Utilizing pre- and postoperative ct to validate an instrument for quantifying pectus excavatum severity

Abstract

An instrument that objectively quantifies a condition’s severity and its improvement after treatment is of great use. This is also the case for pectus excavatum (PE), a congenital chest wall deformity, for which several severity indices have been introduced. This work describes a system that utilizes chest surface scans generated from CT-data or optical scanning to provide a gauge and visualization of chest wall deviations. A validation experiment is conducted to evaluate the fidelity of such an instrument utilizing pre- and postoperative CT scans. Statistical analysis shows the ability of the instrument to accurately recognize changes in the chest surface profile.