Assessment of Precision and Accuracy of Spinal QCT in a Multi-centre Clinical Research with a European Spine Phantom

Purpose To evaluate the reproducibility and accuracy of spinal QCT in a multi-centre clinical research using a European Spine Phantom.Material and Methods ESP was scanned 10 times using routine technique without repositioning the phantom on 3 CT scanners(64-row Toshiba,16-row Toshiba and 64-row GE CT scanner) in two centers.The ESP was scanned once following the same protocols in another four centers using 64-row Toshiba,16-row Toshiba,64-row Siemens and 2-row GE CT scanner respectively.Results The coefficient of variation of the first three QCT systems was 0.512%,0.523%and 0.514%respectively for integral phantom.The inter-modality precision errors of seven QCT systems were 4.213%,2.275%,and 4.786%in L1,L2 and L3 respectively.The range(and mean) of accuracy error of seven QCT systems were respectively 1.20%to 8.79%(5.1) ,-0.25%to 9.15%(3.8) and-7.03%to 5.69%(-0.5) in L1,L2 and L3.Conclusion Spinal QCT shows excellent precision,intermodality precision and accuracy in this multi-centre clinical research.