Recording natural head position using an accelerometer and reconstruction from computed tomographic images

The concept of natural head position (NHP) was first introduced by Broca in 1862, and was described as a person's stable physiologic position "when a man is standing and his visual axis is horizontal." NHP has been used routinely for clinical examination; however, a patient's head position is random during cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) acquisition. To solve this problem, we developed an accelerometer to record patients' NHP and reproduce them for CBCT images. In this study, we also tested the accuracy and reproducibility of our accelerometer.

A total of 15 subjects participated in this study. We invented an accelerometer that measured acceleration on three axes and that could record roll and pitch calculations. Recorded roll and pitch data for each NHP were applied to a reoriented virtual image using three-dimensional (3D) imaging software. The data between the 3D models and the clinical photos were statistically analyzed side by side. Paired t-tests were used to statistically analyze the measurements.

The average difference in the angles between the clinical photograph and the 3D model was 0.04° for roll and 0.29° for pitch. The paired ttests for the roll data (P=0.781) and the pitch data (P=0.169) showed no significant difference between the clinical photographs and the 3D model (P>0.05).

By overcoming the limitations of previous NHP-recording techniques, our new method can accurately record patient NHP in a time-efficient manner. Our method can also accurately transfer the NHP to a 3D virtual model.