Three-dimensional morphological characteristics measurement of ankle joint based on computed tomography image post-processing.

Background: As precise positioning of ankle radiography is not possible, quantitative measurement of all syndesmotic parameters on repeated ankle X-ray films may be of little value. The purpose of this study was to provide a set of scientific and objective evaluation criteria for assessing the quality of ankle fracture reduction accurately and reliably by an intelligent combining three-dimensional (3-D) computed tomography (CT) measurement model.

Methods: From June 2008 to March 2011, all the thin-slice CT images of 100 cases (50 males and 50 females) with normal ankle joint scanned by 16-slice spiral CT were collected.