Measurements and detection of abdominal aortic aneurysm growth: Accuracy and reproducibility of a segmentation software.

Abstract Purpose To validate the reproducibility and accuracy of a software dedicated to measure abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) diameter, volume and growth over time. Materials and methods A software enabling AAA segmentation, diameter and volume measurement on computed tomography angiography (CTA) was tested. Validation was conducted in 28 patients with an AAA having 2 consecutive CTA examinations. The segmentation was performed twice by a senior radiologist and once by 3 medical students on all 56 CTAs. Intra and inter-observer reproducibility of D-max and volumes values were calculated by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Systematic errors were evaluated by Bland–Altman analysis. Differences in D-max and volume growth were compared with paired Student's t-tests. Results Mean D-max and volume were 49.6 ± 6.2 mm and 117.2 ± 36.2 ml for baseline and 53.6 ± 7.9 mm and 139.6 ± 56.3 ml for follow-up studies. Volume growth (17.3%) was higher than D-max progression (8.0%) between baseline and follow-up examinations (p  0.999). Bland–Altman analysis showed excellent inter-reader agreement with a repeatability coefficient Conclusion Software AAA volume measurements were more sensitive than AAA D-max to detect AAA growth while providing an equivalent and high reproducibility.