Reproducibility of Facial Information in Three-Dimensional Reconstructed Head Images: An Exploratory Study

Title:Reproducibility of Facial Information in Three-Dimensional Reconstructed Head Images: An Exploratory Study

Volume: 19

Author(s): Tatsuya Uchida, Taichi Kin*, Katsuya Sato, Tsukasa Koike, Satoshi Kiyofuji, Yasuhiro Takeda, Ryoko Niwa, Toki Saito, Ikumi Takashima, Takuya Kawahara, Satoru Miyawaki, Hiroshi Oyama and Nobuhito Saito

Affiliation:

• Department of Neurosurgery, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan

Abstract:

Background: Facial information acquired via three-dimensional reconstruction of head computed tomography (CT) data may be considered personal information, which can be problematic for neuroimaging studies. However, no study has verified the relationship between slice thickness and face reproducibility. This study determined the relationship and match rate between image slice thickness and face detection accuracy of face-recognition software in facial reconstructed models.

Methods: Head CT data of 60 cases comprising entire faces obtained under conditions of non-contrast and 1-mm slice thickness were resampled to obtain 2-10-mm slice-thickness data. Facial models, reconstructed by image thresholding, were acquired from the data. We performed face detection tests per slice thickness on the models and calculated the face detection rate. The reconstructed facial models created from 1-mm slice-thickness data and other slice thicknesses were used as training and test data, respectively. Match confidence scores were obtained via three programs, match rates were calculated per slice thickness, and generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate the match rate trend.

Results: In general, the face detection rates for the 1-10-mm slice thicknesses were 100, 100, 98.3, 98.3, 95.0, 91.7, 86.7, 78.3, 68.3, and 61.7 %, respectively. The match rates for the 2-10-mm slice thicknesses were 100, 98.3, 98.3, 95.0, 85.0, 71.7, 53.3, 28.3, and 16.7 %, respectively.

Conclusion: The reconstructed models tended to have higher match rates as the slice thickness decreased. Thus, thin-slice head CT imaging data may increase the possibility of the information becoming personally identifiable health information.

Cite this article as:

Uchida Tatsuya, Kin Taichi*, Sato Katsuya, Koike Tsukasa, Kiyofuji Satoshi, Takeda Yasuhiro, Niwa Ryoko, Saito Toki, Takashima Ikumi, Kawahara Takuya, Miyawaki Satoru, Oyama Hiroshi and Saito Nobuhito, Reproducibility of Facial Information in Three-Dimensional Reconstructed Head Images: An Exploratory Study, Current Medical Imaging 2023; 19 (12) : e230123212997 . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1573405619666230123105057

DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1573405619666230123105057	Print ISSN 1573-4056
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher	Online ISSN 1875-6603