Assessing the Volume of the Head of the Mandibular Condyle Using 3T-MRI—A Preliminary Trial

TL;DR

This study explores using 3T-MRI as a safer alternative to X-ray-based CBCT for measuring mandibular condyle volume in the temporomandibular joint.

Contribution

The study proposes a semiautomatic method for 3D TMJ assessment using high-resolution MRI as a safer alternative to CBCT.

Findings

CBCT showed higher reproducibility compared to 3T-MRI in condylar volume measurements.

3T-MRI had higher standard deviation but results were clinically not significant.

The method shows potential for future AI-driven automatic algorithms despite MRI's current resolution limitations.

Abstract

Due to potentially harmful exposure to X-rays, condylar growth in response to orthodontic treatment is poorly studied. To overcome this limitation, here, the authors have proposed high-resolution MRI as a viable alternative to CBCT for clinical 3D assessment of TMJ. A male subject underwent both MRI and CBCT scans. The obtained three-dimensional reconstructions of the TMJ were segmented and superimposed by a semiautomatic algorithm developed in MATLAB R2022a. The condylar geometries were reconstructed using dedicated software for image segmentation. Two geometrical parameters, i.e., the total volume and surface of the single condyle model, were selected to quantify the intraclass and interclass variability from the mean of each DICOM series (CBCT and MRI). The final comparison between the reference standard model of CBCT and 3T MRI showed that the former was more robust in terms of reproducibility, while the latter reached a higher standard deviation compared to CBCT, but these values were similar between the operators and clinically not significant. Within the inherent limitation of image reconstruction on MRI scans due to the current lower resolution of this technique, the method proposed here could be considered as a nucleus for developing future completely automatic AI algorithms, owing to its great potential and satisfactory consistency among different times and operators.

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