THE USE OF A SMARTPHONE APPLICATION TO DETERMINE CARDIOTHORACIC RATIO

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of current study was to determine whether iCat CTR Smartphone application and manual cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) measurements can be used interchangeably and to compare the duration of the two methods. Materials and methods: This retrospective study was institutional review board approved, and informed consent was obtained The study comprised 100 patients whose tele-distance chest PA X-rays were taken in December 2012 in the radiology department with a digital X-ray device. Three radiologists examined the X-ray images separately and independently. Initially, each observer measured the CTR via smartphone using the icat CTR application. On another day, each observer measured the CTR manually using a ruler. The duration of the procedure was recorded during both smartphone and manual CTR measurements. The Bland-Altman plot method and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) were utilized in order to determine the interchangeable use of the CTR measurements made by observers manually or using the smartphone application. The differences between the CTR values were evaluated using One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test and Paired-Samples T Test. Results: Manual and iPhone measurement methods can be used interchangeably. The ICC between the CTR measurements made by three observers via smartphone was 0.978 and excellent agreement was determined. When the durations of smartphone and manual CTR measurements were evaluated for the three observers internally, a significant difference was determined. (p<0.001). In addition, the duration of the manual measurements were more than double the duration via iPhone. Conclusion: The smartphone iCAT CTR application can be used as a highly reliable and efficient tool to measure CTR in routine daily clinical practice.