Image corrected cephalometric analysis (ICCA): design and evaluation

Image corrected cephalometric analysis (ICCA) is a method for eliminating serial image parallax error. In a radiographic survey, image parallax is an inherent and random property of the two-dimensional image of the subject. Radiographs of the same subject taken at different times will be different in image parallax. This difference, parallax error, is routinely displayed between serial radiographic studies. Parallax error discourages the use of conventional serial cephalometric surveys for tracking and studying changes in discrete craniofacial structures lying outside the midsagittal plane, unilaterally disposed, or changing without bilateral symmetry. Anatomic outlines or discrete points of such structures would routinely display measurement perturbations caused by image parallax differences between surveys. The ICCA method eliminates this problem. Therefore, accurate serial measurements of bone marker point displacements are made possible with two-dimensional reconstructions of points lying in three-dimensional space. The method of ICCA was tested for accuracy by using zero time serial cephalometric surveys of five subjects. Mean implant error of 0.12 mm (SD = 0.1) was found between predicted (ICCA) and actual measured implant movement caused by the image parallax error. After applying this method, bone marker movements are unlikely to be caused by parallax error between conventional serial cephalometric studies. Furthermore, displacement growth can be related to the relocation of composite growth outlines and midline anatomic landmarks. One plagiocephaly case and one hemifacial microsomia case were used to demonstrate ICCA for growth and treatment effect documentation.