Journal Article

Geometric semi-automatic analysis of radiographs of Colles’ fractures

Reyes-Aldasoro, Constantino Carlos, Knapp, Karen M., Ngan, Kwun Ho, Ananda, Ananda, d’Avila Garcez, Artur, Appelboam, Andrew

2020

Overview

Fractures of the wrist are common in Emergency Departments, where some patients are treated with a procedure called Manipulation under Anaesthesia. In some cases, this procedure is unsuccessful and patients need to revisit the hospital where they undergo surgery to treat the fracture. This work describes a geometric semi-automatic image analysis algorithm to analyse and compare the x-rays of healthy controls and patients with dorsally displaced wrist fractures (Colles' fractures) who were treated with Manipulation under Anaesthesia. A series of 161 posterior-anterior radiographs from healthy controls and patients with Colles' fractures were acquired and analysed. The patients' group was further subdivided according to the outcome of the procedure (successful/unsuccessful) and pre- or post-intervention creating five groups in total (healthy, pre-successful, pre-unsuccessful, post-successful, post-unsuccessful). The semi-automatic analysis consisted of manual location of three landmarks (finger, lunate and radial styloid) and automatic processing to generate 32 geometric and texture measurements, which may be related to conditions such as osteoporosis and swelling of the wrist. Statistical differences were found between patients and controls, as well as between pre- and post-intervention, but not between the procedures. The most distinct measurements were those of texture. Although the study includes a relatively low number of cases and measurements, the statistical differences are encouraging.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adult / Aged / Aged, 80 and over / Algorithms / Anesthesia / Biology and Life Sciences / Biomedical materials / Bones / Care and treatment / Case-Control Studies / Clinical outcomes / Colles' Fracture - diagnostic imaging / Colles' Fracture - therapy / Computer science / Diagnosis / Emergency medical care / Emergency medical services / Emergency procedures / Engineering / Female / Fractures / Fractures (Injuries) / Hospitals / Humans / Image analysis / Image processing / Male / Manipulation, Orthopedic / Mathematics / Medical radiography / Medicine and Health Sciences / Methods / Middle Aged / Osteoporosis / Patients / Physical Sciences / Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods / Radiographs / Radiography / Research and Analysis Methods / Statistics / Surgery / Technology application / Texture / Treatment Outcome / Wrist / X-rays