Objectives: To assess the reliability of a new three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound technique for the measurement of the subpubic arch angle (SPA) and the agreement between two contrast-enhancing 3D ultrasound techniques.
Methods: We acquired two static 3D transperineal volumes from 72 nulliparous women using two ultrasound machines equipped with two different 3D contrast enhancement and linear reconstruction softwares: 1. Oblique View Extended Imaging with HD-Volume Imaging (OVIX-HDVI™), Samsung; 2. Omniview with Volume Contrast Imaging (Omniview-VCI™), GE Healthcare. An operator measured SPA once by OVIX-HDVI, and twice by Omniview-VCI, while another operator measured SPA once by Omniview-VCI. We evaluated intra- and inter-observer reproducibility of Omniview-VCI and intermethod agreement. Reproducibility and intermethod agreement were studied by means of intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland-Altman method.
Results: Omniview-VCI SPA measurements showed excellent intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility (ICC 0.970; 95% C.I. 0.952 to 0.981, 0.932; 95% C.I. 0.893 to 0.957, respectively). Furthermore, Omniview VCI SPA measurements demonstrated excellent agreement with those performed by OVIX-HDVI technique (ICC 0.943; 95 C.I. 0.911 to 0.964). No systematic difference was found in any of the reliability studies.
Conclusions: OmniView-VCI is a reliable method for SPA assessment. Both OmniView-VCI and OVIX-HDVI can be used interchangeably for SPA measurement.
Keywords: Contrast-enhancing techniques; subpubic arch angle; three-dimensional ultrasound.