Reliability and accuracy of a semi-automatic segmentation protocol of the nasal cavity using cone beam computed tomography in patients with sleep apnea

Hui Chen; Tao Lv; Qing Luo; Lei Li; Qing Wang; Yanzhong Li; Debo Zhou; Elham Emami; Matthieu Schmittbuhl; Paul van der Stelt; Nelly Huynh

doi:10.1007/s00784-023-05295-6

Reliability and accuracy of a semi-automatic segmentation protocol of the nasal cavity using cone beam computed tomography in patients with sleep apnea

Clin Oral Investig. 2023 Nov;27(11):6813-6821. doi: 10.1007/s00784-023-05295-6. Epub 2023 Oct 5.

Authors

Hui Chen¹, Tao Lv², Qing Luo³, Lei Li⁴, Qing Wang⁵, Yanzhong Li⁶, Debo Zhou⁷, Elham Emami⁸, Matthieu Schmittbuhl⁹, Paul van der Stelt¹⁰, Nelly Huynh⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthodontics, School and Hospital of Stomatology, Shandong University, Shandong Key Laboratory of Oral Tissue Regeneration, Shandong Engineering Laboratory for Dental Materials and Oral Tissue Regeneration, Shandong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, Shandong, China. h.chen@sdu.edu.cn.
² Department of Orthodontics, School and Hospital of Stomatology, Shandong University, Shandong Key Laboratory of Oral Tissue Regeneration, Shandong Engineering Laboratory for Dental Materials and Oral Tissue Regeneration, Shandong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, Shandong, China. lvtao@sdu.edu.cn.
³ Hospital of Stomatology, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.
⁴ Centre for Advanced Jet Engineering Technologies (CaJET), School of Mechanical Engineering, Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency and Clean Mechanical Manufacture at Shandong University, Ministry of Education, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Mechanical Engineering Education, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
⁵ Department of Orthodontics, Stomatological Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
⁶ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, NHC Key Laboratory of Otorhinolaryngology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Special Functional Aggregated Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
⁸ Faculty of Dentistry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
⁹ Faculty of Dental Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
¹⁰ Department of Oral Radilology, Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

PMID: 37796336
DOI: 10.1007/s00784-023-05295-6

Abstract

Objectives: The objectives of this study included using the cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) technology to assess: (1) intra- and inter-observer reliability of the volume measurement of the nasal cavity; (2) the accuracy of the segmentation protocol for evaluation of the nasal cavity.

Materials and methods: This study used test-retest reliability and accuracy methods within two different population sample groups, from Eastern Asia and North America. Thirty obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients were randomly selected from administrative and research oral health data archived at two dental faculties in China and Canada. To assess the reliability of the protocol, two observers performed nasal cavity volume measurement twice with a 10-day interval, using Amira software (v4.1, Visage Imaging Inc., Carlsbad, CA). The accuracy study used a computerized tomography (CT) scan of an OSA patient, who was not included in the study sample, to fabricate an anthropomorphic phantom of the nasal cavity volume with known dimensions (18.9 ml, gold standard). This phantom was scanned using one NewTom 5G (QR systems, Verona, Italy) CBCT scanner. The nasal cavity was segmented based on CBCT images and converted into standard tessellation language (STL) models. The volume of the nasal cavity was measured on the acquired STL models (18.99 ± 0.066 ml).

Results: The intra-observer and inter-observer intraclass correlation coefficients for the volume measurement of the nasal cavity were 0.980-0.997 and 0.948-0.992 consecutively. The nasal cavity volume measurement was overestimated by 1.1%-3.1%, compared to the gold standard.

Conclusions: The semi-automatic segmentation protocol of the nasal cavity in patients with sleep apnea and by using cone beam computed tomography is reliable and accurate.

Clinical relevance: This study provides a reliable and accurate protocol for segmentation of nasal cavity, which will facilitate the clinician to analyze the images within nasoethmoidal region.

Keywords: Accuracy; Cone beam computed tomography; Nasal cavity; Obstructive sleep apnea; Reliability.

MeSH terms

Cone-Beam Computed Tomography / methods
Humans
Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods
Nasal Cavity
Reproducibility of Results
Sleep Apnea Syndromes*
Sleep Apnea, Obstructive*

Abstract

MeSH terms

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