An automated method for assessing routine radiographs of patients with total hip replacements

This paper describes a new, fully automated method of locating objects on radiographs of patients with total joint replacements (TJRs). A statistical computer model, known as an active shape model, was trained to identify the position of the femur, pelvis, stem and cup marker wire on radiographs of patients with Charnley total hip prostheses. Once trained, the model was able to locate these objects through a process of automatic image searching, despite their appearance depending on the orientation and anatomy of the patient. Experiments were carried out to test the accuracy with which the model was able to fit to previously unseen data and with which reference points could be calculated from the model points. The model was able to locate the femur and stem with a mean error of approximately 0.8 mm and a 95 per cent confidence limit of 1.7 mm. Once the model had successfully located these objects, the midpoint of the stem head could be calculated with a mean error of approximately 0.2 mm. Although the model has been trained on Charnley total hip replacements, the method is generic and so can be applied to radiographs of patients with any TJR. This paper shows that computer models can form the basis of a quick, automatic method of taking measurements from standard clinical radiographs.