Summary
To make a digital image database of human craniology, we optimized the three-dimensional (3-D) images of 29 dried human skull specimens by helical computed tomography (CT). For the verification of the quantitative exactitude of these image data, we manually measured nine items of direct distances between standard anthropologic points on each skull and the corresponding distances projected on the CT monitor by specifying the respective points. The results obtained by the two methods of manual and CT measurements were compared and statistically analyzed. The CT measurements were so exact that the lower limit of correlation coefficients (95% of the confidence interval) between the two results was more than 0.8 in six items; i.e., maximal cranial length and breadth, minimal frontal breadth, bizygomatic breadth, distance between ectomolares and nasion-basion length. In contrast, the CT results were less well correlated with the manual measurements of three items; i.e., distance between bilateral mastoidales, total facial height, and nasal breadth. We concluded that the qualitative representation of 3-D CT images was adequate, although some quantitative data may be incorrect. The inaccuracy is suspected to be due to the difficulty in specifying the standard points on the CT images, and due to the differences in measurement procedures between the direct and projected distances.
Résumé
Afin d'établir une banque informatisée de données en crâniologie humaine, nous avons recueilli les images tridimensionnelles, de 29 crânes secs, obtenues par scanner hélicoïdal. Pour vérifier les données obtenues, nous avons mesuré manuellement 9 longueurs situées entre les repères crâniologiques classiques sur chaque crâne et les distances correspondantes entre les points analogues sur la console du scanner. Les résultats obtenus par les 2 méthodes de mesure manuelle et par scanner sont comparés et analysés statistiquement. Les mesures scanner sont situées à la limite inférieure de corrélation entre les 2 résultats (95% d'intervalle de confiance) et supérieures à 0.8 dans 6 mesures : la longueur et la largeur maximales crâniennes, la largeur minimale frontale, la largeur bizygomatique, la distance entre les faces externes des molaires et la longueur nasion-basion. Par contre, les mesures scanner sont moins concordantes avec les résultats manuels dans 3 mesures : distance intermastoïdienne, hauteur faciale totale et largeur nasale. Nous en concluons que la représentation qualitative des images scanner est correcte, même si quelques données chiffrées sont imprécises. Les causes d'erreurs sont, semble t-il, dues à la difficulté de repérer les points crâniologiques précis sur les images scanner, ainsi qu'à la différence des techniques de mesure entre une donnée directe et une en projection.
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Nagashima, M., Inoue, K., Sasaki, T. et al. Three-dimensional imaging and osteometry of adult human skulls using helical computed tomography. Surg Radiol Anat 20, 291–297 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01628494
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01628494