Last modified: 18-10-2017
Abstract
Cranial deformation affects a large number of infants. The methodologies commonly employed to measure the deformation include, among others, calliper measurements and visual assessment for mild cases and radiological imaging for severe cases, where surgical intervention is considered. Visual assessment and calliper measurements usually lack the required level of accuracy to evaluate the deformation. Radiological imaging, including Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), are costly and highly invasive. The use of smartphones to record videos that can be used for three-dimensional (3D) modelling of the head has emerged as a low-cost, non-invasive methodology to extract 3D information of the patient. To be able to analyse the deformation, a novel technique is employed: the obtained model is compared with an ideal head. In this study we have tested the repeatability of the process. For this purpose, several models of two patients have been obtained and the differences between them are evaluated. The results show that the differences in the ellipsoid semiaxis for the same patient are usually below 4 mm, although they increase up to 6.4 mm in some cases. The variability in the distances to the ideal head, which are the values used to evaluate deformity, reaches a maximum value of 2.7 mm. The errors obtained are comparable to those of classical measurement techniques and show the potential of the methodology in development.