Recording Natural Head Position Using Cone Beam Computerized Tomography

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 21; no. 24; p. 8189
• Main Authors: Hsung, Tai-Chiu, Yeung, Wai-Kan, Choi, Wing-Shan, Luk, Wai-Kuen, Cheng, Yi-Yung, Lam, Yu-Hang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 08.12.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Algorithms; cone beam computer tomography; Cone-Beam Computed Tomography; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Lasers; medical image registration; natural head position; Patients; Phantoms, Imaging; Radiation; Reproducibility; Scanners; Tomography; medical image registration; cone beam computer tomography; natural head position
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s21248189

The purpose of this study was to develop a technique to record the natural head position (NHP) of a subject using the scout images of cone beam computerized tomography (CBCT) scans. The first step was to align a hanging mirror with the vertical (XY) plane of the CBCT field-of-view (FOV) volume. Then, two scout CBCT images, at frontal and at sagittal planes, were taken when the subject exhibited a NHP. A normal CBCT scan on the subject was then taken separately. These scout images were used to correct the orientation of the normal CBCT scan. A phantom head was used for validation and performance analysis of the proposed method. It was found that the orientation detection error was within 0.88°. This enables easy and economic NHP recording for CBCT without additional hardware.