Accuracy of bleeding volumetric measurement on head CT scan with sequence and helical techniques using manual and automatic methods: A phantom study

INTRODUCTION: There are two data acquisition methods for computed tomography (CT) scans, namely sequence and helical. Each of them has two ways of measuring the volume of bleeding in a head CT scan, namely by manual and automatic methods. So, it is necessary to have an analysis for measurement accuracy with these two methods in two data acquisitions. The purpose of this study was to compare and evaluate bleeding volumetric measurement accuracy of sequence and helical on head CT acquisition using manual and automatic methods.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is quantitative research with a true experimental approach. Actual bleeding volume was simulated by an acrylic phantom containing Iodine contrast media (5 ml, 10 ml, 15 ml, and 20 ml). The phantom was scanned using routine CT protocol using the helical and sequence technique. Bleeding volume from each technique was measured manually using the Broderick formula and automatic software (ROI based). Accuracy was assessed by comparing the volume measurement result to the actual bleeding volume. Data was analysed using the Friedman test and by Wilcoxon.

RESULTS: The standard deviation of measured bleeding volume from the manual and automatic measurements compared to the actual bleeding volume were (0.220; 0.236; 0.351; 0.057) and (0.139; 0.270; 0.315; 0.329) in helical technique, and (0.333; 0.376; 0.447; 0.476) and (0.139; 0.242; 0.288; 0,376) in sequence technique. There are differences in the measurement results from the helical and sequence techniques (p <0.05) and using manual and automatic methods (p <0.05).

CONCLUSION: The measurement of bleeding volume that has a standard deviation value compared to the actual volume is more accurate in the helical technique using the automatic method, while the sequence technique is the manual method.