Automated radiographic hip morphology measurements: An open-access method

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Orthopedics
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Accurate radiographic measurements of hip morphology are crucial for diagnosing and managing hip conditions.
• Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) images offer a potential source for these measurements, but manual analysis can be time-consuming and subjective.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel automated method for quantifying hip morphology from DXA images.
• To evaluate the performance and reliability of this automated method against traditional manual assessments.

Main Methods:

• An automated algorithm was developed to outline hip shape and calculate key morphological parameters (ADR, AI, AA, WCEA, EI, NSA, TI) on DXA scans.
• Manual measurements were performed by two orthopedic surgeons on the same dataset (n=30).
• Agreement and reliability were assessed using Bland-Altman plots and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC).

Main Results:

• The automated method successfully computed all targeted radiographic hip morphology measurements.
• Intermethod reliability between automated and manual measurements ranged from 0.57 to 0.96.
• The automated method's reliability was comparable to or exceeded manual interobserver reliability, with the exception of the acetabular index (AI).

Conclusions:

• The developed open-access automated method provides a fast and reproducible means to measure hip morphology on DXA images.
• This tool shows significant promise for applications in large population studies and routine clinical practice for radiographic hip morphology assessment.