Comparison of semiautomated and manual measurements for simulated hypo- and hyper-attenuating hepatic tumors on MDCT: effect of slice thickness and reconstruction increment on their accuracy

Abstract

Rationale and objectives: The aims of this study were to compare accuracy between semiautomated and manual measurements of the longest diameter and volume of simulated hepatic tumors in phantoms and to evaluate the effects of slice thickness (ST) and reconstruction increment (RI) on accuracy.

Materials and methods: Liver phantoms with 45 hypoattenuating and 45 hyperattenuating lesions of different sizes (diameter, 13.3-50.7 mm; volume, 0.4-54.0 mm(3)) and shapes (spherical or elliptical) were scanned using a 64-row multidetector computed tomographic scanner. Images were reconstructed with ST and RI settings of 0.75 and 0.7 mm, 1.0 and 0.7 mm, 1.5 and 1.0 mm, 3.0 and 2.0 mm, 3.0 and 3.0 mm, and 5.0 and 5.0 mm. The longest diameter and volume of each lesion were measured both manually and semiautomatically. To assess accuracy, measurements were compared to reference values by calculating absolute percentage error. Comparisons of absolute percentage error between methods and between ST and RI settings were performed using paired t tests. The degree of correlation between each measurement and a reference value was also assessed.

Results: The semiautomated method showed significantly higher accuracy than the manual method in volume for most ST and RI settings (0.75 and 0.7 mm, 1.0 and 0.7 mm, and 1.5 and 1.0 mm in hypoattenuating lesions and all settings in hyperattenuating lesions; P < .05) and showed similar accuracy in diameter for all ST and RI settings regardless of lesion attenuation (P > .05). Semiautomated measurements also demonstrated higher correlation with reference values than the manual method for both diameter and volume. The absolute percentage error tended to be increased as ST and RI increased for both methods, and acceptable maximum ST and RI in semiautomated method were 1.5 and 1.0 mm.

Conclusions: Semiautomated computed tomographic measurement showed higher accuracy and correlation than the manual method in measuring the diameter and volume of hepatic lesions. The accuracy of both methods was highly dependent on z-axis resolution.