How Accurate Is CBCT in Measuring Bone Density? A Comparative CBCT‐CT In Vitro Study. (7th January 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cassetta, Michele; Stefanelli, Luigi Vito; Pacifici, Andrea; Pacifici, Luciano; Barbato, Ersilia
• Is Part Of: Clinical implant dentistry and related research. Volume 16:Number 4(2014:Nov.)
• Page Start: 471
• Page End: 478
• Publication Date: 2013-01-07
• Subjects: Dental implants -- Periodicals; Dental Implantation -- Periodicals; Dental Implants -- Periodicals; 617.693
• DOI: 10.1111/cid.12027
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1523-0899

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="cid12027-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Purpose</title> <p>Recently, cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) has become widely used for oral and maxillofacial imaging. Twenty dry mandibles were CBCT and conventional multislice CT scanned to evaluate if there is a statistically significant difference between the bone density values they produce, defined as gray density values, and to determine any correlation between them.</p> </sec> <sec id="cid12027-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Materials and Methods</title> <p>Using software and a radiographic template, the CT and CBCT scan images were overlapped, and two data sets were created, each one giving the respective gray values (voxel value [VV] or Hounsfield unit [HU]) of the same area with the same spatial coordinates. For the statistical analysis, <italic>t</italic>‐test, Pearson's correlation, and Pearson's <italic>r</italic> were used.</p> </sec> <sec id="cid12027-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>The differences between the CBCT (VV) and CT (HU) gray density values were statistically significant (<italic>p</italic> ≤ .05), whereas the Pearson's correlation coefficients and Pearson's <italic>r</italic>‐values demonstrated a statistically significant linear correlation between VV and HU gray density values.</p> </sec> <sec id="cid12027-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusion</title> <p>The lower radiation dose and reduced costs of CBCT make this a useful substitute for CT; however, this study has shown that, in order to more accurately define the bone density with CBCT, a conversion ratio needs to be applied to the VV.</p> </sec> </abstract>