3D Diagnostic CT Imaging Of The Ankle

The ankle syndesmosis injury is a disease more commonly seen in society,especially the distal tibiofibular syndesmosis injury,and it is extremely significant of the operation for syndesmosis alignment after syndesmosis injury,because even a small incongruity in syndesmosis congruity tends to cause a post-traumatic arthritis in the ankle joint.There is no doubt that imaging technique plays an important and indispensable role during assessing distal tibiofibular syndesmotic injury,however,at present,the common clinical method for analysis of syndesmosis all depend on 2D image from X-ray,CT or MRI,in addition,the operation rate of succeed for syndesmosis injury alignment is not too satisfied.Consequently,it is worth thinking about if the 2D measurement methods used clinically for CT evaluation accurately represent the true deviations in syndesmosis joint.The purpose of this project is to utilize 3D information of syndesmosis to evaluate distal tibia-fibula relationship,which can provide more information about syndesmosis,meanwhile,the related 3D alignment parameters in normal status of syndesmosis are going to be measured and statistical to be as a reference to judge the accuracy of alignment for syndesmosis.Ten cadavers were used in the study,and these cadavers all have normal status of syndesmosis joint.A total of 120 CT scans(12 per specimen)just above the ankle joint were evaluated.The rotation angle of fibula,the anterior-posterior and medial-lateral displacement of fibula,and the syndesmosis space between them were all measured in 3D volume,and then processing these measured data results to summarize a certain change range and regular change trend of rotation angle,displacement and syndesmosis space in the condition of normal ankle by statisticAfter research,for rotation ratio,the change trend of it are slight decrease with range of rotation ratio between 0 to 0.2.In measurement of syndesmosis gap,change trend has a slight decrease with range between 0 and 10.For change trend of AP displacement presents a slight increase with range between-10 and 10,while ML are focused on zero value baseline nearby from proximal ankle to distal ankle.In improved measurement of rotation angle,the change trends of rotation angle have a little fluctuation,but their main trends are slightly decreased,and being in the rand between 25 and 45.In improved measurement of syndesmosis gap,its change trend with a comparatively smooth and steady change firstly and then following with a relatively increase change.In addition,with the position of ankle down,the started and ended point of change trend are also decreased.