ASSESSMENT OF PATELLAR HEIGHT MEASUREMENT METHODS FROM DIGITAL RADIOGRAPHY

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic imaging
• Radiographic measurement techniques

Background:

• Accurate measurement of patellar height is crucial in diagnosing and managing knee conditions.
• Several methods exist, but their reliability and interobserver agreement, especially with digital radiography, require further analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the most common methods for measuring patellar height using digital radiography.
• To assess the impact of observer experience on the correlation and agreement between measurements.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 60 knee digital radiographs in lateral view by four observers with varying experience levels.
• Application of Insall-Salvati (IS), Blackburne-Peel (BP), Caton-Deschamps (CD), and modified Insall-Salvati (ISM) indices.
• Calculation of interobserver agreement using the kappa coefficient (κ).

Main Results:

• The Insall-Salvati (IS) and Caton-Deschamps (CD) methods demonstrated the highest correlation coefficients.
• The modified Insall-Salvati (ISM) method showed the lowest correlation.
• Highest interobserver agreement was observed between the specialist knee surgeon and the specialist musculoskeletal radiologist.

Conclusions:

• The Insall-Salvati and Caton-Deschamps indices exhibit the highest interobserver agreement for patellar height measurement on digital radiographs.
• Increased observer experience positively correlates with improved measurement consistency.