Abstract
Purpose
The callosal angle (CA) is a useful biomarker in the diagnosis and management of idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). Used incorrectly, CA measurements are variable, affecting its reliability as a clinical tool. Our objectives are to evaluate (i) reproducibility of established CA measurements between trained raters and (ii) impact of minor angular mal-rotations of the true coronal plane on CA measurements.
Methods
CAs were measured by two independent raters on three-dimensional isovolumetric T1-weighted brain MRI of NPH patients and healthy controls using the established true coronal plane reformatted orthogonal to the plane containing the anterior-posterior commissural (AC-PC) line at the level of the posterior commissure. CA changes were subsequently evaluated when the coronal plane was mal-rotated by ± 5° and ± 10° in anterior-posterior and clockwise-anticlockwise directions. Inter-rater reliability of CA measurements was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).
Results
On the true coronal plane, inter-rater ICC was excellent (0.973) for NPH patients and good (0.875) for controls. On mal-rotated coronal plane setups, ICC for CA was worse in controls (0.484–0.886) than NPH (0.879–0.981) groups and in clockwise-anticlockwise (0.484–0.956) than anterior-posterior (0.503–0.981) mal-rotations. CA changes secondary to mal-rotations from the true coronal plane were significant in NPH patients (P < 0.0001 to 0.0378) but not in controls (P > 0.1).
Conclusion
This is the first demonstration of how small angular mal-rotations of the coronal plane used for CA measurement affect its value and inter-rater reliability, highlighting the importance of a standardized protocol when measuring the CA in NPH workup.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Radiography fraternity in the Singapore General Hospital for their strong support in this collaborative work.
Funding
National Medical Research Council, Singapore (NMRC/TA/0024/2013; NMRC/CSI/0006/2006).
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All procedures performed in the studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Lee, W., Lee, A., Li, H. et al. Callosal angle in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus: small angular mal-rotations of the coronal plane affect measurement reliability. Neuroradiology 63, 1659–1667 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-021-02658-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-021-02658-2