Vertebral Fracture Detection Differences of Axial Section Computed Tomography Images and Coronal Sagittal Reformat Images in Trauma Cases

Aim: Research the contribution of multiplanar sections to vertebral fracture detection by examining multislice computed tomographies of patients who referred to our emergency department (ED) with trauma.

Method: 896 cases who referred to ED between 01.06.2016-01.06.2018 and whose multislice computed tomographies were taken with vertebral fracture pre-diagnosis of the ED physician were scanned. The differences of axial and coronal sagittal reformat images in the detection of vertebral fracture were compared in 78 cases who were found to have fracture in their tomographies.

Result: Average age of 78 cases was found as 55.93±23.23 years. A total of 145 fractures were found in 78 cases. 24 fractures were detected in 12 cases at cervical area, 67 were detected in 36 cases at thoracic area and 54 fractures were detected in 30 cases at lumbar area. While there were no significant differences between axial and coronal sagittal reformat imaging techniques in the differentiation of cervical fractures, differences were found in thoracic and lumbar fractures (p=0.636, p<0.001, p=0.001, respectively). When the fracture detection rates of axial and coronal sagittal imaging techniques were assessed in terms of the anatomic region, there were significant differences in corpus assessment (p<0.001), while there were no significant differences in transverse process and lamina fractures (p=0.127, p=0.083).
Conclusion: In post-trauma physical examination, coronal sagittal reformat imaging is more sensitive when compared with axial imaging in patients who have tenderness in thoracic and lumbar region and we believe that it will be of use to the physician by distinguishing especially corpus fractures.