Program Information
Prostate Contouring in Patients with Bilateral Hip Prostheses: Impact of Using Artifact-Reduced CT Images and MRI
A Elzibak*, A Loblaw, G Morton, D Vesprini, S Liu, H Chung, M Davidson, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Presentations
SU-F-J-161 (Sunday, July 31, 2016) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Room: Exhibit Hall
Purpose: To investigate the usefulness of metal artifact reduction in CT images of patients with bilateral hip prostheses (BHP) for contouring the prostate and determine if the inclusion of MR images provides additional benefits.
Methods: Five patients with BHP were CT scanned using our clinical protocol (140kV, 300mAs, 3mm slices, 1.5mm increment, Philips Medical Systems, OH). Images were reconstructed with the orthopaedic metal artifact reduction (O-MAR) algorithm. MRI scanning was then performed (1.5T, GE Healthcare, WI) with a flat table-top (T₂-weighted, inherent body coil, FRFSE, 3mm slices with 0mm gap). All images were transferred to Pinnacle (Version 9.2, Philips Medical Systems). For each patient, two data sets were produced: one containing the O-MAR-corrected CT images and another containing fused MRI and O-MAR-corrected CT images. Four genito-urinary radiation oncologists contoured the prostate of each patient on the O-MAR-corrected CT data. Two weeks later, they contoured the prostate on the fused data set, blinded to all other contours. During each contouring session, the oncologists reported their confidence in the contours (1=very confident, 3=not confident) and the contouring difficulty that they experienced (1=really easy, 4=very challenging). Prostate volumes were computed from the contours and the conformity index was used to evaluate inter-observer variability.
Results: Larger prostate volumes were found on the O-MAR-corrected CT set than on the fused set (p< 0.05, median=36.9cm³ vs. 26.63 cm³). No significant differences were noted in the inter-observer variability between the two data sets (p=0.3). Contouring difficulty decreased with the addition of MRI (p<0.05) while the radiation oncologists reported more confidence in their contours when MRI was fused with the O-MAR-corrected CT data (p<0.05).
Conclusion: This preliminary work demonstrated that, while O-MAR correction to CT images improves visualization of anatomy, the addition of MRI enhanced the oncologists’ confidence in contouring the prostate in patients with BHP.
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