2010 Volume 35 Issue 3 Pages 127-134
3D Accuitomo F17 is cone beam computed tomography (CT) unit for examination of maxillofacial area. It adopts five kinds of field of view (FOV) (40×40mm, 60×60mm, 80×80mm, 100×100mm, 170×120mm) and developed "zoom reconstruction" function that provides five kinds of voxel size (80μm, 125μm, 160μm, 200μm, 250μm) to change the image resolution. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of this unit for visualization of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) structures. Firstly, we scanned one dry human skull by all of FOV, and underwent zoom reconstruction by all of voxel size using image data were obtained in largest FOV (170×120mm). Secondary, we performed similar examination to three patients were suspected osteoarthrosis of TMJ. As the results, the image quality of TMJ structures were good so that FOV was small, and clear images were obtained when we reconstructed them at small pixel size even if we we scanned it in large FOV. Therefore, it seems that we can evaluate of coordination of in the condylar movement by scanning bilateral movement in large FOV, and we can obtain clear images at small voxel size. This results of this study suggest that 3D Accuitomo F17 is very useful cone beam unit for the visualization of TMJ region.
