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Updated: Sep 21, 2026

3D Ultrasound Imaging: Fast and Cost-effective Morphometry of Musculoskeletal Tissue
Published on: November 27, 2017
3D versus 2D ultrasound: accuracy of volume measurement in human cadaver kidneys
Bernhard L Partik1, Alfred Stadler, Stephan Schamp
1Department of Radiology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California 94305-5105, USA. partik@stanford.edu
Rationale And Objectives:
Comparison of the accuracy of 3D and 2D ultrasound in assessing the volume of human cadaver kidneys.
Materials And Methods:
Before autopsy the volume of 22 kidneys was assessed from a 3D data set after manually tracing organ contours (3D volumetry) and by applying a 3D ellipsoid formula both on a 3D data set and 2D images. Measurements by water-displacement served as the gold standard.
Results:
3D volumetry showed a mean absolute deviation of 31 mL (18.5%) compared with the mean gold standard measurement (168 mL), yielding a concordance correlation (Lin's rho(c) ) of 0.71. Calculation based on the ellipsoid formula revealed a mean absolute deviation of 37 mL (22.0%) when applied on the 3D data set (rho(c) = 0.65) and of 42 mL (25.0%) when applied on 2D images (rho(c) = 0.61).
Conclusions:
3D volumetry showed a satisfactory concordance correlation and is superior to volume calculation based on the ellipsoid formula either applied to a 3D data set or to conventional 2D images in assessing the volume of human cadaver kidneys.
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