Utility of radiation-free imaging for initial evaluation of pectus excavatum

The OrtenBodyOne scanner is a radiation-free, 3-dimensional imaging system recently developed for evaluation of the severity of pectus excavatum (PE). The goal of this study was to evaluate the utility of this new imaging system compared with that of computed tomography (CT) for the evaluation of the severity of PE.

Patients treated for PE from April 2015 to January 2017 with available CT and OrtenBodyOne data were included. Correlations between indexes calculated from CT and from OrtenBodyOne were determined by applying the non-parametric Spearman correlation procedure with a Bonferroni correction to adjust for multiple comparisons.

Forty men (90.9%) and 4 women (9.1%), 20 with symmetrical (45.5%) and 24 with asymmetrical PE (54.5%), were included. The median age was 16.1 years (range 4.3-63.5 years). The following measures and indexes acquired using OrtenBodyOne and CT were significantly correlated: pectus depth (r = 0.84; P = 0.002), anthropometric index (r = 0.81; P = 0.002) and asymmetry index (r = 0.67; P = 0.002). The correlation between the CT Haller index and the external Haller index was only significant for symmetrical PE (r = 0.57; P = 0.008).

The OrtenBodyOne imaging system can be used to evaluate the severity of symmetrical PE using the external Haller index. Asymmetry and anthropometric indexes are more reliable for the evaluation of asymmetrical PE. Measures can be repeated throughout treatment while avoiding unnecessary irradiation.