Computed tomography slice thickness and its effects on three-dimensional reconstruction of anatomical structures

Objectives: Computed Tomography (CT) scan parameters such as slice thickness have a direct impact on any 3D models derived from the volumetric data. Higher slice thickness spacing leads to loss of resolution quality in the visualizations. Materials and methods: Twenty CT head scans were acquired at a 0.625 mm slice thickness. These data sets were resliced a range of 1-5 mm slice thicknesses. The resultant 3D models of the skull were compared using the 0.625 mm model as a standard. Differences in surface area, volume and part-to-part comparison were analyzed. Results and conclusions: There were significant differences in surface area, volume and part-to-part comparison analyses from the 0.625 mm skulls as determined with One-way ANOVA by a p-value less than 0.05. Part-to-part comparison proved to have the greatest sensitivity for detecting geometric differences between slice thickness treatments. This study proposes using a 1.25 mm maximum slice thickness when forensic practitioners require 3D reconstruction in their casework. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.