Empa Develops Four-Dimensional X-Ray Analysis

(CONNECT) Researchers at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) are working on the development of time-resolved 3D X-ray analysis. According to a press release, the newly developed 4D analysis goes beyond static imaging, as it captures the dynamics of a shoulder joint for the first time.

This technique, developed by Empa researcher Ameet Aiyangar in Dübendorf, combines X-ray videos with virtual 3D models of the joints in order to detect any instabilities in the shoulder joint with millimeter precision. He used a biplanar radiographic imaging system (DBRI) for the dynamic 3D images of the shoulder, which was developed in close collaboration with Empa and the Inselspital Bern. It is installed at sitem-insel, the Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine in Bern.

"We combine high-precision X-ray videos from two perspectives and reconstruct a four-dimensional movement analysis from them - in other words, a 3D image while the shoulder is moving," Aiyangar from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering is quoted as saying in the press release. With this technology, the smallest rolling and sliding movements, which are crucial for stability, can be recorded with an accuracy of 0.1 to 0.5 millimeters.

The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the human body and is therefore particularly susceptible to injury. Doctors therefore often have to rely on subjective assessments. The new analysis technique enables instabilities to be measured quantitatively for the first time, an important key to further treatment steps. "This avoids unnecessary surgical interventions or does not unnecessarily delay useful ones and thus enables individually optimized therapy," Aiyangar continues. ce/eb