Comparison of ultrasound scanning for scoliosis assessment: Robotic versus manual

• Published in: The international journal of medical robotics + computer assisted surgery Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. e2468 - n/a
• Main Authors: Victorova, Maria, Lau, Heidi Hin Ting, Lee, Timothy Tin‐Yan, Navarro‐Alarcon, David, Zheng, Yongping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.04.2023
• Subjects: Humans; medical robotics; Reproducibility of Results; Robotic Surgical Procedures; Robotics; Scanning; Scoliosis; Scoliosis - diagnostic imaging; Spinal curvature; spine; Spine - diagnostic imaging; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasonography - methods; ultrasound imaging; ultrasound imaging; spine; medical robotics; scoliosis
• ISSN: 1478-5951; 1478-596X; 1478-596X
• DOI: 10.1002/rcs.2468

Background Ultrasound (US) imaging for scoliosis assessment is challenging for a non‐experienced operator. The robotic scanning was developed to follow a spinal curvature with deep learning and apply consistent forces to the patient's back. Methods Twenty three scoliosis patients were scanned with US device both, robotically and manually. Two human raters measured each subject's spinous process angles on robotic and manual coronal images. Results The robotic method showed high intra‐ (ICC > 0.85) and inter‐rater (ICC > 0.77) reliabilities. Compared with the manual method, the robotic approach showed no significant difference (p < 0.05) when measuring coronal deformity angles. The mean absolute deviation for intra‐rater analysis lies within an acceptable range from 0 to 5° for the minimum of 86% and maximum 97% of a total number of the measured angles. Conclusions This study demonstrated that scoliosis deformity angles measured on ultrasound images obtained with robotic scanning are comparable to those obtained by manual scanning.