmarks for planning, navigation and risk assessment. An important downside of a CT scan is the associated radiation exposure, especially in children. An additional downside is the sedation or general anaesthesia needed for both the MRI and CT scan session in very young children. These downsides could be removed if the CT scan can be substituted by an MRI sequence that can provide the same information as CT. This project aims to determine the feasibility of recreating CT like images of the craniofacial bones from MRI images using machine learning techniques.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
80
Participants receive a CT scan of the head as part of their regular care. A larger part of the head will be scanned than for standard care.
Participants receive an MRI scan, specifically for the purpose of the study.
Synthetic CT scans will be generated from MRI scans, using the trained machine learning algorithm.
Amsterdam University Medical Center
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Geometrical accuracy.
Geometrical accuracy of the bone morphology by determining the mean surface distance in mm between the cortical edges on synthetic CT and on true CT.
Time frame: Within one year after scans have been obtained.
Radiodensity accuracy.
Accuracy of the voxelwise radiodensity in Hounsfield Units and accuracy of the radiodensity contrast.
Time frame: Within one year after scans have been obtained.
Visibility of landmarks.
Accuracy of the visibility of clinically relevant anatomical landmarks on the synthetic CT images compared to the corresponding true CT images in the adult population, rated by experienced physicians on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = not visible, 4 = very well visible).
Time frame: Within one year after scans have been obtained.
Usefulness.
Evaluation of potential usefulness of the synthetic CT images for surgical planning, surgical navigation and diagnostic purposes, as evaluated by experienced physicians and dichotomised into "useful" or "not useful".
Time frame: Within one year after scans have been obtained.
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