Accuracy of cone-beam computed tomography for syndesmosis injury diagnosis compared to conventional computed tomography

Abstract

Background: Syndesmosis injury can lead to ankle mortise instability and early osteoarthritis. Several multiple detector computed tomography (MDCT) methods for measurement have been developed. Weight-bearing cone beam CT (WB CBCT) is an emerging technique that offers the possibility of upright-position scanning and lower doses. This study sought to assess the diagnostic accuracy of WB CBCT in syndesmose injury compared to MDCT, with instability confirmed via manual testing upon arthroscopic examination.

Methods: Three musculoskeletal radiologists with different levels of expertise prospectively analyzed 11 MDCT and eight WB CBCT scans of the same trauma-afflicted ankles with clinical suspicion of syndesmosis lesion over a period of 5 months. They evaluated 10 methods of measurement in both sides. Syndesmosis was considered pathological on arthroscopic examination in four patients. Correlation between readers was evaluated with intra-class correlation testing (p < 0.05 was considered significant). Capacity of discrimination was assessed by area under the curve (AUC) for all methods.

Results: Inter-observer agreement was near excellent for both WB CBCT and MDCT for the anterior tibio-fibular (TF) distance (ICC = 0.781 and 0.831, respectively), posterior TF distance (ICC = 0.841 and 0.826), minimal TF distance (ICC = 0.899 and 0.875), and TF surface (ICC = 0.93 and 0.84). AUC were better for MDCT than WB CBCT in assessing syndesmosis instability for: anterior TF distance (ROC = 0.869 vs. 0.555, p = 0.01), minimal TF distance (ROC = 0.883 vs. 0.608, p = 0.02) and antero-posterior fibular translation (ROC = 0.894 vs. 0.467, p = 0.006).

Conclusions: MDCT demonstrated better ability to distinguish pathological syndesmosis than WB CBCT, with the antero-posterior fibular translation the best discriminating measurement. The physiological widening of the contralateral syndesmosis occurring with the WB CBCT upright position may explain these results.

Keywords: Arthroscopic exam; Injury; Measurement; Multiple detector computed tomography; Syndesmosis; Weight-bearing cone beam CT.